Professors Robert Alegre and Jennifer Tuttle to present with UNE students at Maine Women's and Gender Studies Conference

Robert Alegre, Ph.D., assistant professor of history, and Jennifer Tuttle, Ph.D., professor of English and Dorothy M. Healy Chair of Literature and Health, will present jointly with UNE student Shannon Cardinal (English/History/Education majors '16) and recent UNE graduate Brett Peterson (Psychology/Sociology majors '13) at the Maine Women's and Gender Studies Conference on March 8, 2014, at the University of Maine - Augusta.

Alegre, Tuttle, Cardinal, and Peterson will present a panel on “Humanities Approaches to Experiential Learning in Women’s and Gender Studies.” UNE students pursuing the minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, as well as UNE students more generally, have many opportunities for experiential learning outside the classroom; not surprisingly, given UNE’s association with the health sciences, recent examples focus on issues of women’s health, with students interning at Sexual Assault Services of Southern Maine and working to improve women’s health services in Sekondi, Ghana.  Less familiar are the opportunities for students to learn and apply practical skills via the humanities.

The presentations will focus on two humanities internship examples: Cardinal's work for Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, a venue for feminist literary history; and Peterson's work for AddVerb Productions, a nonprofit organization that uses performance to address a wide range of social issues, from domestic violence to LGBT youth culture.