Merry MacLellan
Reporter
Dr. Jill Drouillard was named the new director for the Women’s College earlier this year.
It seemed like a good fit for Drouillard, an associate professor of philosophy who has been at Mississippi University for Women for five years. She was already teaching philosophy and women, gender, and sexuality courses at the university and also served as a faculty fellow for the Women’s College.
“I was a faculty fellow. And that was a natural step because in undergrad, I had double majored in philosophy and women’s studies. And then went on to do a master’s in gender studies before getting my Ph.D. in philosophy,” Drouillard said about taking the position. “So, my trajectory was always kind of philosophy mixed in with women, gender, and sexuality studies. And so yeah, when I saw that they needed a director for the Women’s College, it seemed like a great position for me.”
Dr. Jill Drouillard
Photo courtesy of MUW’s faculty webpage
The Women’s College in not only unique for its mission to equip women for leadership and support, but also in that it allows any student to participate in the college despite regardless of their major.
The Women’s College features two paths: the 1884 Scholars and the 1884 Fellows. These two paths have different levels of involvement with the Women’s College, with the 1884 Fellows requiring more academic engagement than the 1884 Scholars. Corresponding scholarships are offered to students.
The W’s addition of the Women’s College in 2024 was to promote the university’s original mission of supporting and building up academic and leadership skills for women. When The W was established in 1884, it was the first public university for women in the nation, and providing women with education and needed skills has always been at the forefront of the university’s mission. In the pursuit of getting a new director, it was important that the director had the same passion for promoting women and their academics.
This semester, the Women’s College offered Reproduction, Ethics, and the Law as one of its courses. However, classes are hardly all that the Women’s College offers. Beginning in September and continuing through the fall semester, the Women’s College has started a feminist book club that is headed by one of the 1884 Fellows, Elessa Harvey, and is being done in collaboration with Friendly City Books.
“As it’s student-led, I’m really excited about this,” Drouillard said. “And so, we’ll have three sessions, three different books. One a collection of essays, one a fiction book, one more of a memoir.”
Outside of the women’s college, Drouillard also founded and is the faculty member in charge of The W’s feminist philosophy journal, “Medusa.”
“One of the reasons I started this was going to feminist philosophy conferences, and a lot of feminist philosophers saying that they had students whose work was rejected from undergraduate philosophy journals because it wasn’t philosophical enough.”
Philosophy is a rather important subject to Drouillard, with a master’s degree and her doctorate in philosophy. She was named the W’s 2025 Humanities Teacher of the Year and spends much of her time teaching and encouraging students. Drouillard said that there was still much that she has planned and hopes to achieve for the Women’s College and its students.
With Drouillard’s ambitions and already planned events such as the feminist book club this semester and a trip to New York City in the spring, it is clear that the Women’s College has much to offer to students at The W.