Dear Colleagues,
After a long and heroic struggle with breast cancer, Karen Dugger, Chairperson of the Department of Women’s Studies passed away November 11, 2013 at her home in Pennsylvania.
Karen taught in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Bucknell University from 1984-1999 and Chaired the Department from 1993-1998. She also served as the Director of the Race/Gender Resource Center at Bucknell from 1986-1993. In 1999 Karen came to Towson University as a Professor in the Department of Women’s Studies and Director of the National Center for Curriculum Transformation Resources on Women. In 2003 she became the Director of Towson’s Institute for Teaching and Research on Women (ITROW) and in 2004, she became Chair of the Department of Women’s Studies, positions that she held until her illness forced her to retire in January 2013.
Karen’s commitment to intersectional and global feminist approaches to scholarship and activism was evident in her teaching, her publications, her community outreach efforts with inner city youth and in the Summer Institutes for faculty in Barbados, Croatia and Turkey that she organized through ITROW. Her spirit and her commitment to social justice were a source of inspiration to many faculty colleagues and students here at Towson.
A memorial service in Karen’s honor will be held at Towson University on Saturday, November 23 from 2 – 3 p.m. in the College of Liberal Arts Building, room 3110. A reception will follow.
Parking will be available in the Towsontown Garage directly across from the Liberal Arts Building.
