Two professors share gender studies award
Each year, USU’s Center for Women and Gender presents the Distinguished Professor Award to a professor with high achievement in gender-related research and organizations, but this year choosing the professor most worthy of the award was no easy task.
Chris Hailey, associate dean in the College of Engineering, and Deborah Burns, a professor in the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, both received the award after the selection committee deliberated and arrived at a stalemate.
“We want to thank our family members and our colleagues and our students who have made our work really satisfying and fulfilling,” Burns said, speaking on behalf of Hailey, as well.
Traditionally, the recipient of the annual award gives a lecture to faculty and staff members, but this year the lecture took the form of an interview in which the women each asked one another questions that revealed their pasts and experiences, leading up to their current accomplishments.
Ann Austin, director of the Center for Women and Gender, said the award was developed in 1992 and has since been presented to women with expertise in many areas, including biology, sociology and business.
“I was very honored by a group of women to hold this title several years ago,” Eddy Berry, a sociology professor, said. “But I was never as fearless or as powerful as Deborah (Burns).”
Burns is the author of 62 publications, both books and scholarly articles, and has received multiple awards from USU, including Faculty Member of the Year.
Hailey has been in engineering — a traditionally male-dominated profession — for many years, and is now a mentor to female engineering students in the College of Engineering as adviser of the Society of Women Engineering, Austin said. The organization has been recognized by the national SWE program. Hailey values gender inclusiveness in the engineering profession, Austin added.
Hailey began the Q-and-A by asking Burns what she believed her greatest accomplishments were. Burns said she was most proud of her work dealing with discrimination and minorities.
“More recently, one of the hardest things I have done is deciding to address the issue of sexual orientation with public school teachers,” Burns said.
She said her research also addresses how religion plays in dealing with heterosexism and sexual orientation in public schools.
Burns asked Hailey when she initially began addressing the gender issues she observed in engineering.
“I never thought about prejudice or discrimination at the start of my career,” Hailey said. “I was proud of the work I accomplished and felt fairly well supported. As a faculty member, I began to see there were very few (female students) in the classes. I was wondering if there was discrimination going on, and I began to think more deeply.”
Later on Tuesday evening the Center for Women and Gender awarded Bonnie Pitblado, USU professor of archaeology, with the Early Career Achievement Award and English Professor Patricia Gantt with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Negotiating a career in a man’s world has certainly carried unique challenges,” Pitblado said in her address to the audience. “It’s hard to convey the joy that I feel when I am able to share what I know with men and women alike … I kind of like bucking gender trends in archeology.”
As a young archaeologist, a man Pitblado worked with told her women were less respected than men in the work place, she said. Since then, she has been determined to make a name for herself and her research.
Gantt teaches her English classes using many works published by famous female writers and teaches multicultural literature, a class that dissects texts depicting diverse backgrounds, said Jamie Huber, program coordinator for the Center of Women and Gender.
“It is customary to acknowledge the strong women on whose shoulders we all stand,” Gantt said. “My grandmother raised children in the Great Depression and put five of her children through college.”
She said when she was young she was reminded, “You have the blood of pioneer women floating through your veins,” and the prominence of women in this statement has been meaningful to her since.
In addition, students who’ve worked on projects specifically supporting women, were recognized in the Spotlight on Students — a new addition to the annual award event. Lindsay Nemelka, an English student, wrote the poem, “To a Pot of Soup,” that was read to the audience, and natural resources student Heather Winegar encouraged sustainable living in women’s lives as well as the community. Finally, Brenna Wernersbach promoted healthy sexuality to Cache Valley individuals and organizations.
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu