Criteria
for Cross-listing Courses as Women’s Studies
UW Colleges Women's Studies
Program Goals and Mission Statement
Criteria
for Cross-listing Courses as Women’s Studies
Content:
A course designated as Women’s Studies should have at least two-thirds
of its content focused on women and women’s issues, such as the physical,
cultural, environmental, social, political, and/or technological factors
that affect women.
Pedagogy:
To be designated for cross-listing as women’s studies, instructors should
be aware of and intend to incorporate several features of feminist pedagogy:
-
Collaboration and
cooperation;
-
classroom as a
community of learners
-
student-centered
atmosphere
-
knowledge as created
rather than delivered empowerment
-
community-minded
Perspective: A course
designated as Women’s Studies should be compatible with the mission statement
of the UW Colleges Women’s Studies Program; thus, a feminist perspective
on the course material is appropriate. This approach might include the
following:
-
recognizing and
acknowledging difference
-
seeking the classroom
empowerment of oppressed and silenced groups
-
Acknowledging and
locating in women’s experience a pedagogy that is expressive, participatory,
and open to individual experiences.
-
recognizing the
presence, value, and contributions of women and others whose voices and
experiences have been marginalized by traditional educational perspectives.
The Women’s Studies Curriculum
Committee retains the right to reject a course for cross-listing with a
Women’s Studies designation if the course does not fit with the spirit
of the mission, goals, or criteria established for cross-listing.
UW
Colleges Women's Studies Program Goals and Mission Statement
Goals of
the Program
The WOMEN'S STUDIES Program
will provide high quality, well respected interdisciplinary, student centered
undergraduate education with the following desired outcomes:
-
to document women's
achievements and contributions throughout history the ability
-
to foster students'
ability to demonstrate critical thinking skills in written and oral presentation;
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to foster students'
understanding of core concepts in feminist research in the social sciences
and humanities;
-
to learn to apply
feminist pedagogical methods;
WOMEN'S STUDIES will emphasize
use of information technologies in support of teaching, learning, scholarship,
and service.
To ensure continuous improvement
of our programs, WOMEN'S STUDIES will implement assessment plans and will
modify programs on the basis of the findings.
The WOMEN'S STUDIES PROGRAM
will provide its professional expertise to the university region and the
state with particular focus on expanding collaborations with local, state,
and regional organizations, including K-12 institutions for mutual benefits
to students, faculty, and our communities.
The WOMEN'S STUDIES PROGRAM
will provide curricular and extracurricular activities that promote students'
personal and professional growth and their commitment to social responsibilities.
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All WOMEN'S STUDIES
programs and activities address social change.
-
WOMEN'S STUDIES
will promote programs and activities seeking solutions to personal, social,
and environmental violence.
The WOMEN'S STUDIES PROGRAM will
provide accessible and effective academic advising and other support services
for its students.
-
WOMEN'S STUDIES
faculty and staff will provide an effective advising program to help all
students accomplish their academic, career, civic, and personal goals.
Its effectiveness will be reflected in increased student satisfaction and
success in accomplishing their goals.
-
WOMEN'S STUDIES
will work to facilitate student transfers to other institutions and will
propose articulation agreements where appropriate.
-
WOMEN'S STUDIES
will foster student organizations that provide opportunities for students
to participate in the governance of the Program and to provide program-wide
learning opportunities and social events.
WOMEN'S STUDIES will manage and
develop its resources responsibly in alignment with college planning and
priorities to improve student learning opportunities, to facilitate increased
professional growth, and to provide service to our many communities.
WOMEN'S STUDIES will provide
leadership for university programs that address gender issues and women's
roles.
WOMEN'S STUDIES will encourage
the University community to think critically and sensitively about gender,
sexual orientation/identity; race, class and ethnicity; age and cultural
background; and issues of size and diverse abilities.
WOMEN'S STUDIES will provide
resources for colleagues and students who seek resources relating to gender
and women.
