Learn more about Women’s & Gender Studies!
Join us for an info session on courses, co-curricular opportunities, grad programs, career paths, & ways WGS can enhance a wide variety of career goals!
Wednesday, September 28
Stern Center, Room 205
4:00PM-5:00PM
WGS is excited to share the 2021-2022 recipients of the WGS Student Opportunities Fund. See what our amazing students have been up to thanks to this funding initiative!
In Spring of 2019, WGS launched the WGS Student Opportunities Fund so that students may apply for funding to support engagement in study abroad, internships, community-based learning projects, and research/scholarly activities. Funding for these opportunities is made possible because of our generous sponsors in the community and on campus.
2021-2022 Recipients:
Marissa Haynes (she/her)
Attended the 2022 Sociologists for Women in Society winter meetings as the social action committee intern.
Patrick Meyer (they/he)
Presented at the 2022 annual conference of the Society for Personality & Social Psychology, poster title: Breaking Down, Pushing Out: An Organizing Framework for Promoting Authenticity and Mitigating Harm Among Boys & Men.
Ahmira Lucas (she/her), Del Lamere (they/them), Jeronimo Ortega (he/el), & Keke Humphrey (she/her)
Organized body positivity event, Every Body Deserves Lovin’ Yoga Class and self-care discussion with Inner Work Instigator, Kennae Miller in April 2022.
Congratulations to our WGS majors who earned academic honors for the Spring 2022 semester!
Statement from the College of Charleston’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program Faculty Executive Committee and the Women’s Health Research Team on the June 24, 2022 SCOTUS Decision
The Faculty Executive Committee of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Women’s Health Research Team at the College of Charleston strongly oppose and are outraged by the SCOTUS decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Jun 24, 2022, which effectively overturns Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1993). This disastrous decision removes constitutionally protected freedoms, a first in our country’s history.
Our opposition is grounded in decades of empirical data and research that we have conducted in Social Science, History, Public Health, and other disciplines, as well as our lived experiences.
The premise is simple: People with uteruses do not have the basic freedom and fundamental human right to their bodily autonomy. What’s more, in what will soon be in a majority of states, if they (or we) attempt to exercise these entitlements, we will be criminalized.
Criminalization has never eradicated abortion. Abortion is and has been practiced in every known human society. It is an ordinary part of the reproductive lives of people who can get pregnant. The World Health Organization includes comprehensive abortion care on its list of essential healthcare services. It is a common medical procedure that will not go away even under the most draconian measures.
What confronts us now is what abortions under criminality will be like, what will happen to the people who need them, and who will be most affected by laws like this.
In the few hours after SCOTUS released their decision 13 states enacted their “trigger laws” and at least 13 more are maneuvering to make abortions illegal, including South Carolina. The cascade of restrictions is ballooning, including criminal prosecution of those who seek abortions, those who provide them, and even those who offer referrals. These laws effectively codify state-sanctioned forced pregnancies.
Poorer people, immigrants, and people of color already have decreased access to abortion. Many can’t take time off from work or don’t have access to childcare to be able to travel across state lines for abortions. Some will have to carry on with essentially forced pregnancies. This will perpetuate poverty for families across generations.
What anti-abortion advocates do not seem to realize is that abortion restrictions also increase the chances that all pregnancy loss – even unintended – will be surveilled, suspected, and potentially prosecuted. This is not a hypothetical situation as it is already happening, and has been for some time, in states such as Tennessee. There is no way to establish medically if someone had a miscarriage or induced an abortion with pills. People who miscarry will be interrogated and potentially prosecuted. People with very much wanted pregnancies who face health complications will be denied medically necessary procedures. People will die from pregnancies they are forced to carry.
We at the College and in higher education broadly will lose students facing unwanted pregnancies because of this decision. Women will lose educational and career opportunities; this too will perpetuate the cycle of poverty. Women will be less likely to leave abusive partners if they have to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. It is no coincidence that the economic, leadership, political and educational status of women in the U.S. has increased commensurate with the ability for them (us) to control our reproductive lives.
