Jenna Bohnsack is double-majoring in Gender & Women’s Studies and Communication Sciences & Disorders.
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Why did you choose GWS?
During my first year at UW after transferring here as a junior, I decided to sign up for a class on feminist theory. The class was really challenging as my first GWS class, but it turned out to be the class that would change my life. I was introduced to perspectives, theories, ideas, and histories that were all new to me. I found them so compelling and fascinating that I knew I had to add GWS as my second major. GWS has taught me to think critically about the world– specifically, how harmful hegemonic norms are perpetuated quietly (and not-so-quietly) through societal institutions and social constructs. Despite the name being “Gender and Women’s Studies,” I have learned about a vast number of topics beyond gender and women– environmentalism, Native American studies, disability studies, body politics, and education just to name a few. The education I have received from the Gender and Women’s Studies department at UW the past three years has been life-changing, and I am forever grateful for Dr. Kate who inspired me to pursue GWS.
- Has GWS changed your approach to your involvement (on or off campus) during college? If so, how?In my GWS classes is where I feel safe, inspired, loved, and unafraid. The discussions I have engaged in with my professors and peers have been truly invaluable. I am so grateful for the past three years, as I have had the privilege of sitting in a room, three times a week, with dozens of intelligent, compassionate, fired-up peers and some truly revolutionary professors. That is the thing I will miss most after graduation– the feeling of being in a room of people who I know are going to change the world. But the friendships I have built and the connections I have made will not go away after graduation, they will last a lifetime.
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How has GWS shaped your future plans?
After discovering the passion and love I have for GWS, I can’t imagine devoting my life to anything else. So, my plan after graduation is to pursue my doctorate in GWS, and my end goal is to become an educator and/or researcher in the field. Even if that’s not how it pans out, I know wherever I end up I will take what I have learned the past few years in GWS to educate and to learn, and to spread compassion and empathy, transcending beyond borders, binaries, and labels that are put in place to separate us from true and meaningful connection and change.