We are pleased to announce the appointment of Catherine (Cati) Connell as director of the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGS) Program, effective January 1. She will succeed Carrie Preston, who will become director of Kilachand Honors College.
Professor Connell joined the faculty in the BU Department of Sociology in the fall of 2010, after completing her PhD at the University of Texas, Austin, including a certificate in women’s, gender and sexuality studies. From the beginning, she has been involved with WGS. She helped to establish the Graduate Certificate Program and has served as both director of graduate studies and interim director of the program. Her contributions to both curriculum and student life have opened up spaces for new ways of thinking, and she has often inspired her students and colleagues to be active in seeking change. She was recognized in 2015 with the CAS Frank and Lynn Wisneski Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her own scholarship has focused on intersecting inequalities in major social institutions. Her 2015 book School’s Out: Gay and Lesbian Teachers in the Classroom has gained wide acclaim, and she is now turning her attention to the gender and sexuality-based barriers present in the military. It is clear that her scholarship and her teaching have already contributed enormously to the strength of the Program, and her vision and capacity as a leader promise an exciting next stage in a Program that is of increasing importance to the College.
WGS has come to this point through the remarkable leadership of Professor Carrie Preston, along with an intensely dedicated group of faculty. Stepping into leadership of the program in 2012, Carrie has led a significant expansion in enrollments, in curriculum, in programming, and in faculty investment. The interdisciplinary foundational course in WGS is a model in the nation, bringing together as it does not only humanities and social science approaches to the study of gender and sexuality, but natural science perspectives, as well. This is but one evidence of the innovative capacities and intellectual engagement on which the Program will continue to build under Professor Connell’s leadership.