WMU Gender & Women's Studies

11/16/2021

GWS is delighted to announce that Oliver Breese, a double major in GWS and Psychology, has been selected by the College of Arts and Sciences to receive the Gwenivere Rabe Endowed Scholarship in recognition of his outstanding academic achievement at WMU.

Congratulations, Oliver!

08/30/2021

Welcome back to Fall semester! We're excited to begin a new academic year at WMU. Gender and Women's Studies is offering a mixture of in-person and online classes this Fall, and our main office is open every weekday.

Give us a call or stop by to say hello -- with masks on, of course. We look forward to seeing (half of) everyone's faces. :)

04/15/2021

As the academic year draws to a close here at WMU, we want to take a moment to recognize the hard work our faculty and students have done to navigate this unusual and challenging year. We’re proud of all our graduating seniors, and of the faculty and students who have successfully navigated the demands of online learning, keeping their commitment high in difficult times. We look forward to resuming fully in-person operations when it’s safe to do so. Meanwhile, our staff remain available by phone, email, and virtual meetings, for any and all questions. Best wishes to all for a pleasant and safe summer!

08/17/2020

The Gender and Women's Studies department is pleased to announce that Dr. Ilana Nash, Associate Professor in GWS, is our new chairperson. Dr. Susan Freeman has stepped down from that role after nine years of excellent service.

This Fall semester we will be operating remotely, to ensure maximum safety for our staff, faculty and students. We're offering a variety of highly enrolled classes online, and our department staff will be accessible for meetings and assistance via email, telephone, and video conferencing.

We're excited about starting the new academic year and wish everyone a happy, productive Fall season.

((please excuse the repost ))

06/03/2020

In this time of great uncertainty, Gender and Women’s Studies at WMU remains firm in its commitments to racial, economic, and gender justice. Because...

Black lives matter.
Police brutality must end.
We are imperiled by authoritarian rule.
Xenophobic and hateful nationalism is a scourge.
Sexual and gender-based violence are intolerable.
Ending white supremacy requires words AND actions.
The privileged bear the most responsibility to repair and prevent harm.

Our visions of justice may be dismissed and trivialized, even by our own universities, but we will remain fierce in holding leaders, allies, and ourselves accountable.
We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, including q***r people of color, whose liberation is at the heart of all that we do.

Silence equals death.
No justice. No peace.

06/02/2020

05/28/2020

George Floyd.

05/25/2020

Partly because vulnerable populations will already pay the highest price during the pandemic, the National Women’s Studies Association has urged universities to remain faithful to their GWS departments. Tracy Hall couldn’t agree more.

05/24/2020

“The fact that Michigan has three strong women officials who are not only willing to stand up to the President, but also to do so relentlessly, should make us all a bit more optimistic that nobody, especially women leaders, will take our present challenges, and our President, sitting down.
And that is President Trump’s worst nightmare.”

Three of Michigan's top women elected officials are unnerving the President of United States and are increasingly putting his reelection at stake.

05/22/2020

On this Memorial Day weekend, we celebrate the fallen social justice warriors who have made our work in Women’s Studies possible. Strength and courage to all of us as we hold our communities and universities accountable for responding to the current crisis in ways that strengthen our commitment to racial and gender justice! May this current crisis be an opportunity to build upon the vision of earlier women of color and LGBTQ activists rather than an opportunity to quickly undo their work in the name of financial exigency.

05/21/2020

“The current sheriff and I got into a pretty serious disagreement about the practice of him not holding officers accountable for use of force and harassment of women, female officers, and female inmates,” McGuffey told LGBTQ Nation.

Cincinnati’s Hamilton County is likely to elect their first openly gay sheriff this November—a former deputy who was fired for being just that.

05/21/2020

Some universities will emerge from this crisis more committed than ever to core values such as shared governance, diversity, and transparency. Others, however, seem to have suddenly abandoned all their progressive slogans and mission statements, including commitments to especially vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ youth, women, students of color, and sexual assault survivors. What is this crisis revealing about your university’s true values, the ones buried beneath its public rhetoric?

The pandemic reveals ineptitude at the top. Change is needed.

05/19/2020

Norma McCorvey, also known as 'Jane Roe,' says she was paid to be an antiabortion activist in a new documentary filmed before her death.

05/18/2020

Yet another reminder of why this is the WORST time to sideline successful Gender and Women’s Studies departments. Now, more than ever, LGBTQ youth, students of color, women, and sexual assault survivors need to know that their longtime campus partners haven’t abandoned them.

To recap previous posts: In the wake of COVID-19, Western Michigan University is one of the FIRST UNIVERSITIES in the nation to place its GWS department on an uncertain path to marginalization, merger or elimination, according to data being gathered by the National Women’s Studies Association. With this in mind, WMU’s GWS faculty encourage you to contact WMU leaders — President Edward Montgomery, Provost Jennifer Bott, and Dean Carla Koretsky — and openly cc your message to community members and friends who share your values. WMU needs a fully respected, self-governing GWS now more than ever!

For many young people, going to college allows them to finally express their sexual orientation or gender identity. Now with schools closed, many are suffering with families that don't accept them.

05/17/2020

Gender and Women’s Studies is at risk and we need more of your voices! In the wake of COVID-19, Western Michigan University is one of the FIRST UNIVERSITIES in the nation to place its GWS department on an uncertain path to marginalization, merger or elimination, according to data being gathered by the National Women’s Studies Association. This is despite the fact that, according to NWSA, our nation needs fully respected GWS campus partners now more than ever “to understand the interlocking forms of oppression that have exacerbated the public health and economic crises we now face.”

If you believe in GWS, or know LGBTQ youth, women, people of color, or sexual assault survivors who have been touched by it, WMU’s GWS faculty ask you to contact WMU leaders — President Edward Montgomery, Provost Jennifer Bott, and Dean Carla Koretsky — and openly cc your message to other GWS friends who share your values. In the comments below, are examples of specific questions constituents are asking.

Remember, these WMU leaders have consistently expressed strong support for GWS’s departmental integrity in the past and they alone have the power to ensure that WMU continues to have a respected, fully functioning, self-governing GWS department. If you, too, believe that this is the WORST time to shrink, cut, or otherwise marginalize Gender and Women’s Studies departments, please raise your voice.

05/15/2020

Gender and Women’s Studies’ hard-won departmental status is at risk and we need your voices! Within mere weeks, WMU’s GWS department alone expects to have our chairship eliminated, easing the path to merger or elimination. We share the National Women’s Studies Association’s criticism of universities that are exploiting this time of collective trauma to marginalize successful departments like ours that focus on women, LGBTQ young people, students of color, and sexual assault survivors. As NWSA states: “Perhaps most troubling are institutions that are using the crisis to implement cuts they have been unable to make in the past because of faculty and student opposition and organizing.”

If you have been touched by GWS, WMU leaders need to hear from you: President Edward Montgomery, Provost Jennifer Bott, and Dean Carla Koretsky. Please openly copy your message to others who share your values. These leaders have consistently expressed support for GWS’s mission in the past and have the power to ensure that WMU continues to have a respected, fully functioning, self-governing GWS department.

05/05/2020

As universities scramble to make budget cuts, will Gender and Women’s Studies Departments be among the first to be sacrificed? “Patricia Stokes, a long-serving instructor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies who learned last week that the two full-time, non-tenure-track teaching jobs in the program -- including hers -- are slated for elimination. ‘This is a death knell to a thriving, fully enrolled program with devoted, incredible alumni and it’s just so sad and I’m so angry.”

Professors at Ohio U say tenure-track faculty cuts can't simply be blamed on COVID-19, but rather long-term financial mismanagement.