WOMEN'S STUDIES will cooperate
with campus groups which serve culturally diverse populations (e.g., Association
of Nontraditional Students, GLBT Clubs, Women’s Initiatives Committee,
Collegiate Association for Women, American Indian Cultural Association,
African-American Union, OLLA, etc.) in planning and delivery of programs
and services.
Mission Statement
As the Final Report
of the University of Wisconsin System Task Force on Women’s Studies wrote
in 1974, a major objective of Women’s Studies is "to raise the aspirations
of women, expanding their sense of possible future alternatives and opportunities
and their own capabilities. The concurrent purpose is to enable men to
widen their spheres of development for they, too, have been limited by
narrow traditional concepts of ‘women’s roles’ and ‘men’s roles.’"
Since 1974, Women’s Studies has achieved some of these goals, and as part
of the continuing efforts to advance equality for women, the UW Colleges
Women’s Studies Program has as its mission to introduce students to the
scholarship on and by women within all academic disciplines.
The UW Colleges Women’s Studies
Program addresses three areas of learning: curriculum, research, and civic
and community engagement. Part of our mission is to extend learning from
the classroom to research, service learning, and community outreach.
We strive to balance traditional approaches to academic disciplines with
a gender-focused perspective and to help students develop a general understanding
of patriarchy and how it has affected, and continues to affect, women’s
and men’s lives.
Curriculum
An interdisciplinary program
of study, Women’s Studies introduces students to the scholarship, literature,
and creative works by and about women that are transforming the liberal
arts and the professions. As an interdisciplinary, multicultural, and global
course of study, women’s studies courses will prepare students to use both
traditional and feminist perspectives to analyze gender, sex, and sexuality
as biological, psychological, social, and cultural phenomena. This might
include the study of social change movements, politics and government,
fine arts, literature, and the social sciences, with one possible goal
being the creation of an understanding that interrelated factors—e.g.,
race, ethnicity, class, age, disability, religion, national origin, and
sexual orientation—inform knowledge of women’s history, culture, and social
roles. Students should also gain knowledge of feminist movements
for social change globally and in the US.
Through the use of feminist
pedagogical methods, the UW Colleges Women’s Studies Program will develop
and sustain a learning environment, curricula, and a trained faculty to
provide a complex, informed, and thorough learning experience.
On a broader scope, Women’s
Studies has several overall goals for students:
-
improve critical
thinking and provide students with the intellectual means to question prevailing
assumptions
-
promote social
responsibility through revealing the connections between personal experience
and political activity and validating student contributions and voices
-
relate learning
in the classroom to lives in communities
Research
In the field of Women’s Studies,
faculty and students will develop new interdisciplinary research, scholarship,
creative work, and new methods for improving the study of women, in addition
to critically evaluating traditional scholarship and research upon which
they draw for their own work.
Civic and Community Engagement
Activism and advocacy are
central components in the field of Women’s Studies. Consequently, the Women’s
Studies curriculum should respond to issues of concern relevant to the
lives of women on our university campus, in our local areas, across the
Americas, and around the globe. Further, the empowerment of a diverse population
of women, both in the academy and in society, within local, regional, and
global contexts remains a significant objective of Women’s Studies as an
academic discipline as well as a foundation for activism.
The Women’s Studies Program
aims to increase the solidarity among women on campus and to improve the
campus climate for women. The Women’s Studies Program can accomplish this
goal through several initiatives:
-
by providing a
diverse, comprehensive curriculum of courses acknowledging women’s experiences
and issues.
-
by supporting campus
activities—student organizations, lectures, panels, etc.—that promote awareness,
recognition, and celebration of women’s culture
-
by developing campus
resources (women’s support groups, sexual harassment mediation, appropriate
counseling services, for example) for female students, staff, and faculty
to create a space for their intellectual development, necessarily informed
by emotional, psychological, and material conditions