Forcing people to stay pregnant will result in harm and deaths. In South Carolina, maternal mortality rates are 26.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. For women of color, that rate is 42.3 per 100,000 live births compared to 18.0 per 100,000 live births for white women (SCDHEC). That means pregnancy is risky, and also not all infants survive. South Carolina’s infant mortality rates are far higher than the national average: 6.5 per 1,000 live births in South Carolina compared to 5.58 deaths per 1,000 nationwide.
The most vulnerable will become more vulnerable. But that’s the point, right?
We grieve with our community for what has been lost and for the tragedies that will come in the wake of this decision. We know that the inability to control one’s own reproductive decisions will impact many of our students and colleagues. This is why we unequivocally united in our opposition to this decision, and to the cascade of laws that will follow. We also are united in our continuing struggle for the fundamental human right to bodily autonomy.
We invite you to join us in our resistance to this unchecked and ideologically myopic power that seeks to eradicate our freedoms. We will not go back!
What do we do?
We can write our legislators to demand state-level protections for abortion, including comprehensive health care services.
We can circulate information about organizations that support individuals needing abortions (and donate, if you can):
We can urge companies we support to move to abortion-friendly states or cover abortion-related expenses for employees who live in states where it is/will be restricted.
We can boycott companies and organizations that fund anti-choice/abortion politicians and movements.
We can get educated about the deeper context of these attacks on reproductive freedom as jeopardizing the very core of freedom for people with uteruses:
We can urge our leaders at the College of Charleston to follow the many other institutions that have declared their commitment to ensuring that all students will have access to reproductive healthcare. We can insist that current practices of CofC’s Student Health Services to offer no cost options for birth control become permanently resourced.
We can share information about abortion access, legal rights, and self-managed abortions.
At What IFF?, we are dedicated to sparking discussion about making change in our campus community and beyond by centering intersectional feminist thought and uplifting members of our community who are actively moving toward justice, and inspiring those of us who want to learn more.
WGS is excited to share a special issue of our WGS Connect Newsletter! The first ever summer edition of our newsletter offers highlights from this year’s Feminism in Motion. This year’s fourth annual event featured 28 student presentations/poster presenters as well as roundtable discussions and plenty of artistic doodles.
We hope you enjoy this special issue! WGS is already outlining the next newsletter, and we cannot wait to share the next iteration of WGS Connect this fall! In the meantime, be sure to check this blog site and our social media to keep up-to-date on Women’s and Gender Studies’ current events and spotlights.
WGS would also love to hear from you! Always feel free to reach out with ideas for the blog or newsletter. We embrace all things collaboratively produced and will continue to embody that philosophy in all that we do.
Use the button below to view this special digital PDF, complete with embedded links and lots of great info on WGS students, faculty, events, and more.
Summer fun can include time in the classroom! Take a look at the courses being offered for Maymester, Summer I, and Summer II that are a part of Women’s & Gender Studies.
MAYMESTER
Feminist Pedagogy, WGST 320.01, CRN 31386, Online, Dr. Kris De Welde
Pedagogy is the term used to describe approaches to teaching and learning. In this course we will explore pedagogies that are informed by, for example, feminist, critical, anti-racist, liberatory, and abolitionist perspectives with attention to the ways that students’ education experiences may or may not reflect these approaches. Informed by queer feminist critique of artificial binaries (such as student-teacher) and power dynamics in educational spaces (which reflect broader in/equities), we will consider how engaged and liberation-focused pedagogies can “spill over” beyond classroom spaces into other aspects of our lives. We will engage in reflective practice – individually and in community – to imagine how these approaches can move us toward social justice.
Psychology of Gender, PSYC 350.01, CRN 31322, Online, Dr. Lisa Ross
This course presents social, cognitive, biological, evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives on gender, including gender development and roles. Major themes include nature and nurture contributions to gender, gender differences versus similarities, gender versus sex, the influence of gender assumptions, biases and roles, and challenging prejudice to improve gender relations.
