Looking Forward for the Field

While opposition to feminism and racial justice is alive and well, WGSS and the study of women, gender, and sexuality more broadly, are not simply oppositional forces anymore. When asked about the future of the department, both Banu Subramaniam and Svati Shah, current faculty members, remarked on the fact that the field has gone beyond such an antagonism and has developed its own momentum. Professor Subramaniam added that the department must use to its full potential the power that has come with that transition, something that does not always happen in groups that are used to functioning under duress. Professor Shah also observed that the department is on firm institutional ground and that this solid foundation is a result of the earlier strategic work of the program’s founders. Shah added that a flowering of interesting research and teaching has come out of this institutionalization. As Dale Melcher recently recalled, when Women’s Studies began at UMass, all the major texts of the Second Wave would fit on one shelf.⁵⁷ Now, WGSS’s own faculty members are contributing to a vast and growing literature. At the same time, the roots of resistance from which the program grew are still vibrant. Community involvement and activism are emphasized as strongly as ever, and make engaged scholarship possible.

⁵⁷ Banu Subramaniam interview, 11/15/10; Svati Shah interview, 11/23/10; Dale Melcher interview, 11/8/10.