When the question arises about what an Ohio University feminist looks like, one can turn to the six-year example set by Women’s Center director Susanne Dietzel.
Dietzel, originally from Frankfurt, Germany, arrived in the United States in 1984 and has been involved with women’s studies ever since, earning a Ph.D. in American studies and feminist studies from the University of Minnesota.
Now, along with the everyday responsibilities of running the Women’s Center, she also works on affecting change within the university, along with still teaching women’s and gender studies classes.
“Change needs to happen at all levels,” Dietzel said. “Only then does change become powerful. We can empower women, we can empower people of color to push for change, but if our institutions aren’t changing with us, then that empowerment in many ways has nowhere to go.”
The Women’s Center started the Survivor Advocacy Program in 2010, and Dietzel is a co-founder of the Margaret Boyd Scholars program launching this semester.
Not only is Dietzel involved with the Women’s Center, but she also stepped in as interim director of the LGBT Center last year.
“She had both of those jobs at the same time as well as serving on the search committee (for the new LGBT Center) director and that was just unbelievable effort on her part,” said David Descutner, interim vice provost for Diversity and Inclusion and dean of University College. “She kept the center humming along and doing really great work.”
Hannah Abrahamson, a junior studying Spanish, started this semester as the coordinator for gender initiatives at the center. She said Dietzel is “the perfect bridge between a professor or boss and a friend.”
“She’s able to lead by example,” Abrahamson said. “It’s a thing that a lot of leaders aspire to do but can’t achieve.”
She added that Dietzel makes people feel comfortable through practices that may not even be intentional, such as referring to her significant other by the gender-neutral term, “partner.”
“I think she’s the lynchpin holding the Women’s Center together,” Abrahamson said.
Dietzel asserted the need for OU to lead by example when it comes to diversity and inclusion policies.
“We need to be constantly mindful that especially as an institution of higher learning we are inclusive, and that we are designing policies that empower all,” she said. “We’re a state institution, we need to be role models about that.”
Dietzel aims to lead by example even in her personal life, especially for her 11-year-old daughter, Uma.
“I hopefully have illustrated to Uma that personal fulfillment happens on both a personal and a professional level,” she said.
eb104010@ohiou.edu
@EmilyMBamforth
