Event Review: Big Question’s Feminists Ask

       This past Tuesday and Thursday I went to the Women’s Studies Concentrators brown bags. The Women’s Studies Lounge was packed full of students and faculty who all turned out to hear the Concentrators present their capstone projects. When I go to women’s studies brown bags, a new event for me this semester, one that I’m extremely fortunate to have discovered, I always learn something new. Often, as was the case for these two brown bags, I’m not entirely sure of what I’m going to see, hear and learn, but surrounded by delicious food and great company, I’ve never had, and probably never will have a bad brown bag experience. The women’s studies majors and minors were tasked for their capstone project to pose a question to the Colgate community and then hopefully answer that question through a variety of research methods throughout the semester.  For example, one student asked the question, “What does masculine and feminine look like and how is feminism encouraged or discouraged at an early age?”, and he answered that by writing a children’s book that addresses this question. Almost all the questions posed by the concentrators had chosen them due to past experiences either at Colgate or from their childhood. Another student answered their question by immersing themselves into all of the women’s studies related clubs and groups on campus. He initially wanted to begin he own group but then realized that he would make more on an impact by working hard and helping out pre-existing clubs. And another student wanted to see whether the name Women’s Studies should be changed to something else at Colgate, and so she created a survey online to assess popular opinion and thoughts on the matter. I myself had taken part in the survey but did not know it was the initiative of one student to conduct this research. Each senior overall had a unique thought provoking question that was followed up by strong work across the semester. I was happy I could listen to such wonderful talented individuals talk about what they had done.