faculty

Stephanie O'Hara, PhD she/her

Associate Professor

Global Languages and Cultures

Associate Professor / Chairperson

Women's & Gender Studies

508-999-8336

508-910-6646

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Liberal Arts 352

508-999-8336

508-910-6646

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Liberal Arts 352

Education

2003Duke UniversityPhD
1998Duke UniversityMA
1995Wellesley CollegeBA

Teaching

  • French language, literature, and culture
  • Women's and Gender Studies

Teaching

Programs

Teaching

Courses

Intensive study or research on a special topic under the direction of a staff member. Hours to be arranged.

Investigates aspect of human health and well-being, social and cultural determinants of health, and/or population health disparities. Topic to be determined by instructor.

Overview of the different frameworks within feminist theory: cultural feminism, liberal feminism, Marxist/socialist feminism, radical feminism, womanist feminism/multicultural, French feminism, third wave, and lesbian. These theories will be examined through the work of founders of feminist theory like Adrienne Rich, Simone DeBeauvoir, Robin Morgan, Charlotte Bunch, Audre Lorde, and Betty Friedan, among others. This course fulfills the social science distribution requirement.

Topics will be determined by the faculty member and will therefore vary.

Topics will be determined by the faculty member and will therefore vary.

Feminist theorizing of the twenty-first century. The course will focus on key issues in fourth-wave feminism and how social media has been used to highlight and address them, including a recognition of diversity and an emphasis on intersectionality; body shaming and rape culture; and the disruption of gender categories.  

The WGS capstone course is designed to cohere a major student's core curriculum work. While the subject matter may change depending on the interdisciplinary connections, the course will be grounded in feminist scholarship and require a research project that draws upon feminist theories and feminist research methods, along with a public presentation at the end of the semester to the class and Women Studies faculty. This course will be an opportunity for students to integrate their major course knowledge and demonstrate their ability to apply feminist theory and research methods.

Teaching

Online and Continuing Education Courses

Framework for thinking and learning about research in women's studies. The course provides an overview of the terminology and key concepts in feminist research methods. It begins with an examination of feminist critiques of traditional methods of research and conceptions of knowledge. The course then covers, among other things, work on standpoint theory, research methods in the natural and social sciences, ethical/political issues in research and the practice of cross-cultural research.

Basic concepts and perspectives in Women's Studies, placing women's experience at the center of interpretation. With focus on women's history and contemporary issues, the course examines women's lives with emphasis on how gender interacts with race, class, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. The central aim is to foster critical reading and thinking about women's lives: how the interlocking systems of oppression, colonialism, racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism shape women's lives; and how women have worked to resist these oppressions. This course satisfies a social science distribution requirement and the general education diversity requirement.
Register for this course.

The WGS capstone course is designed to cohere a major student's core curriculum work. While the subject matter may change depending on the interdisciplinary connections, the course will be grounded in feminist scholarship and require a research project that draws upon feminist theories and feminist research methods, along with a public presentation at the end of the semester to the class and Women Studies faculty. This course will be an opportunity for students to integrate their major course knowledge and demonstrate their ability to apply feminist theory and research methods.
Register for this course.

Research

Research interests

  • Early modern European literature and culture
  • History of medicine