Five College Feminist Science Studies

Also that year Arlene and Banu, working with faculty at Mount Holyoke and Hampshire Colleges, wrote a successful proposal for a Five College Faculty position in feminist science studies, to be housed at UMass but shared with Hampshire and Mount Holyoke Colleges. These positions increased the total number of full time equivalents in the program by one whole position. Sarah Richardson filled the feminist science studies position and Svati Shah the one in sexuality, but both delayed coming to campus until they had finished their post-doctoral appointments. Sarah Richardson left UMass to teach at Harvard University after only a year in her position, a loss for the department but a measure of the caliber of scholarship UMass Women’s Studies had attracted. Svati Shah stayed on, won a Lilly Teaching Fellowship on her first application, and developed pedagogical strategies to bring sexuality studies to the center of the curriculum.⁵⁵

⁵⁵ WOST Newsletter Fall 2010, p. 1.