Ahoy and happy spring dear GWS and LGBTQ+ Studies Community!
I hope you are finding some sun and soaking up some joy in these trying times. Springtime is upon us! A time for growth! This season brings feelings of inspiration and renewal as the warm weather buzz returns and students and community alike converge on campus. The chairs at the Memorial Union will be out on the terrace before we know it!
Our students continue to amaze us with their dedication and grit as they engage in class content that reflects national conversations; gender liberation across all manner of social arenas, reproductive rights and care, disability justice, and trans and gender expansive access and autonomy, to name but a few. The teaching, learning, and research we are doing in the department are not slowing up. We continue to show our work at regional, national, and international conferences, publish papers and books, bring exciting speakers to campus, create new curriculum, and be bold with our pedagogy and scholarship.
This spring, we are thrilled to once again host the annual Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium Conference on campus on April 9th and 10th. A two-day event filled with fantastic speakers, exciting panels, and dynamic workshops. Many from our department community will be in attendance, and we can’t wait to uplift their incredible work. If you are in the area, we invite you to check out the program and attend! We’d be so glad to have you join us along with folks traveling from near and far. We sure hope the weather cooperates! A Wisconsin April is nothing if not fickle.
In the spirit of renewal, we are also preparing to move from our home in Sterling Hall to the brand-new Levy Hall. This spring 2026 is our last semester in Sterling. We are off to our new space in July! Our Gender and Women’s Studies staff has been instrumental in making sure that move goes smoothly. It is brought home to us that coordinating a departmental move is no small feat, and our inimitable staff are making it happen!
You will hear from Amber and I again in May to celebrate our fabulous graduates and send them off with style! In the meantime, we hope you’ll continue to check out our alumni programming including our GWS in Action podcast, The Stories Between alumni reading group, and our recent alumni spotlights! If you or an alum you know is interested in being a spotlight, please get in touch with us at alumni@gws.wisc.edu. Finally, mark your calendars for Day of the Badger and be on the lookout for more information on that effort soon!
Thank you all for being a part of the GWS and LGBTQ+ Studies community—in the classroom, through advocacy, in your work, and in your daily lives. Your presence and support remind us that feminist futures are not only possible, but always and forever unfolding.
“Our task is to make trouble, to stir up potent response to devastating events, as well as to settle troubled waters and rebuild quiet places.”
― Donna J. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
Onward the journey!
Cheers,
Dr. Kate