Author: Karon Jolna

Karon Jolna, Ph.D. is executive director of Ms. Classroom at Ms. magazine, leading its education initiatives to bring Ms. to the college classroom—and feminist scholarship to the pages of Ms. magazine. Since Ms. Classroom launched in 2009, she has overseen the growth of the Ms. Committee of Scholars, the Ms. Scholars’ Writing Workshops and the adoption of Ms. in course curricula at hundreds of colleges around the country. Most recently, Jolna and executive editor Katherine Spillar partnered with ProQuest to digitize the entire archive of Ms. magazines. For the first time, the Ms. Magazine Archive, 1972–present will be available at academic and public libraries around the world. Previously, Jolna served as lecturer of gender studies and research scholar at UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women. She was among the first cohort to earn a PhD in women’s studies at Emory University. Canadian-born, Jolna lives in Los Angeles.

Thought-Provoking, Policy-Changing and Narrative-Shifting: Ms. Magazine’s 10 Most Impactful Print Articles of 2024

Ms. spurred thought-provoking, policy-changing, narrative-shifting change in 2024—and created new feminist strategies and solutions for the year ahead. In a word: “impact.” Ms. commissioned high profile analysis and investigative journalism by some of feminism’s best journalists and thinkers, focusing on key issues impacting women and girls at a critical moment across the globe. Here are the Ms. editors’ top 10 impact articles in the past year, as seen in the print magazine.

(Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get the issues delivered straight to your mailbox.)

Key Gender Studies Staff Resign from New College of Florida, ‘The State Where Learning Goes to Die’

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Nicholas L. Clarkson, former assistant professor of gender studies at New College of Florida, has announced his resignation from the school, which used to be known as the most progressive public college in the state. Clarkson was the only full-time gender studies professor at New College.

“I have loved teaching at New College,” Clarkson wrote in a letter addressed to interim president and former Republican House speaker Robert Corcoran. “But now Florida is the state where learning goes to die.”

Over 40 professors have already resigned from New College in light of these attacks, according to Clarkson, who calls the mass exodus “an indictment of [Richard Corcoran] and the trustees’ actions, as well as the state’s regressive politics.”

‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom’: Call for Submissions

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Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Submit pitches and/or completed draft op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Aviva Dove-Viebahn at adove-viebahn@msmagazine.com. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis, with posting beginning in August 2023.

Ms. Goes Back to School

By Karon Jolna As a women’s studies PH.D.and instructor, here’s the challenge I face in today’s classroom (and one I’m sure many feminist educators encounter daily): How do we engage the next generation of computer-savvy students in feminism and women’s studies? How do we effectively go where they live: on laptops and tablet computers and […]

A Road Map for Leadership

Why women’s studies needs the sort of course this author teaches By Karon Jolna When women’s studies was created as a curriculum in universities across the U.S. in the late 1960s and early 1970s, “leadership”—the art and science of motivating and managing people and organizations—was not considered a relevant topic. Why? Because women were mostly […]