Past Fellows

The Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership has welcomed the following Fellows.

Kimiko Akita, Communication Studies, Dance, and Theatre

Kimiko is a doctoral candidate in the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University. Her dissertation is about Japanese women’s social interactions in private space, Japanese bathhouses. Kimiko’s focus is on women’s muted voices and their intergenerational interactions. Kimiko grew up in a traditional Japanese family in a traditional community, which is now the suburbs of a big city, Nagoya, Japan. While she grew up in a Buddhist culture, she graduated from Catholic women’s colleges: Nanzan Junior College in Nagoya, Japan, with an English major, and Mount Mary College in Wisconsin with a business major. Kimiko received an M.A. in Communication from Michigan State University, and then taught English and Intercultural Communication in Japan. She was also a freelance writer contributing many articles on Japanese culture for an English magazine, Avenues, in Nagoya, Japan. Kimiko has traveled extensively in Southeast Asian countries as a backpacker.

Germine Awad, Psychology

Germine Awad was born in Giza, Egypt and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio. She has a B.S. in psychology from John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio and a M. A. in Applied Psychology from Southern Illinois University. She is currently a doctoral candidate at SIUC in Applied psychology. She is presently teaching Statistics, Research Methods, and the Psychology of Race and Racism. Her areas of interest can be broadly categorized in the area of minority issues, with an emphasis on social justice. She has interests in the areas of multicultural research methods, race and racism, program evaluation, standardized testing, affirmative action, Middle Eastern/Arab American issues, and health psychology. She also serves as the statistical consultant for the Journal of Black Psychology.

Carrolyne Call, Psychology

Carrie was born and raised in Ithica, New York and received her B.S. from Cornell University in 1986. From there she pursued a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, New York, concentrating on Systematic Theology. After beginning a PhD in Theology at Princeton, she left to take charge of a small church on the New Jersey shore. There she pastored for five years before returning to Cornell in 1997 to earn a M.S. in Sociology and a PhD. in Educational Psychology. Carolyn was a CWIL fellow in the department of Psychology. Her research includes work on intellectual safety, faith development, and moral leadership.

Robbin Derry, Business Administration and Economics

Robbin Derry completed her Ph.D. in management in 1987, with research on the moral reasoning of men and women managers. Over the past years she has worked at the University of Pennsylvania, The American College in Bryn Mawr, Clarkson University, and Appalachian State University. At each of institutions, Rolbbin taught and conducted research in business ethics and related topics in management. In 1988-89 Robbin spent a year at the Ethics Institute at Dartmouth College on a Rockefeller Fellowship. Prior to her graduate work, Robbin trained at LaVarenne, Ecole de Cuisine, in Paris, and worked as a professional chef in Washington, DC., New York City, and New Hampshire. The corruption she encountered in the restaurant world, led to her graduate study of business ethics.

Carrie Erlin

Sociology/Justice Education

Carrie Erlin is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology department at the University of Notre Dame. Carrie has a law degree from the University of Arizona College of Law and returned to graduate studies after working as a divorce and custody attorney in Nevada. Carrie’s primary research areas are in therapeutic jurisprudence, with an emphasis on impacts of governmental policies on members of society, and family sociology, with an emphasis on post-marital relationships and stepfamilies. Her dissertation examines the impact of the birth of a new child on marital quality in stepfamilies. Carrie teaches a wide variety of courses including Crime and Justice, Marriage and the Family, Social Psychology, Therapeutic Jurisprudence, and Introduction to Sociology.

Sister Marianne Farina, CSC, Ph.D.

Sister Marianne Farina, CSC is a religious sister of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Ind. She holds a doctorate in theological ethics in both Christian and Islamic traditions from Boston College. Marianne is the Director for Research and Scholarship for the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership at Saint Mary's College. She is also a lecturer in justice education and ethics at Saint Mary's College. Before coming to Saint Mary's, Sister Marianne was a lecturer for Pacific School of Religion, Starr King School for the Ministry, and the Institute for World Religions at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. At these institutions, she taught courses in Christian ethics, Islam, comparative religions, interfaith dialogue and spirituality. Previously, Marianne had served as a pastoral associate, religious education coordinator, and school supervisor in Jalcahtra, Bangladesh. She also served as the chairperson for the Pastoral Planning Project of the Diocese of Mymensingh in Bangladesh. Since 1983, she has worked closely with Muslim and Christian communities and academic institutions in Asia and the United States. As one of the four directors of CWIL, Marianne seeks to assist the Center's program goals of training women leaders "to make a difference in their worlds." She is committed to the promotion of study and dialogue about intercultural/cross-religious topics and concerns of modern society.

Marcia Good, Anthropology

Marcia Good has a Ph.D. in Anthropology with a concentration in Women's Studies, and a masters degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida, and a B.A. in Social Work from Eastern Mennonite University. Prior to her graduate studies, Dr. Good worked in Bolivia from 1982-1989 with Mennonite Central Committee with adult literacy and appropriate technology and in Miami with Cuban and Haitian refrugees as a social worker. Her master's and dissertation research was on childbirth issues in Merida, Yucatan.

