By Ellie Blaser//
For the last three years, Katherine Fulfer has served as the Sophia M. Libman NEH Professor of the Humanities, specializing in the Women’s Studies Program and Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies. The Sophia M. Libman NEH is a visiting professorship awarded to a professor at Hood for three years, during which time they work at Hood. Fulfer’s time as the professor will conclude at the end of this academic year.
“The contract is for three years, and it was designed to bring in a junior scholar to meet a teaching need that the college had: an area of interest that no one was able to teach,” Fulfer says regarding her positions. “One of the first Libman professors focused on classics, one focused on queer studies and Latin American studies, one focused on film.”
Libman professor Katy Fulfer.
During her time at Hood, Dr. Fulfer has focused on women’s studies and feminism. Her education includes a B.A. from Freed-Hardeman University, a Masters philosophy from Georgia State University, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Fulfer was granted her Hood Professorship immediately after earning her Ph.D.
“It’s an exciting opportunity because you get to do so much and it’s very inter-disciplinary, so I’m constantly learning all the time,” she says. “When I first got here, I felt like a spent a few months reinventing the wheel.” She says that it was thanks to another former Libman professor that she was able to find her footing at the school.
Dr. Fulfer teaches many classes regarding gender and feminism, including Global Perspective: Women, Power, and Politics. In this class, Fulfer encourages discussion among students while also giving information on the topic of the day (surrogacy in India) through video and images.
“She’s good with handling the discussions especially,” says senior Phillip McCarty. “She sets up the class with a very good set-up at the beginning, and then when she notices conversation is lagging, she jumps in and gives us just enough to get back on the boat and keep on sailing down the river of discussion.”
McCarty says that Dr. Fulfer is also very open and understanding of other people, citing her allowing him to write a paper on anime as an example. “She’s very open to new ideas and letting people play with them as long as they can justify them,” he says.
Sienna Bronson, also a senior, says she chose to take this class because it’s her last semester and she wanted to take a class for fun. “I wanted to take a class with Dr. Fulfer because she’s one of my favorite professors.”
Bronson has known about Fulfer since before she was hired; when they were hiring Fulfer, she attended the trial classes and really liked what she saw.
Bronson also said that she thoroughly enjoys Fulfer as a person and a professor. “She’s pretty great,” Bronson says. “She’s got a lot of interesting perspectives on things, and she also has a lot of really interesting interests. I just think she’s really cool.”
At this point, Dr. Fulfer does not know where she will go after Hood, but looks forward to the various opportunities that will come her way. “Someone once told me that’s it’s not depressing when a job ends, you just have to think of it as an open future,” she said. “What’s to come is going to be exciting.”