Profile on Professor Wilson

are addicted and need help, and between people who are making the choice and do not need help.”

Werner would like readers to know the importance of “understanding that when you meet people who are not like you, that you have to do a lot of stepping outside of yourself to listen to them.” In relation to the body, Werner asserted that people tend to react with regard to their own bodies rather than considering the person’s differences. “When people hear about sex work, they tend to think, ‘I wouldn’t want to do that’”—a fact that Werner hopes will be disrupted by her book as others learn to listen and consider the body in a different, more complex way.

Moving forward, Werner is unsure of the direction her research will take after the release of Stripped. Despite this uncertainty, Werner did express her interest in mental health, and that she wants to intervene in that conversation as well. “I want to remind people that we talk about our brains and our bodies as though they’re separate, but they’re not,” she said. Werner furthered this point by saying, “I think a lot of the stuff that I’ve done with the body will already help me think about mental health.” Essentially, Werner hopes to look into this rhetorical discussion as she did with embodied erotic rhetoric, but cannot say what direction that will take her presently. “I just don’t know what that will look like,” she said.

Stripped: Reading the Erotic Body can be purchased at the HWS College Bookstore, directly from Penn State University Press, or online from Amazon.

Assistant Professor of Economics Anastasia Wilson received her PhD

in Economics from University of Massachusetts at Amherst. With prior experience in teaching at larger research universities, she is originally from Western Massachusetts and moved to Geneva during the pandemic. “I actually failed a couple of my first econ courses; I had thought it

wasn’t for me,” she told the Herald.

Professor Wilson had an interesting shift in life––a fact some students might be unaware of. She was a persistent student during her undergrad, and after school

she realized during the financial crisis how much economics meant to her. “I went back to school; I took econ courses again and gave it another chance,” Wilson said. According to Wilson, economics kept her mind active and continued to question her, it helped her “put things together, how it impacted the world.”

Professor Wilson’s scholarly interest lies in the focus of critical political economics and abolitionist thought. She describes abolitionist thought as a “school of thought focused on moving our society from punishment, violence; an approach in radical economics that moves away from exploitation and domination.” In her course Economics and Gender, she embarks students to think radically and critically, and to question the traditional economic system.

She described her teaching style to the Herald as, “trying to draw on what you all already know and connect the dots with the class readings.” Wilson teaches with the philosophy in mind to make economics “accessible to everyone, regardless of background or education.” Her heterodox economics approach roots from her experience growing up, seeing struggles in the community. Wilson explained that “Making ends meet was not quite there. Hospitals being unaffordable and inaccessible, homes being foreclosed, people being incarcerated: all of these issues cause long-term effects on people.”

Professor Wilson enjoys teaching at HWS because of the “close knit community,” where “everyone knows each other compared to being in big schools.” Wilson told the Herald, “It has been delightful to see students around campus, in the halls, saying hi to each other––they are some of my best daily experiences.” Outside of the classroom, Professor Wilson can be found exploring the Finger Lakes and cycling around town.

From Failing Econonomics Courses to being an Economics Professor at HWS By Hrithik Biswas ‘23 Operations Manager Professor Wilson posing in her classroom

Professor Wilson teaching one of her classes 9