With so many Women’s History Month events on the schedule, the College of Liberal Arts scheduled their final event in April. 

 A panel of four female researchers  formed to discuss their research in women’s and gender studies relating to popular culture on April 4.

 Speaking at the Sip Downtown Brasserie were:

-Dr. Wendy Perkins, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice, who presented her research titled “Lessons Learned While Researching Violence Against Women,”

-Dr. Jana Tigchelaar, associate professor of English, who presented “Why Neighbors Matter: Queering Kinship in Women’s Regional Literature,”

-Amber Stone, graduate student of sociology and women’s studies, who presented “Professional Fake Gamer Girl: How Gender Performance Affects Female Streamers on Twitch.TV” and

-Dr. Hilary Brewster, associate professor of English, who presented “Because Female Comics Don’t Get Pregnant: The Unrule Comedy of Ali Wong and Amy Schumer.”

Brewster, who also is a local stand-up comedian, said, “This idea came to me when I taught English 242, Women Writers, which I centered on women comics. I love stand up comedy and resent the fact that when many people are asked their favorite comic, they never name women.”

Herd in Town events have been happening for years Dr. Kelli Prejean, associate dean of COLA, said and are intentionally off campus in efforts to build a bridge between the community and scholarship of Marshall’s faculty, as well as create an event that highlighted the cross disciplinary work surrounding women’s studies.

“We have a lot of great faculty at Marshall who do a lot of work the community at large isn’t aware of,” Prejean said. “These are topics people might not normally think about. We hope the community looks at topics unfamiliar to them, or in a different way with a different spin, to engage with the community about these ideas. Bringing relevant scholarship to the community is important.”

Future Herd in Town events may be more focused on a specific theme rather than the broad scope of “Celebrating Female Perspectives” according to Prejean. They are always open to students and the community regardless of location, she said.

“Sometimes students see these events as focused only on faculty,” Prejean said, “but I hope students come even when it’s off campus, and I hope they invite their parents and their friends, so we can all celebrate the inclusive perspective.”