Mary Kate Goodwin-Kelly, Women's Studies

Mary Kate Goodwin-Kelly joined CWIL in 2002 as a postdoctoral fellow. She did her graduate study at the University of Rochester where she received a Graduate Certificate in Gender and Women's Studies from the Susan B. Anthony Institute and a Ph.D. in English/Film Studies. Her dissertation, "Bodies as Evidence: Transgressive Women in Popular American Film", addresses how anxieties related to social differences of gender, race, sexuality and maternity manifest themselves in the representations of lethal women in four contemporary American films. As Director of the 2000 Louisville Film and Video Festival and as a programmer and curator for both the Louisville festival and ImageOut: The Rochester Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, Mary Kate extended her academic investment in the study and understanding of gender, sexuality and race. While her recent scholarship has focused primarily on "mainstream" representations, her programming efforts in conjunction with these film festivals have sought to make a diversity of independent (and often more obscure) feminist, gay, lesbian and queer films and videos available to interested audiences inside and outside academia.

Patricia Hancock, Social Work

Patricia Hancock has taught at Saint Mary's as an adjunct professor in the Social Work and Anthropology department and joined the staff as a CWIL fellow in 2002. She has earned a B.A. in Psychology from IUSB, and M.A. in Social Work from IUPUI. She has worked with Saint Mary's Social Work interns for the past several years. A Child Protective Services investigator and community activist, Pat has spent the last ten years in the "trenches" of child welfare conducting investigations of child abuse and neglect. As a result, she has a clear grasp of the social issues affecting this community. She strongly believes that there is a great need to increase empathy and appreciation among people of different races, cultures, and socioeconomic environments here in South Bend. As a CWIL fellow, Pat will be working on creating new electives for the Social Work department to address issues of intercultural awareness, increasing leadership skills for women, and child welfare issues.

Pablo Hernandez

Business Administration and Economics

Pablo Hernandez was a CWIL Fellow and a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Business Administration and Economics. Prior to his arrival in the U.S. to pursue his doctoral degree in economics at the University of Notre Dame, Pablo lived in Mexico for 18 years. He earned a B.A. in economics from the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico, and spent six months as research assistant to Professor Victor L. Urquidi at El Colegio de Mexico, where he developed keen interest in environmental and natural resource economics. He later took a position as an economic consultant at the Institute for International Finance in Puebla, Mexico, conducting research on Mexico’s macroeconomic policies and their credit impact on small firms. His doctoral research dealt with international trade and environmental quality by looking at the economic aspects behind the recent transfers of hazardous waste between Mexico and the United States. Pablo is also interested in topics of financing for development in Latin America. He is currently working on a assessing some development aspects behind international remittances, particularly, the long term effects of Mexican immigrant workers’ remittances in the expenditure and savings decisions of family members in Mexico. Pablo also served as the Faculty Coordinator of the Mexico City Program at Saint Mary's College. The Mexico City Program is a one week experiential learning course that looks at various cultures, business protocols and economic aspects of modern-day Mexico.

Lina Najib Kawar, Nursing

Lina joined the CWIL staff as a Postdoctoral fellow in Nursing in 2002. Dr. Kawar graduaged from the University of Jordan with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She practiced in a variety of primary care settings and helped her colleagues in starting the first hospice program in Jordan. She held a position as hospital supervisor, was a clinical instructor, and a faculty member at the University of Jordan prior to receiving a scholarship from Al-Amal Cancer Center in Amman, Jordan. Dr. Kawar received her PhD in Nursing from the University of Rochester. She pursued her research interest in breast cancer screening among Jordanian and Palestinian women. In her dissertation, Dr. Kawar studied the effect of culture and acculturation in relation to breast cancer screening.

Cricket Keating, Political Science

Cricket Keating received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is a political theorist whose research and teaching interests are focused on feminist theory, democratic theory, and postcolonial theory. Her dissertation "The Postcolonial Sexual Contract", integrates these concerns in an analysis of why women's participation in formal politics dropped after independence in India. In addition to these teaching and research interests, Cricket has worked for many years with La Escuela Popular Nortena, a center for popular education in northern New Mexico.

Belinda Laumbach, Education

Maria Serbana Belina Pacheco Laumbach or "Belinda" is from Rainsville, New Mexico. She was raised on a ranch in Trujillo, New Mexico and began her schooling in a three-room school without electricity or running water. Her family dates back to the original Spanish/Mexican land grantees in northern New Mexico in 1611. She is bilingual in Spanish and English. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and secondary education, a Master of Arts in elementary bilingual education and Spanish, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Multicultural Teacher and Childhood Education, reading, and bilingual education. She taught in New Mexico public schools for nineteen years and at the university level for nine years. Her research interest is teacher quality in minority-serving schools.

