Earlier this month, Emerald Christopher—a Language, Literacy and Culture PhD student at UMBC—was recognized at a reception honoring Women’s Research and Education Institute (WREI) 2013 Congressional Fellows on Women and Public Policy (see photo). Through this fellowship program she has served as a legislative assistant in the Office of Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut’s third district.
Christopher’s portfolio has included legislation on women’s equal pay, paid sick days, domestic human trafficking and the Congressional Baby Caucus. She has drafted legislation, written talking points and letters for the Congresswoman, and planned and implemented events for the Congressional Baby Caucus, among other responsibilities. She is currently working on a Women’s Economic Agenda.
This photograph was taken at the WREI reception, where Rep. DeLauro spoke about Christopher’s work on the women’s economic agenda and hopes for passing paycheck fairness, paid family medical leave and the healthy families act in the future.
Christopher’s academic work focuses on the representation of women in the media, gender roles in the African American community and the management of female sexuality. She will enter her third year of the LLC PhD program in Fall 2013. This November she’ll present three papers (on the above topics) at the National Women’s Studies Association meeting.
