Faculty and Staff

Faculty

Amy L. Brandzel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, American Studies and Women Studies
brandzel@unm.edu

Kathryn Wichelns, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Advisor, Women Studies
Senior Lecturer, Women Studies
wichelns@unm.edu

Part-Time Instructors

Rosemary Keefe, Ph.D.
rkeefe@unm.edu

Rinita Mazumdar, Ph.D.
rinita_mazumdar@yahoo.com

Dr. Rinita Mazumdar holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts (1996), and M.A. in Philosophy from Brock University (1989), Ontario, Canada, and Calcutta University, Calcutta, India (1986). Her research interests include feminist theory, feminist and developmental economics, and globalization and inequality. Her current research is on Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum’s theory of “Capability Deprivation” and the implications of this theory for feminist economics and theories of global poverty. She has been a member of the faculty since 1997; in 2000 and 2010, respectively, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, and as a Visiting Professor at Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta, India. In 2002 she was nominated for the Best International Teacher Award by the Executive Board of the Women Studies Program.
Dr. Mazumdar teaches the following courses for the WMST Program: Feminist Theories (both at the undergraduate and graduate levels); Race, Class, Feminism; Trans-national Feminism; Feminist Economics; and Feminine Sexuality. Her monographs include Feminist Economics (Anushtup, Calcutta, India, 2010), Feminine Sexuality (Towards Freedom, Calcutta, India, 2005), An Introduction to Feminist Theory (Towards Freedom, Calcutta, India, 2002). She published a translation of a Jaya Mitra work as Honnoman, Women’s Voices from Indian Prison (Towards Freedom, Calcutta, India., 2009), and her article“Marital Rape: Some Ethical and Cultural Considerations,” in A Patchwork Shawl: Voices from South Asian Diaspora, (Rutgers, 2000). She has received three grants from the United States Embassy, New Delhi, India, as part of their Fullbright Fellowship Program, for leading seminars on feminist economics and feminist theory at the Unites States Information Center, Calcutta, India. In March, 2010, Dr. Mazumdar conducted a one-day workshop entitled “Feminist Critiques of the Liberal Pro-Choice Position,” with support from U.N.M.’s Feminist Research Institute.

Giovanna Rossi Pressley, MSc.
grossi@unm.edu

Originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Giovanna grew up in Oxford, England. She received her Master’s degree in Public Policy from the London School of Economics and her Bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico in Latin American Studies and Spanish. Giovanna has worked in the public policy arena on social justice and women’s health issues for 15 years at the national and state level. She served as Vice-Chair of the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women from 2005 to 2006, on the Washington, D.C.- based Center for American Progress Women’s Health Leadership Network from 2005-2010. She is a contributing writer for the national Women's Media Center, and has twice been nominated for the YWCA Women on the Move award.  In July 2006, Giovanna was appointed to be New Mexico's first ever Women’s Health Policy Advisor, charged with establishing the Governor’s Women’s Health Office and developing and promoting women’s health policy for the state. Giovanna is adjunct faculty in the Women's Studies Program and the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico, and has taught the Women's Health Policy course since 2008.  She currently hosts the women's health segment on KUNM's Women's Focus and is enjoying being a new mom.

Ann Skinner-Jones, MA, MFA
annskinnerjones@yahoo.com

Staff

Emmett Vicenti
Administrator
elvjr@unm.edu

Robert Syslo
Computer Support Technician
rsyslo@unm.edu

Teaching Assistants/ Course Instructors

Pamela Gravagne
Department of American Studies
pgravagn@unm.edu

Lucinda Grinnell
Department of History
lgrinnel@unm.edu
Lucy is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American history, specializing in Mexico and gender/sexuality studies. She is currently writing her dissertation, which is entitled “Lesbianas Presente:” Lesbian Activism, Transnational Networks, and the State in Mexico City, 1968-1991.” Her other research interests include post-colonial queer studies, social movements, politics, and transnational history.  Lucy earned her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.A. from U.N.M in Latin American Studies; for the Fall 2010 semester, she is a doctoral fellow with the Latin American and Iberian Insitute at U.N.M.   She is excited to be teaching WMST 335: “Lesbian Culture and Politics” in the Women Studies Program in Spring 2011.  She has three years of experience working as a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of History, as well as seven years of professional and volunteer experience teaching English as a Second Language and civics courses in Albuquerque and Minneapolis.

Sandra Lara
Department of History
slara1@unm.edu

Sandra Lara holds a B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas and an M.A. from Texas Woman’s University. She currently is an A.B.D. doctoral candidate in the History Department at U.N.M. Her research examines the changes that rape and adultery laws have undergone in Mexico, from the late 1800’s to the present. Sandra has conducted research in northern Mexico, in the states of Chihuahua and Coahuila. She also is interested in the history of public health in Latin America, specifically how disease impacts women’s lives. Sandra will teach WMST 200: “Women: Social & Historical Perspectives” for the Women Studies Program in the Spring 2011 semester. Her prior teaching experience includes serving as an assistant in 201 L: “Cell Biology Discussion” for U.N.M.’s Biology Department during Spring and Fall 2010; in Fall 2010, she also served as a graduate assistant to Giovanna Rossi-Pressley in WMST 379: “Women and Health Policy.”

Rachel Levitt
Department of Communication & Journalism
relevitt@unm.edu

Rachel is originally from Los Angeles, California. She earned her B.A. with a double major in Communication Studies and Women's Studies from California State University, Northridge, where she continued on to earn her M.A. in Communication Studies in 2008. She is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in American Studies and a graduate certificate in Women's Studies. Her research broadly focuses on feminism and postcolonial queer studies. Before starting at UNM, Rachel briefly attended Arizona State University, where she was recognized as an outstanding teacher, earning the Graduate and Professional Student Association's "Teaching Excellence Award" in 2009. Rachel has taught nonverbal communication, public speaking, argumentation, speech and debate, feminist theories, critical pedagogy (at the undergraduate and graduate level), and introduction to women’s studies. Rachel's current projects involve theorizing the postcolonial queer female subject, unpacking the rhetoric of white queer outrage after the November 2008 election, and the rhetoric of U.S. sexual exceptionalism embedded in larger processes of imperialism. Rachel has presented her work at various national and regional conferences, including the National Communication Association conference, the Organization for the Study of Communication Language and Gender, the National Women's Studies Association conference, and the Western States Communication Association conference, among others. She is excited to be teaching in Women’s Studies and looks forward to working more with UNM’s amazing students.

Ying Xu
Department of English Language & Literature
yingxu@unm.edu

Ying Xu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English. Her research interests include nineteenth-century American literature, Victorian literature, literary criticism and theory, and Asian American literature. Her dissertation project involves re-constructing autobiographical and non-literary writings by Asian immigrants in the late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century U.S. She has taught numerous courses for the English Department at U.N.M., including ENG 296: “Survey of Earlier American Literature,” ENG 297: “Survey of Later American Literature,” ENG 250: “Analysis of Literature,” and ENG 150: “The Study of Literature.” She is teaching the introductory course for Women Studies majors and minors, WMST 200, in Fall 2010; and she will offer WMST 325: “Race, Class, Feminism” as a course on Asian American women writers for the Spring 2011 semester.

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