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Transforming Scholarship: Why Women's and Gender Studies Students Are Changing Themselves and the World
Transforming Scholarship is a user-friendly work of practical guidance and inspiration for supporting a student's interest in a Women's Studies degree. It focuses on three of the major barriers students face when exploring Women's a lack of awareness that Women's Studies constitutes an academic field; the negative response a student often faces when announcing to the world that he or she is interested in Women’s Studies; and the perceived lack of employment and career options that supposedly comes with graduating with a Women's Studies degree. This book will support students to think critically about what they know, how to demonstrate what they know, and how to prepare for life both personally and professionally after the degree. Integrated into this book is the authors' research. They surveyed over 900 women’s and gender studies graduates (1995-2010) from around the globe ranging from Georgia State University to University of Ghana about their experiences as a student and their career paths. This is currently the largest global data set about contemporary women's and gender studies graduates!
296 pages, Paperback
First published February 10, 2011
3 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
About the author
Michele Tracy Berger
24 books45 followersMichele Tracy Berger is a professor, an award-winning creative writer, creativity coach and a pug-lover.
Her main love is writing science fiction though she also is known to write poetry and creative nonfiction, too.
Her origin story:
At the age of six, Michele’s mother turned a walk-in closet into creative space just for her daughter. That closet became a portal and gateway to self-expression. Michele pretended that Will Robinson, a character on the television show Lost in Space was her brother and that she fought alongside Lindsay Wagner who played The Bionic Woman. And, she went on many other adventures. From that age on, Michele never doubted the power of the imagination.
Her publications:
Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Apex Magazine, SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire, Concrete Dreams: Witches, Warriors and Wise Women, Afromyth: A Fantasy Collection Volume 2, Stories We Tell After Midnight #2, Nevermore; UnCommon Origins: A Collection of Gods, Monsters, Nature and Science, Flying South: A Literary Journal; 100 Word Story; Thing Magazine; Blood and Bourbon, and FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction.
Her nonfiction writing and poetry have appeared in The Chapel Hill News, The Wild Word Magazine, Glint Literary Journal, Oracle: Fine Arts Review, Trivia: Voices of Feminism, The Feminist Wire, Ms. Magazine, Carolina Woman Magazine, Western North Carolina Woman, A Letter to My Mom (Crown Press), Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia Butler (Twelfth Planet Press) and various zines.
She is the 2019 winner of the Carl Brandon Kindred Award from the Carl Brandon Society for her story "Doll Seed" published in FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction.
In 2020, her science fiction novella, "Reenu-You" about a mysterious virus transmitted through a hair care product billed as a natural hair relaxer, was published by Falstaff Books. Much of her work explores psychological horror, especially through issues of race and gender.
She is immediate past President of the board of the North Carolina Writers’ Network (NCWN) and immediate past President of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.
Her debut short story collection, "Doll Seed" from Aunt Lute Books will be published Oct 1, 2024.
The stories span horror, fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism, but are always grounded in very real characters and beautifully rendered, distinctive communities. Often thematically centered on the lives of women and girls, especially women of color and their experiences of vulnerability and outsider status, these stories are often playful and always provocative.
Fifteen stories invite you to get comfortable in the dark, to consider freedom and sacrifice, trust and betrayal, otherness, and safety. Marisol, an aspiring jewelry artist is haunted by a fast-food icon. Chevella, a self-aware doll, finds herself in 1950s America playing a key role in the Civil Rights Movement. Lindsay, a Black girl in 1970s America “wins” an extraterrestrial in a national contest only to find her family's life upended. Chelsea and Jessa, two sisters, fight about what a strange child means for their family. A meat grinder appears in a magical forest and chaos ensues. All this and more.
Her main love is writing science fiction though she also is known to write poetry and creative nonfiction, too.
Her origin story:
At the age of six, Michele’s mother turned a walk-in closet into creative space just for her daughter. That closet became a portal and gateway to self-expression. Michele pretended that Will Robinson, a character on the television show Lost in Space was her brother and that she fought alongside Lindsay Wagner who played The Bionic Woman. And, she went on many other adventures. From that age on, Michele never doubted the power of the imagination.
Her publications:
Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Apex Magazine, SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire, Concrete Dreams: Witches, Warriors and Wise Women, Afromyth: A Fantasy Collection Volume 2, Stories We Tell After Midnight #2, Nevermore; UnCommon Origins: A Collection of Gods, Monsters, Nature and Science, Flying South: A Literary Journal; 100 Word Story; Thing Magazine; Blood and Bourbon, and FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction.
Her nonfiction writing and poetry have appeared in The Chapel Hill News, The Wild Word Magazine, Glint Literary Journal, Oracle: Fine Arts Review, Trivia: Voices of Feminism, The Feminist Wire, Ms. Magazine, Carolina Woman Magazine, Western North Carolina Woman, A Letter to My Mom (Crown Press), Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia Butler (Twelfth Planet Press) and various zines.