Heather McDougall, Political Science

Heather McDougall is a doctoral candidate in the Political Science department at Indiana University. Her dissertation explores the conception of global citizenship as it relates to unversity students' moral and civic development. At Saint Mary's College, Heather is teaching Gender and Politics and Introduction to Political Theory. In addition to her academic pursuits, Heather also organizes summer international leadership study programs for students from around the world. This past summer, she directed programs in Prague, Bologna, and Havana. The programs seek to train students to become future leaders and responsible global citizens. Through academic courses, community service projects, and cultural activities, the students actively engage with one another as well as the host city.

Maria Meléndez, English

María Meléndez teaches creative writing, Chicana literature and multi-ethnic environmental literature in the Department of English at Saint Mary's College. Her first full-length collection of poetry is forthcoming from the University of Arizona Press in spring 2006, and she has published short stories, essays and poetry in a variety of magazines, including Puerto del Sol, Orion Afield, International Quarterly and Ecological Restoration. She reviews contemporary poetry for such publications as CALYX and Poetry Flash, and she is Associate Editor at Momotombo Press, an independent publisher based out of the Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame. Her poetry chapbook Base Pairs was published by Swan Scythe Press in 2001, and her work appears in several recently published anthologies, including Sisters of the Earth, Hunger Enough: Living Spiritually in a Consumer Society, and Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Literature from California. She came to Indiana by way of the University of California, Davis, where she completed graduate studies in poetry with Sandra McPherson and Gary Snyder, and later worked as Writer-in-Residence at the UC Davis Arboretum. She lives with her husband and their two children near the north shore of the Saint Joseph river.

Edith Miguda

History

Edith Miguda holds a Ph.D. in gender studies and history from Adelaide University, South Australia. Her current research and teaching focuses on Women from the global South and international women’s movements with a special attention to the interplay between national and international forces in enhancing women’s political empowerment. In addition to her teaching and research, Edith Miguda has served as a senior consultant on gender and development for various international and inter-governmental agencies in Kenya and Australia. She has done extensive research on women and leadership including women and party politics; women, democratization and political empowerment. Edith studied for her Masters degree in History and Bachelor of Education at The University of Nairobi, Kenya. She taught African history in the department of History and Government at The University of Nairobi in Kenya up to 1999.

Isis Nusair, Women's Studies

Isis Nusair joined the CWIL staff in 2003-04 as a faculty member in the Women's Studies program. Isis is a graduate student in the Women's Studies Ph.D. Program at Clark University. She is completing her dissertation entitled Gendered Politics of Location: Generational Intersections of Palestinian Women in Israel, 1948-1998. She previously served as a researcher on women's human rights in the Middle East and North Africa at the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. She also worked as a researcher with the Euro-Med Human Rights Network. She has a master's degree in Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame, and a bachelor's degree in Social Work from Tel-Aviv University.

Catherine Pellegrino

Library

Catherine Pellegrino served as a half-time CWIL fellowship in the Cushwa-Leighton Library at Saint Mary’s College during the 2006-07 academic year. She worked with the library and CWIL to strengthen the library’s resources and make them more accessible to support the work of the Center. Catherine has a Master’s degree in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a Ph.D. in music theory. She comes to Saint Mary’s from a librarian position at North Carolina State University, where she worked in reference, instruction, acquisitions, and library development.

Ujvala Rajadhyaksha, Business Administration

and Economics

Ujvala Rajadhyaksha was born and raised in Bombay, India. She has a Bachelor's degree in Economics from St. Xavier's College, Bombay, a Master's degree in Economics from University of Bombay, and a doctorate in Management (1996) from India's premier management school the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad (IIMA), where she specialized in organizational behavior. Ujvala's doctoral dissertation was a survey based study of work-family role conflict of dual career couples in the city of Bombay. She has spent time at McGill University, Canada, as a Fellow of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute in 1998. Ujvala's research interests include work and family issues, gender in organizations and cross-cultural issues in management.

Meredith Reid Sarkees, Senior Fellow

Meredith Reid Sarkees a CWIL Senior Fellow has devoted her research to three major themes: women in international security, the correlates of war, and women in academe. She serves as Director of the Global Women’s Leadership in International Security project (GWLIS), which is co-sponsored by CWIL and Women In International Security (WIIS). GWLIS seeks to develop an archive of interviews with women who are leaders in the realm of international security, including women in both governmental and non-governmental organizations. Working with the Correlates of War Project (COW) at the University of Michigan, Dr. Sarkees is involved in gathering data on all wars from 1816 to the present, as well as on factors that may contribute to the onset of wars, such as power and alliances. She has published a number of articles discussing the status of women in political science and international studies, and as Chair of the Women’s Caucus for International Studies, she is working on the Caucus’ oral history project. Sarkees received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Previous research endeavors included a study of women in the U.S. State and Defense Departments, published as Women in Foreign Policy: The Insiders, written with Nancy. E. McGlen. In May 2004, she also coordinated a CWIL faculty development program to Sri Lanka to visit women’s projects which are working across cultural divides to rebuild a war-torn society.

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