Defending the Discipline: Feminist Struggles in the Academy

Developed by Karla J. Strand, DPhil, MLIS
Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian
January 2026

This bibliography is number 108b in the series “Bibliographies in Gender and Women’s Studies,” published by the University of Wisconsin System Office of the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian. It was developed as part of “Rooted in Justice: Fifty Years of Feminist Scholarship and Community Engagement,” a set of bibliographies supporting the 2026 UW System Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium Spring Conference.

Introduction

As attempts to dismantle gender and women’s studies and related fields in higher education increase, scholars, students, activists, and those engaged in adjacent work are resisting this marginalization while advocating for the preservation of critical student centers and academic spaces. For this thread, we invite presenters to share strategies for defending programs under threat and making the field’s transformative impact visible to administrators, policymakers, and the public, including through online activist communities, social media, and other digital platforms. This thread also holds space for reflecting on losses, particularly with the merging of programs into new units and the elimination of gender equity, multicultural, and pride centers. We welcome proposals that highlight unique approaches to program advocacy, curricular innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration that ultimately strengthen the field’s institutional standing. This thread highlights how gender and women’s studies programs and centers—as well as related and overlapping initiatives—continue to advocate for their survival amid budget cuts and political challenges.