Faculty

Gesine Gerhard
Associate Professor, Director of Gender Studies
History Department
Has been a Pacific Community member for 8 years





What are your impressions of how diverse Pacific's campus community is?
I would say Pacific's community is pretty diverse. Students come from different ethnic backgrounds as well as economic backgrounds. We have international students and faculty, as well as gay and lesbian students and faculty. I am not sure that everyone feels equally comfortable as a member of this community, and here is where we have to work harder on making Pacific a truly diverse place.

What does diversity mean to you?

Everyone should feel included and represented, everyone's voice and concerns should be heard. I hope we can make Pacific a place that feels and looks multi-cultural and welcoming to everybody, no matter what her or his ethnic/racial/economic/sexual/national/religious heritage is

What activities have you been involved in that relates to diversity?
As director of Gender Studies, we support many programs and organize events that support diversity on campus and give women a voice. For example, we organized a Student Conference on Gender and Science in the spring semester, this year we offer a variety of events on women and politics and gender and law, we offer classes dealing with questions of gender identity, and we try to infuse the topic of gender in every student's curriculum. Next spring we'll have a festival on Gender and the Performing Arts where students will recite plays from women writers, play music from women composers or analyze gender identity in opera and film.

Contact Information:

Gesine Gerhard
Office Phone: 209.946.2146
Office, Wendell Phillips Center, room 220