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Special Opportunities

This prize, established in 1989, and renamed in 2000 to honor the memory of Molly Hatcher, is awarded annually for the best work done during the previous calendar year by a current Kenyon student in which gender is a central theme. The work may take any form including, but not limited to, essay, composition, artwork, performance, or scientific study.

Submissions, which need not have been created for a Women's and Gender Studies class, should be accomplished by a letter explaining the work's origins and intent. In the case of the creative and performing arts, an interrelated body of work may count as a single submission. Electronic submissions are preferred. The prize carries a cash prize of $100 and the winner's name is engraved on a plaque that hangs in O'Connor House.

Hatcher Prize Winners

2013 Rebecca Chowdhury

2012 Nina Castelli
2011 Christine Ann Bonomo
2010 Meghan Henshall
2009 Kara Stiles
2008 Emma Perry
Roxanne Smith
2007 Kaelin Alexander
2006 Jonathan A. Stein
2005 Angela Lynn Arahood
2004 Taryn Alyssa Myers
2003 Liesl S. Kuhr
Elena M. Rue
2002 Elanna M. Anagnos
Jessica Lee Bellama
2001 Erica M. Carroll
2000 Sarah Belanger
Abby Brethauer
Sarah Bumstead
Caitlin Chun-Kennedy
Molly Hatcher
Ann Herbert
Peter Hurteau
Shannon Johnson
Meredith Jossi
Abby Mitchell
Elizabeth Ray
Laura Shults
Luke Singer
1999 Pam Maslen
1998 Kate Masley
1997 Sarah K. Bearman
1996 Lisa Kindleberger
Laura Noah
1995 Dana Warn
1994 Jennifer Fishman
Merrill Zack
1993 Carrie Comer
1992 Kathryn P. Evans
Carol A. Mason
1991 Catherine E. Fellowes
Kimberly A. Puhala
1990 John Grant
Amy Lanz
1989 Jennifer E. Pearce

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Gilda Rodriguez Cervantes

Rebecca Chowdhury '13

Colleen Damerell '13

H. Abbie Erler

Laurie Finke

Daniel Hartnett

Sarah Murnen

Pashmina Murthy

Clara Roman-Odio

Andrew Ross

Marta Sierra

Mary Suydam

Jan Thomas

Kathleen Tipler

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The Politics of the Bathroom

Bathrooms are spaces where the public and private collide in a most intimate manner that can reinforce or challenge our preconceived notions of gender, race, class, ability, and nationality. The public toilet is a microcosm for identity politics as they play out across the world. We will examine how bathrooms reflect and perhaps help to construct the gender binary, and how trans and other non-normatively identified people negotiate those spaces, revealing the slippages and ambiguities in these 'natural' binary systems. Bathrooms are places for competition and stereotyping, for consumption and waste. Since, as college students, the majority of bathrooms we use are public, the topic provides a unique opportunity to start discussions about the gendered spaces we all share. This course should engage the campus community to think differently about bathrooms and how they impact our lives. The course will use an often overlooked aspect of everyone's lives -- bathrooms -- as a launching point to explore issues of public and private spaces, representation, and activism.


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Women's and Gender Studies majors and concentrators have participated in several overseas programs in Europe, Africa, India, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Below are some examples:

Interstudy Trinity College: Dublin, Ireland

Program Information
Natalie Hession '13

SIT Nepal: Development and Social Change Program

Program Information
Meghan Henshall '12
See Meghan's blog: http://meghanepal.blogspot.com

CIEE: Uppsala, Sweden

Program Information
Alexandra Thieman '13

IFSA Butler: Buenos Aires

Program Information
Rebecca Chowdhury '13

Antioch Women's and Gender Studies in Europe

Women's and Gender Studies in Europe (WGSE) is designed for students interested in exploring women's, gender, queer, and sexuality issues and feminist theory as they earn 16 semester credits while traveling across Europe.

WGSE program participants engage in rigorous methodological and theoretical inquiry as they travel to Utrecht and Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Krakow, Poland; Prague, the Czech Republic; Berlin, Germany; and London, the UK. Each student also conducts a self-designed, independent research project. Each research topic is unique -- past themes include: reproductive rights, LGBTQI issues, trafficking, queer youth support organizations, immigration issues, sex-work, feminist art, and many others.

For more information: http://aea.antioch.edu/ws/

Recent Kenyon students who participated:

  • Leah Boersig, WGS major, 2009
  • Alexis Tsotakos, WGS major, 2007
  • Caroline Leveque, WGS major 2005

SIT Mali: Gender and Development

Program Information

See Risa Griffin's Mali blog at http://risainmali.blogspot.com/

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