College of Liberal Arts has new director of the Center for Women’s Studies

(Tahlequah, Oklahoma)--In 2015, the Institute for Womens Policy Research gave Oklahoma an overall grade of D+. Dr. Suzanne Farmer, the new director of Northeastern State Universitys Center for Womens Studies, is one of many working to change that grade. A professor of history at NSU since 2011, Farmer has served as co-director of the center since 2013.

The Center for Womens Studies is a multidisciplinary, integrated program that seeks to empower NSU students to become socially responsible global citizens through fostering learning about gender roles and relations across cultures and history. Honoring both the universitys history as a female seminary and the legacy of Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation and Sequoyah Fellow at NSU, the Womens Studies program prioritizes study of minority women, indigenous women and womens leadership.

Farmer said that it is an honor to be named director of the center, where she is able to highlight national and regional issues that affect women in Oklahoma.

Historically, the roots of Northeastern State are firmly planted in female Cherokee education, and as a historian, that continues to inspire me, Farmer said.

Dr. Phil Bridgmon, professor and dean of Liberal Arts, said that the College of Liberal Arts made a wise choice in selecting Farmer for this role.

She has shown very capable initiative and leadership as co-director, and we expect that she will continue to heighten awareness of issues facing women particularly in Oklahoma, and globally, Bridgmon said.

Courses in the Womens Studies program support many of the universitys core values and goals: promoting an environment of learning and discovery, full inclusion, civic engagement, along with encouraging global knowledge and cultural sensitivity.

Objectives of the Womens Studies program include teaching the history of womens movements in the United States and other countries, bringing attention to the issues facing women in Oklahoma, raising the global consciousness of womens and gender issues, investigating the way gender intersects with social movements, education, society, history, criminal justice, politics, communication, the arts, family life, and popular culture and encouraging activism and other forms of civic engagement around womens issues.

Farmer would like to see the center become a center of advocacy for the region and a touchstone for women in the Green Country community.

We plan to continue to seek out programming that emphasizes our goal of making NSU students socially responsible global citizens, but I also hope to include members of the community and our alumni as we work to build up the centers presence here on campus and in the region, Farmer said.

At a university founded as a female seminary, where approximately two-thirds of NSU students are women, and in a state where many social issues disproportionately affect women, Bridgmon places high importance on the success of the center.

We must continue to do our best when honoring our past, serving our students, and influencing a better world through awareness and service. The Center for Womens Studies is an important part of these efforts within the College of Liberal Arts.