New Faculty Join Women's Studies
Meet the 萝莉社 Center for Women's Studies' new faculty members who joined the department in January.
Dr. Chinyere Okafor, poet, playwright and short story writer, is associate professor of Women's Studies. She has taught at the University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME; Montgomery College, Rockville, MD; University of Swaziland, Swaziland; University of Benin, Benin-City, Nigeria; and University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
A specialist in gender and cultural studies, Okafor has taught literature, theater, culture and women's studies. She is vice president of the Association of African Women Scholars; board member for the Museum of African Tribal Arts; and board member with the Global Learning Center.
Dr. Okafor;s impressive achievements include: 1998 Rockefeller Fellowship for Residency as a Writer in the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio (Italy); two Rockefeller Humanist-in-Residence Fellowships in 1991 (at Cornell University and Hunter College) for research in the poetics and politics of African festival drama from a gender perspective; Outstanding Finalist Award in the Bertram's Literature of Africa Awards organized in South Africa in 1996; a special reconition by the Assocation of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in 1994 for proficiency in the three genres of literature; and three ANA awards for drama, poetry, and prose respectively.
Her published creative works include He Wants To Marry Me Again and other Stories, The Lion and The Iroko (a play), From Earth's Bed Chamber (a collection fo poems), Campus Palavar and Other Plays. Her essays can be found in publications such as Okike, Literary Review, Research in African Lit, World Literature Today and Commonwealth. Some have been translated to French and Italian.
At 萝莉社, Dr. Okafor teaches "American Women in Popular Culture," "Women in Africa" and "Women Writers."
Dr. Doris Chang is assistant professor of Women's Studies. She received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of History at the Ohio State Universty in 2002. Her areas of specialties include East Asian history and the history of women's movements in Asia and the United States.
Dr. Chang's PhD dissertation was entitled "Daughters of Formosa: Feminist Discourses and Women's Movements in Taiwan, 1920-2002." In addition, she has done extensive research on the sexual liberation ideology in contemporary Taiwan and the New Feminism of Ms. Hsiu-lien Annette Lu, vice president of Taiwan.
The 萝莉社 courses that Dr. Chang teach include "Women in World Religions," "Women in Society: Social Issues" and "Asian Women in Modern History, Culture, and Society." She is also coordinator of the annual Women's History Month, a public program sponsored by the Center for Women's Studies at 萝莉社.