By Emily Cousins | Staff Writer
Baylor faculty and staff presented and discussed ten trailblazing women at the sixth annual Boundary Breaking Women’s Panel on Thursday. Hosted by the Women’s and Gender Studies program, the event was set to celebrate women’s accomplishments.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian award-winning and best-selling author, was presented by panelist Dr. Justina Ogodo, assistant professor in the School of Education. Ogodo said Achichie’s most well-known books are “Americanah,” “Purple Hibiscus,” “We Should All Be Feminists” and “Hale of a Yellow Sun.”
Ogodo said Sweden gave copies of “We Should All Be Feminists” to every 16-year-old in the country to encourage gender equality. Ogodo also said she has been inspired by Achichie’s novels and her fight for feminism in Nigeria.
“She is among the first women, if not the first woman, to defy many cultural and social norms in Nigeria — a male-dominated country,” Ogodo said. “Her work of feminism was not well received. She continues to defy all attempts to be silenced in Nigeria.”
Oahu senior Shantel Lagard said she was very excited to hear Ogodo talk about Achichie.
“I’ve actually read her book ‘Americanah,’ and so she was one of my favorites,” Lagard said. “I was actually really inspired by her book that she wrote. It’s always touched me. It’s got a special place in my heart … It’s about a woman, a Nigerian woman, who ended up immigrating to the United States to go to college. She eventually had to move back home, and she’s navigating the experience of that and the cultural differences and navigating her relationships through those transitions.”
Senior lecturer of chemistry and biochemistry Dr. Vanessa Castleberry shared the story of physicist and chemist Marie Curie.
Castleberry said Curie was not only the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize but also the only woman who has won two Nobel Prizes and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes in different fields.
According to Castleberry, Curie is most remembered for discovering the elements polonium and radium.
Las Vegas senior Anchal Chandra said Curie was her favorite woman to learn about.
“She was into physics and chemistry,” Chandra said. “Her accomplishments in the amount of time that she lived and studied, it was impeccable. It was amazing. She’s a prodigy.”
Assistant professor of modern languages and culture Dr. Moisés Park presented Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — writer, philosopher, composer and poet.
Park said Cruz’s poem “Hombres necios que acusáis,” which loosely translates to “You Foolish Men,” was what led him to understanding feminism.
“Even though Spanish is my native tongue, the first time I read ‘Hombres necios que acusáis,’ I did not understand it or refused to understand it,” Park said. “Later in college, I finally understood feminism through ‘Hombres necios que acusáis.’ Feminism, that is, in its most basic definition, the radical and revolutionary ideology that women argue — that women write and have a voice, have had a voice, but those listening have no reason to understand. I was your age, students, when a professor deciphered Sor Juana’s play on words, the unpredictable irony that charged historical context and social commentary on theological politics of gender and intellectual mysticism. I had to deal with my male fragility, recognizing that I only considered male writers … as superior.”
Park said he teaches this poem in his Spanish Literature classes, and many male students have thanked him for teaching feminism in a way they can understand.
“Perhaps because a man was teaching it, feminism made sense,” Park said. “This is how silly, how nice your women are. In fact, the college professor that helped me understand my own bigotry to this point was a man. So, the first point has to be mansplained to me, but that reveals how right she is. She was right — how deeply internalized misogyny, my misogyny, is. She was calling foolishness three centuries and a half ago.”
Many of the students at the panel discussion were there for extra credit, but Chandra said that was just a bonus for her.
“Just by going off the title, ‘[Boundary Breaking] Women’s Panel,’ I felt like it would be really empowering,” Chandra said. “As women, we need to learn how to stick together and how to beat our obstacles as we face them — the same obstacles that we faced hundreds of years ago. So, we may have beat some of them. We still experience new ones, and they’re always in our way. So, I think learning from other women how to maneuver through that is really important.”
