Ex-Miss America visits university class on beauty pageants

Former Miss America Kate Shindle (Twitter photo)

PROVIDENCE – There she is in class, Miss America.

Former Miss America Kate Shindle has become the subject of an Ivy League classroom. A Brown University class being offered for the first time this fall is giving students the opportunity to examine how and why pageantry and femininity have become linked in the public consciousness.

WPRO-AM in Providence, Rhode Island, reports (http://bit.ly/1W3S1RW) 16 women who are enrolled in the Beauty Pageants in American Society class recently got a visit from the 1998 Miss America.

Students read Shindle’s book “Being Miss America.” They spent more than an hour in a recent class talking about her experience winning the title, the causes she spearheaded and her dealings with pageant leaders.

Senior Cara Mund says she’s competed in the Miss America system and “it’s cool” to see a role model in class.