Gender Studies Council

The Gender Studies Council invites you to explore our interdisciplinary Gender Studies Minor, which offers undergraduate students an opportunity to combine study of various disciplines in order to achieve a firm understanding of concepts of gender, the ideologies surrounding them, and the impact theories and research of gender have on our greater communities. The council meets several times during a semester and visitors are welcome to attend. If you are interested in visiting a meeting and/or becoming a member of the council, contact the senior director.

Our dynamic faculty members of the Gender Studies Council instruct a number of courses across all campuses, in cooperation with departments across the curriculum, to give students a well-rounded understanding of how the role of gender intersects with society, economy, politics, history, literature, arts, and much more.

Gender Studies courses are open to all undergraduate students. If you are interested in pursuing a Gender Studies Minor, please feel free to contact one of our advisors. We welcome all to explore courses offered, undergraduate student accomplishments, events hosted by the council and the impressive scholarship of our students and faculty alike.

Mission

Gender studies focuses on the relations across genders, considering how gender intersects with social, ethnic and cultural differences, and exploring the dynamics among gender, power and norms. In this field of study, students examine gender relations in the past, present and future.

Gender studies facilitates the understanding of social processes, exploring, through this lens, possible solutions to current problems facing societies today. Gender-studies research might suggest, for example, that the needs of students can be better met if educational requirements are systematically researched from a gender perspective. Student research might confirm assumptions that women have difficulties balancing family and responsibilities at work, but also find that men currently suffer from this problem, as well.

A gender-studies student might seek to address the discrepancy in which women work the same jobs as men but receive less money for their work, or the trends indicating that women still face greater challenges than men in obtaining leadership positions. Or, gender-studies research might focus on the negative effects of defining gender in terms of a simple binary, assigning all people to one of only two (male or female) gender categories.

Our mission is to promote interdisciplinary studies in order to achieve a better understanding of gender concepts, the ideologies surrounding them, and the impact of these ideologies. This program seeks to engage critically with gender realities, identities, and norms from inter-sectional perspectives. Gender studies is committed to promoting acceptance of diversity and educating future agents of change.

The Gender Studies Council members envision the impact of the program being the development of future leaders who will empower a diverse workforce and community to participate in organizational decision-making and public policymaking. Our alumni, as agents of change, can be expected to help to develop a society in which all individuals foster inclusiveness, diversity, and representativeness.

Would you like to be more informed and prepare to work as an agent for change? If so, join us and participate.

Support

If you would like to support the Gender Studies Council and the Gender Studies Minor at the University of North Georgia, please consider donating to our Foundation account. Thanks to donors of past donations, the Gender Studies Council has been able to contribute to honoraria for guest speakers, including activists and poets; fund cultural events on campus, such as The Vagina Monologues and art exhibits; and build a core collection of books in gender theory to support teaching our "Introduction to Gender Studies" course.

We would also like to fund research for students and faculty members and scholarships for outstanding gender-studies students. We invite members of the campus community, alumni, and community members to become supporters of the program. All donations are welcome! Please consider making a donation now and annually. Send your tax-deductible donation, payable to the "̨��swag Foundation," to this address:

̨��swag Foundation
P. O. Box 1599
Dahlonega, Ga. 30533

You can also donate at . Specify Gender Studies (Fund Number 6426) as the recipient. For more information, contact Dr. Yi Deng, treasurer of the Gender Studies Council, at 706-867-2745 or yi.deng@ung.edu.

Many thanks!

Awards

The Gender Studies Council Award is presented each year to two student projects selected by the Gender Studies Council. The council will issue a call for submissions via the ̨��swag Notice Boards. The recipients of this award can be undergraduate students on any ̨��swag campus with any area of study. The recipients of the award will receive a plaque, a monetary prize, and will be recognized at the Honor's Banquet.

(Until 2023, this was called the Simone de Beauvoir Award.)

Past Recipients

2023

Whitney Little
Michaela Smith

2022

Leah Jarrett
Megan Stancil

2021

Aida Alarcon
Carly Vargas

2020

Amy Boone

2019

Deanna Simonds

2018

Rachel Parker

2017

Haley Patterson

2016

Brittany Barron
Lauren Billet

2015

Darrelyn Thomas

2014

Sawyer Henderson

2013

Brittney L. O'Bryan

2012

Renee Clare-Kovaks

2011

Helen Davies
Chelsea Gibson

2010

Denise Ray

2009

Allison Harris

2008

Sonya Whetstone

2007

Karen Roop

Student Highlights

Brittany Barron

Brittany Barron, an English major, gender-studies minor, and honor student on ̨��swag’s Gainesville campus, has published her essay “For What Crime Was I Driven from Society?: Material Bodies in Mary Hays’s The Victim of Prejudice and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” in the international peer-reviewed journal gender forum. The online journal runs a young-scholar edition every year, and Brittany’s work was chosen to appear in the 2015 Special Issue: Early Career Researchers III, Issue 54.

Brittany decided to explore the intersection between gender and literature because she wanted to learn more about terms that she came across, such as “rape culture,” the “woman question,” and women as “the other.” In her gender-studies courses, she learned that we live in a society that perpetuates rape culture, body shaming, and victim blaming.

She also finds that gender-studies courses have helped her and her peers to not be afraid of feminism. Brittany explains, “Male students may think we’re a men-bashing organization, and female students may not want to be labeled with an often stigmatized term. By studying gender, students will learn the truth about these myths and help create a more positive image of feminism and other prevalent gender concerns.”

Of the many lessons Brittany has learned in gender-studies courses, she declares: “I bring awareness to sexual violence and its emotional and physical consequences in my academic writing and my creative writing as well.”