2024

Gen&WS 539: Pregnancy, Parenthood, Illness & Disability

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The physical, social, and emotional work of pregnancy, birth, and parenting is heavily gendered in the United States and elsewhere. Although not all pregnant, birthing, or parenting people are women, this work is frequently feminized and devalued in various ways linked to gender within patriarchal and androcentric social institutions. Within the matrix of domination, other identity categories also shape the experiences of parents, children, and families; for example, disabled parents, queer parents, and parents of color are also affected by ableism, hetero/cisnormativity, and white supremacy. In this course, we will cover a broad array of topics related to the ways in which pregnancy, birth, and parenting are socially understood, constructed, and controlled in the United States today.

File: GWS-539-FALL-2024-Gathman-Syllabus-FINAL.pdf

GWS Student Spotlight – Reyna Dogru

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Reyna Dogru is majoring in Microbiology and getting certificates in Gender & Women’s Studies and Health & Humanities.

1.Why did you choose GWS?

I chose GWS because it allowed me to learn and explore concepts of sexuality, gender, disability, literature, reproductive justice, and so much more in critical and intense discussion with my peers. It has enabled me to understand how our various identities inform all of our realities, and the absolute necessity to advocate for each and every one of our rights. I chose GWS because courses have highlighted the importance that kindness, compassion, and resilience have in fueling social change, inclusivity, and the creation of a world we all deserve to live in.
2. Has GWS changed your approach to your involvement (on or off campus) during college? If so, how?

GWS has further highlighted the importance of support systems for all of us students, and has encouraged me to be a tutor for peers in my communities. GWS has also driven me to pursue volunteering as a way to be involved in creating welcoming and compassionate healthcare, and as a result I volunteer at a pharmacy, and plan on also volunteering in a more clinical setting next semester.

3. How has GWS shaped your future plans?

As someone striving to become a physician scientist, GWS has made me realize how social systems and power hierarchies interact to inform our identities and our health conditions, and how it is essential to provide equitable, inclusive, accessible, and compassionate healthcare.

GWS Student Spotlight – Lexi Everts

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Lexi Everts is majoring in Gender & Women’s Studies, Sociology, and Legal Studies and getting a certificate in Criminal Justice.

1.Why did you choose GWS?

I came to Madison with an academic plan in mind. I wanted to double major in Legal Studies and Sociology and minor in Spanish. Unfortunately, after moving in and looking at DARS for the first time, I found out that is a privilege reserved for the business school. I decided I still wanted to learn through a third framework; so, I added a criminal justice certificate. During my first two years I pursued those three areas of study, but whenever a requisite could be filled by a GWS course, I found myself leaning heavily towards GWS. I figured I could complete a GWS certificate just through the courses required for my other studies. The more GWS courses I took however, the more I realized that was where I wanted to be. That was where the courses that contained the frameworks through which I wanted to operate in now and in future study and work were. Intersectional, feminist activism, that’s how I want to approach what I do; sociology introduced me to it, but GWS is where it lives. It was more than worth it to switch the certificate to a GWS major.
2. Has GWS changed your approach to your involvement (on or off campus) during college? If so, how?

GWS has absolutely changed my approach to my involvement, on and off campus, during college. My courses, professors, and peers in GWS have affirmed and shaped my dedication to prosocial, intersectional work and advocacy. I take that with me to work, as a legal assistant, and I will take it with (hopefully) to law school and future practice. In the law firm I work, almost all of our cases come from the State Public Defender (SPD). Every single client is different; I believe viewing cases with an intersectional lens is especially important to developing a better understanding of each person and their situation. 

3. How has GWS shaped your future plans?

My plan has always been to apply to law school, as I am in the process of doing so now. How I will go through the next (hopefully) 3 years of legal academia, what extracurricular organizations, activist groups, clubs, research labs, or nonprofits I work with, will be shaped by my interest in GWS. My future has been shaped by my passion for topics, like injustice in criminal law at the intersection of multiple identities (thank you Kimberlé Crenshaw), that the department gave me space to foster and learn about more in-depth. With the concepts and principles I’ve learned, I will, eventually (hopefully) also practice criminal law as a public defense attorney, working for the SPD or a firm that takes SPD cases.

GWS Student Spotlight – Brianna Washington

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Brianna Washington is majoring in Gender & Women’s Studies and getting certificates in Global Health and Health Policy.

