Central College faculty and students attended the annual Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate and Undergraduate Student Conference at Iowa State University, April 12, 2025.
The day was filled with opportunities to watch presentations from faculty and students from Iowa State, Grinnell College and Northern Illinois. Central sent 11 students, two faculty and two staff members. Three students had the opportunity to present their own research.
Presenting from Central were:
- Kylie Carstens, Class of 2026, gave a talk titled “Navigating Political Tensions: Organizing an Inclusive and Educational Sex and Relationship Panel on Central College’s Campus,” which was based on her experience as the leader of the student organization Students Against Sexual Assault.
- Eva Hoch, Class of 2025, presented “Milton’s Perfect Eve: The Intersection of Barbie and Paradise Lost,” originally written as the final research project for the English program’s senior seminar class.
- Fynn Wadsworth, Class of 2025, presented “Tulips and Pansies: An Illustrated History of Central College Zine Project,” which is the final capstone project for his social justice studies minor.
Also among the Central presenters was Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant at Central, Adrián Elías Ortega Lobo. He presented on his experiences in the classroom, titled “Teaching Spanish for Peacebuilding: A Pedagogical Experience at Central College.”
Additional students attending the conference were: Reese Anderson, Class of 2028; Starr Bradley, Class of 2028; Amelia Brown, Class of 2025; Mika McCool, Class of 2026; Kaylee Kettler, Class of 2028; Ava Sell, Class of 2028; Brooke Watson, Class of 2028; and Miles-Xavier Young, Class of 2028. Accompanying the students were Beth McMahon, associate professor of library science, Valerie Billing, associate professor of English, and Grae Digmann-Pearson, 2024 Central graduate.
Central’s attendees and participants found the conference to be “both intellectually energizing and deeply meaningful in terms of building community with other students and professors working in the field of gender and women’s studies across Iowa,” Billing says.
McCool found value in attending the day’s events, saying, “It allowed me to network and learn alongside other college students, both undergraduate and graduate, who have similar interests and views.”
Carstens was encouraged by the environment around her. It showed her “that people believe that [these issues] are still worth fighting for.”
“I’m so proud of the strong work our Central students do and their pose and professionalism in presenting for a top-notch audience of professors, graduate students and undergraduates from ISU, NIU and Grinnell,” she says. “Our students are used to presenting in our classes, but this conference gave students the chance to engage with a new audience of peers and professors from across the state.”
