Martha Smith Award for Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies

This award is given in honor of Martha Smith, one of the founding mothers of the women’s and gender studies program at Elon University, to recognize the achievements – both academic and activist in nature – of a graduating senior Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies minor.

Presented by Kirstin Ringelberg, Professor of Art History

Transcript of Commendations

Kirstin Ringelberg, Professor of Art History

It is my honor to present the Martha Smith award for outstanding senior Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies minor to Fiona Rae Zahm. This honor has special meaning to those of us who have worked in WGSS because it honors Dr. Martha Smith, an English professor who co-founded the program with Psychology professor Dr. Seena Granowsky. Dr. Smith was the first coordinator of the program from 1988 to 1994. Having had the privilege to meet her, I know that she would adore this year’s honoree, as does everyone I know who has met her. Fiona is a Sociology major and has already received a variety of honors including the prestigious Newman Civic Fellow with Campus Compact in 2018, on the recommendation of Elon’s former President Leo Lambert, as well as being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa this semester. She has been a Residential Advisor, a Periclean Scholar, and a Service Learning Community Leader. I have the great fortune of working with Fiona this semester in WGS 300: Current Controversies in Feminism, which is the capstone class for the minor. Based only on the last few months, I can tell you that I wish I had met Fiona as a first year student so that I could have worked with her much longer. Fiona is the kind of student who elevates those around her with her insightful, critical, and generous mind. She always considers the ethical dimensions of the issue at hand, in a nuanced way, that takes into account both her privilege and the potential for false assumptions based on past experience. She always goes further and deeper than she has to in her academic work, because she’s so genuinely eager to learn more about feminism, anti-racism, and other approaches to social justice. She’s the kind of student about whom both Dr. Zito in Sociology and I have said on separate occasions, “I only wish there were more Fionas”. While she doesn’t have her post-graduate plans ironed out yet, I know from talking to her about them that Fiona is dedicating herself to service to the greater good. We’re in good hands, my friends, and not a moment too soon.