Wayne Woman Among Honorees At Seton Hall Women and Gender Conference

A Wayne woman was among those recently honored at the 2016 Seton Hall University Conference on Women and Gender.

Sponsored by the university’s Women and Gender Studies Program, the event featured an awards luncheon that honored the winners of college and high school essay contests, as well as Seton Hall University’s “2016 Woman of the Year,” Roselle resident Bernadette Wilkowski.

Wilkowski, an academic specialist for the Educational Opportunity Program’s Center for Learning, Instruction and Assessment, was presented the award for her motivational efforts promoting student engagement and success within the classroom and beyond over the past 30 years.

The Elizabeth Ann Seton Center for Women’s Studies writing prize was awarded to Toni-Anne Fajardo, of Secaucus, an accounting major with minors in English and fine arts, for her essay “The Marine Going Beyond the Binary: Lucy Brewer’s Subversion of Gendered Behaviors.”

Others to receive honorable mention included:

• Caroline Fernandez, of Verona, a senior secondary education and English major, who read her essay “Attachment and Motherhood in ‘The Turn of the Screw.’ ”
• Noora Badwan, of Wayne, a senior English honors major and history minor, who shared her essay “Subversive Storytelling: ‘Tricksters’ Attacking Misogyny through ‘Tales’ in Chaucer and the ‘Arabian Nights.’”
• Miranda Hajduk, of Belvidere, a senior English honors and creative writing double major, who presented her essay “ ‘Peyntyng Leones’: The Generic Validation of Female Experience and the Subversion of the Antifeminist Satire.”

The high school essay prize was presented to Aeva Karlsrud, of Frenchtown, a junior at Delaware Valley Regional High School, for her essay “Art Activist, Anonymous: The Woman Who Changed the Art World.”

Students receiving honorable mention included:

• Sara Portela, of Livingston, a junior at Livingston High School , who wrote her essay “A Declaration of Independence.”
• Matt Quinn, of Livingston, a Livingston High School student, who wrote his essay “The Thinker.”
• Rana Hussein, of Mount Laurel, a sophomore at Lenape High School, who composed “Unapologetically, Me.”

The annual event was organized by Karen Gevirtz, associate professor of English, and Vanessa May, associate professor of history.

“We hope the conference supported attendees in their journey of servant leadership and social justice, encouraged them to embrace diversity and left them with excitement in the possibilities to make a difference,” said Gevirtz. “We are absolutely thrilled about the conference’s growth over the past three years and can’t wait to see what next year will bring.”

Sign up for Patch email newsletters here.

Photo by Ashley Wilson