Saint Michael's College

Three students presented work from their Gender Studies course, taught by anthropologist Patti Delaney, at the all-day, all-college 2009 Research Symposium, recently held in various venues on campus. They were:

Julia Berberan, Hungry neighbors: Gender and food insecurity in Burlington"

Beth Morgenthau, Improving teen programs and creating a safe space for teens of all genders and cultural
backgrounds at the Boys and Girls Club"

Michael Van Den Bergh, "What's that misogyny thing, anyway? Addressing the need for underclassperson education in Gender Studies

Mr. Van Den Bergh, a male gender studies and psychology major, gave a paper making the case for creating a gender studies first-year seminar. His research showed him that the subject is widely misunderstood, so he set out to create a new course. He interviewed 18 faculty members, collected lists of suggested readings, worked with his classmates to get their ideas, and decided on the focus of a course tentatively titled Gender and Violence. He hoped to address "all the topics that would be beneficial to society if they were better understood." His widespread interview with first-year students and with students he encountered as a tutor in the writing center showed him that "overall they knew nothing about gender." He hopes to get the course accepted into the curriculum, but he learned how challenging it is to create an interdisciplinary course and learned that "Gender Studies is still an invisible study." But, he asserted, "If the purpose of Gender Studies is to advance social change, we need to include men and women."

Photo: Beth Morgenthau, Julia Berberan, Michael Van Den Bergh, Professor Patti Delaney