School of Education professor Allyson Jule, Ph.D., has been named President-Elect for the Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Feministes (WGSRF). She will serve in that capacity for a year before taking on the role of President for a two-year term. “It’s an honour to lead a national organization such as this,” Jule said, “not only for myself, but for the entire Gender Studies program at Trinity Western University.”
Formerly known as the Canadian Women’s Studies Association, the WGSRF connects the 70-plus women’s and gender studies programs across Canada since 1982. It serves as a gathering place to share ideas, challenges, questions, and deeper understandings of the working of gender in Canadian society.
In her role, Jule will seek to promote more regular connection between the many programs across the country and find ways to support scholarship.
The role is a good fit for Jule, a Co-Director of TWU’s Gender Studies Institute (GSI). The GSI launched in 2008 and remains the only such program at a Christian university in Canada. “Trinity Western’s Gender Studies program is a place of serious academic scholarship,” she said. “Our goal is to ensure Christian feminism continues to be a vibrant part of Canadian gender studies and its goals of being a fully inclusive organization. None of this would be possible without the support of the TWU community for the Gender Studies Institute and minor program. I’m privileged to be part of TWU’s strong research community.”
A noted scholar, Jule published two books this year with Cambridge Scholars: the edited volume Shifting Visions: Gender and Discourses and the co-edited collection Facing Challenges: Feminism in Christian Higher Education and Other Places with Bettina Tate Pederson of San Diego’s Point Loma Nazarene University. During her upcoming sabbatical year, Jule will head to the University of Oxford’s International Gender Studies Centre as Research Fellow.
“Gender Studies is especially relevant today,” Jule said. “Gender roles and identities are more in flux than ever before. Also, there is a stubborn perception that it’s us-versus-them between Christian and secular scholarship. But organizations like WGSRF stand out as places of respect and tolerance. I’m honoured to serve in this way."