Student Profiles

Scroll down for student biographies and reflections on the WGS Program. 

Michelle Burk
BA English Literature with a focus in Creative Writing, Minor in WGS

Originally from Northern Virginia, Michelle would love to become a successful screenwriter by writing screenplays that feature women and people of color in non-stereotypical, dynamic leading roles.

What was one of your most memorable WGS classroom experiences?

The Politics of Fashion with Marjorie Jolles was a completely fascinating classroom experience. It highlighted how the gender binary manifests itself in fashion trends in ways that I would have never thought about otherwise. 

How do you feel WGS has influenced your life?

As a writer, having a thorough understanding of the gender stereotypes that shape the media has allowed me to work against those stereotypes when writing my screenplays. 

Michelle-Marie Gilkeson
MA WGS, April 2011
Capstone Project: Becoming Narration: An Exploration of Memory-Making, Subjectivity, and Truth through Writing Fiction

Michelle-Marie grew up in Los Angeles County, CA and earned a BA in Women's Studies and a minor in Creative Writing at the University of Redlands, CA. At Roosevelt, she was the Graduate Assistant for WGS for two years and enjoyed working with faculty and students to enhance the program. Her capstone project received honorable mention for the Samuel Ostrowsky Award for excellence in the Humanities. She is a facilitator for Girl Talk Chicago and enjoys hanging out and making art with girls detained at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. In the future, Michelle-Marie plans to continue creative work informed by feminist theory, such as dance choreography and performance, and creative writing.

How did you decide to choose to complete a creative project for your capstone? 

I decided to pursue the creative option for my capstone project during a conversation I had about the usefulness of literature for creating change, with Professor Ann Brigham, who taught a cross-listed WGS course that focused on gender and mobility in 20th century women's literature. My project consists of a fiction manuscript and companion analytical essay that take a look at the ways victimhood and survivorship are constructed through processes of memory-making, story-telling, and Truth-seeking. Feminist interventions in psychoanalytical theory, social philosophy, literary criticism, and qualitative research inspired and informed my project. The concept of writing as a “method of knowing,” rather than a display of already intact conclusions, is central to both the fiction piece and the analytical essay. I am so pleased that I chose to pursue this kind of project; it challenged me in very different ways than more traditional academic writing and was a wonderful exercise in integrating feminist theory in "non-academic" work. My committee members, Ann Brigham and Ellen O'Brien, were so helpful during the writing process as they gave me feedback as both general readers of my fiction piece and as scholars of the theories on which my work draws.

Olivia Kaplan
BA Political Science and Journalism, Minor in WGS

Olivia resides on the North Side of Chicago after moving from Milwaukee, WI. She books local shows in the Chicago area and promotes the continuation of women in music. Olivia teaches music and volunteers for Chicago Girls Rock and Chicago Ladies Rock, and is learning drums for her band. She rides her bike as often as possible, maintains a healthy vegan lifestyle, and tries to read as much about different concerning issues (western & non-western) as possible.

What was your most memorable activist moment?

The very first time I came to Chicago, I remember being absolutely beside myself as I walked along the street and saw people living out on the sidewalks. I had a long talk with my mother about why they were there, what other areas of the city were like, and what was being done to help them. In the distance, at almost that exact moment, I heard chants and sirens. Excited, we walked down Michigan Avenue to find a very large protest against wars in the Middle East. I watched as an elderly man and his wife were literally run over by police on bicycles, handcuffed and taken away. I photographed the entire thing. We called off all planned activities for the day and joined in the protest. I was so proud, holding my sign for the first time and screaming until my lungs felt like they could burst. Although this time was not my most active, nor was I the most educated I could have been, this moment in my life was the moment that I decided I would dedicate my life to gaining as much knowledge as I could to help as many of those around me as I could. I no longer wanted to live ignorantly in a country that had been at war through my entire lifetime, and I wanted to know why there were people out on the streets that we seemed to forget about. I dedicate every minute that I can to trying to make some sort of impact, because I truly believe that those who stand for nothing will fall for anything. 

Anna Meyer
BA Sociology, Minor in WGS and Psychology

Anna is originally from Columbus, Ohio and has been living in Chicago for three years. She spends a lot of time going to underground shows at collectives all over the city. She likes creating art friends and participating in activism within her community.

What was your most memorable activist moment?

