| Historical Southern Methodist activism is the topic at a Women’s and Gender Studies Luncheon Lecture Series event Wednesday. Dr. Janet Allured, a retired history professor from McNeese and former director of the Women and Gender Studies program, will present her latest book and research: “Southern Methodist Women and Social Justice: Interracial Activism in the Long Twentieth Century.” “We attempt to provide a variety of topics and fields which might be of interest to the McNeese community,” said Dr. Rita Costello, director of the Women and Gender Studies program. “Our speakers are not always women; as long as the topic of the presentations involves gender or sexuality or would be of interest in some way to a WGST audience, we do not limit who speaks.” Costello said the lecture series has become a fixture at McNeese since its relaunch in 2016, when it took on its current form. She said the foundations for it were laid a long time ago. Corliss Badeaux, director of the Write to Excellence Center and member of the WST Luncheon planning committee, encountered the program in the early 2000s when faculty and students gathered for brown bag lectures, a reference to the fact that people brought their own “brown bag” lunch. “After Hurricane Rita and other devastating events, the lectures died out, although the Women’s Studies faculty members continued to offer courses that addressed different perspectives in our society,” Badeaux said. In 2014, Allured, Badeaux, and Costello began working to revive the brown bag lunch lecture series under various titles and with no funding until it evolved into a new incarnation: the Women and Gender Studies Luncheon Lecture Series. The current incarnation of the event has been running continuously since 2016 with few interruptions over the past decade due to campus closures related to COVID and Hurricane Laura. With funding from a Juliet Hardtner Endowed Professorship, the program has been able to provide lunch to the attendees. Together with Meghan Fleming, a McNeese art professor, Costello and Badeaux now work to uphold the mission of the mission of the luncheon, to promote Women and Gender Studies at McNeese. Costello said they make it a point to invite a variety of speakers who address gender-related topics across multiple disciplines. They have had presenters such as Dr. Wendy Whelan-Stewart, a black belt holder in Shotokan Karate who presents an interactive self-defense workshop each year and Megan Norris, an engineer who has been a plant manager in Louisiana and Texas and is also the founder of Lake Charles Pride. In spring semesters, they also invite graduate students to speak at events. Over the years, they have hosted graduate students in English, psychology, and business. |
