"An Orchid in the Arctic": Women's Studies in the Rural South

Abstract

We are a women's studies faculty member and a student at a small liberal arts college in a conservative town in the southeast. Our "other" location is Berry College, a highly ranked regional liberal arts institution of 1800 undergraduates and 200 graduate students in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Northwest Georgia. This part of Georgia is extremely religious, with a high concentration of Southern Baptist Christian fundamentalists. The students at Berry are 65 percent female and 6 percent minority, and come mainly from the southeast, especially Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Many identify as conservative Christians. However, Berry also has a significant number of socially progressive students. From these latter students arose a demand for Women's Studies in the mid-1990s. The women's studies program today offers more than twenty courses across the college. Students can receive a minor in Women's Studies or pursue a major through the college's interdisciplinary studies program. Teaching and learning Women's Studies in this environment has been a challenge because we encounter significant resistance to feminist ideas, but it has also been an opportunity for us as feminists to have a significant influence in an environment where we are critically needed. Below we will give both a faculty and a student perspective on Women's Studies in this "other" location. A Faculty Perspective At Berry, my background clearly defines me as different. I grew up in the Northeast, attended Yale University, where I was first introduced to Women's Studies, and received a J.D. and a Ph.D. in Women's Studies from Emory University. I came to Berry as the director of Women's Studies in 2001, with some trepidation after Berry denied tenure to the founder of the program. Teaching Women's Studies at Berry, I have often encountered a lack of understanding and even hostility to feminist ideas. For many students, the material is entirely new and revelatory. The learning curve is tremendous. The conservative background of many of my students has altered the kinds of discussions that are likely to occur in my classes and on campus and the kinds of issues that are likely to resonate with the students. For example, the unit on religion in my introductory class at Emory fell flat, whereas the same issue fires up my Berry students, who often have grown up in fundamentalist churches or communities that have [End Page 192] very restrictive ideas about what is appropriate for women. Questioning these restrictions can be very threatening but also revolutionary for those willing to think through the issues. It has taken me a while to understand my students and to make adjustments so that I can effectively reach them. Students who are already feminist are sometimes frustrated with conservative students in the class so I have to find ways to engage all students and negotiate these differences. The strong Christian fundamentalist environment at Berry means that to declare a women's studies minor, or even to take a women's studies class, is a political act. Other students find Women's Studies very threatening and are sometimes explicitly hostile to Women's Studies (for example, defacing or tearing down posters). Not only are students conservative, but the faculty and staff are as well. Communicating feminism to them also can be a challenge. When I did a presentation on the history of abortion in the United States, not a student but a staff member raised his hand and asked me a question in which he described abortion as murder. A recently retired member of the chemistry department was a creationist, and there is a psychology faculty member who teaches that homosexuality is a mental disorder. More insidious, however, is the general apathy among the faculty about issues of feminist concern. For example, when the board of trustees denied group status to a gay and lesbian group, few...