Pacific Index

Senior Skye Carothers and Professor Aimee Wodda share a special bond after spending almost a year writing an academic paper together

   “I had never heard about sex positive criminology before taking the class,” shares senior Skye Carothers as she and Professor Aimee Wodda sit around a small circular table to discuss the joint work they’re preparing for publication. Professor Wodda teaches the course, “Sex Positive Criminology” every other spring, and last year, Carothers was yet another pupil enrolled in the course. But what was initially taken simply for intrigue, soon turned into Carothers senior capstone project. 

   “I’ve been specifically focusing on the history of hysterias and illness,” Carothers says, diving into the research she’s spent months picking through. “Throughout that I’ve noticed that there seems to be a lot of institutional harm happening, specifically targeting women throughout history, but really anyone who wants to have a family.” 

   The case that first lured Carothers to this topic was a recent legal battle involving a Yale fertility nurse swapping the clinic’s fentanyl supply with a saline solution. Carothers stumbled upon this case when given an assignment by Professor Wodda that had to follow a specific framework— but this case went beyond the classroom and ended up fitting into Wodda’s personal work like a puzzle piece. 

   “On the surface, it looks like one person,” Professor Wodda comments on the case, her black framed glasses reflecting the light of her computer screen. “It looks like this nurse who was addicted to fentanyl…and was taking the fentanyl out of the vials and replacing them with saline…But when you look at the class action lawsuit and when you listen to the podcast that interviews people, you find that this is really an institutional failure.”  

   It’s that idea of institutional harm that Professor Wodda has been fascinated with and is now planning to publish about with the help of Carothers. “Then the hysteria part was really interesting,” Professor Wodda adds with a nod to Carothers. “It isn’t something that was at the forefront of my mind, so I really loved that Skye brought that in.” 

   With the combined efforts of the two, they’ve been able to create a piece that discusses hysteria, institutional harm, and the case that demonstrates both. “I would say we’re working pretty closely together,” continues Professor Wodda. “Skye focusing on the hysteria, Skye getting all the credit for originating this particular case, and then me just sort of using what I do to kind of frame it.” 

   The pair have been slowly chipping away research and writing the article for nearly a year now, and their hope is to send the final piece to print by the end of this school year. “Academic publishing is notoriously slow,” admits Professor Wodda, receiving an agreeing nod from Carothers. “When we submit, it could be another year or so until it actually sees print, but it could be faster.” 

   Despite the unpredictability with the publication date, their research will be introduced publicly for the first time on March 5 at the Lewis and Clark Gender Studies Symposium. The event is an annual occurrence offering representatives from academia, activism, and art to gather for workshops, roundtable discussions, lectures, and more. “They do a bunch of different paneling,” Carothers chimes in, giving a rundown of how her and Professor Wodda got involved. “We submitted our abstract…and got approved. So, now we’re going to be on a panel together on Wednesday, March 5th.” 

   Not only is this symposium a great opportunity to share the brilliance of their work, but it’s also great practice for Carothers. “I’m planning to also present this for my capstone work,” Carothers discloses. “So, I think this will be also good practice for that final presentation to graduate.” Aside from the obvious benefits of repeatedly presenting, both Carothers and Professor Wodda are eager to simply share the knowledge they’ve gained throughout this process. “I think it’s really important that this kind of work is talked about and gets publicized,” Carothers voices with conviction. 

   “The opportunity to work with Aimee,” Carothers says in closing, shifting her attention to Professor Wodda with no small amount of respect and admiration. “And publish alongside you is truly unimaginable to me. I truly was not expecting that coming to Pacific.” Professor Wodda returned Carothers sentiments, demonstrating that this project was much more than a senior capstone or an academic research paper. “I feel the emotion there too,” admits Professor Wodda. “This isn’t just knowledge or research. This is something that becomes a part of you…And it becomes less about the material and more a framework for understanding the world.”