Junior Penelope Anderson, Coleman-Taylor’s student intern, stands outside of Room 332 on March 29. The Intro to Women’s Literature class created a guest speaker series that involves the class’s students participating in group discussions with speakers in the Athens community, recently covering the topic of recognizing and acknowledging abuse. “We wanted to bring awareness and get expert voices on that subject because there (aren’t) a lot of resources in the school for it,” Anderson said. “It’s a super important topic that never really gets discussed in schools anymore.” Photo by Lucas Donnelly
In the Intro to Women’s Literature class, female and nonbinary guest speakers have been invited to speak in discussions about their experiences as minorities in Athens.
Students and teachers in the Intro to Women’s Literature class believe that the school’s curriculum does not equitably showcase female and male historical figures. To settle this inequality, the guest speaker series was born.
The Intro to Women’s Literature class guest speaker series was created by English department teacher Lindsay Coleman-Taylor, English department student-teacher Molly Dorkey and junior Penelope Anderson, Coleman-Taylor’s student intern.
“We see an awful lot of successful men in our curriculum, and we don’t see that many successful women. For me, (this project) is important because the people sitting in my classroom are headed somewhere,” Coleman-Taylor said. “I do feel as though it is undeniable, in my personal opinion, that the world will be different to or for women and nonbinary individuals than it will be for cisgender men. It just will.”
The project involves a series of prominent Athens female and nonbinary individuals participating in a group discussion about a variety of gender-related topics with the class. Athens-Clarke County District 2 Commissioner Mariah Parker, who identifies as nonbinary, was the first speaker invited.
“(Parker) spoke quite a bit about being called mom (by their child), being perceived as female and being treated as such because they are young, Black and nonbinary, but female-appearing in a political realm (where) a lot of minorities are piled into one in appearance,” Coleman-Taylor said.
The guest speaker project aims to bring light to viewpoints that students might not see otherwise. For example, former University of Georgia women’s basketball coach Joni Taylor spoke to students about her experiences as a woman in athletics.
“Joni Taylor was super inspirational. She gave birth and then two days later she was back out coaching a basketball game. That was crazy,” Anderson said. “She gave us that perspective of a woman in a very male-dominated field, like sports at UGA.”
Anderson hopes that the series will continue to allow students to be exposed to subjects not traditionally taught in school.
“I’m sure that we’ll (invite more speakers) in the future. It’s been really engaging for our whole class,” Anderson said. “(This project is) what being a teacher is about, you bring awareness to the things that your kids want to learn about.”