Psychology of Social Change, PSYC 332.01, CRN 30385, Online, Dr. Jennifer Wright
In a world struggling with a number of serious environmental and social-justice issues, how do we effect social change? How do we create a healthier, cleaner, safer, more compassionate world? How do we, as individuals, become better people? In this class, we will select environmental and social justice issues, and then explore theoretical and empirical perspectives on how our beliefs, reasoning, and emotions–as well as our goals, desires, and fears–positively and negatively influence our attitudes and actions concerning these issues. We will review the literature on habit formation and the ways in which people can effectively change their attitudes and behaviors, both as individuals and as societies. In the process, we will tackle the applied problem of actually enacting change in our own lives.
Women’s Health Issues, HEAL 323.01, CRN 30656, Online, Dr. Christy Kollath-Cattano
The course deals with a wide variety of health issues of concern to women. Major categories of topics include utilization of the health care system, issues of concern to women of diverse backgrounds, normal physiological health and well-being, common physiological and psychological health problems, and cultural as well as societal influences on women’s health.
SUMMER I
Human Sexuality, HEAL 217.01, CRN 30947, Online, Dr. Sarah Maness
The format focuses on providing information necessary for establishing a sound knowledge base on topics including sexual anatomy and physiology, birth control, basic psychological concepts of sexuality, sexually transmitted infections, family planning and parenting. The information is presented in relation to the decision-making process as applied to understanding one’s own and others’ sexuality.
SUMMER I & SUMMER II
Intro to Women’s & Gender Studies, WGST 200.02, CRN 30744, Online, Dr. Kaj Brian
Intro to Women’s & Gender Studies, WGST 200.01, CRN 30682, Online, Dr. Malia Womack
This is an interdisciplinary course designed to explore the rich body of knowledge developed by and about women and gender. We study gendered structures and their consequences in contemporary cultures and societies. In addition, we examine feminist theories and relevant social movements.
WGST 321.01 Women, Globization, & Migration
CRN 16273, Online with Scheduled Online Meetings, Thursdays 4PM-6:45PM
Dr. Malia Womack
Women are vulnerable to poverty and commonly lack access to adequate social, cultural, institutional, and material resources necessary for survival. The collective identity “woman” comprises more than half of the world’s population yet is regularly marginalized in local, transnational, and global economies. The collective identity “woman” is also internally diverse. Many women endure compounded oppression (which makes them more vulnerable to impoverishment) related to identity traits including but not limited to sexuality, gender expression, sex, race, skin color, languages, age, geographic location, education, familial relationships, and gender-based violence. This course explores the experiences of diverse and intersectional women in an increasingly globalized world and in various geographic locations. In this class students will consider how gender discrimination, intersectionality, migration, economies, and globalization are deeply and intimately related. Students will reflect on their own positionality within global power hierarchies and will engage in the course material in a self-reflexive and investigative manner.
WGST 321.02 Latin American Feminists & Human Rights
CRN 16278, Online Exclusively
Dr. Malia Womack
International human rights are designed based on the ideology that all people deserve basic rights because of their shared humanity. However, Latin American feminists commonly argue that the international human rights processes are rife with inequalities at the local, transnational, and global levels, are not effectively enforced, are resources for Western imperialism, and are Western and male centric. This class problematizes human rights failures. In particular, the class explores how human rights treaties and operations (in their present form) cannot adequately address the complexity of lived experiences, diversity, and intersectionality. This course documents how feminists throughout Latin America have mobilized against colonialism, poverty, gender discrimination, and other inequalities by engaging in domestic as well as transnational activism around international human rights. Latin American feminists have unrelentingly promoted equality and are transforming how human rights are understood throughout Latin America and the world.
This special topics course is an immersive and experiential study of the ways in which LGBTQ+ people engage queer friendships, kinship, comradeship, and community as liberation praxis. Centering WOC, QTBIPOC, and white anti-racist feminists and the traditions they have co-created including healing, disability, and transformative justice among others, we will explore theories, perspectives, and approaches to queer friendship, kinship, coalition, and community. Honoring our particular situatedness, a substantial portion of the course will highlight historical and contemporary examples of relational social justice work among QTBIPOC and white anti-racist LGBTQ+ social justice collectives and grassroots community organizations in the South. Lastly, we will take up somatic and relational culture informed community building practices as a part of in-class activities and outside-of-class assignments, experientially learning with one another and others ways of fostering and sustaining queer friendship, kinship, comradeship, and community.