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Women’s Studies and Its Institutionalization as an Interdisciplinary Field: Past, Present, and Future
- WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly
- The Feminist Press
- Volume 50, Numbers 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2022
- pp. 171-191
- 10.1353/wsq.2022.0065
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of WSQ, this article offers a snapshot of the history of women’s studies (WS), one that establishes it as an interdisciplinary field alongside Black studies and ethnic studies. It also provides a roundtable among scholars who were integral to the formation of a PhD in WS program, strategies for small undergraduate departments and programs in an era of consolidation and elimination, and a call to reenvision the field’s purpose. In addition to arguing for solidarity and collaboration between women’s, gender, sexuality, and feminist (W/G/S/F), Black studies, and ethnic studies, it asks scholars-teachers to reimagine its curricula and research and writing practices as a method of un-disciplining. This is not a simple return to its roots though its history matters in addressing the pressing social justice concerns of the twenty-first century.