Visiting Women's Studies professor gets work visa, returns to Oberlin for semester

Visiting Professor of Women's Studies Anna Agathangelou has returned to Oberlin's Women's Studies progarm after being away for the first module due to difficulties with renewing her work visa.

Her first semester course, Women's Studies 100, has now resumed.

The course was delayed when the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) did not renew Agathangelou's visa in time for the College to legally employ her at the beginning of the semester.

Agathangelou, who is a citizen of Cyprus, remained in the United States and waited for the INS to renew her visa.

Agathangelou applied for the extension on July 9. However, the INS did not renew her visa until October 21. Agathangelou started teaching again Tuesday with a two year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's Studies.

"It inconvenienced Oberlin and Oberlin students, but the issue with visas is a complex question that is bigger than Oberlin,"Agathangelou said. "We need to look at it in a more systemic way, as the relations between the United States and other countries."

The two sections of Women's Studies 100 were shortened to half-semester courses and reduced from three credit hours to two. A total of 46 students are now enrolled in both sections of the course.

"I've had to reduce it a bit, but I will still cover most of the basic ideas," Agathangelou said.

Another course Agathangelou would have taught this semester, Methodological Perspectives in the Study of Women, has been rescheduled for next semester. Fifteen students had originally enrolled in that course for this semester.

"The Women's Studies program has given students that needed it to graduate the option to take a different course," Agathangelou said.

"The most difficulties were in the curriculum," Assistant Professor of History and Women's Studies Wendy Kozol said.

"Wendy Kozol was very helpful with the dean to strategize what classes she could take over," said Agathangelou, who also credited Phyllis Gorfain, chair of the Women's Studies Department and Dean of the College Clayton Koppes with working on her behalf.

"It was hardest on the students. They have been very accommodating and understanding," Kozol said.

Agathangelou agreed. "The students have been very supportive," she said.

First-year Miranda Balkin, who is taking Women's Studies 100, said, "It is really frustrating because we have so much to cover and I don't think we can adequately do everything she wants us to."

Last year, Agathangelou had also applied for a tenure track position in the Women's Studies Department, until administrators realized that her current visa would not allow her to take the job.

Agathangelou said she would need to return to Cyprus for two years before reapplying for a visa that would allow her to take the tenure track position.

"Right now, I have to see what the possibilities are," she said.