She is the 2019 winner of the Carl Brandon Kindred Award from the Carl Brandon Society for her story "Doll Seed" published in FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction.
In 2020, her science fiction novella, "Reenu-You" about a mysterious virus transmitted through a hair care product billed as a natural hair relaxer, was published by Falstaff Books. Much of her work explores psychological horror, especially through issues of race and gender.
She is immediate past President of the board of the North Carolina Writers’ Network (NCWN) and immediate past President of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.
Her debut short story collection, "Doll Seed" from Aunt Lute Books will be published Oct 1, 2024.
The stories span horror, fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism, but are always grounded in very real characters and beautifully rendered, distinctive communities. Often thematically centered on the lives of women and girls, especially women of color and their experiences of vulnerability and outsider status, these stories are often playful and always provocative.
Fifteen stories invite you to get comfortable in the dark, to consider freedom and sacrifice, trust and betrayal, otherness, and safety. Marisol, an aspiring jewelry artist is haunted by a fast-food icon. Chevella, a self-aware doll, finds herself in 1950s America playing a key role in the Civil Rights Movement. Lindsay, a Black girl in 1970s America “wins” an extraterrestrial in a national contest only to find her family's life upended. Chelsea and Jessa, two sisters, fight about what a strange child means for their family. A meat grinder appears in a magical forest and chaos ensues. All this and more.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 17, 2022
Oh I wish I had had this book in my life sooner in my degree, rather than being assigned to read it in my literal last semester when I was jugging two senior projects. Because guess what? I did not finish reading it that semester. Didn't even get halfway through it.
But, months later, after being graduated for a few months and feeling that post college depression big time, I decided to return and finish reading this book. I'm not sure all of it is as useful to me as it would have been if I had read it during my junior year of college rather than post-graduation, but there was still a lot of very inspiring and motivating information in here that left me feeling more like the world is still mine to conquer, instead of feeling like I am nothing when I am not a student (which is how I have felt for a while).
In our senior seminar, we skipped past chapters 1 and 2 because those are mostly for freshmen and sophomores entering into the Gender & Women's Studies major or minor for the first time. We started on chapter 3 (and it was the only one I read in full on time).
Chapter 3: How You Can Talk About Women's and Gender Studies Anytime, Anywhere, and to Anyone is about what to say when family members and friends ask you, "Why would you major in THAT?" or something similar. It also has tips on how to explain to future bosses and co-workers how your Gender & Women's Studies degree is useful/helpful to your job and how it's going to make you a great employee.
We, as a senior seminar, did the exercise in Chapter 3 where we prepare an "elevator speech" about how our major/minor makes us ideal employees and I found it very helpful, because even though I majored in GWS because I believed in it, I wasn't actually sure how I would answer future bosses/co-workers if they ever asked me how it was useful. So I am very grafeful for that.
The rest of the chapters also focus on the job market and other aspects of post-graduation.
Chapter 4 talks about how to recognize the external and internal skills you possess from both your Gender & Women's Studies degree specifically and from your life more broadly. For me personally it's always hard for me to define something as a "skill" of mine until other people point it out, so this chapter was very helpful.
Chapter 5 answers the question "What CAN you do with that degree?" and offers examples, including quotes from real life GWS graduates who are doing those jobs and how their GWS degree specifically got them there.
Chapter 6 digs deeper into stories of GWS alumnae, featuring 7 different people who tell their stories of what they are doing now and how they got there. This chapter specifically had a major impact on me when reading it. Even though I knew my life was not over when I graduated, sometimes it can still feel that way when every position you apply to either rejects or ghosts you, so reading the stories of all these GWS alumnae and where they are today and how they got there was very inspiring and motivating. I will keep in my pocket the quote from that one alum who said that she was glad she waited 3 years before going to grad school instead of jumping straight into it.
Chapter 7 talks about other post-graduate things in general. Ways you can continue growing after college and tips to stay true to what you value even when you are maybe in a job that does not value those things. It has a lot of tips that can apply to everyone, not just GWS graduates (although, like the rest of the book, that is its primary focus).
This book is targetted towards "you", meaning that it talks to the reader as if the reader is a Gender & Women's Studies college student around the junior level (except for the first 2 chapters, as I said; those are more directed at new GWS majors who just joined the program). I definitely recommend it for everyone who is in school for Gender & Women's Studies, or a similar field to it.
It is a book that offers a lot of really useful advice on making the most of your college experience and preparing for what comes after - and that's why I wish I had it much sooner. I did not prepare enough for the "after", content to just be present in the "now" when college was "now". Not that there is anything wrong with living in the now, but the fact remains that maybe if I had this book sooner in my college career, it would've gotten me thinking about the "after" much much sooner and I would have been more prepared than I am right now.
