Director

Bridget Smith Pieschel holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Mississippi University for Women and a Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. A Professor of English, her career at MUW includes serving as the Director of the Honors Program and as the Head of the Division of Humanities. She became the Director of MUW’s Center for Women’s Research and Public Policy in 2005. The Center’s research and programming focuses on all issues affecting women and girls, and particularly on the history of MUW and women’s education. It offers students the opportunity for hands-on primary research in women’s studies and women’s issues. The Center’s student/alumnae collaborative Oral History Program recently resulted in the publication of Golden Days: Reminiscences of MSCW Alumnae 1926-1957 by University Press of Mississippi. Also Director of Women’s Studies since 2009, Dr. Pieschel’s scholarship focuses on 19^th Century American Literature, Southern Literature, and the history of women’s education in the South.  Pieschel also co-authored (with Stephen Pieschel) the centennial history of MUW, Loyal Daughters. Dr. Pieschel was the Recipient of the MUW Medal of Excellence in 2005, Mississippi’s First Alumnae Association Alumnae Achievement Award in 2010, and MUW's Kossen Faculty Excellence Award in 2012.  She serves on the boards for The Girl Scouts Heart of the South, The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Tri-State Southern Literary Trail.