Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall is the founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center (1981) and Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies at Spelman College. For many years, she was a visiting professor at Emory University’s Institute for Women’s Studies, where she taught graduate courses in Women’s Studies. At the age of sixteen, Dr. Guy-Sheftall entered Spelman College where she majored in English and minored in secondary education. After graduating with honors, she attended Wellesley College for a fifth year of study in English. In 1968, she entered Atlanta to pursue a master’s degree in English; her thesis was entitled, “Faulkner’s Treatment of Women in His Major Novels.” A year later, she began her first teaching job in the Department of English at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1971, she returned to her alma mater, Spelman College and joined the English Department.
A pioneer in teaching, research and advocacy, the Women’s Research and Resource Center (WRRC) nurtures our students' critical thinking about many issues, including human rights, healthcare and leadership development. By raising $1 million to match the Ford Foundation's million-dollar challenge grant, Spelman was able to advance the Center's pioneering work in teaching and research.
In 1981, Spelman was awarded a grant from the Charles Stuart Mott Foundation to establish the Women’s Research and Resource Center. The goal was to provide an academic unit of the College that focused on curriculum development in Women’s Studies, research by and about women of African descent, and community outreach.
The Women’s Research and Resource Center is the first women’s research center at a historically Black college and the first one to offer a women’s studies major. Over the course of its 35-year history, with sustained support from the Ford Foundation, the Center has facilitated faculty and student leadership development; collaborated with other departments/programs on and off campus to establish new courses (most recently Black queer studies) that address issues of gender and race; established international linkages with universities outside the U.S. to increase their capacity to promote faculty and student development; and hosted a number of events that explore the lives of African and African-descended women in a variety of cultural contexts.
The Spelman College Women's Research and Resource Center, in collaboration with the Spelman UNCF/Mellon Programs and the UGA Low-Residency MFA Program, hosted A Tribute to Toni Morrison on Monday, Sept. 30, 2019. The program included readings and performances by Herman Beavers, Pearl Cleage, John Holman, Tayari Jones, Kamilah Aisha Moon, Shay Youngblood, Gina Breedlove. Read an article about the tribute: Crafting the Pieces Of Morrison’s Puzzle!
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