Introduction

I’m Mehnaj Ahmed, a sophomore at City College majoring in math/math education. I became interested in feminism after reading The Handmaid’s Tale in middle school, and then taking a combined race/class/gender studies class in high school. I’m auditing this class and that means I’m probably not going to be at any of the face-to-face sessions, but I’m still super excited about the reading content and the novel teaching techniques associated with a hybrid class.

I heard about this course and FemTechNet in an article in Mother Jones a couple of weeks ago, and as if by chance, I read in the Macaulay newsletter about this course. It’s interesting to see the interplay between technology and notions of gender, and I’m excited to see that through a more academic lens in this class. Online incidents prove repeatedly that we are not in a post-feminist world (just look at any comment section for proof) as much as people would like to believe. I can’t wait to learn more about all of these exciting things!

Introduction

Hi everyone! My name is Connie Lui and I’m a junior in Brooklyn College.  I’m a Political Science major with a concentration in International Relations and a Spanish major. I’ve taken a Gender and Religion class before and loved it so I thought this class would be an interesting comparison. Technology has become a huge part of my life and it’s somewhat amazing that I’ve been able to witness the huge boom in technology. I’m interested to see how gender roles have changed due to this reliance in technology. In the past I was studying how gender roles changed throughout time and the difference in gender roles between different religions and regions. I have never thought about how there could be a cause and effect between gender and technology and am eager to learn more about it and the issues that both gender and technology have.

Introduction

Hello everyone. My name is Jonah Garnick and I’m a sophomore at Hunter. I’m double majoring in Urban Studies and Africana Puerto Rican Latino Studies, and minoring in Public Policy. I chose to take this class for two main coinciding reasons. The first being relevance, as we all are millennials, technology plays a very very important role in our lives. I think it is key to not just accept technology as something we use but also consider the cultural implications of it, specifically how it relates to gender. Secondly, my area of study primarily focuses on the oppression of people of color and  people from the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder. When considering these identity politics, I think it is devastating to not take a step back and consider the struggles and critical theories behind other groups, such as women. Recognizing the intersectionality between different peoples is key to solving any sort of problem that affects either party.

I have never taken an online class before, and was a little bit hesitant, but am looking forward to trying it out!

Introduction

My name is Pranitha Prabhu and I am a Biology major, with a pre-med concentration, and minor in Spanish Language. I wanted to take this class because it explores topics that I have not thought about. I am extremely addicted to various forms of technology and I think it is so interesting to think about feminism in relation to the changing world. Gender issues are so important and I discuss things I come across with my peers and mentors but I have yet to take a structured class in this topic. I am ready to question ideas that I have not thought about under the lens of women’s issues and am eager to see how the discussions are going to change my ways of thinking. The beauty of the concentration of this class, technology, is that it focuses on things in our lives that we use everyday to make our lives easier but on closer inspection, is it hindering us as women?

Introduction

Hello everyone!

My name is Cynthia Liliana Perez Beltethon. I am a senior at the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College and I am double majoring in Psychology and Sexualities, a specialization of the Women & Gender Studies major. I am also in the CUNY Pipeline Fellowship Program. I have been working with straight and queer-identifying men, women, transmen, and transwomen at the Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training (CHEST) as a research assistant since Fall 2012.  I have experience as a teacher’s assistant for “Statistical Methods in Psychology” and as a research assistant for a birth control adherence study through the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in partnership with Montefiore Medical Center. This year I am applying to graduate programs in both practice-oriented and research-oriented clinical psychology programs, where I hope to study the effects of psychological dysfunction on human sexuality. Outside of school, I enjoy hanging out with friends, taking photos, using social media, and writing poetry.

I signed up for this course because technology has been both a blessing and a curse for feminism. There have been many feminist campaigns that start off of the Internet (e.g. The Everyday Sexism Project), but at the same time, there are equally as numerous, if not more, posts filled with misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia. I hope that this class will help me better understand the relationship between gender(s) and technology and how gender(s) are used as technologies as described in the course description.

Introduction

Hi everyone,

My name is Genevieve and I’m a junior at Hunter College.  I’m majoring in History, with minors in German and Music.  While I have not yet decided on an area of concentration for my History major, I am very interested in religious interactions.

I became interested in feminism a few years ago.  It grew gradually from issues that made me vaguely uncomfortable or angry, without knowing why, to broader problems that I could understand and explain.  I feel that I’m constantly discussing feminist issues, although I haven’t yet taken a Women & Gender Studies class.   There are still issues I can’t fully discuss, but that brings me to what I hope to gain from this course.  I hope to gain the knowledge and understanding I need to understand how issues facing women have been changed or adopted using technology.

Introduction

My name is Caroline Kaleda and I am an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing at Hunter College. I am taking this class because of my interest in feminism and gender issues, especially in the media. I often frequent various feminist blogs online and am constantly discussing feminist issues amongst everyone I know, especially in the classroom setting. As an English major I find that there are a lot of gender issues reflected in literature, but I have not yet taken an actual women and gender studies class. I figured this would be a great chance to discuss and learn about various issues, especially with technology, which is such a huge part of our culture today and contributes a lot to modern feminist thought.

Introductions: Vita Xie

Hey everyone!

Here’s a super short introduction…
I am Vita Xie and I am a senior at Brooklyn College. My major is sociology and my minor is anthropology. In the past few years of my undergraduate career, an overarching topic of most of the courses I took has been gender along with sex and sexuality. Therefore, it seemed natural that I was drawn to this course. The combination of gender, feminism, and technology was also something I have not specifically encountered in an academic sense. Lastly, I am also taking a sociological course on mass media and communication this semester and I (geekly) enjoy seeing how my coursework would engage in a dialogue.  As for what I would like to get out of this course, I would like to learn and interpret new theory and refine my critical thinking in an interdisciplinary environment.