ATLANTA—Stephanie Y. Evans has been selected as the next director of the Institute for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) in the College of Arts & Sciences, effective July 1, 2019.
Susan Talburt, who has led the institute since 2004, will return to her duties as a faculty member and researcher.
Dr. Evans currently serves as professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies, Africana Women’s Studies and History at Clark Atlanta University. She brings to Georgia State a wide body of research and teaching expertise and significant leadership experience as she leads the institute’s next steps of growth and development.
Evans holds a Ph.D. in Afro-American studies, with a concentration in history and politics and a graduate certificate in advanced feminist studies, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. After eight years as a faculty member and one year as director of African American studies at the University of Florida, Dr. Evans relocated to Atlanta and joined Clark Atlanta University in 2011.
As an expert on Black women’s intellectual history, Evans’ scholarship focuses on memoirs and mental health, providing historical insight into social problems and human rights struggles. She is the author of three books, including Black Passports: Travel Memoirs as a Tool for Youth Empowerment (State University of New York Press, 2014), and she has edited or co-edited four volumes. Her scholarship and teaching have been recognized with several awards such as 2017 Delores Aldridge-Eldridge McMillan Award for Excellence in Research (Clark Atlanta University).
The Institute for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers innovative research, teaching, and campus programming focused on gender and globalization, sexuality studies, and social change. WGSS offers a M.A. degree, a graduate certificate, a B.A. degree, and an undergraduate minor.