Alumni Profiles
Ashley Tomisek
Ashley Tomisek graduated with a B.S. in Sociology in 2008 and went on to earn her M.S. in Sociology with a WGS concentration in 2010. Her Master’s Thesis, The Intersections of Race, Ethnicity and Gender: Asian American Attitudes Towards Affirmative Action, explored the potential differences in attitudes that Asian American ethnic groups have towards Affirmative Action policies in the United States. Ashley currently works as a Research Consultant for The Lewin Groups’ Federal Human Services division. She describes the WGS program as one that has helped her both personally and professionally in that it formed the foundation for her feminist activism. She also credits the WGS certificate as pivotal to her ability to use alternative research methods in her current profession.
Laura Boutwell
Laura Boutwell will graduate with a Ph.D in Sociology with a WGS concentration in 2011. Her Doctoral Dissertation, “This, What We Go Through People Should Know: Refugee Girls Constructing Identity,” focused on ways and spaces in which girls from Somalia, Liberia, Haiti, Burundi and Sudan construct, negotiate and perform various components of their identities. Laura will begin a tenure-track position in the School of Social Work at Bridgewater State University in September 2011. She plans to work with students in supporting their role as change agents by equipping them with an understanding of the theory and practice of social work. She descries the WGS program as the foundation to her dissertation research in that it offered both a concrete language and conceptual lens to explore the articulate the agency of girls, in addition to the intersections of oppression. She also credits the WGS faculty as pivotal to her success.