1.Why did you choose GWS?

I chose Gender & Women’s Studies because it gave me a lens to understand the systemic challenges faced by underrepresented communities. My passion for advocating for equity led me to the program, as Gender & Women’s Studies provide interdisciplinary tools to explore topics such as colorism, health disparities, and community care through both scholarly and practical perspectives.
2. Has GWS changed your approach to your involvement (on or off campus) during college? If so, how?

Gender & Women’s Studies has deepened my commitment to intersectional advocacy, shaping my leadership in co-founding For The Femmes, a student organization dedicated to supporting Black women and women of color to succeed in spaces where they are unseen and unheard. GWS has influenced my research and internships by ensuring my work is rooted in inclusivity and the voices of those often silenced. Whether I’m writing about Black maternal health or addressing colorism, GWS has encouraged me to center underrepresented narratives.

3. How has GWS shaped your future plans?

GWS has been instrumental in shaping my aspirations to work in health policy and global health, focusing on the intersection of gender, race, and equity. I plan to carry forward the principles I’ve learned—emphasizing community care, cultural competency, and intersectionality—whether I’m working in reproductive equity, addressing health disparities, or uplifting the voices of underrepresented populations on a larger scale.

GWS Student Spotlight – Alex Patterson

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Alex Patterson is majoring in Biochemistry and getting a certificate in Gender & Women’s Studies.

  1. Why did you choose GWS?

I chose GWS because I think it is very useful to remind myself that people outside my social bubble exist and are not just headlines on a screen. These people are actually going through these life-changing events and deserve more than just an “oh that sucks.” GWS makes me feel more empathetic and empowered to produce change.

  1. Has GWS changed your approach to your involvement (on or off campus) during college? If so, how?

I volunteer on and off campus teaching dance, tutoring, and helping people at a dental office. With GWS, I can tackle problems that arise with a more balanced perspective. A lot of things impact our lives and moods, so by having these classes, I feel like I can try to make well rounded decisions and act accordingly.

3.How has GWS shaped your future plans?

GWS has shaped my future as a dental professional. I feel like GWS has broadened my horizons and made me remember that my path is not the only one walked, especially when considering different backgrounds. This will be helpful for interacting with patients and coworkers. I am glad I am doing this certificate.

Letter from the Chair – Fall 2024

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Dear Gender and Women’s Studies community,

Judy Houck headshot

Given the outcome of the recent election, much about the future is uncertain. But two things are crystal clear—the value of feminist scholarship and the importance of an institutional home where feminist research is nurtured and taught. Every day the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies proves its worth. Our former students draw on their education as they shape policy, treat patients, organize communities, report news, advocate for the most marginalized, and raise the next generation. Our current students read, write, and research as if their rights are at stake. They ask questions, pose solutions, lead protests, and demand change. Our instructors challenge assumptions, guide conversations, and offer alternatives. They encourage, support, and inspire. Our faculty tell stories, analyze pasts, develop principles, reveal oppression, and imagine possibilities. We are, collectively and as individuals, making a difference.

At moments like this, higher education and the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies are indispensable. Our GWS community—alums, students, instructors, emeriti, staff, and faculty—understand the cost of emboldened white supremacy, racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and other forms of hatred and oppression that frame some lives as less than. Although members of our community don’t share an identical vision for a just world, we understand that injustice requires action. As the situation warrants, we will dig deep and we will rise up, we will persist and resist. Our rights, our lives, our futures, depend on it.

Forward, now more than ever.

Judith Houck

Chair, Gender and Women’s Studies

Course Spotlight – Narrating Gender and Sexual Difference

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Course Title: GWS/ENGL 350: Special Topics in Gender and Literature – “Narrating Gender and Sexual Difference” with Dr. Elaine Cannell

What is this course about? This course considers how different genres–including manifestos, memoirs, speculative fiction, dramatic literature, and poetry–have been deployed by queer and trans communities, women of color, and other gender and sexual outlaws in order to voice their lived experiences from the 1950s to the present.

What does feminist pedagogy look like in your classroom? In addition to approaching course materials from an intersectional lens and contextualizing readings through histories of activism and social justice, I think that fostering student agency and providing multiple points of access for students to articulate their needs are cornerstones of my feminist pedagogy. This means checking in with students through regular polls and anonymous surveys, collaborating as a class to establish discussion norms and participation rubrics, and allowing students to vote on the discussion formats we use on a near-daily basis. Because of students’ unique educational experiences in terms of gender, sexuality, race, class, and ability, I think that this flexible approach creates the greatest opportunity for students to access the learning styles that best serve them.

