Welcome, everyone, to the First Ever Digital Honors Thesis Symposium for Women’s Studies and Gender and Health!

(Hopefully, of course, it’s also the last!)

First and foremost, CONGRATULATIONS to all students who completed their Honors Thesis! It is a significant achievement—all the more so given our current moment of pandemic and all its socioeconomic implications.

Why might a Women’s Studies or Gender & Health major would want to write an honors thesis? (And if you’re a thesis writer, hopefully these reminders prove true!) Here are a few of the most important reasons:

Satisfy your intellectual curiosity

Develop transferable skills

· ask smart questions

· acquire the investigative instincts needed to find answers

· navigate libraries, laboratories, archives, databases, and other research venues

· develop the flexibility to redirect your research if your initial plan flops

· master the art of time management

· hone your argumentation skills

· organize a lengthy piece of writing

Work closely with faculty mentors

Open windows into future professions

Understand what it means to be truly interdisciplinary

Finally, practice feminist research and analysis and understand what that means to you

Writing an honors thesis, which over a year in Women’s Studies, is intellectually, emotionally, and physically challenging. (I often tell students that the commitment to write a thesis is often masochistic for precisely these reasons.) In the end, though, writing a thesis is also intellectually and emotionally rewarding.

And writing a feminist honors thesis is also politically and socially relevant.

This Digital Symposium is born out of constraints imposed by the COVID-19 crisis. Usually the honors thesis writers present their work and field questions in person. While this online format is far from ideal, the videos presented here offer the scholars a chance to showcase their work to a potentially larger public.

Thank you to Donna Ainsworth, who is unparalleled in her support of Women’s Studies and Gender & Health undergraduate students. Thank you to Sara McClelland, who, as the Director of Undergraduate Studies during Fall 2019, was the honors thesis mentor during that term. Thank you to Leela Fernandes, who lead the students through the initial, foundational stages of their research. Thank you to the Honors Thesis’ writers mentors and second readers, whose work with these students is often invisible but invaluable. Thank you to Andy Holman who generously acted as a consultant for the video projects. Thank you to Simon Nyi, who has produced a platform for the scholarship on display here.

And a final thanks to the Women’s Studies Honors Thesis writers for doing the additional work of producing these videos! And CONGRATULATIONS again.

Enjoy,

Victor Román Mendoza

Director of Undergraduate Studies