All in all though, I am really thankful I went back and finished reading it and I will be returning to parts of it as I figure out my next steps. The only reason it gets four stars instead of five is because some of it is more than a little outdated - the third edition came out when our semester had already started, so I am sure the next students who take that class will have a much more updated version of the text than I did and some of those parts that felt old (like the Affordable Care Act being something new, or the use of the term "transgenderED" which people don't really say anymore) will not be there anymore. As the book says, Gender & Women's Studies is always changing with the world.
But, months later, after being graduated for a few months and feeling that post college depression big time, I decided to return and finish reading this book. I'm not sure all of it is as useful to me as it would have been if I had read it during my junior year of college rather than post-graduation, but there was still a lot of very inspiring and motivating information in here that left me feeling more like the world is still mine to conquer, instead of feeling like I am nothing when I am not a student (which is how I have felt for a while).
In our senior seminar, we skipped past chapters 1 and 2 because those are mostly for freshmen and sophomores entering into the Gender & Women's Studies major or minor for the first time. We started on chapter 3 (and it was the only one I read in full on time).
Chapter 3: How You Can Talk About Women's and Gender Studies Anytime, Anywhere, and to Anyone is about what to say when family members and friends ask you, "Why would you major in THAT?" or something similar. It also has tips on how to explain to future bosses and co-workers how your Gender & Women's Studies degree is useful/helpful to your job and how it's going to make you a great employee.
We, as a senior seminar, did the exercise in Chapter 3 where we prepare an "elevator speech" about how our major/minor makes us ideal employees and I found it very helpful, because even though I majored in GWS because I believed in it, I wasn't actually sure how I would answer future bosses/co-workers if they ever asked me how it was useful. So I am very grafeful for that.
The rest of the chapters also focus on the job market and other aspects of post-graduation.
Chapter 4 talks about how to recognize the external and internal skills you possess from both your Gender & Women's Studies degree specifically and from your life more broadly. For me personally it's always hard for me to define something as a "skill" of mine until other people point it out, so this chapter was very helpful.
Chapter 5 answers the question "What CAN you do with that degree?" and offers examples, including quotes from real life GWS graduates who are doing those jobs and how their GWS degree specifically got them there.
Chapter 6 digs deeper into stories of GWS alumnae, featuring 7 different people who tell their stories of what they are doing now and how they got there. This chapter specifically had a major impact on me when reading it. Even though I knew my life was not over when I graduated, sometimes it can still feel that way when every position you apply to either rejects or ghosts you, so reading the stories of all these GWS alumnae and where they are today and how they got there was very inspiring and motivating. I will keep in my pocket the quote from that one alum who said that she was glad she waited 3 years before going to grad school instead of jumping straight into it.
Chapter 7 talks about other post-graduate things in general. Ways you can continue growing after college and tips to stay true to what you value even when you are maybe in a job that does not value those things. It has a lot of tips that can apply to everyone, not just GWS graduates (although, like the rest of the book, that is its primary focus).
This book is targetted towards "you", meaning that it talks to the reader as if the reader is a Gender & Women's Studies college student around the junior level (except for the first 2 chapters, as I said; those are more directed at new GWS majors who just joined the program). I definitely recommend it for everyone who is in school for Gender & Women's Studies, or a similar field to it.
It is a book that offers a lot of really useful advice on making the most of your college experience and preparing for what comes after - and that's why I wish I had it much sooner. I did not prepare enough for the "after", content to just be present in the "now" when college was "now". Not that there is anything wrong with living in the now, but the fact remains that maybe if I had this book sooner in my college career, it would've gotten me thinking about the "after" much much sooner and I would have been more prepared than I am right now.
All in all though, I am really thankful I went back and finished reading it and I will be returning to parts of it as I figure out my next steps. The only reason it gets four stars instead of five is because some of it is more than a little outdated - the third edition came out when our semester had already started, so I am sure the next students who take that class will have a much more updated version of the text than I did and some of those parts that felt old (like the Affordable Care Act being something new, or the use of the term "transgenderED" which people don't really say anymore) will not be there anymore. As the book says, Gender & Women's Studies is always changing with the world.
November 21, 2010
I worked as a Research Assistant on this book, I can't wait to read the final copy!!
January 24, 2017
Great resource for those who are interested in WGS.
This is a good book that can really help those who are interested in pursuing a degree in WGS articulate the interdisciplinary benefits of this kind of education.
This is a good book that can really help those who are interested in pursuing a degree in WGS articulate the interdisciplinary benefits of this kind of education.
December 18, 2020
A must for any gender studies student or faculty!!!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews