Thelma Shinn Richard

PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

This semester Professor Thelma Shinn Richard of the Dept of English will complete 25 years of teaching at ASU. Those years have been dedicated to the CSW mission even before the Commission came into existence. She began teaching at ASU as a Visiting Assistant Professor in 1975, and a single mother of five children under the age of twelve. In 1977 she was chosen to be the founding director of Women’s Studies. Starting with a half-time release from her duties in the Department of English, and a $500 budget, over the next three years she established the Certificate of Women’s Studies, the original Women’s Studies library and office, and the inaugural Women and Society course. When she stepped down from that position, Women’s Studies had a line budget and continues to grow.

After her tenure as Director, she returned to the Department of English, eventually creating over ten new courses on women and literature. She’s published three books and ten times as many shorter articles and chapters on women in literature. Dr. Richard has been invited to lecture locally, nationally and internationally on women, and has taught courses on women writers and on feminism as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in both Spain and South Africa. Whether teaching, writing or lecturing at home and abroad, Dr. Richard continues to exemplify and further the mission of the Commission on the Status of Women.