Spring 2012 - Clarion University

Karen smith, Ph.D.
english
Chair, wgs advisory Council
aRaDicaL
New
FieLD
As Clarion University’s Women and Gender Studies Program
celebrates its 20th anniversary, we should be proud of the part we have
played in the history of a nationally recognized academic discipline. Today
there are over 650 Women’s Studies programs throughout the country
including fifteen Ph.D. programs. Women’s Studies is now widely recognized
as an academic field that prepares students for social justice advocacy
and for working with diverse populations. But this was not always the case.
Forty years ago, when the first programs were established at SUNY-Buffalo
and San Diego State University, Women’s Studies was seen as a radical
new field that challenged not only what was taught at the college level
but also how it was taught. The first Women’s Studies classes were modeled
on the consciousness-raising groups of the feminist movement in the 1960s
and 1970s, where, by listening to each other’s stories, women became more
aware of the ways in which a patriarchal society limited their opportunities
and distorted the ways they saw themselves. In the Women’s Studies
classroom, this model became a powerful tool for challenging the patriarchal
nature of higher education, where traditionally women had been excluded
or segregated as students, and where the contributions of women as
scholars, artists, writers and scientists were usually overlooked.
When our Women’s Studies minor program began in 1992, courses
like Images of Women in Literature, Psychology of Women, and Philosophy
and Women reflected the need to focus on the half of humanity that had
been historically neglected in different academic disciplines. In addition to
learning about women’s experiences and contributions, students were also
encouraged to follow the feminist model of community action by becoming
involved with PASSAGES, Inc., and S.A.F.E., and twelve years ago, the first
performance of The Vagina Monologues added a new level of visibility
to the program as well as a new venue for advocating against domestic
violence, both locally and internationally. Today, the field of Women’s
Studies is exploding with change, and our program is changing along with it.
Topics such as eating and food, global feminism, girl culture, women’s health,
women and the environment, sexualities, masculinity, transgender experience
and the intersections between racial, gender, sexual, and class identities
have all been moving Women’s Studies—now called Women and Gender
Studies—forward into an interdisciplinary future. At Clarion, we anticipate
more interdisciplinary courses covering these topics, especially on global
issues, LGBT issues and the intersections of race and gender. While the
consciousness-raising origins and community action goals of our courses
are still very much alive, our classroom teaching will take on new forms as we
move into offering more online courses and degrees. It is an exciting time for
Women and Gender Studies across the country. As we begin our next 20
years, I think it will be a time of new possibilities for us here at Clarion as well.
13
National Women’s Studies Association
Leading the field of women’s studies in educational and social transformation