This year’s annual spring celebration in GWSS was titled “Cake and Community: The Revolution will be Frosted,” and was held in the historic UW Club. We couldn’t resist the tongue in cheek reference to our revolutionary feminist spirit as a field and as a department, as well as our insistence on camp, fun, and celebration. This event was focused on three components of our community that we celebrate and seek to grow:
- Undergraduates: This year marked the first anniversary of our GWSS Registered Student Organization (RSO) and we were happy to celebrate them!
- Graduate Students: Our doctoral program began in 1998 and this spring marks the 20th anniversary of our first PhD graduate!
- Faculty: We are leaning into our 55+ year history as a source of strength. GWSS has adjuncts and affiliates from all over the UW and beyond as part of our faculty community.
Why GWSS and why now...
We held this gathering not just to celebrate our accomplishments, but to invite folks to join us in growing our community in the face of attempts at silencing and erasure. The work that we do and our expertise is more needed now than ever. Rather than allowing ourselves to slide into self-censorship and anticipatory compliance, we are seeking to grow. We choose to double down on our commitments to feminist, queer, and trans praxis.
We are doing essential work and can be an intellectual home. UW folks: if you are unsettled by the current political moment, this is an ideal time make a commitment to the future of our field and our department and to work that is part of creating change!