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

Abstract

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.