National Women's Studies Association
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| National Women's Studies Association | |
|---|---|
| Name | National Women's Studies Association |
| Formation | 1977 |
| Type | Professional association |
| Headquarters | United States |
National Women's Studies Association
The National Women's Studies Association is an American professional organization founded in 1977 to support scholars, teachers, activists, and students in the field of women's studies. It serves as a hub connecting individuals and institutions across the United States and internationally, fostering interdisciplinary scholarship and public engagement involving scholars such as Gloria Steinem, bell hooks, Judith Butler, Angela Davis, and Adrienne Rich. The association convenes conferences, publishes research, and advocates on issues tied to gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, and transnational feminisms with ties to figures like Audre Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
History
The organization emerged from networks established during the 1960s and 1970s women's liberation movement connecting activists and scholars such as Betty Friedan, Simone de Beauvoir, Sally Gearhart, Merle Woo, Marta Russell, Mary Daly, and Shulamith Firestone. Early meetings included participants affiliated with institutions like Barnard College, San Francisco State University, University of California, Berkeley, State University of New York at Buffalo, and University of Chicago. Over time, the association engaged debates involving thinkers and movements represented by June Jordan, Gloria Anzaldúa, Ellen Willis, Susan Sontag, Nancy Fraser, and Sara Ahmed. The association's trajectory intersects with legal milestones and policy discussions involving Title IX, Roe v. Wade, Civil Rights Act, and organizations such as National Organization for Women and American Association of University Professors.
Mission and Objectives
The association's objectives align with principles advanced by leaders and institutions including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and contemporary advocates like Tarana Burke. It promotes interdisciplinary research linked to scholars and sites such as Cornell University, Columbia University, Howard University, Spelman College, and Mount Holyoke College. The mission emphasizes critical engagement with work by Michel Foucault, Antonio Gramsci, Karl Marx, Frantz Fanon, and feminist theorists including Simone de Beauvoir, Kate Millett, Julia Kristeva, and Nancy Chodorow to address inequities discussed by activists from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Physicians for Reproductive Health.
Structure and Governance
Governance has featured elected leaders and committees that collaborate with academic departments and centers at places like Yale University, Princeton University, Harvard University, Duke University, University of Michigan, and University of California, Los Angeles. The association organizes caucuses and task forces that echo intellectual lineages including Angela Davis, bell hooks, Patricia Hill Collins, Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Luce Irigaray. Administrative practices interact with funding and policy bodies such as National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation.
Programs and Conferences
Annual conferences bring together presenters and keynote speakers comparable to figures like Toni Morrison, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Cornel West, Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit, and Arundhati Roy. Regional symposia and workshops parallel initiatives at institutions such as Rutgers University, University of Texas at Austin, Ohio State University, Arizona State University, and University of Washington. Programs include pedagogical training influenced by curricula from Smith College, Bryn Mawr College, Brown University, Johns Hopkins University, and Boston University, and collaborative projects with advocacy groups such as Center for Reproductive Rights, SisterSong, and National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice.
Publications and Research
The association sponsors journals, edited volumes, and monographs that engage scholarship by authors like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, Iris Marion Young, Judith Butler, and Nancy Fraser. Its publications circulate alongside titles from presses such as Routledge, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Duke University Press, and University of California Press. Research initiatives have intersected with projects at Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Center for the Study of Women in Society, Heller School, and international partnerships with United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UNICEF, World Health Organization, and World Bank gender units.
Advocacy and Public Impact
Advocacy efforts engage coalition partners including Black Lives Matter, Me Too Movement, Occupy Wall Street, Women's March (2017), Act Up, and National African American Women's Political Organization. The association has issued statements and amicus briefs drawing on expertise comparable to attorneys and advocates associated with ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Lambda Legal, and Southern Poverty Law Center. Its public outreach aligns with cultural figures and institutions like The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, PBS, The Atlantic, Harper's Bazaar, and Time (magazine) that amplify feminist scholarship and activism.
Membership and Affiliations
Membership includes faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, and activists linked to academic programs and community organizations at University of California, Santa Cruz, Syracuse University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Portland State University, Mercyhurst University, DePaul University, and many others. Affiliations include partnerships with scholarly associations such as American Studies Association, Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, Society for Women in Philosophy, Association for Women in Psychology, and international networks like International Sociological Association and Global Fund for Women.