An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Women's Studies

"Contributors:

Teresa Bevin is an educator, author and therapist. Born in Cuba, she emigrated to Spain in 1969, then to the United States in 1972. A graduate of the University of Maryland and George Washington University she is a professor of Spanish and Mental Health at Montgomery College’s Takoma Park campus. She conducts seminars on the implications of cultural diversity for counselors and other public service personnel. She is the author of two novels and a forthcoming children’s book.

Kay Bosgraaf is a professor of English at the Montgomery College’s Rockville campus and teaches creative writing of poetry, modern and contemporary poetry as well as a range of other literature and composition courses. She has a Ph.D. in English and Education from University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has been featured twice as a poet on a cable television show called Pandora's Box. In January, 2001, and February, 2003, she received writers’ grants for poetry residencies from the Vermont Studio Center. Her most recent book of poetry is entitled Song of Solidity.

Maureen Edwards, who holds a doctorate in Health Education from the University of Maryland at College Park, with areas of specialization in stress management and gerontology, is a professor of Health at the Rockville campus and serves as program coordinator for both the health education and the gerontology programs. While at the University of Maryland Health Center, she served as Coordinator of the Stress Management Program for the University. In addition, she has worked as a stress management consultant in both the private and public sectors.

Brianne Friel has a Ph.D. in the rhetoric of women’s literature, focusing on double-voiced discourse in the works of Zora Neale Hurtston. She taught English composition and women’s literature for ten years at Montgomery College, where she was director of the Women's Studies Program and host of a women’s issues panel discussion TV show. She also has taught rhetoric at the University of Maryland.

Robert L. Giron, professor of English, joined the Takoma Park faculty in 1986. He teaches English composition, film and literature, and creative writing. A graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, he did post graduate work at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in comparative literature and studies at the University of Cambridge in England. He was a fellow under a FIPSE grant to incorporate the scholarship of women and minorities into the curriculum in the late 1980s. The African Diaspora has been another of his interests which has led him to study shamanism across cultures. His work has appeared in national journals, including Gender and African Diaspora Issues in Film in Community College Humanities Review and CEA-Magazine, Social Issues in Chicana Poetry of the 1980s. For several years he directed the Takoma Park Honors Program and spearheaded the development of the Takoma Park Scholars Program. In addition, he has written five collections of poetry and is the founder of Gival Press, located in Arlington, Virginia.

Rita Kranidis teaches English and women's studies at the Takoma Park campus. She was a Women's Studies and English double major in college and has pursued her interest in women's issues since then. She holds a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, an M.A. from C.W. Post Center of Long Island University, and a Ph.D. from SUNY at Stony Brook. Her graduate work focused on Victorian Studies and feminist criticism, and she has published in this area extensively. Her current interest is in global women's issues and the role that women play in re-defining cultural norms. Teaching a diverse student population is a dream come true for her.

Tülin Levitas was born and raised in Izmir, Turkey. She received all of her higher education in the United States and hold two master degrees; an M. A. from Boston University in philosophy with a historical emphasis and an M.A. from the University of Maryland with an analytic emphasis in philosophy. She has taught in the philosophy program at Montgomery College for the past fourteen years and has been active in the Women's Studies program. She has taught Introduction to Women's Studies and created two Honors courses: Women in Philosophy I and Women in Philosophy II.

Dianne Ganz Scheper is professor emerita at Montgomery College, where she taught literature and composition, and, for a decade, directed the College’s Honors Program. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from The Catholic University of America, with an emphasis on religion and literature. Her research interests are in American nature writing, women and nature, and the intersections of nature, culture, and religion in contemporary world literatures. Currently she is a faculty associate in interdisciplinary studies at The Johns Hopkins School of Professional Studies and adjunct professor of literary studies at the Community College of Baltimore County."