Clinton, N.Y. -- Two faculty members from the University of San Francisco and San Francisco State University have been named to hold the Jane Watson Irwin Visiting Professor of Women's Studies chair for the 1999-2000 academic year at Hamilton College. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey were named to the chair.
The Irwin professorship supports the needs and interests of women at Hamilton College. It was established by Jane Irwin Droppa, a 1974 Kirkland College graduate, in memory of her mother, and then transferred to Hamilton College when the two colleges joined in 1978.
Gwyn Kirk is a lecturer in the sociology department of the University of San Francisco. Her research focuses on women and militarism, environmental activism, especially in urban settings, and the impact of the global economy on women's lives. Her current research, supported by the Social Science Research Council (East Asia Research Working Group) was to investigate the goals, strategies and effectiveness of grassroots organizing in support of women and children affected by the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, South Korea and the Philippines.
Kirk has also served as professor of women's studies and sociology and coordinator of the Women's Studies Program at Antioch College and was a member of the adjunct faculty for the Union Institute Doctoral Program. She earned a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. She has published numerous books and articles and participated in a number of women's studies conferences.
Margo Okazawa-Rey, a professor of social work at San Francisco State University, was a visiting scholar at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, Institute for Women's and Gender Studies in 1998. She has served as a visiting professor at the University of California Berkeley, School of Social Welfare. Her primary research interests include militarism and violence against women, cross cultural relations and multicultural education. She earned an Ed.D. from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, a master's from Boston University and her bachelor's degree from Capital University. She and Ms. Kirk co-wrote Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives (1998) and have collaborated on several other articles.
