Marking 35 Years: Women's Studies Program Becomes Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Department

In 2009, after years of discussion, the Women’s Studies Program officially changed its name to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies (WGSS). Affiliated and core faculty recognized the fact that the field had changed since the program’s founding. It had become clear that rather than a singular focus on women’s experiences and oppression, women and gender should be studied in relation to race, class, and sexuality. These categories are now conceptualized as dynamic, historically specific, and mutually constitutive, and cannot be understood in isolation from one another. To a great extent, the UMass Women’s Studies program had been teaching this integrative approach for many years and it was simply time to change the name accordingly. But, like the AQAD review, it was also an opportunity to take a close look at where the program stood and where it might go, and especially to examine the state of the curriculum and make sure that intersectionality was addressed across the board.⁵⁶ In particular, it was an opportunity to more explicitly address sexuality and masculinity in the core courses. These courses’ names were changed at this time in order to reflect this shift: Introduction to Women's Studies became Gender, Sexuality, and Culture; Critical Perspectives became Gender and Difference: Critical Analyses; and Theorizing Feminism became Theorizing Gender, Race, and Power. And in 2009 Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies became a department rectifying the historical anomaly of its status as a program.

Two thousand nine also marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of Women’s Studies at UMass. Amid a serious financial crisis on campus, in the state, and nationally, Women, Gender Sexuality Studies was able to celebrate its anniversary, its name change, its new status as a department, and the arrival of two new faculty members. Banu Subramaniam organized a series of panels based on famous questions that had been asked by feminists throughout the years. Sojourner Truths “Ain’t I a Woman?”, Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”, Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, and Audre Lorde’s “Can the Master’s Tools Dismantle the Master’s House?” were addressed by UMass and Five College faculty and graduate students and generated lively discussion and debate. Beverley GuySheftall, Judy Norsigian, Mary Hawkesworth, and Jasbir Puar spoke on a panel at the department’s February birthday party and reflected on the state of the field and possible future trajectories. Over one hundred alumni and friends of the program from across campus and the Five Colleges gathered to celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of the Women’s Studies Program. At the event, John Bracey, professor of African American Studies, recalled receiving a visit from Dale Melcher and Arlene Avakian in the early days of the Women’s Studies program and being asked to speak about Ida B. Wells in the class they were teaching about women’s lives. Bracey was struck by these white women’s attention to race and recognized this as the beginning of an important alliance between Afro-Am and Women’s Studies. Ann Ferguson very generously offered a Feminist Activist Award for one undergraduate and one graduate student in honor of this anniversary.

⁵⁶ Program Revision Approval Form RR, Office of the Faculty Senate, September, 2009.