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Room 4260 A-B
Phone: 419.530.2233
Fax: 419.530.4411
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WGST Department Faculty

Dr. Asma Abdel Halim
Associate Professor

Office:UH 4220E
Phone: 419.530.2602
Fax: 419.530.4411
Mail Stop: 965
Email: asma.abdel-halim@utoledo.edu

Ph.D., Ohio University
M.A.I.A., Ohio University
LL.M., University of Khartoum, Sudan

Asma M. Abdel Halim is Associate Professor at the Uniersity of Toledo, Department of Women's and Gender Studies. She graduated from the faculty of Law, University of Khartoum with an LL.B. Honors in Common Law and Shari’a - Islamic Law; where she also earned a Masters in commercial law. She earned a Master in International Affairs, African Studies and a PhD in Education from Ohio University. She taught at several universities and has been a human rights activist for the past 25 years. Her research is mainly on women’s rights with a focus on African and Sudanese Muslim women. She authored a book and wrote many papers. Attended and presented at many domestic and international conferences. List of publications

Amira Akl Part-Time Instructor

	Office:UH 4220F Phone: 419.530.2668 Fax: 419.530.4411 Mail Stop: 965 Email: amira.akl2@utoledo.edu M.A., University of Toledo As a bilingual, first generation Lebanese-American and as a frequent traveler to the Middle East, Amira cannot stop talking about the positive influences of cultural diversity. She received her BA and MA in English at UT, where she researched various aspects of the Arab and Arab American student populations and their integration into English classrooms. She joined the BGSU Rhetoric and Writing PhD Program in 2007 so she could continue her research into the language used to describe people of Arab heritage. She is especially interested in studying the effects of war and terrorism on Arab American identity. And she is currently writing about the struggles of Arab American women, who are often maintaining the most valued identities in the Arab community of daughter, wife, and mother while also trying to remain true to their American identities as individuals and women of the workforce. She enjoys teaching in the Women's and Gender Studies department at UT and hopes to continue focusing her research on feminist concerns within the Arab community. She wears pens in her hair, is perpetually late, and drinks Mountain Dew. Her favorite color is red and in her spare time, she enjoys riding camels and rearranging her furniture.

Dr. Jamie Barlowe Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and English Dean for Languages, Literature and Social Sciences

	Office:UH 3160 Phone: 419.530.2413 Fax: 419.530.2157 Mail Stop: 906 Email: jamie.barlowe@utoledo.edu Ph.D., The Ohio State University M.A., The Ohio State University B.A. Indiana University

Dr. Sharon Barnes
Associate Professor

Phone: 419.530.6206
Email: sharon.barnes@utoledo.edu

Ph.D., University of Toledo

Sharon earned a Ph.D. in English from The University of Toledo in 1998. Her focus of study was in feminist and literary theory and 20th C. American women writers, with a special emphasis on African-American women poets. She has continued to pursue research focused on her doctoral dissertation, entitled A Marvelous Arithmetics: The Poetry and Prose of Audre Lorde. After a stint at Kent State University, she returned to UT in 2000 as an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary and Special Programs and an affiliate of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies. She divides her professional energies between working with under prepared students, where she teaches a pre-composition I Academic Writing course, and Women's Studies, where she often teaches Issues in Women's Studies, a global, non-western, writing-intensive course open to all students. Other areas of expertise and interest include women's music and culture, queer theory and sexualities studies, "third wave" feminism, ecofeminism, and feminist spirituality. She is also interested in community organizing, in particular Toledo's Take Back the Night event.

Dr. Shara Crookston Visiting Assistant Professor

	Office: UH 4220B Phone: 419.530.2642 Fax: 419.530.4411 Mail Stop: 965 Email: Shara.Crookston@utoledo.edu Ph.D., University of Mississippi M.A., University of Alabama B.A. Arizona State University Shara Crookston is a native Northern Californian who received her BA in Women's Studies from Arizona State University in 2003. After being parched in the desert for four and a half years, she moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama where she earned her MA in Women's Studies from the University of Alabama in 2006. While attending UA, Shara began teaching Introduction to Women's Studies and it was there that she realized her dream of becoming a professor. In July of 2009, Shara earned her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi in Higher Education. Her dissertation examined the college experience for women who were fans of Gossip Girl, and the implications of consumerism on college women. While at the Ole Miss, Shara was the Program Coordinator for the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies. Her duties included working with student organizations such as the Feminist Majority and teaching various classes including Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies, Introduction to Feminist Theory and a class she designed on Girlhood and Adolescence. Shara also co-founded Adventure Divas, an organization for women who were interested in combining outdoor adventure and women's empowerment. For this, she was given a leadership award from her department in 2008. In her spare time, Shara enjoys spending time with her dog, Howard Friend Crookston, reading, attempting yoga, and drinking coffee. She also considers herself a connoisseur of teenage culture, and regularly records shows like Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, The Hills and The Vampire Diaries. Her subscription to Seventeen magazine is now entering its' 16^th year. One day Shara hopes to write feminist fiction for teenage girls and start her own Yorkshire terrier sledding team.

Professor Charlene Denise Gilbert
Professor and Chair

Office:UH 4260
Phone: 419.530.2233
Fax: 419.530.4411
Mail Stop: 965

Email: charlene.gilbert@utoledo.edu

M.F.A., Temple University
B.A. Yale University

Charlene Gilbert is a tenured full professor in Women's and Gender Studies and Theater and Film. For the past 16 years Gilbert has been an independent documentary filmmaker, teacher and scholar. She is a national producer for public television and her current projects include an experimental short film on paradigm shifts in scientific and social communities as well as a documentary on women in WWII. Her current research interests are focused on social media in higher education and emerging technologies in narrative cinematic storytelling.

