Conference Examines How Current World Events Shape the Lives of Women and Minority Communitie

by Venus Popplewell

Columbia, KY (05/06/2026) — From healthcare and immigration enforcement to identity and history - the forces shaping women and minorities reveal the invisible hurdles they must overcome.

Those themes were among the topics explored at the 2026 Kara Mollis Women and Gender Studies Conference, held April 22 in the Thomas D. Clark Reading Room.

The interdisciplinary conference, sponsored by the Lindsey Wilson University Women's and Gender Studies Program, is held at the end of the spring semester and features academic projects by Lindsey Wilson students that focus on a broad range of gender issues. This year's conference included six sessions, along with a brown-bag lunch featuring a discussion on ICE's impact on families, gender, and human costs.

"I'm so excited to see the number of interdisciplinary projects," said conference faculty chair Rachel Carr '13, the university's women's and gender studies program coordinator. "We welcome topics from any field related to gender."

This year's conference received a record number of submissions, including projects and research from both undergraduate and graduate students.

"Students are taking the initiative and want to be involved," Carr said. "It's not just an undergraduate conference anymore - we're also receiving submissions from graduate students. It's exciting to see students take an interest in advocacy work across such a wide range of fields."

Among the many topics addressed at the conference was the disparity of women's healthcare in modern medicine. That subject was explored by psychophysiology senior Cassidy Harrison of Park City, Kentucky, who discussed the unequal outcomes that exist in treatment, diagnosis, and access to healthcare.

In the afternoon session, Shawn Gardner, a counseling graduate student, looked at why motivation fades when effort is given and how to fix it, based on real-world work with fathers, men and boys.

The student chairs for the conference were Morgan Bryant, an English and history senior from Shelbyville, Kentucky, and Paul-Anthony Jones, an art senior from Columbia.

"We couldn't do this without our student editors, Paul and Morgan," Carr said. "They are doing all the behind-the-scenes work - putting out the call for proposals, organizing panels, evaluating submissions - so they are gaining valuable professional experience."

The conference is named in memory of Dr. Kara Mollis, who was a Lindsey Wilson English professor from 2007 until her death in 2021 at the age of 45. She was also the inaugural dean of the college's School of Arts and Humanities, and she founded the women's and gender studies program.

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