Karen Scott

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Karen Scott (class of 1998) is originally from Nashville, TN and is currently a professional fellow teaching in the Women and Gender Studies department, with a focus on reproductive justice and public health.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott discusses how she came to be interested in the course during a time of unrest on campus, because two of the four Black faculty had been fired. She audited the course her junior year, 1996-1997. Was a molecular biology major.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott was in one of the first graduating classes with a large number of black students, which then significantly decreased over the years. In addition to this, there were only two Black professors on campus by her junior year. She realized that having a Black instructor was important to her.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott discusses the opportunity to discuss race, class, sex, and gender in a scholarly fashion, and with a community of Black students and instructors in the majority (as compared to her natural sciences courses).

Segment Synopsis: She felt she could bring her entire self and identity into the classroom, whereas she could not do that in the sciences. She also was able to develop mentorship with Prof. Sheffield.

Segment Synopsis: Natural sciences did not allow her to discuss Black women's health. Intro to AAAS helped her develop a relationship with Prof. Sheffield in order to create an independent study on that topic her next semester at Kenyon.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott discusses the importance of public health curriculum at her graduate school, as she did not find that academic space at Kenyon. She was also encouraged by Case Western's commitment to graduating Black students, especially in comparison to Kenyon's inability to sustain a community of Black students.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott felt that her blackness and womanness were supported at Case Western. She sensed that the institution wanted her to graduate, while she did not have that feeling at Kenyon.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott discusses the negative effects (loss of mentorship, professional networking) as a result of the firing of two of the four Black faculty in 1997. The fired faculty were Assistant Prof. of History Robert Hinton and Assistant Prof, of Psychology G. Renoir McDonaugh.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott discusses interviewing Prof. Marla Kohlman for the fellowship, especially considering she became the first Black woman to be tenured at Kenyon.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott has noticed more diversity, even beyond race and ethnicity, on campus during her professional fellowship the 2017-'18 year.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott has noticed more faculty of color and how powerful it is for students of color to have models in the classroom. She is concerned about inability of natural sciences to consider and incorporate social sciences.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott discusses her students' desire to talk about identity in her classes, and the inability for the natural sciences division to incorporate those who fit "Other."

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott gives the example of Prof. Arianna Smith's research and asks if Kenyon is ready to promote education that has different ways of creating and valuing knowledge.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott discusses the Birth Justice Conference, organized by her seminar students. She mentions Prof. Schoenfeld's desire to incorporate maternity care and reproductive justice into AFDS, as it is an interdisciplinary space.

Segment Synopsis: Prof. Scott discusses the pivotal role of reproductive justice to liberal arts education.