Fulbright College Names Gender Studies Director

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Lisa Corrigan

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Lisa M. Corrigan, assistant professor of communication and an affiliate faculty member in the African and African American studies program and the Latin American and Latino studies program, has been named director of the gender studies program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Corrigan assumed the directorship during summer after years of active involvement in the program.

"Dr. Corrigan is a brilliant example of interdisciplinary leadership within the university," said Todd Shields, interim dean of Fulbright College. "In addition to her involvement on campus, she is also a guide for many individuals in Fayetteville, the state and the region." 

"Lisa has brought unbelievable energy and focus to the direction of gender studies and galvanized students and faculty in the process," said David Fredrick, director of the humanities program. "Efforts to promote diversity and human rights on our campus and across our state must include gender and sexual identity, and we are incredibly fortunate to have Lisa's leadership on this score."

As director, Corrigan's duties will include coordinating the program's monthly colloquium featuring subjects as diverse as gender and the culture of smoking in Russia, images of the female body in contemporary culture, gender and suicide in nineteenth-century Mexico City, masculinity and sexuality in ancient Rome, and gender and South African activism. She will also organize sessions with roots in civic activism, such as "More Than A Statistic: A Night for Reproductive Justice and Gender Equity," a recent University of Arkansas Students for Gender Equity. The program director is also charged with refining and expanding the curriculum for the gender studies minor, advising students and promoting the interdisciplinary study of gender both on-campus and off. The program promotes undergraduate research in the field of gender studies and encourages the university's very best students to publish or exhibit their work.

"I am thrilled to be the new director of gender studies," said Corrigan. "The program encourages and sustains cutting-edge interdisciplinary work and does so through dedicated faculty mentoring across campus. It serves a diverse population of students and its expansion will help to serve the needs of a wide variety of communities at the university." 

Corrigan's research focuses on the relationship between the Black Power movement in the United States and the Cuban Revolution and does so through the prison writings of movement activists. Her writings have appeared in Advances in the History of Rhetoric, Women and Language, Communication Quarterly and The National Journal of Urban Education and Practice. Forthcoming publications will include articles in The Journal of Post-Colonial Writing and Intertexts. Her book, Prison Power: How Prison Politics Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation, will appear in the University of Alabama Press series, "Rhetoric, Culture and Social Critique." Her second book project centers on black journalist Louis Lomax's contributions to the radicalization of the civil rights movement.

The gender studies program in Fulbright College was founded in 1993. Former directors include Anna Zajicek, professor of sociology Lynda Coon, professor of history, Susan Marren, associate professor of English, and co-Directors Marren and Fredrick. The program was the product of the organization Fulbright Women, whose leaders included faculty members and administrators Diane Blair (political science), Margaret Bolsterli (English), Elizabeth Payne (history), Judith Ricker (world languages, literatures and cultures), Mary Jo Schneider (anthropology), and Barbara Taylor (human resources). Consult the program's website for additional information.