The University of Virginia’s Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center will welcome its new director, Abigail L. Palko, in July, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost announced recently.
Palko, associate director of the University of Notre Dame’s Gender Studies Program, also is a fellow of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies and an affiliate faculty member of the Department of Africana Studies. A specialist in Irish and Caribbean literature, she examines questions of gender and sexuality, especially cultural expectations and practices of motherhood. Her forthcoming book, “Imagining Motherhood in Contemporary Irish and Caribbean Literature,” looks at how female characters handle the challenges and cultural expectations of being a good mother.
A member of the Arts & Letters Advisory Committee on Women at Notre Dame and the Committee for Sexual Assault Prevention, plus its assessment subcommittee, Palko has given presentations in classrooms and at conferences on diversity and gender dynamics. She also co-chairs the National Women’s Studies Association’s Feminist Mothering Caucus.
She earned her Ph.D. in literature from Notre Dame, her M.A. in English from Rutgers University and a B.A. in English and French from Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.
“We are excited to welcome Abby as director of the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center,” said M. Wynne Stuart, associate provost for academic support and classroom management, who chaired the search committee. “She has been selected with a very strong consensus from the search committee and others around Grounds whom she met during her recent visit. She has a sound philosophy of educating and attending to the growth of the whole person and deep knowledge and understanding of social justice issues. I look forward to working with her and introducing her further to UVA.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center as the next director,” Palko said. “I have been so impressed thus far by the range of programming and services offered by the center, and I’m looking forward to meeting the students. It is my goal to foster an environment that addresses the particular needs of women students outside the classroom and serves as a tool for students to engage with gender justice and social change movements.”
The Notre Dame community recognized Palko’s many talents and accomplishments with four awards: the Dockweiler Award for undergraduate advising, the Marian Mullin Hancock Teaching Award for Gender Studies, Gender Relations Center’s Sister Jean Lenz Award for building relationships across campus, and the Africana Studies Academic Freedom Award.
The Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center offers a wide variety of free resources that support the well-being of women and men, including students, faculty, staff and members of the local community. Staff members at the Women’s Center also mentor students through learning and leadership opportunities that combine service work or interning with classroom study of gender equity and other social justice issues.
Palko is only the second director of the Women’s Center, which Sharon Davie directed from its founding in 1989 until her retirement last year.
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