Building Movements Within and Beyond the University: Reflections on a WGSS PhD Program

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

In this session, core faculty members of a doctoral program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies consider the implications of a PhD in WGSS within a context of social/political upheaval and state violence. What core values, curricular decisions, pedagogical approaches, and political strategies make sense to center the Black Lives Matter movement and other movements for social justice? What does it mean to “live a feminist life” within the context of the university—a space that “does not love [us]”? And how do we commit ourselves to struggles against anti-Black violence, settler colonialism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, ableism, and queer/transphobia?

Sub Unit

• General Conference / SUBTHEME SIX: Movement Building and Freedom-Making

Moderator

• Susan Shaw, Oregon State University

Presenters

• Qwo-Li Driskill, Oregon State University

• Patti L. Duncan, Oregon State University

• H Rakes, Oregon State University

• Mehra Shirazi, Oregon State University