News

Dorothy E. Roberts, PIK Professor (Africana Studies, Sociology and Law School) and GSWS Affiliated Faculty, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the nation’s highest honors in biomedicine. Professor Roberts, an acclaimed scholar of race, gender and the law, focuses on issues in health, social justice and bioethics, especially as they affect the lives of women, children and African-Americans.

Wendy Grube, practice associate professor in the School of Nursing, interim director of the Center for Global Women’s’ Health, and GSWS affiliated faculty, was recently honored with the inaugural Order of the Bell award for her efforts in breaking barriers in public health. Read more: https://almanac.upenn.edu/latest-issue#wendy-grube-moh-cancer-award

From November 15th – 19th, several members of the GSWS community attended the annual conference of the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) in Baltimore, Maryland. The conference marked the 40th anniversary both of the organization and the Combahee River Collective Statement, a pivotal text for the field.

Earlier this month, Mattel launched its first Barbie in hijab. Designed after Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, this doll is part of its "Sheroes" series. Mattel portrays this doll as serving as an "inspiration for countless little girls who never saw themselves represented in sports and culture". Many Muslims and non-Muslims alike welcomed the doll as a sign of inclusion and diversity. In the words of Miley Cyrus, "Yay Barbie! One step closer to Equality! We HAVE to normalize diversity!"

Megan Robb, assistant professor of religious studies and APC/GSWS Board Member, has been named Julie and Martin Franklin Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. Congratulations! Read more in the Almanac

Last week, a Facebook post by a visiting faculty member at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) went viral. The post said: “Today, I was rudely stopped at the [IoBM] gate by a weird man who said he was the security head, and told that I wasn’t ‘following the dress code’… Ladies, please help me understand, how I am a security threat?” The post included a photo of this female faculty member wearing a white shirt and a long scarf over pants.
The security guard had taken it upon himself to discipline her.

Dawn Teele, assistant professor of political science and GSWS core faculty, has been named Janice and Julian Bers Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences. Congratulations!Read more

Elizabeth Noll, APC Research Affiliate, was inducted into the Montgomery County Community College Alumni Hall of Fame, in part because of her decades of work to support the campus’s child care center, as well as her important work and scholarship since she graduated.Liz is currently a Senior Research Associate in the Institute of Women’s Policy Research where she works in the Student Parent Success Initiative which focuses on identifying and evaluating policy and strategies to support access and success of women raising children while in college.

The Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality and Women partnered with The Attic Youth Center this summer to host a training led by the Op-Ed project. The Op-Ed Project aims to increase diversity in discourse by supporting and addressing under-representation in media. Deborah Douglas, Northwestern faculty member and award-winning journalist, spent the day with Penn faculty, students, and community members to workshop ways to increase media presence and contributions to a vast number of community forums.