About Gender & Women's Studies
Introduction to Women's Studies (WMS 150) Undergraduate Teaching Assistants Fall 2010: Carlene Fiorito, Danielle Henderson, Nelli Ruotsalainen, Courtney Needham, Melanie Carrazzo, Jessica Williams
History of Gender & Women's Studies
Faculty at the University of Rhode Island began teaching courses focusing on the lives, experiences, and culture of women in the early 1970s. Our first course, "Women and Society," was taught during the spring 1972 semester. Enrollment was to be limited to 50 students, but 200 arrived at the first class meeting. All were invited to join the course. Professors Judith Anderson and Sharon Strom coordinated the course and 20 faculty members served as teachers, visiting lecturers, or panelists.
By 1978, a variety of departments had developed offerings and core courses in Women's Studies were approved. The first major graduated in 1979 with the degree being formally approved by the Board of Governors in 1980. Since these beginnings, the program expanded rapidly; today, there are a total of 65 courses which have been approved for majors and minors from Women's Studies, 16 departments, and five colleges. The core staff of the program includes a director; a full-time, tenure-track faculty member who holds the Carlson Endowed Chair in Women's Studies; a graduate assistant; and a part-time time office manager. An additional 18 faculty members from 11 departments hold joint appointments in Women's Studies under terms defined in the University Manual and approved by their departments, deans, and the Provost. This appointment commits them to teach one core WMS course every three years in addition to other program responsibilities. Twenty-seven other faculty from 11 departments affiliate with the program and offer courses in their own disciplines approved for WMS majors or minors, or engage in research related to Women's Studies. Five faculty hold adjunct appointments and offer courses in their areas of expertise. Four faculty hold emerita/us status. We have approximately 30 majors and a number of declared minors.
Gender & Women's Studies has received a number of gifts which have strengthened our program and benefited our students. In 1980, a colleague and benefactor established the Fredrika Wild Schweers Memorial Lecture in Women's Health. This endowment supports a lecture every April on some aspect of women's health. In 1984, the same benefactor established the "Mother" Jones scholarship for needy majors and minors. This fund was later increased by the benefactor's mother, who left money in her will to expand the work that her daughter had begun. In 1994, we became the beneficiary of a one million dollar endowment set up by Eleanor Carlson in 1988 to insure that our program would continue and expand. This endowment provided $750,000 for an endowed chair in Women's Studies; $225,000 for scholarships for single mothers with dependent children; $15,000 for an endowed lecture; and $10,000 for library purchases. Additional moneys were left in her will, some for the chair and some for scholarships for majors. The Program established a new award, the Eleanor M. Carlson Trust Scholarship, which is given annually to one or two WMS students for academic excellence, community or campus service, and financial need.
The Program made a commitment to broaden the curriculum to include the physical and natural sciences by selecting a faculty member with a Ph.D. in Genetics to occupy the Carlson Endowed Chair. We view this as an essential step as we move into the 21st century to educate the second generation of Women's Studies graduates. The URI Women's Studies Program was one of ten programs selected nationally to participate in the Women's Studies, Science and Engineering Curriculum Project, funded by the National Science Foundation through the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The goal of the project is to make science more attractive to women by expanding the content of science curricula in higher education. The project aims to build connections between science, engineering and women's studies by incorporating the new scholarship in gender studies into undergraduate science, engineering and math courses. In addition, women's studies courses will begin to include more science content. The project aims to graduate more women with science and engineering degrees and more scientific literate women with women's studies degrees.
Every semester the program averages about 570 students enrolled in courses with a WMS designation (and, about 700 students are enrolled in cross-listed courses offered by other departments).
We sponsor two endowed lectures each year, the Carlson lecture in the Fall semester, and the Fredrika Wild Schweers lecture on Women and Health in the Spring. In addition, we sponsor the Dana Shugar Colloquium that invites new faculty at URI to talk about their areas of interest.
Current Projects
Gender & Women's Studies' new Letters Gen Ed course has been approved! Register for WMS 325 International Women's Issues for next semester!
WMS has successfully brought two key WMS courses face-to-face instead of online: WMS 310 (Race, Class, and Sexuality in Women's Lives) and WMS 315 (Intro to Feminist Theories and Methodologies). These courses will alternate semesters for being taught face-to-face in Providence and Kingston.
We are working to extend our outreach and significance as we collaborate with other URI Departments to make WMS courses be at the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship and issues:
- African and African-American Studies
- Economics
- English
- Film Studies
- Honors
- History
- Music
- Writing
We are also extending our reach to collaborate with URI minors in:
- Leadership
- Peace and Non-violence
- Sustainability
Note especially the cross-listing of these classes:
- WMS 351/FLM 351: Women and Documentary
- WMS 386/ECN 386: The Economics of Race, Class, and Gender
- WMS 387/HIS 387: Latin American History at the Movies
- WMS 490/AAF 498: Gender, Africa, and Sustainable Development
- WMS 490/MUS 470/MUS 570: Women, Pedagogy, and Musicianship
- WMS 490H: Women Writing Their Lives
Note also the option to take a newly designed Women and the Natural Sciences GEN ED class (WMS 220) in Kingston.
Assessment
The Gender & Women's Studies Program has successfully assessed and received Level1 status with our WMS 150 course, Introduction to Women's Studies, and our WMS 315 class. In September 2010, faculty convened to discuss and upgrade writing, reading, and discussion expectations for all WMS courses, establishing rubrics being modeled for many departments.
July 2009, faculty teaching WMS 300-level classes convened at an all-day workshop to evaluate and determine learning outcomes and assessment measures for 300-level WMS courses.
In September 2009, faculty teaching WMS 150 convened to discuss and re-establish learning outcomes and assessment measures to follow-up on the previous WMS 150 assessment.
In December 2009, WMS will be assessing learning outcomes for WMS 315 and reassessing student learning across the board in WMS 150.
