Pre-Doctoral Fellow Joins Fisher Center |
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In September, The Fisher Center for the Study of Women and
Men welcomed pre-doctoral fellow Zdravka Todorova,
who will assist in the operations and development of the Center.
During her one-year appointment, Todorova also will teach two
courses at the Colleges.
"This is a great opportunity to be a part of an interdisciplinary
community, and to engage in research and teaching across disciplinary
boundaries," says Todorova, a doctoral candidate in economics
from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC).
Through her research, Todorova explores gender assumptions
behind theories of public finance and money, as well as their
consequences for policy formulation. Another area of expertise
is the interrelation between household finances and activities
such as unpaid labor, paid labor and consumption.
At HWS, Todorova will teach The Political Economy of Globalization,
focusing on contemporary topics in the context of gender and
economic theory, and Gender Dimensions of Finance and Budgets,
a course that illustrates how gender affects micro- and macroeconomic
issues. In her courses, special attention is given to public
health, globalization and international financial institutions.
"I'm delighted to have Zdravka here," says Betty
Bayer, director of the Center. "I believe she brings exciting
ideas and concepts regarding gender, health, rights and globalization
to the table."
Todorova has a B.S. in agribusiness economics from Plovdiv University
in Bulgaria and an M.A. in economics from UMKC. The fellowship
that brought her to HWS is supported by the Provost's and the
President's offices.
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Fall 2004
Five Years and Counting
Programming milestone is only the beginning for the Fisher Center
by Kathy Marshall
Thanks to a generous gift from Emily and Richard Fisher, the Fisher Center
for the Study of Women and Men was established at the Colleges to offer
an inclusive, fully integrated approach to understanding how our gendered
nature informs all aspects of life. The Center’s lecture series
began in the Fall of 1999, under the leadership of its first director,
Dunbar Moodie, professor of anthropology and sociology.
Looking back on five years of programming, we consider whether the goals
and expectations set forth at the onset have been met. Looking forward,
are the array of benefits the Fisher Center offers continually being expanded
and enhanced?
 Betty
Bayer, associate professor of women’s studies and current
center director, says the answer to both is a resounding yes.
“The Fisher Center offers myriad benefits to this campus,”
Bayer says. “Largely because of the caliber of the guest lecturers
who willingly travel to Geneva to participate in our programming, more
and more faculty members are becoming engaged in the issues brought forth
through our series. Through this series, they hear leaders in various
fields discuss the very latest thinking on important topics. They urge
their students to reap the benefits of attendance to our events, and they
report that connections with their students are broadened and strengthened.
“And we have a space now, an actual Fisher Center, in which faculty
and students congregate, not only to meet with visiting speakers but among
themselves. We’ve built a place, both literally and figuratively,
where scholars want to come,” adds Bayer.
“There is nothing students like more than to see the issues they
discuss in class take form in the world,” says Matt Lyttle ’06,
who sat on the Center’s steering committee last year. “The
Fisher Center helps students visualize abstract ideas and put those ideas
into action.”
Tanya Khokhar ’06, last year’s William Smith representative
on the steering committee adds, “This is the best outside-the-classroom
learning resource available to us on campus and I see the Fisher Center
gaining more and more recognition with each series event. And as an international
student (from Pakistan), I appreciate that the Center always promotes
issues of diversity and global concerns for the students.”
Religious studies professor Susan Henking applauds the opportunities
the Center provides for intellectual reflection. “The range of speakers
who have come to campus, and the ways in which they have challenged my
notions of what counts as intellectual work, has been key,” she
notes. “Plus the Center has a critical role in ensuring that our
students understand that service and citizenship are more than charity,
more than philanthropy, but, indeed, intellectual work in the public arena.”
Attendees of Fisher Center events listen to and ask questions of speakers
on the cutting edge of their fields during the lectures, but they also
can take part in roundtable discussions held the morning after each event.
This helps break down the “talking head” mystique by offering
face-to-face conversation over coffee.
“There are many students and faculty members who continue to correspond
with guests we’ve had,” Bayer says. “Students have also
found mentors amidst our speakers, and faculty members report that their
scholarship has been enriched.”
That’s true, reports Jack Harris, professor of sociology. “The
Fisher Center has provided numerous opportunities to extend my thinking
about issues, as well as my formal scholarship,” he says. “But
I think the most valuable benefit of the Center is the way in which it
expresses the context of the coordinate system, which is to pay attention
to women and men, together and separately.”
The future shines brightly, too. Bayer is working with faculty and staff
at Hamilton College and Colgate University to build a consortium, where
like-minded centers can come together. They are in the initial stages
of plans for workshops on issues of activism and leadership, and plan
to initiate a student conference in the future.
Bayer is very excited, too, about the newly established advisory board,
consisting of more than 20 top scholars, activists and business people.
Board members will add a level of resource not currently available to
the Center. Plus a resource initiatives committee has been established
on the HWS campus to seek new and innovative funding opportunities.
Another goal is the creation of a summer Intellectual Enrichment seminar
for alums and interested guests. Such seminars would bring alums and speakers
together in a concentrated weekend of intellectual enrichment.
“We want the Center to not only enrich the lives of our students,
faculty and guests, but to reach out and offer the same enrichment to
alums,” adds Bayer. “We invite them to once again experience
the intellectual curiosity that was the foundation of their time on campus.”
For a list of Fisher
Center Advisory Board Members, please visit http://www.hws.edu/academics/community/fishercenter/index.asp
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