Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Name	Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Type	Academic committee
Parent institution	Harvard University
Established	1970s
Location	Cambridge, Massachusetts

Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality is an academic committee at Harvard University that oversees undergraduate and graduate degree pathways in women's, gender, and sexuality studies, interacting with colleges such as Radcliffe College and administrative units including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. It links disciplinary traditions associated with figures like Judith Butler, bell hooks, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Angela Davis while coordinating with centers such as the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Divinity School, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and museums like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The committee operates within the context of academic structures exemplified by institutions such as Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, Stanford University, and University of Chicago.

History

The committee emerged during the same era as movements led by activists and scholars connected to Second-wave feminism, Stonewall riots, Combahee River Collective, National Organization for Women, and intellectual developments influenced by texts like The Second Sex, Gender Trouble, The History of Sexuality, Ain't I a Woman?, and Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Early formative links included partnerships with programs at Smith College, Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, Wellesley College, and initiatives in cities such as Boston and New York City. Institutional milestones paralleled events such as the founding of the National Women's Studies Association, curricular reforms inspired by debates at Barnard and conferences at Dartmouth College, and collaborations with scholars affiliated with Princeton University and Oxford University. The committee's trajectory reflects intersections with legal and policy shifts exemplified by Title IX, scholarly controversies akin to debates around postmodernism and intersectionality, and public reckonings similar to those after the publication of works by Susan Sontag, Adrienne Rich, and Gloria Steinem.

Academic Programs and Curriculum

Programs administered or advised by the committee incorporate coursework connecting canonical authors and texts including Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with theoretical frameworks from scholars like Judith Butler, Gayle Rubin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Patricia Hill Collins, and Kimberlé Crenshaw. The curriculum interfaces with departments such as History, English literature, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Political Science, and professional schools including Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School, and it offers cross-listed courses with programs at MIT, Tufts University, and Boston College. Capstone seminars and directed studies often draw on archival collections at Schlesinger Library, performances at American Repertory Theater, and exhibitions at the Harvard Art Museums, while methodological training references archives connected to Library of Congress and research strategies used in projects like those at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.

Research and Scholarship

Research fostered by the committee spans historical, literary, theoretical, and empirical work informed by scholars such as Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Stuart Hall, Carole Pateman, Saba Mahmood, Homi K. Bhabha, and Sara Ahmed. Projects have addressed topics including labor and migrations studied in contexts like Latin America, West Africa, South Asia, and Eastern Europe, and have engaged comparative work with centers such as the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Center for European Studies (Harvard), and international collaborations with École des hautes études en sciences sociales, University of Cape Town, and National University of Singapore. Grant-funded initiatives mirror programs supported by agencies and foundations like the National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, and international funders associated with UNESCO and link to interdisciplinary projects on health policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Faculty and Governance

Faculty affiliated with the committee include tenured and adjunct professors drawn from departments such as History of Art and Architecture, Comparative Literature, African and African American Studies, Romance Languages and Literatures, and schools like Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Graduate School of Education. Governance structures align with models used by committees at Princeton University, Yale University, and Columbia University, involving faculty chairs, curriculum committees, and student representatives participating in bodies analogous to the Harvard Faculty Council. Visiting scholars and fellows have included figures comparable to Judith Butler, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Patricia Williams, and affiliated researchers from institutions such as Brown University, Duke University, New York University, and University of California, Los Angeles.

Student Engagement and Organizations

Student activities connected to the committee feature student groups, lecture series, and activist collectives that engage with organizations like Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business, Harvard College Women's Center, Queer Students and Allies, Harvard Crimson, and campus programming collaborating with community partners including Boston Women's Workforce Council and GLAAD. Extracurricular offerings have historically included speaker events with public intellectuals akin to Martha Nussbaum, Cornel West, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Roxane Gay, and collaborations with student government entities and affinity networks modeled after those at Yale and Columbia.

Notable Alumni and Contributions

Alumni connected to the committee have pursued careers in academia, law, public policy, journalism, arts, and activism, holding positions at institutions such as Harvard Law School, Columbia Journalism School, New York University, United Nations, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in media outlets like The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. Contributions include scholarship and public-facing work in journals and presses similar to Signs (journal), Gender & Society, Feminist Studies, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and public projects partnered with National Public Radio and cultural institutions like Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center.

Category:Harvard University