Tracy Ainsworth and Tony Rotundo, both Instructors in History, will serve as Interim Co-Directors of the Brace Center for Gender Studies next year as Diane Moore, current Director of the Brace Center, takes a leave of absence to work with at Harvard University.
Both Ainsworth and Rotundo bring experience to the new position. Ainsworth has taught at Andover for 11 years and currently teaches a Senior elective titled “American Popular Culture,” which focuses partially on the shift of gender roles in American society. She has also worked extensively with students in recent campus discussion on gender, according to Moore. In his 32nd year teaching at Andover, Rotundo has previously served as the Director of the Brace Center. He has written two books on gender history, one examining the intersection of gender and politics and another on the evolution of manhood. He currently teaches a Senior elective on “Gender Studies in Gender Relations.”
“Dr. Moore, Dr. [Kathleen] Dalton, [Instructor in History] and I have, in one configuration or another, headed the Brace center ever since it was started in 1996. It’s time for new leadership, because there’s a whole younger generation of faculty that are very knowledgeable about gender, deeply concerned about it, and who are already working with it in a variety of ways with lots of different groups of students on the issue,” said Rotundo.
“[Rotundo] brings institutional memory and a sense of how gender conversations on campus have changed over time, so he is a great anchor for the Brace Center. I’m thrilled to have the chance to work with him in this capacity; he combines really smart, incisive thinking about these issues with genuine warmth and compassion,” wrote Ainsworth in an e-mail to The Phillipian.
Ainsworth also hopes that the Brace Center will extend its role on campus as Andover celebrates its 40th year of coeducation. Both Ainsworth and Rotundo are particularly interested in maintaining community interest on the topic of feminism.
“In my 30 plus years here, where gender has always been an issue of concern to me, there has been more discussion of it this spring than I can ever remember of all those years. I want to be part of making sure that the discussion doesn’t drop, so that, if anything, it might broaden out to some other issues, but that certainly the interest and the concern don’t disappear,” said Rotundo.
Moore will spend most of next year working as a faculty member at Harvard University, though she will return to help the Brace Fellows through their research and presentations.
