News

Jaime Madden

Jaime Madden is a spring 2007 candidate for the Master of Arts in women's and gender studies. Her thesis project draws upon ecological feminist and feminist political theories to address the importance of alternative, safe, semipublic spaces, such as those provided by some girls empowerment programs and other community centers. Those spaces may allow participants, Jaime says, to constructively engage various aspects of their embodied identities, such as gender and race. In addition, those spaces may be community settings wherein participants are empowered to draw upon and make significance of their particular, nuanced experiences, and then use that as a starting point to better understand, and intervene in, the larger contexts of their lives.

Jaime's work is influenced by her experiences as an intern at High Rocks for Girls, a grassroots nonprofit that intends to educate, empower and inspire young West Virginia women. Jaime says, "The internship challenges me to make my academic practice better; the theories are tested and tried and in turn, other activist practices, such as the internship, may be strengthened." An article about High Rocks and Jaime's experiences is forthcoming in the spring edition of NWSAction, a publication of the National Women's Studies Association.

Jaime has also served as a Managing Editor of Intersections: Women's and Gender Studies in Review Across Disciplines, a graduate student journal committed to interdisciplinarity, and as a member of the Steering Committee, the main governance body for Women's and Gender Studies at UT.