Newsletter

2008

TCNJ EVENTS

TCNJ Welcomes a New WGS Professor

The College of New Jersey’s Women’s and Gender Studies department is pleased to announce the one-year appointment of Rama Lohani-Chase.

Rama Lohani-Chase was born and raised in Nepal, coming to the United States after achieving a BA in English Literature and an MA in English and Cultural Studies. At Drew University, she obtained an MA in Women?s Studies. Her thesis, Interventions: Reconfiguring Representations in Mira Nair?s Films, explored questions of race, gender, identity, subjectivity, and nationality under the conditions of diaspora and displacement by using feminist film theories and cultural and post-colonial perspectives. Lohani-Chase obtained her PhD in Women?s and Gender Studies from Rutgers University. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the decade long “People?s War” in Nepal that took place from 1996 to 2006. Centering on the effects of the war in relation to women, Lohani-Chase dissertation explores gender, sexuality, and bio-politics of the body and their relation to nationalism and economics.
Lohani-Chase comes to TCNJ with a resume of past social and academic work, including work for non-governmental organizations focused on human rights and social justice movements in Nepal. As a freelance translator, she worked on rendering Nepali short sto-ries into English for the Royal Nepal Academy, as well as the translation of plays for Sarwanam, an alternative theatre group in Nepal that was actively involved in the democracy movement in Nepal in the 80s. She has taught classes at Drew and Rutgers University. In addition, she has published various short essays, including a review in Women’s Studies Quarterly (2002) published by the Feminist Press.
This fall she will join the TCNJ WGS department, teaching two sections of WGS 200: Women, Culture, and Society. In addition, she will teach WGS 375: Transnational Feminisms. The course is meant to prepare students to participate in the growing worldwide network of social movements by exposing them to a variety topics and issues.

4th Annual Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium Undergraduate Research Colloquium

Several WGS Students Present Papers at the 4th Annual Women’s and Gender Studies Consor-tium Undergraduate Research Colloquium; Two Honored With Advanced Paper Award

On April 4, 2008 five WGS students from The College of New Jersey presented papers at the 4th Annual Women's and Gender Stud-ies Consortium Undergraduate Research Colloquium hosted at Drew University. The New Jersey Women's and Gender Studies Con-sortium is a state-wide forum for a discussion and support of all aspects of the functioning of the Women's and Gender Studies pro-grams. The keynote speaker of the event was Tricia Rose, Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, whose address was enti-tled: “„Where Are My Girls At'?: Young Women's Place in Contemporary Popular Music and Culture.” TCNJ students Michael Kellerman, whose paper was entitled “Bottoms Up: An Analysis of Gender Oppression and Internalized Homophobia Among Anal-Receptive Gay Men” and Chelsea Stack whose paper was entitled “Red and Black G-Strings: Anarchosyndicalist Resistance Within Live Legal Sex Work” were both winners of the advanced paper award, an honor given to only three students in New Jersey. Other prizes included an intro paper award and two honorable mentions. Students presenting papers went through a competitive process in their own colleges and universities to participate in the colloquium. Only three students from each institution were chosen to present papers. Caitlin Nabinger presented a paper entitled “Creating the Third Space: Intersubjectivity and the „Dream of Common Lan-guage' in Twenty-One Love Poems.” Melanie Jodelka presented a paper entitled “Now You See Her, Now You Don't: The Invisibility of the Sexualized Lesbian Body in Advertising.” Dr. Deborah Compte, Chair of the Women's and Gender Studies program, mod-erated a panel on Gender and Literature.

W.L.L.L Students Win the Prestigious Mary Roebling International Travel Award

Two W.I.L.L. Students, Tamra Wroblesky and Michele Calvo, won the Mary Roebling Inter-national Travel Award for their accomplishments in research.

The Mary Roebling International Travel Award provides financial assistance for students enrolled in majors in the School of Cul-ture and Society. It provides funding for students to travel outside the United States to conduct advanced undergraduate work under the auspices of the College. More specifically, the fund supports international travel for research, scholarship, creative work, service, or internship within or related to the student's academic program. The fund was created in honor of the late Mary Roebling by Gale Wayman (English Education, '70). For nearly half a century Mary Roebling distinguished herself as one of the nation's top banking executives and as one of Trenton's most passionate philanthropists.
These awards require student recipients to work under supervision of a faculty member, whether or not the faculty member trav-els together with the student. Students must have at least sophomore standing in order to be eligible to apply. This year's win-ners include Tamra Wroblesky and Michele Calvo. Wroblesky's research is on Tanzania, and is entitled "It is God's Will, and also Deforestation" - Local Discourses and the Disappearance of Kilimanjaro's Glaciers. Michele Clavo's topic on Peru is entitled "Religious Syncretism and Resistance: The Christianization of Indigenous and Mixed-Blood Women in Colonial Peru." The award will allow each woman to travel to their desired country, all expenses paid, to undertake her project.