My most memorable activist and feminist moment was when I was a part of an all female mosh pit. I was invited to attend a Riot Grrrl show at a collective in Logan Square that raises money at shows to benefit battered women. Though some men were in attendance, most of the people at the show were female or gender non-conforming. It felt great to be in the company of so many talented feminist musicians. It felt just as great to thrash against them in front of the stage, shoving each other with all our body weight. I hit the floor a few times, falling over people and getting pushed to the ground. As soon as I fell though, multiple hands offered to pull me back up. We all smiled as we gave each other bruises, knowing the money we donated at the door would help other women stay bruise-free. Activism isn’t always a riot or protest, sometimes it’s as simple as dancing with others who share the same beliefs, and standing in solidarity with those who are hurt most by the patriarchal system.

Julie Mynatt
MA WGS

Julie is returning to school after 15 years. She has a BA in Film & Video from Columbia College, where she teaches as an adjunct faculty member. She continued to be puzzled by a consistent absence of women across the board – in film school as students; in curricula as subjects; on set; in the media and so on. And that's what brought her to Roosevelt's interdisciplinary approach to WGS.

How does WGS affect your work?

The questions I have are a result of connecting many different ideas across a number of subjects, situations and moments in time. There's all this stuff tangled together and the rigorous coursework I've enjoyed so far has been incredibly instrumental in helping me to refine my ideas and further complicate my understanding of pedagogy and epistemology and how these intersect in cinema as art and as area of study. From this I hope to describe a feminist perspective of cinema studies in terms of subject matter, approach, and representation. 

Elizabeth Jean Stigler
MA WGS

Liz grew up, and currently lives about twenty minutes west of the city, in Berwyn, with her parents and very old cat.  On the rare occasion that she's not studying, Liz enjoys performing with local theatre groups, such as Tuesday's Child and Rising Stars, playing oboe and english horn, and skating(as Sister Alovicious) with DerbyLite. She earned a BA in Women's and Gender Studies and a Theatre Arts minor from Augustana College. She has served as the intern for GirlTalk Chicago, an organization that mentors teenage girls in Cook County detention centers, and she currently works at Trader Joe's in LaGrange.

What are your specific areas of interest within WGS?

I really enjoy new challenges and ideas, so I was continually bouncing around theorists and ideas before really finding a home. The areas I enjoy most are media studies and body theory. Media studies fascinates me because of the largely uncritical lense through which we, as a society, accept the media.  It's rare that someone sits down and conciously engages with an episode of Jersey Shore, or Survivor. Yet so many messages are seeping into the unconcious mind that to not critically examine them, seems to be a huge oversight. I am very interested in the way women are portrayed in "reality" shows, particularly shows dealing with weight loss or cosmetic surgery, because I believe these shows are contributing to a culture of forced transformation. Media analysts, like Susan Douglas and Jennifer Pozner, are some of my favorite theoristis and authors on that topic. In addition to cosmetic surgery and its affects on American bodies, I am interested in how the body is used to do gender. Theories of performativity and inscription are particularly fascinating to me, as is the work of Judith Butler, Judith Halberstam, and Gail Dines. After completing my graduate work, I intend to pursue a PhD in performance studies and to continue my research on these topics.

Emily Wilkie
BA English, Minors in WGS and Sociology

Emily grew up in Aurora, IL, home of the Blackhawks and enjoys singing and hanging out with friends. After graduating from Roosevelt, she plans to attend Graduate school for Higher Education Administration and hopes to work in the field for several years before pursuing a Doctorate in Gender Studies. At Roosevelt, she is the President and Founder of Delta Gamma Pi Multicultural Sorority Inc, on the Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee, an Orientation Leader, a First Year Seminar instructor, and served on the Student Government Association.

What was one of the most rewarding WGS course and why?

Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies with Marjorie Jolles is the most rewarding WGS and overall Roosevelt course that I have had. It was the first time that I had ever thought about gender as an issue important enough to talk about. I had never considered the feminist movement of importance to me because I had always looked at it as a movement in the past. It made me want to be an activist and change the ways in which we understand each other and brought to light intersectionality, a theory that completely re-shaped my understanding of how every aspect of identity is constructed, maintained, and shaped. The readings for the course were amazing! Colonize This!, The Handmaid's Tale, Gender Outlaw, and Trestle at Pope Lick Creek were all fabulous and incited a discussion unparalleled by any other course. But the thing that truly made the difference was the passion in the eyes of my professor. She showed such love for what she does, such precise understanding of the experiences of others, and such control over the classroom experience that really demanded and obtained a sense of respect from my classmates and I. In addition to the theory, the experience of debate completely changed my perspective on the higher education classroom and showed the ability to formulate passion behind my work. I felt as though within the classroom of a mere forty students, we were making a difference. We were having an impact on a dialogue bigger than ourselves because when the course ended there were forty people talking about the issues in their next classes and in the community.