Core Faculty

Tami Harbolt

Tami Harbolt Ph.D.

Term Undergraduate Advisor

My research and teaching focuses on gender, race, science, environment, and species- particularly through the practice of pet-keeping and animal sheltering. Animal sheltering is the only documented field which has been solely dominated by women (85%) since its inception in the late 1800's.

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Dawn Heinecken

Dawn Heinecken, Ph.D.

Professor, Chair and Graduate Director

My research focuses on critical/cultural approaches to the study of gender representation in popular media, cultural studies, media audience reception and feminist criticism.

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Faculty profile

Yuxin Ma, Ph.D.

Professor and Acting Chairperson

Yuxin Ma is an Professor of East Asian History. Her specialties are late imperial and Republican China and Chinese Women's history. Currently she studies the lives, screen performances, and media reports of Man'ei actresses and explores the intersections between gender, Japanese and culture modernity in Manchukuo.

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Shelby Pumphrey

Shelby Pumphrey, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

As an interdisciplinary scholar of Africana Studies, Women's Studies and History, Dr. Pumphrey's work focuses primarily on questions of race, gender and mental illness, but especially on Africana peoples' experiences with institutional mental healthcare in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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Cara Snyder

Cara K. Snyder, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

My work focuses on transnational feminist politics, culture, and social movements in Latin America from the 20th century to the present, examining the political maneuvers of women and LGBTQ+ athletes to address questions of how race, gender, sexuality, and class affect national belonging. I earned my Ph.D. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with additional training in digital humanities, feminist pedagogy, physical cultural/sport studies, and Latin American and Brazilian Studies. 

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Kaila Story

Kaila Story, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Dr. Story's research examines the intersections of race and sexuality, with special attention to Black feminism, Black lesbians, and Black queer identity. Her current research explores the intersections of race, class, and sexuality in identity performance, mass media, body politics, and the like. Dr. Story's other research interests include, but are not limited to, Gender Socialization, Transnational Sexualities, Black feminisms, and Transnational Feminisms.

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