URI

Women's Studies :Faculty

Director: Karen SteinKaren Stein

Professor of English and Women's Studies, received her B. A. from Brooklyn College in 1962, her M. A. from Pennsylvania State University in 1966 and her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in 1982. She was one of the co-founders of the Women's Studies Program at URI. She has written and spoken about women as writers and subjects of literature. Her current research interests include Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, American women poets, utopian fiction by women, and women and science. Her recent book Margaret Atwood Revisited focuses on the Canadian novelist, critic and poet. From 1995-97 she served as Chair of the English Department at URI.

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Donna M. HughesDonna Hughes

Donna M. Hughes is a leading international researcher on trafficking of women and children. She has completed research on the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation in the United States, Russia, Ukraine, and Korea.
She does research and writing on women's rights. Her topic areas include: violence, slavery, sexual exploitation, Islamic fundamentalism, and women's organized resistance to violence and exploitation. She also works on issues related to women, science and technology.

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Stephen D. Grubman-Black, Communicative Disorders-Women's Studies

Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo (Department of Speech Communication), holds a Joint Appointment as Stephen D. Grubman-BlackProfessor of Communicative Disorders and Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Currently Coordinator of the Bachelor of General Studies Degree Program and the Academic Advising Program at URI's Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education, Steve divides his work among administration, teaching, and scholarship. Steve developed a section of WMS350 (Enforced Silences and Natural Recovery from Childhood Sexual Victimization) which focuses on challenging the heterosexist and patriarchal institutions which continue to damage and kill women, girls and boys. He is the author of Broken Boys/Mending Men, and offers training for professional helpers as well as workshops for male survivors. Current research focus is investigating and challenging the lack of care and regard for disenfranchised and poor victims of male violence in this rape culture in which we live. If we're not part of a resolution and reconciliation, then we are the problem!

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Jody Lisberger
Jodi Lisberger
Jody Lisberger has a Ph.D. in English (Boston University, 1991), with a specialty in feminist narrative theory. She also has an M.F.A. in Writing (Vermont College, 1999), and a B. A. in anthropology (Smith College, 1975). She has designed two new courses at URI-"Race, Class, and Sexuality Seen Through Literature" and "Violence and Nonviolence in Theory and Fiction: Feminist Alternatives." She also teaches Feminist Theory and Methodology, with an emphasis on narrative, film, medicine, and law, and Introduction to Women's Studies. In November 2006, she presented a paper called "DES and Diflucan: Pharmaceutical Marketing Choices--Why Women Should Take Heed." She is also on the faculty of the brief residency M.F.A. in Writing Program at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. Her stories have been published in Michigan Quarterly Review, Fugue, Confrontation, Thema, and the Louisville Review. She also has a new story collection, Remember Love, published by Fleur-de-Lis Press.


Jenn Brandt

Jenn Brandt, TA in the WMS Program

Jenn Brandt has a BA in English from Drew University and a MA in Popular Culture from Bowling Green State University. Currently she is working toward her PhD in English at the University of Rhode Island.
Jenn's work focuses on gender and cultural studies in popular film, literature, and television. She has previously published articles about Sex and the City and The Da Vinci Code.



Affiliated Professors


Associate Professors

Ann Danis, Music RosaMaria Pegueros, History
Lynn Derbyshire, Communications Joelle Rollo-Koster, History
Nancy Eaton, Mathematics Andrea Rusnock, History
Susana De Los Heros, Languages Catherine Sama, Italian and Film Studies
Valerie Karno, English Marie Schwartz, History
Doris Kirchner, Languages


Lecturers Assistant Professors
Jody Lisberger, Women's Studies Kathleen Torrens, Communication Studies
Rosaria Pisa, Sociology/ Anthropology  


Adjunct Faculty


Barbara Barker, Biology  
Jane Berard, Women’s Studies Holly J. Nichols, Counseling Center
Noel-Anne Brennan, Sociology Laura Pisaturo, Esq., Day One RI
Gigi Edwards, Women’s Studies Jeannette Riley, Women’s Studies
N. Adria Evans, English Dawn Salgado, Psychology
Janet Hagen, Women's Studies Eugenia Wild, Counseling


        Emerita/us WMS Faculty

Judith Anderson, Communication Studies Albert J. Lott, Psychology
Sally Burke, English Bernice Lott, Psychology
Greta Cohen, Physical Education Marilyn J. Malina, English
Lois Cuddy, English Gwenneth Rae, Human Development & Family Studies
Ira Gross, Psychology Mary Ellen Reilly, Sociology
Mathilda Hills, English Karen A. Schroeder, Human Development & Family Studies
Janet Hirsch, Nursing Gail Anne Shea, Sociology

Women's Studies Office: 318 Eleanor Roosevelt Hall, 90 Lower College Rd, Suite 13,  Kingston, RI 02881 
Director: Karen Stein - E-mail:WMSDIR@ETAL.URI.EDU   Phone: 401-874-5150      Fax: 401-874-4527