Gender and Women's Studies Faculty

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Gender & Women's Studies Faculty

 Dr. Kristi Branham

Kristi Branham is associate professor of English and Gender & Women’s Studies at WKU. She received her PhD in literature from the University of Kentucky. Dr. Branham’s teaching and research expertise include women’s studies, feminist theory, social theory, and U.S. women’s popular culture. She has over twenty years of college teaching experience and has received several awards for teaching excellence. She has published articles in Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, Journal of American Studies, Literature and Film Quarterly, and contributed to the edited collection Home Sweat Home.

 

 Dr. Jane Olmsted

Dr. Olmsted's Website

I'm the advisor of the Social Responsibility & Sustainable Communities Master's program and Gender & Women's Studies Graduate Certificate.

The SRSC is a cohort program, which means that our students move through the degree requirements together. The core courses emphasize "learning in action" and the electives allow students to emphasize areas of interest—gender, aging, community planning, environment, and (crucially) sustainability as it relates to social networks and long-range, ethically sound thinking.

It's conventional wisdom that "online courses can't replace f2f courses." Maybe, but online courses offer many benefits—if they're done right, and for many people. I enjoy the range of students we get in our online courses—from all over the country and with widely divergent backgrounds and interests. Our discussions are challenging and stimulating. As someone trained in literary studies, I've also been impressed with how well our written discussions proceed—reflection, response, questioning, disagreeing, changing—it's very rewarding.

I earned a Ph.D. in English, with a minor in feminist studies, at the University of Minnesota, in 1996. My scholarly work has focused on American, African American, and Native American literature, with an emphasis on race and gender, and I have articles in Contemporary Literature and African American Review, and another about Langston Hughes' fiction that originally appeared in Black Orpheus and was reprinted in Short Story Criticism. My colleague Elizabeth Oakes and I founded and edited the Kentucky Feminist Writers Series, which led to three volumes, of poetry, fiction, and life writing: Writing Who We Are, Telling Stories and I to I.

I love my profession and believe strongly that social change is best served by people with a sound education, with a keen understanding of how gender, race, class, and other elements of difference shape us as individuals and the worlds in which we live. My chapbook, Tree Forms, was published in 2011 by Finishing Line Press. I keep a blog at http:www.janeolmsted/wordpress.com

I'm married to a professor of philosophy and religion at a community college about an hour from Bowling Green. We have three sons, the youngest of whom was killed in October, 2009. This makes my work on family all the more precious to me. Our oldest son recently completed his MFA in ceramics at the University of Florida, and our middle son is enjoying his work in mortgage banking in California. We have two beautiful granddaughters and one grandson.