Bio

Dr. Mary Baskin-Waters, associate editor of Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies 112 (2021), is a member of the teaching faculty of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina. She currently is a member of the College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Council and the Carolina Guardian Society. She has received numerous awards, including the College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Service Award; the Lee Davinroy Excellence in Teaching Award; the Outstanding Service-Learning Award given by the Office of Student Engagement; and the Professor of the Year Award given by the Master of Public Administration Program in the Department of Political Science. The local community recently honored her with the prestigious Tribute to Women in Industry (TWIN) Award for Education given by the Palmetto Center for Women. In 2015, she established a lectureship series in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and in 2020 she partnered with the USC Library System to establish the Archiving South Carolina Women project to collect and preserve the papers of South Carolina women activists. Dr. Baskin-Waters is currently teaching a service-learning section of WGST Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies 112 in the South Carolina Honors College. She is a past chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Partnership Council. 

Dr. Waters is currently CEO of Albion Research Associates, LLC, an international research and grant writing firm. She served as Director of the South Carolina Commission on Women from 1992 until 1997 and served as a Commissioner from 1997 until 2003.   

Dr. Waters’ current community service includes serving on the board of Historic Heathwood Neighborhood Association and serving on the Advisory Councils for the South Carolina Philharmonic and the City of Columbia City of Women Initiative. She is a founding member of SC Women in Leadership (SCWIL) and is an emerita member on the board of the Anita Hill Party. Dr. Waters past community service includes board memberships of The Scarborough-Hamer Foundation, Women in Philanthropy of the United Way, Vital Connections of the Midlands, The Free Medical Clinic, the Columbia Park and Recreation Foundation and Girl’s Inc. She is a graduate of Leadership Columbia and Leadership South Carolina. 

Education

•  Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education Administration, University of South Carolina 
•  Graduate Certificate of Women’s Studies, University of South Carolina 
•   Master of Arts in Teaching, Art Education, University of South Carolina 
• Bachelor of Arts, Art Studio, University of South Carolina

Current Courses

• WGST 112: Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies: A Service-Learning Approach

Research

• Archiving South Carolina Women
• Service Learning: An Emerging Model in Women’s and Gender Studies
• Trafficking in Persons: The Rule of Law and the Underside of Globalization
• Future Sustenance: Securing Sustainable Food Locally and Globally
• Frances Guignard Gibbes: The First White Woman to Attend The University of South Carolina
• Angelica Singleton Van Buren: The Life and Times of South Carolina’s First White House Hostess
• Mary Gordon Ellis: The First White Woman Senator in South Carolina
• Elizabeth Peyre Richardson Manning: Antebellum Connections
• The Commission on Women in South Carolina: Politics and Peril 1973-20

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• WGST Reader: A Comprehensive Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, Associate Editor, 2021
• Member, Search Committee for the Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, University of South Carolina, 2019
• Member, The Ex Libris Society, University Libraries, University of South Carolina, 2018-19
• Member, The Thomas Cooper Society, University of South Carolina, 2018-19
• Member, The University of South Caroliniana Society, University of South Carolina, 2018-19
• Established, The Dr. Mary Baskin Waters Book Collection at the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of South Carolina, 2017

Recent Presentations and Lectures

• Co-Presenter with Travis Wagner, Preserving and Archiving South Carolina Women’s History. The Sophia Institute, Charleston, South Carolina, 2018
• Co-Presenter with Travis Wagner, Preserving and Archiving South Carolina Women’s History, Southeastern Women’s Studies Association (SEWSA), Atlanta, Georgia, 2017
• Presenter, Faculty Perspectives on Service-Learning, USC Provost’s Undergraduate Summit for Faculty: Integrative and Experiential Learning, Sponsored by USC Connect and the Office of The Provost, 2016