Beginning this upcoming Spring semester the Women’s Studies Department will transition into Skidmore’s new Department of Gender Studies. The interdisciplinary program will employ both gender queer and feminist theory and scholarship to analyze the experiences, perspectives and contributions of men, women and intersexed people and the systems of gender relations in various cultural settings and time periods.

As part of this transition the 2009 Solomon Residency will focus on the roles of gender studies in art history. The three day residency will feature two free and open to the public lectures.

At 5:30pm on Wednesday Henry Drewal will give a lecture titled “Spirit Spouse: Art and Gender Identity in the Worship of Mami Wata” in the Tang’s Payne Presentation Room. Then on Thursday, again at 5:30pm at the Tang, Patricia Simons will present her lecture, “Sex in the Kitchen: The Social Iconography of Male Bodies in Renaissance Art and Culture.”

More information on the events is available from the Saratogian.