Dr. Janet Lee, Professor of Women Studies, came to OSU in 1991 to direct the Women Studies Program. She is a sociologist by training and received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. She grew up in Yorkshire, England, and earned her B.A. in sociology and social work from the University of Stirling in Scotland. Having lived in the U.S. for several decades, she is now thoroughly acclimatized, although savors the rain and misty cli
mate of the Pacific Northwest that reminds her of home.
When Susan Shaw took over directing the program in 2002, Janet Leehappily returned to full-time teaching and research. She teaches most of the coreclasses here in the Women Studies program that include introductory women studies, gender and science, global women's issues, theories of feminisms, and feminist research. These courses often focus on the "personal is political," a theme that explores the ways personal biographies intersect with history, culture, and politics, focusing on issues of identity and power.
Research interests include women's history and biography (Comrades and Partners: The Shared Lives ofGrace Hutchins and Anna Rochester [Rowman and Littlefield, 2000]),anda project inp
rogress editing Australian feminist Miles Franklin's unpublished work written during her time working for labour and progressive women's reform in Chicago. Most recentlyshe researched and wrote the history of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), a group of independent and audacious women volunteers whotransformed and transgressed gender through their work as ambulance drivers and nurses on the Western Front during World War I (War Girls: The FANY in the First World War [Manchester University Press, 2005]).Janet Lee has also published on teaching women studies and feminist research and narrative inquiry, and is especially interested in questions about doing research in the postmodern moment. Her early work is on women and the body and she co-authored Blood Stories: Menarche and the Politics of the Female Body in Contemporary U.S. Society (Routledge, 1996). Finally, she is co-editor of the introductory women studies textbook Women's Voices, Feminist Visions (McGraw Hill, 3rd. ed. 2007) with her friend and colleague Susan Shaw.
Janet Lee lives in the mountains with partner Gary, and has three grown children Liam, Fiona, and Edyth. She trains Arabian horses and enjoys riding on the beautiful forest and mountain trails around Corvallis with her wild women pony pals. Other hobbies include tennis and attempting to control a large and very productive garden.