The M.A. in women’s studies degree program turns 20 this year, and in celebration of this milestone, the Women’s Studies Program will hold an alumnae/i summit, “Transforming the World With a Feminist Degree and Vision,” on April 21. Co-sponsored by Women’s Studies and the SCSU School of Graduate Studies, Research, and Innovation, the summit will draw graduates of the program back to campus to discuss their experiences in the program and beyond.
The summit program is as follows:
2-3:15 p.m. – Kick-off Welcoming Roundtable: “Looking Back, Moving Forward”
3:30-4:45 p.m. – “Transforming the Community with a Feminist Cornucopia”
5-6:15 p.m. – “Transforming the World with a Feminist Cornucopia”
6:30-8 p.m. – Dinner/Music/Spoken Word
With the first course in women’s studies offered at Southern in 1971, it was among the first universities in the United States to offer courses in this discipline. The master’s degree program, conceived more than 20 years ago by a small group of colleagues — Director of Women’s Programs Rosalyn Amenta, History Professor Virginia Metaxas, and English Professor Vara Neverow, who continue to teach women’s studies today — was the first free-standing M.A. program in women’s studies offered by any university in the Northeast. Two decades later, it remains the only M.A. program in women’s studies offered by a public university in New England. Ms. Magazine, in its April 2012 issue, reviewed all of the women’s studies M.A. programs in the country and recognized the SCSU women’s studies master’s degree program as a “vibrant” regional program.
Amenta recalls that at the time the program was first being developed, “there were no interdisciplinary degree programs that offered a rigorous, thorough and focused history of women’s experiences, accomplishments, intellectual and creative works, and women’s ongoing challenge, from ancient times to the present, to the repressive patriarchal restrictions on their lives, activities and independent personhood.” She adds that there were no advanced courses at that time that offered a sustained interdisciplinary critique of the economic, social, and cultural oppressions not only of women and girls but also persons of racial, ethnic, age, size, gender, sexual and ability diversities, locally and globally. Amenta says, “The Master of Arts in Women’s Studies was conceived in response to these academic deficiencies by an active community of SCSU faculty, administrators, staff and students who shared a common vision for a unique feminist graduate education. The program’s goal is to empower students to understand and critique the power structures that give voice, privilege and advantage to a few at the expense and detrimental exploitation of all others, and to empower students to apply what they are learning in challenge to the existing status quos.”
“For this momentous occasion” of the program’s 20th anniversary, says Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, professor and chair of women’s studies, “we plan to celebrate our alums and the extraordinary work and service they do in the community and in the world. We will do it with tremendous feminist energy, interspersed with art, music, and powerful narratives.”
This summit is a reunion, an honoring, and a networking opportunity, says Lin. In this gathering, by sharing the women’s studies graduates’ talents and passions, event organizers aim to showcase the activist, advocacy, policy, and scholarly work that alumnae/i have taken on in different corners of the world and the nation for the past 20 years.
To register for the summit, click here. Lin explains that the registration fee is to offset the cost of the dinner program. She adds, “We look forward to welcoming you each back home on April 21 and hearing all about the glorious work you are doing, engaging the world and making a difference!” For more information, call (203) 392-6133 or email WomenStudies@Southernct.edu.
