The Gonzaga University women’s and gender studies department will celebrate its 25th anniversary this week with a guest lecture by Mary Jo Bona, who helped co-found the department.
Her lecture, “Twenty Five Years and Counting: Women’s Studies as a Field and the Queer Daughter’s Voice,” will be March 8 at 7 p.m. in the Hemmingson Center Ballroom-Cardoner.
According to a press release, Bona is a professor and chair of the women’s, gender and sexuality studies department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she is also a professor of Italian American studies. Previously, she taught English at Gonzaga and is one of seven co-founders of the GU women’s and gender studies department. Bona’s talk will reflect on the department’s history, and the role of mothers and daughters in Alison Bechdel’s 2012 graphic memoir “Are You My Mother?”
The WGST minor at Gonzaga examines historical and contemporary circumstances that have shaped relationships between men and women. It raises questions about gender relations, explores assumptions about human nature, and considers the possibilities for social practices to promote equality and understanding.