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News and Views
Fall 2000 Volume 11, Issue 1
From the Director
Angel Kwolek-Folland
Hello from the University of Floridas most exciting and energetic Center! As the new Director of the CWSGR, Ive been bowled over by the enthusiasm for and commitment to the Center of our students, staff, faculty, administration, the UF Foundation, the Friends of Womens Studies, and many outside the University. I feel very lucky to be part of moving the Center forward over the next five years.
Im an historian of women in the United States, and earned my Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of Minnesota. Ive been teaching at the university level since 1980, and most recently was at the University of Kansas. Ive published two books and numerous articles and reviews on women, gender, cultural, and business history. This fall, Im offering a course on women and diversity. Like other center faculty, my appointment is jointly-held, in my case between the Center and the Department of History.
A position as director of the CWSGR appealed to me for several reasons: it offered the opportunity to build institutional support for the education of girls and women; to bring womens perspectives to a broad audience; and to work closely with students, staff, faculty, and administrators interested in exploring and facilitating research and teaching on women and gender. Fortunately, this opportunity comes at a time when a great deal of energy and expertise is poised to propel the CWSGR in exciting directions. During the last year, CLAS and the UF Foundation put the Center at the top of their priority list, and sought funding for the renovation of the Womens Gymnasium and construction of an associated garden. These will become the Centers new home. Last spring, Mrs. Kathryn Chicone Ustler made a generous commitment to funding the building, which will be named in her honor. The Center will apply for state matching funds, and we will continue the search for other resources. We hope the building will be ready for occupancy by 2004. Because Ustler Hall and the proposed garden are at the center of campus, they will become accessible gathering places, thus furthering our mission of education and outreach and returning benefits to the community.
Many other initiatives face us in the next five years. CLAS has promised the program several joint faculty positions, three of which will be new hires. Weve already begun the search for one of these new colleagues. This fall, Milagros Peña will be the first person hired by the program to come up for tenure (in Sociology). Within the next two years, we will be resubmitting our Masters Degree program for approval by the State Board of Regents. We will reopen discussion of the possibility of departmental status, revisit the undergraduate degree in Womens Studies, and explore creating a Ph.D. program. In addition, as Director, I will be coordinating with faculty, staff, and students around the University to identify and construct research and teaching projects that can be funded through public and private sector grants. As director, I will need to learn about the intellectual interests and goals of our constituency, and make the resources of the Center stretch as far as possible by bringing together people with similar interests to generate mutually-beneficial projects.
In an interdisciplinary program such as ours there are no boundaries to those potential interests. I hope we will think big and plan larger. We have unlimited possibilities ahead of us!
To thank everyone who has been helpful in my transition to UF would require a whole newsletter! But I would like to say a word of special thanks to two people: Interim Director Vasudha Narayanan and Office Manager Paula Palmer. Vasu did a splendid job last year as head of the Center, actively working in the Centers interest. Paula Palmer has furthered the mission of the Center through her creative ideas and in her professionalism. Vasu and Paula typify the kind of united and untiring interest and effort that has made the CWSGR strong. I know I can count on all of you to do what you can in that same spirit of collaboration to take the Center onward and upward!
On a personal note, my husband, Nate, and I have been warmed through and through by the wonderful welcome weve received. Weve found here a community of caringËand fascinating‹new colleagues and friends who have helped us begin a new life. We are glad to be øhomeÓ in Florida.
Best wishes,
Angel Kwolek-Folland
