Women's Studies Changes Name

     Women's Studies is now Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies!

      After years of discussion and a year of working through the channels, the women's studies program has changed our name. We are one of the oldest programs in the country (1974) and in those days women's studies is what most programs were called. We were proud to put women in the center of our analysis. But we and the field have moved from an exclusive focus on women to one that embeds gender within a complex web of interlocking social formations including gender, race/nationality/ethnicity, class, and sexuality. Constructed in relation to each other, these social formations form binary oppositions, e.g., femininity is the opposite of masculinity, and understanding the construction of one necessitates the understanding the other as well as their relationship to each other, all within a global context. These constructions are also in flux, changing in response to both societal pressures and resistance to them. Gender, as we understand it, includes all of these complexities.

      So, we are keeping women first, but making explicit that we consider gender, sexuality and other social formations as well.

      We were women's studies for 35 years so it may take us awhile to get used to women, gender, sexuality studies. We also have to change the zillions of places our name appears-on official documents, on our literature, on our website, on other University sites, so you may still see women's studies here and there. Also, given the economic times we are going to use up the many boxes of stationary, so don't be confused if you get a letter from us with women's studies at the top.

Arlene Avakian, Director of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies

7/23/2009