I had the privilege of listening to two inspiring talks by Center affiliate faculty members, one by Dr. Sheila Dickison at our Center’s fall reception and one by Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn at the African American Studies fall reception. Serendipitously, both colleagues focused their talks on the history and evolution of Women’s Studies and African American Studies at UF. I was struck by the parallels between these narratives. They both involved dedicated people working together to build new and rigorous programs of scholarship and teaching. They both involved persistence through barriers. They both involved key allies in positions of power stepping up with vigorous support. They both involved hope, vision, and strategic action to achieve institutional milestone after milestone. I’m thankful to Drs. Dickison and Hilliard-Nunn for reminding us of this narrative and helping us preserve this important history, as it also reveals to us the path forward.
Indeed, continuing the footsteps of the many people who shaped what women’s studies is at UF today, we are continuing a path of progress. One of our major initiatives over the past year has been to conduct the research and lay the groundwork for establishing a Department of Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies that contains our research center. In this structure, traditional academic functions such as our major, three minors, graduate degrees and certificates, and core faculty teaching, research, and tenure and promotion, would fall within the Department. The proposed Department would retain the Center, through which we would continue our inter-department, inter-college, and campuscommunity functions such as administering interdepartment and intercollege grants and awards, funding and co-sponsoring inter-department and intercollege events and programs, and coordinating public engagement as well as inter-department and inter-college communications and networks focused on advancing scholarship on gender, sexuality, and women.
As feminist scholars, we all know the power of naming and making visible the value and contributions of women’s studies in ways that are legible to internal and external stakeholders. In fact, the history of women’s studies nationally and at UF has been one of persistent progress toward this aim. As Dr. Dickison concluded in her keynote at our fall reception, we are now at yet another exciting milestone in our history. We have the opportunity to formally recognize the Department and Center contributions of Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies at UF. This aligns us with the top 5 public institutions, all of which have Departments of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. Importantly, it signifies institutional support to national and international reputation makers and local stakeholders, including our students and faculty. As the proposal makes its way through the various stages of the review process in the coming months, we know that the proposal and its outcome will constitute another important chapter in the history and evolution for all of us and for UF.