Women's Studies

Women's Studies Program

The Women’s Studies Program (WSP) is connected to the mission of Simpson College and its focus on issues of personal integrity, moral responsibility, social justice and citizenship.  WSP is dedicated to engaging all students to develop an awareness of women’s contributions, concerns, perspectives, and theories across disciplines.  WSP features College-wide programming and course work that supports a creative, diverse, and just community.

WSP includes both curricular and co-curricular initiatives that support and empower women’s voices.  These include the Women’s Resource Center, Sophia, the annual Women in America lecture, Women’s History Month programming and the minor in Women’s Studies.  We strive to ensure that no student graduates from Simpson without direct and regular contact with a wide range of women’s voices, issues, and perspectives.

The Women in America lecture for 2010 is Cheryl Thomas scheduled for Monday, March 1 at 7:00 p.m. in Lekberg Hall. 

Ms. Thomas is an attorney and Director of the Women's Human Rights Program, a program she founded at The Advocates for Human Rights (formerly Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights) in 1993. Since 1994, Ms. Thomas has traveled throughout Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union countries and Morocco to work with local groups and individuals to promote women's human rights. She has published numerous articles and reports on violence against women as a human rights abuse. Ms. Thomas was honored as a 2005 Changemaker by Minnesota Women’s Press. In 2008, she was selected to be one of 15 experts from around the world to participate in a United Nations Expert Group Meeting on good practices in legislation on violence against women. After receiving her law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1983, Ms. Thomas practiced law at the Minnesota Attorney General's office and was a partner at the law firm, Briggs and Morgan. She was an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School where she taught Women’s International Human Rights from 1996 – 2002. From 1999 to 2001 she served as Executive Director of WATCH, a court monitoring organization focused on cases of violence against women and children.

 

Contact Information
Jennifer Ross Nostrala
Phone: 515-961-1649
Toll Free: 800-362-2454
Fax: 515-961-1498

Last Updated: 11/5/09