Professor Meda Chesney-Lind

Professor Media Chesney-Lind became director of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on August 1, 2011.

The program, which was launched nearly 40 years ago, currently offers both undergraduate and graduate classes, an undergraduate major, and a graduate certificate.

The Women’s Studies Program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UHM) offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of women and gender issues. The program provides a rigorous and integrated academic experience for students interested in feminist research and analysis, giving them a coherent program of study in contemporary scholarship in a Pacific-Asian context. With faculty trained in a dozen fields of study, the program investigates gender, race, class, colonialism, sexuality and other vectors of power and identity in shaping history, psychology, anthropology, economics, sociology, political science, philosophy, literature language, art, drama, education, law, medicine, and biology.

Professor Chesney-Lind was quoted in an article by Julianne Hing from ColorLines.com, which was redistributed by Truthout.org (“Jezebels, Welfare Queens, and Now, Criminally Bad Black Moms”).

In the last 20 years, women of color have become the fastest growing segment of the prison population, driven in large part by new classes of crimes that have been created or relabeled, said University of Hawaii criminologist Meda Chesney-Lind. Where 20 years ago crimes like the sale and possession of tiny amounts of drugs, or drug use during pregnancy, were not even considered crimes, today they are fueling a massive uptick in incarceration rates. The addition of mandatory minimum prison sentencing over the years eliminated judges’ discretion and contributed to these racially disparate increases.

Dr. Chesney-Lind has been selected as commencement speaker for Whitman College‘s Spring Commencement ceremony on May 22, according to an announcement this week by President George Bridges.

Whitman, founded in 1882, is an independent, co-educational, non-sectarian residential liberal arts and sciences undergraduate college in Walla Walla, Washington. In 1919 Whitman became the second college or university in Washington, after the University of Washington, to be selected for a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

Dr. Chesney-Lind graduated from Whitman summa cum laude in 1969, and went on to pursue her graduate education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Chesney-Lind will also receive an honorary doctorate from the college.

Recent Whitman commencement speakers have included journalist Juan Williams (2010), Ryan Crocker, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq (2009), and William Gate Sr., father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates (2008).

According to the Whitman press release:

As a Whitman student, Meda preceded her sister: Margaret Chesney ’71. As the Commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient, she follows her sister on the Commencement stage; Margaret is a world leader in AIDS research and prevention and received an honorary doctor of humane letters from Whitman in 2008.