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Carleton College

Faculty and Staff

Women's and Gender Studies

  • Phone: (507) 222-5769
  • Fax: (507) 222-7594

Faculty

Barbara Allen
Professor of Political Science
Director of Women's and Gender Studies
Office: Willis Hall 408
Phone: x4084

Indiana University, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Teaches courses in American politics, feminist political theory, politics and the media, and constitutional law. Her broad interests include research related to liberal philosophy, democratic theory, institutional analysis and design, rational choice, and policy and law related to gender and race. Her areas of specialization related to empirical theory and methodology include quantitative methods, political socialization and behavior, public opinion and theories of learning. Began teaching at Carleton in 1988.

Meera Sehgal
Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and Sociology
Director of South Asian Studies
Office: Leighton Hall 222
Phone: x4975

Meera Sehgal is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender studies at Carleton College. She was educated in India and the United States, receiving her Ph. D in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004. She is currently working on a book manuscript titled, Citizen-warriors and militant mothers: Women in the Hindu nationalist movement in India. Based on extensive field research supported by a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, her book focuses on the mobilization and participation of women in the right wing Hindu nationalist movement in north India. She emphasizes a transnational feminist perspective in her teachings and travels regularly to India for research and familial purposes. She teaches courses on South Asia, social movements, qualitative methods, transnational feminist theory, feminist approaches to research and women's health in the U.S.


Publications

Jane T. McDonnell
Senior Lecturer in Women's and Gender Studies, Emerita

Bryn Mawr, B.A.; North Carolina, M.A.; Washington University (St. Louis), Ph.D. Has published her memoir, "News From the Border," and a guide to writing memoirs, "Living to Tell the Tale." Began teaching at Carleton in 1970.

Staff

Tami Little
Admin. Asst. to Amst, Ents, Ling, Arc Programs
Administrative Assistant in Women's and Gender Studies
Office: Goodsell Observatory 102
Phone: x5769
Eva S. Posfay
Associate Dean of the College
Professor of French
Office: Laird Hall 148
Phone: x4311

Bryn Mawr, A.B., M.A.; Princeton, M.A.; Ph.D. Was born in Venezuela of Hungarian parents and studied in both South America and Switzerland. She specializes in literature of the seventeenth century and has published articles on Mme de Lafayette and Mlle de Montpensier. Pósfay teaches courses on French Classicism, marginality, Paris in fiction, and contemporary French culture. Her special interests are women writers of the ancien régime, utopias, Swiss literature and migrant literature in francophone Canada. Began teaching at Carleton in 1991.

Other Faculty Involved In The Department/Program

Kathryn W. Sparling
Tanaka Memorial Professor of International Understanding and Japanese
Off Campus: Fall 2009 through Spring 2010
Office: Language and Dining Center 212
Phone: x4019

Stanford, B.A.; Ochanomizu University, M.A.; Harvard, Ph.D.; Japanese language and literature, especially modern fiction, with particular emphasis on Natsume Soseki, Mishima Yukio, Shimao Toshio, and fiction by contemporary Japanese women. Growing interest in English language fiction by Indian women. Began teaching at Carleton in 1983.

Carol Donelan
Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies
Office: Scoville Hall 201
Phone: x5779

Iowa State, B.S.; Iowa, M.A.; Massachusetts (Amherst), Ph.D. Teaches a range of courses in cinema and media studies, including the core sequence for the CAMS concentration as well as courses on film genres, directors, national cinemas, and televisions studies. She is currently researching the role of gender and the affect in the experience of film, with particular attention to the pathos and thrills of Hollywood film melodrama. Began teaching at Carleton in 1999.

Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg
Professor of Anthropology
Office: Leighton Hall 233
Phone: x4113

Johns Hopkins Univeristy, Ph.D. She has been working on reproductive health care issues in Cameroon since 1980, first as a Peace Corps volunteer and later as an anthropological researcher. Pamela's first research, on women's fear of infertility among the rural Bamiléké of Cameroon, addresses the ways female poverty and the state-ethnic relations are inscribed in women's views of their bodies. She is currently working among the urban Bamiléké, studying the role of women's voluntary associations in reproductive decision-making. In addition to introductory anthropology, she teaches courses on gender, Africa, health and illness, and the relationship between human and social reproduction.

Annette Igra
Professor of History
Chair of History
Office: Leighton Hall 207
Phone: x5240

California-Los Angeles, B.A.; Sarah Lawrence, M.A.; Rutgers, Ph.D. American women's history and women's and gender studies. Interests include social welfare history, labor history, and historiography. Introduced a new course entitled "Gender and Work in U.S. History." Began teaching at Carleton in 1994.

Diane M. Nemec Ignashev
Class of 1941 Professor of Russian and the Liberal Arts
Off Campus: Spring 2010
Office: Language and Dining Center 316
Phone: x4236

Illinois (Chicago Circle), B.A.; Chicago, M.A., Ph.D., has taught courses on just about everything, from the culture of old Russia to "Bestsellers of Perestroika," from Russian Cinema to gender studies. She directed the Carleton Moscow Seminar in 1995 and 1999 and helped develop the ACM program in Krasnodar. She has spent her recent leave working on the memoirs of Ariadna Efron (the daugher of poet Marina Tsvetaeva) and her partner Ada Federol'f.

Annette M. Nierobisz
Associate Professor of Sociology
Office: Leighton Hall 234
Phone: x4114

Winnipeg, B.A.; Queen's, M.A.; Toronto, Ph.D. Research interests are in the areas of the sociology of law, work and occupations, and gender. Her dissertation research explored the connections between law and the economy, specifically how judges respond to workplace wrongful dismissals in eras of economic uncertainty. Has also been involved in research that examined workplace sexual harassment complaints lodged with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. In addition to teaching introductory sociology, Annette also teaches research methods, the sociology of law, the sociology of work and occupations, and criminology. Began teaching at Carleton in 2000.

Matthew S. Rand
Associate Professor of Biology
Chair of Biology
Office: Hulings Hall 325
Phone: x4394

Oregon State, B.S.; Wichita State, M.S.; Colorado, Ph.D. A vertebrate reproductive biologist, studies the hormonal control and function of sexually dimorphic traits. Currently uses lizards as a model system to understand neural differences that mediate male and female reproductive behavior. Teaches Animal Physiology, Animal Behavior, Sexed Bodies/Sexed Science? and part of Introductory Biology. Began teaching at Carleton in 1995.

Kathleen M. Ryor
Professor of Art History
Chair of Art & Art History
Office: Boliou 156
Phone: x5590

Virginia, B.A.; New York, M.A., Ph.D. Teaches courses on Asian art history and the Introduction to Art History. Her primary area of research is Chinese painting of the late Ming dynasty. Her other research and teaching interests include interactions between different modes of representation in the Ming and Qing periods, 20th-century Chinese art and Japanese prints. Began teaching at Carleton in 1996.