What does course accessibility and universal course design look like in practice in your classroom? This basically just expands on my above answer (feminist pedagogy should also be accessible pedagogy! =) ), but I think that establishing multiple points of access for students to demonstrate their knowledge and (per UDL), “optimize [their] choice and autonomy,” are both really key. For example, in one of my check-in surveys, students requested a written forum where they could articulate their ideas about readings in advance of and after discussion. For this reason, I have added an optional discussion board for students who feel uncomfortable sharing aloud or in the moment during class to express their perspectives. This kind of flexibility also applies to the cumulative assignments in the course: students have the option to produce a creative project with an analytical “writer’s memo” or a more traditional analytical final essay, both of which will demonstrate their learning while also allowing them a choice based on their individual interests and strengths.

What is a favorite learning activity that you assign in this course? The manifesto assignment! After our unit on manifestos, students got to write manifestos of their own on a topic they felt passionate about. We did a manifestos reading day where several students shared their work with the class and we all commented on the readings’ strengths. This activity was paired with important fuel in the form of donuts.

Describe a recent “AHA!” moment with your students in this class? Honestly, it is a brilliant group of students, and they have me saying “aha!” almost daily. Recently, they have been doing amazing work connecting the felt experiences articulated in The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts to our earlier course readings in the manifesto unit.

What is one idea or theme you want your students to take away from this class? Fantasy, science fiction, and other imaginative elements in literary texts can offer more than just entertainment. They can also provide models for imagining better worlds so that we might organize towards them.

How do you hope this course will help your students beyond the semester they’re working with you? I think a lot of students approach reading and writing with a degree of defensiveness or fear, because they feel like they are “bad writers” or, in the case of creative assignments, “not creative enough.” If my students leave with newfound confidence in their own ideas and in their skills as writers and readers of the world, then I’ve done my job right.

Faculty Spotlight with Dr. Elaine Cannell

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Name: Dr. Elaine Cannell

Title: Visiting Assistant Professor

Hometown: Elburn, Illinois

Educational/professional background: BA, Literature and Creative Writing, North Central College; MA, English Literature, Purdue University; PhD, Literary Studies, UW-Madison

What is your field of research, and how did you get into it? My research intersects social movement history with queer and feminist theory and performance studies. Basically, I am interested in historicizing the moments that theater and performance art have influenced social movement organizing in the United States (and vice versa), and in theorizing how embodied gestures from performance can offer models for activism. In some ways, I stumbled into these questions by accident. Starting in undergrad, I was drawn to queer and feminist performance art because it brought to life an internalized wish I had to embody the rage, desire, and hope I felt towards the world more vibrantly and viscerally. At the same time, I was attending protests for similar reasons and started to wonder about how others had thought the two entities together. Turns out, a lot of people had, and I quickly became one of them.

What attracted you to UW-Madison? The interdisciplinary faculty! I love being a part of a community filled with people interested in putting perspectives and methods from different fields together.

Favorite place on campus? The Wisconsin Historical Society library as a workspace, the Memorial Union Terrace as an ice cream space, and my office in Sterling Hall as a space for peace and quiet.

Do you feel your work relates in any way to the Wisconsin Idea? If so, please describe how. As a teacher and researcher, I am passionate about the places where ideas become mobile: between the street and the stage, between the past and the present, and between the classroom and the outside world. I like to think that all of my work subsequently resonates with the Wisconsin Idea, but when it comes to teaching in particular, nothing feels more important than when a student tells me they have found one of my classes transformative academically, personally, or professionally, even long after it ends.

Hobbies/other interests: Vintage and secondhand shopping, attending live music, hiking, and watching campy, soapy, and otherwise ridiculous television.

 

The Stories Between Alumni Book Club

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GWS is launching a new virtual alumni book club – The Stories Between!

Beginning January 2025 we will meet once a month to read and discuss feminist texts. We begin with Dr. Judy Houck’s 2024 book Looking Through the Speculum: Examining the Women’s Health Movement.

Sign up below to reserve a space and receive a free copy of our first read! Keep your eye out for exciting developments related to all things books! Space is limited! Sign up today!