Dear GWS and LGBTQ+ Studies Alums and Friends:

I am writing to you from the fifth-floor corner office of Dorothy and Irving Levy Hall, the brand new home of Gender and Women’s Studies. We moved into Levy Hall over the summer (big thanks to Lindsey Speaker and Jamie Gratrix, especially, for coordinating our move!) and have been settling in ever since. On September 17th, the university had a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially celebrate the opening of Levy Hall, which was attended by multiple Wisconsin luminaries, including Governor Tony Evers.

Levy Hall is bright and airy, with windows around every corner. There is also plentiful seating for students to sit and chat or study in between classes. We’re also fortunate that Levy Hall has many large and small classrooms and that many of us are able to do all our teaching in the same building in which our offices are located. I am currently teaching one of the required graduate seminars in our PhD program. It meets at 8:15 am on Wednesdays. Because the first day of school fell on a Wednesday this year, it’s quite possible that I taught the first ever class in Levy Hall.

Being located at Park and Johnson Streets is also a full-circle moment for GWS because the department’s very first home was right around the corner at 209 North Brooks Street, a building that is visible from our fifth-floor windows. In fact, I took my seminar students on a quick field trip to 209 North Brooks when we read about the origins of our department as documented in a chapter of Stephanie Rytilahti’s Master’s thesis.

Things are busy in GWS this year. As always, faculty are teaching a wide array of classes to our majors, certificate students, as well as the seventeen PhD students currently enrolled in our program. Two faculty members have recently released books: Ruth Goldstein’s Life in Traffic: Women, Plants, and Gold Along South America’s Interoceanic Highway was published by the University of California Press this summer; and Jesse Waggoner’s Black Crip Modern: Race, Gender, and the Roots of Disability Consciousness was released by NYU Press in July. Congratulations to Ruth and Jesse! And the Center for Research on Gender and Women has developed a great lineup of speakers this year exploring the question: What is the University For?

If you’re in the neighborhood, please come visit us in our new home in Levy Hall. We would love to see you!

Nick Syrett, GWS Chair