Thea Bilowich
Rhetoric and Reality:
A Study of Women’s Studies
Thea Bilowich, a communication major got the idea for her departmental honors project, “Rhetoric and Reality: A Study of Women’s Studies” while in a class her sophomore year but knew at that point she didn’t have the time to dedicate to it. Bilowich was also interested in doing a departmental honors project because she is considering going on to graduate school for women’s studies and she saw the project as a way to establish her credibility in the field. Another goal was, “To prove that I had the capability to pull off a project this big.”
Bilwich’s project explores the way in which different rhetorical theories think about new fields of study, how the new fields are formed and how that relates to the women’s studies minor at Bluffton. Bluffton does have a women ’s studies minor, but few students know it exists. In doing this project, Bilowich learned in her last semester that most papers she had done in other classes were geared towards women’s issues and if she had been a women’s studies minor she would be only one class short of completing it.
Part of Bilowich’s research involved going to the registar’s office and getting class syllabi and the academic catalog in order to examine the accessibility of the women’s study program at Bluffton. In her paper, Bilowich offers suggestions as to how increase awareness of the women’s studies program, but she recognizes it is not as easy as getting the word out. Bilowich felt that, “It goes beyond just recognizing it’s there but seeing if there is a need for it.” Bilowich also explored what it meant for Bluffton to have a women’s studies program and what that means for the students involved.
When considering making suggestions for how to improve the women’s studies program at Bluffton, Bilowich tried to consider a broad audience. “I tried to refrain from using my own judgments and things that I wanted to see because that’s not best for everyone.” As a senior, Bilowich realizes that she probably won’t be around to see future changes that are made to the program, but she wants her paper to be a way for her ideas to live on and to open up discussions for improvement.
