Women's and Gender Studies Program
The University of Montana's Women's and Gender Studies program grew out of student interest and grassroots activism, forces that continue to make the program thrive."
- Women’s and Gender Studies courses employ cutting edge scholarship to explore how sex, gender, and sexualities intersect with personal identity, politics, culture, history, globalization, and more.
- You can find women’s and gender studies courses in almost every department in the College of Arts and Sciences.
- Women’s and gender studies encourages students to think critically and envision justice for all peoples.
Undergraduate Student Kelsi Steele
Hometown: Kalispell
Major: Political Science
Minor: Women and Gender Studies
.Each year, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program honors the best work of its students and faculty through the administration of scholarships and awards. The 2008-2009 academic year brought several qualified applicants to our scholarship competition. The Winner of the Louise Green-Elizabeth Smith Academic Scholarship is Kelsi Steele.
Kelsi has been active in the Model UN-she recently attended the National Model United Nations Collegiate Conference (NMUN) in New York City this past April along with 11 other UM students. The Collegiate Model UN is an academic simulation of the United Nations—aiming to educate students in diplomacy and civics.
Kelsi submitted Alice Paul: Suffrage Activist, Human Rights Activist for her scholarship application. Kelsi has taken a number of WGS courses such as Anya Jabour’s Women in America series, Women in the Western Hemisphere, and History of International Human Rights.
She says the WGS program “has given me a sense of legacy. As a result of my studies within the program, I have a better sense of how hard women have worked in this country, and that we must continue the work to ensure that all Americans have an equal opportunity. Also, as a student of international relations, I no longer view women's oppression around the world as so inconceivable, but now understand that at one point even women in the United States were once subjected to the same denial of fundamental rights, and I feel that much more inspired to fight for women's civil and political rights around the world.”
Future plans for Kelsi include graduating in 2010. She plans to attend grad school in an International Relations Program and then apply to law school to become international human rights attorney at the US State Department.
Undergraduate Student Svein Newman
Hometown: Billings, MT
Major: Political Science
Minors: Women and Gender Studies
Svein Newman is most active in the campus group Students for Economic and Social Justice. He has worked with this group for five years, starting with the campaign on the exclusive University contract with Coca-Cola and most recently, the campaign to have UM become an affiliate with the designated supplier program. Svein helped lead the campus sit-in at Main Hall last spring.
Svein’s passion for labor standards and worker’s rights is evident as he talks about sweat shop conditions and the race to the bottom in the world of manufacturing apparel that bears the University of Montana name, logo and the mascot Grizzly bear. Manufacturers routinely exploit workers who make University apparel by paying substandard wages, denying maternity leave and denying bathroom breaks, union intimidation and other worker exploitation. Last year, SESJ received the “Action Campaign of the Year,” award from the Center for American Progress. Svein and SESJ, are now extending the campus organization to the larger community as well as building relationships with state legislators.
Svein also works with the Women’s Resource Center on projects like Take Back the Night and Love Your Body Day and in his words is “dedicated to whatever capacity I can be used,” at the WRC. He also worked for Jon Tester's successful Senate campaign as a paid canvasser.
Svein spent the past summer as a research intern at the progressive think tank, Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. He participated in numerous protests, including those at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on the Drop the Debt campaign, and the Zimbawe Embassy protesting government suppression of unions.
Svein future plans will probably include moving back to Washington after graduating in the Spring to continue working as a progressive organizer. He will eventually return to academia to attend graduate school and pursue a career in social justice.