As an independent documentary filmmaker, Charlene Gilbert has produced two award-winning feature documentaries and several short non-fiction films. Her first feature documentary film, Homecoming Sometimes I am Haunted by Memories of Red Dirt and Clay, premiered nationally on PBS and won several national awards include the NBPC (1999) and Paul Robeson (2000) Awards for Best Documentary. Ms. Gilbert also co-authored, with Quinn Eli, a companion book to the file entitled Homecoming: The Story of African American Farmers published by Beacon Press. Her documentary, Children Will Listen, which followed children from DC public schools engaged in a year long theater arts project, premiered at the 2004 AFI Silverdocs Documentary Festival and had its national prime time PBS broadcast premiere in the fall of 2004. Her films and videos have been screened in numerous international and national festivals including: The Women in the Director's Chair Festival, the Chicago International Television Festival, FESPACO, the Athens International Film and Video Festival and the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema.

In addition, Gilbert has presented papers, lectures and participated in round-table discussions at the American Studies Association, the Society of Cinema Studies, The National Women's Studies Conference, the University Film and Video Association and numerous other conferences throughout the U.S. Gilbert is also a sought after lecturer who has been invited to give talks at Duke University, Columbia University, Clemson University, SUNY Buffalo, Purdue University and The University of Milwaukee.

Gilbert is also the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Rockefeller Media Fellowship, Harvard University's Bunting Fellowship, and the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship award. Gilbert received her bachelor's degree from Yale University and her Master of Fine Arts degree from Temple University.

Chelsea Griffis
Graduate Assistant

Office: UH4220E
Phone: 419.530.2602
Fax: 419.530.4411
Mail Stop: 965

Email: chelsea.griffis@rockets.utoledo.edu

M.A., University of Toledo
B.A., Bowling Green State University

Chelsea is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History, focusing on modern American women. She is currently researching and writing her dissertation which analyzes women of the right and their varied responses to the Equal Rights Amendment during the years 1972 to 1982. She has taught both sections of United States history as well as a course on US Women from 1848. Additionally, Chelsea is working on a graduate certificate in the Women and Gender Studies Department and teaches Intro to WGST. She has spoken in a number of venues and her work on the Toledo Woman Suffrage Association has recently been published in Women Who Belong: Claiming a Female's Right-Filled Place (Marsha Robinson, editor). Outside of academia, Chelsea enjoys taking care of cats at the Toledo Area Human Society and trying to be an urban homesteader while living in an apartment.

Dr. Patricia A. Groves Professor Emeritus

	Office: UH 4220C Phone: 419.530.2792 Fax: 419.530.4411 Mail Stop: 965 Email: patricia.groves@utoledo.edu Ph.D., The Ohio State University M.S.W., University of Michigan B.A., Bowling Green State University


Jeanne Marie Kusina Visiting Faculty

	Phone: 419.530.4494 Fax: 419.530.8836 Mail Stop: 510 Email: jeanne.kusina@utoledo.edu Doctoral Candidate, Bowling Green State University M.A. University of Toledo M.B.A. Tiffin University Jeanne Kusina is UT's Coordinator of Participatory Learning and Research as well as a visiting faculty member teaching in Women's and Gender Studies and Philosophy. She is interested in issues of social justice, ethics, and philosophy of art and media. Her published articles include research on sociopolitics and temporality in cultural discourse, networked art, and Deleuze and horror. In addition to her academic pursuits, Kusina is also an artist and experimental filmmaker whose work has shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Wexner Center, Harvard University, the Kaunas Biennial in Lithuania, SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco, the Museo Brasileiro da Escultura in Sao Paulo, and elsewhere.


Dr. Patricia A. Murphy, C.R.C. Professor Emeritus

	Phone: 419.530.2233 Fax: 419.530.4411 Mail Stop: 965 Email: pmurphy@utnet.utoledo.edu Ph.D. in Women's Studies and Rehabilitation from the Union Institute & University M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from St. Cloud State University B.A. in English Literature from the University of Minnesota Dr. Murphy holds the Certified Rehabilitation Counselor credential from the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification. Dr. Murphy has been teaching for the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at UT since 1999. As a co-founder of the Disability Studies Program she has been teaching disability studies courses since 2001. Dr. Murphy's research interests include feminism and disability, violence against women with and without disabilities, the impact of violence on women's educational and career aspirations and achievements, and disability history.


Dr. Marnie Pratt Part-Time Instructor

	Phone: 419.530.2668 Fax: 419.530.4411 Mail Stop: 965 Email: marnie.pratt@utoledo.edu Ph.D., Bowling Green State University M.A., Bowling Green State University B.S., Carroll University Marnie Pratt received her Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University in 2008. Broadly speaking, her research interests include the many ways in which popular culture intersects with the cultural histories, social interactions, and activism of culturally marginalized groups. She has published and/or presented at national conferences on such things as the television series The L Word, the 2007 filmic remake of Hairspray, and the celebrity activism of Bono of U2. She is currently focusing on the complicated nature of negotiating identity and performing popular music through such examples as all-female rock tribute acts and pro-feminist/queer independent rock bands. When she is not working, she is likely to be found engaging with some type of popular culture herself, whether it be seeing a film, watching a local band, attending the Black Swamp Arts Festival, or animatedly discussing the new fall television lineup with a student. Her favorite part about her job is that she gets to consider such things that she loves as part of a day's work.

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