Making the Case for GWS and LGBTQ+ Programs

Program Evaluation

NWSA compiles a list of potential program evaluators from among the NWSA membership.

Online Reports and Papers

The Courage to Question: Women’s Studies and Student Learning edited by Caryn McTighe Musil (1992) features the results from the assessment of seven women’s studies programs. Also: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED347890.pdf

Defining Women’s Studies Scholarship: A Statement of the National Women’s Studies Association Task Force on Faculty Roles and Rewards by Marjorie Pryse (1999): In this report the National Women’s Studies Association makes a disciplinary statement on behalf of women’s studies faculty and program administrators addressed as well to members of promotion and tenure committees and administrators outside of women’s studies.

Ms Magazine Women’s Studies Section 40th Anniversary Issue Fall 2012 is a 10 page pull out section that features several articles about women’s and gender studies including “So You Want to Change the World?” by Michele Berger and “Older and Wiser: The Transformation of NWSA” by Allison Kimmich and Yi-Chun Tricia Lin.

A National Census of Women’s and Gender Studies Programs in U.S. Institutions of Higher Education by Michael Reynolds, Shoba Shagle, and Lekha Venkataraman (Dec 2007): This comprehensive survey of women’s and gender studies programs in the United States offers an overview of the field’s development and quantitative analyses of curricular offerings, faculty information, and administrative arrangements, among others.

NWSA Featured in Fall 2017 Issue of Ms. Magazine
2017 marked the 40th anniversary of two intersecting milestones in the feminist movement: the founding of the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) and the “Black Feminist Statement” issued by the Combahee River Collective, whose members included black feminist legends Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, and Demita Frazier, among others. Both moments framed the year’s theme at the NWSA’s annual conference.

The present status of women’s and gender studies programs at community colleges by Alissa Kristine Stoehr (2016), Iowa State University dissertation.

Questions for a New Century: Women’s Studies and Integrative Learning by Amy K. Levin (2007) aims to ask what happens in women’s studies classrooms and what students learn.  The study seeks to insert itself in wider national dialogues about accountability in US higher education and offer a proactive framework for thinking about assessment in women’s studies classrooms.

“Still Courageous After Twenty Years” by Anita Fellman and Jennifer Fish (On Campus With Women, Association of American Colleges and Universities, 39 (3), Winter 2011): An update on the Women’s Studies Program at Old Dominion University, which was one of the institutions invited to participate in The Courage to Question.

Students at the Center: Feminist Assessment by Caryn McTighe Musil (1992) is designed to facilitate program assessment.

What Programs Need: Essential Resources for Women’s Studies Programs NWSA Governing Council Statement (Jan 2000): Because of the diversity of women’s studies programs, reflecting different histories, structures, and other conditions unique to a particular campus, it is inappropriate to set forth absolute guidelines regarding levels of support needed by all women’s studies programs. It is important, however, to recognize the particular needs that all women’s studies programs share.

Women’s Studies As Civic Engagement: Research and Recommendations by Catherine Orr (Sept 2011): This Teagle Foundation white paper argues that women’s studies has key lessons to offer about fostering civic engagement at the course level that will deepen student learning in the college setting, contribute respectfully to communities in which they become involved, and produce lifelong civic leaders.

Women’s Studies Program Administrators’ Handbook by Martha McCaughey (2006) offers tips on hiring and mentoring faculty, budgets, and policies, among other things.

Women’s Studies Scholarship: A Statement by the National Women’s Studies Association Field Leadership Working Group includes an overview of the field, recommendations and guidelines for tenure and promotion in women’s and gender studies.

Books

Balliet, Barbara J. and Kerrissa Heffeman, eds. 2000. The Practice of Change: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Women’s Studies. Washington, DC: American Association of Higher Education.

Berger, Michele Tracy and Cheryl Radeloff. 2011. Transforming Scholarship: Why Women’s and Gender Studies Students are Changing Themselves and the World. New York: Routledge.

Howe, Florence, ed. 2000. The Politics of Women’s Studies: Testimony from the 30 Founding Mothers. CUNY: Feminist Press.

Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky, and Agatha Meryl Beins, eds. 2005. Women’s Studies for the Future: Foundations, Interrogations, Politics. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Musil, Caryn McTighe, ed. 1992. The Courage to Question: Women’s Studies and Student Learning. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and National Women’s Studies Association.

Musil, Caryn McTighe, ed. 1992. Students at the Center: Feminist Assessment. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges.

O’Barr, Jean. 1994. Feminism in Action: Building Institutions and Community Through Women’s Studies. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

O’Barr, Jean and Mary Wyer, eds. 1992. Engaging Feminism: Students Speak Up and Speak Out. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.

Wiegman, Robyn, ed. 2002. Women’s Studies on its Own: A Next Wave Reader in Institutional Change. Durham and London: Duke University.