WHM: Highlighting Women on Campus
March is Women’s History Month and is used to honor the contributions of women around the world. Women at USC Aiken make contributions in their departments and across campus.
Associate Professor of Art, Ginny Southworth, and President of Art Club, Summer Burch are women who contribute to the department through their work with students.
Burch, a junior graphic design major, has officially been the President of the Art Club for over a year. She has collaborated with other groups and organizations on campus for Art Club events.
“We’ve done UTP and we’ve done Pub. And as far as my responsibilities go, I set up meetings and I help plan our schedule out and things like that. I also help out with supplies occasionally when we tell them what we need for the meetings,” said Burch.
Burch feels valued in the art department and expressed her admiration for her professors and how they work together.
“I think that they are wonderful and I think they work together so well as far all the professors. They’re very cohesive and they’re kind,” said Burch
Burch wants to go into industrial graphic design, which includes designing billboards, and potentially work at a company after she graduates. She also has an interest in photography and expressed how grateful she is to have Southworth guide her along.
“Ms. Southworth has done leaps and bounds for me. When I started at USC Aiken she was really my guiding light and she still is and she does so many things for me and she helps me with all my classes and she’s also my advisor so I get help here as well, I adore her,” said Burch.
Southworth has been a full-time professor at USC Aiken since 2006. Her bachelor’s degree was in photo journalism and she received her Master of Fine Arts in photography at the University of South Carolina. Southworth teaches photography classes. A few of her classes include:
Social Media Photography
Digital Photography
Advanced Black & White
“I come from like two different worlds of photography. So, my art tends to be more on a documentary style. I do some fine art of combining images and stuff, but from all that history of shooting so long for newspapers I like being a fly on the wall and getting the picture rather than staging everything,” said Southworth.
During her time working for newspapers, she had to constantly prove herself as a woman in the field. She expressed how she feels respected by her students.
“We have good students. There’s always those instances you run into, but I come from a much more difficult world coming from newspapers where I had a lot more instances of that kind of behavior. So it doesn’t bother me. I’ve learnt to deal with it and just be the stronger person. That’s what we have to do as women. Constantly prove that we can do the jobs,” said Southworth.
Southworth has been to Scotland and Spain, and she tries to travel at least once a year to see other cultures.
“I like to take my photo skills in that direction and just be a fly on the wall cause we learn so much seeing other cultures. And so it’s really nice to just go over and shoot something different,” said Southworth.
