What’s in a NAME?
In a world that is increasingly inter-connected, diversity is across the hall as well as across the globe.
Voices that were once geographically distant or socially marginalized are now recognized as important instruments in the rich and varied human “song of ourselves.”i
women’s and men’s lives, organizations, and institutions. As a result, the discipline has broadened, and that important shift will be reflected in the new program name.
“As an academic discipline, Women’s Studies [the forerunner of today’s broader gender studies] was first formally practiced in the late 1960s; and in 1985, the ECU Women’s Studies Program was established”ii under the leadership of Marie Farr. Since that date, this Harriot College interdisciplinary program has become a vital part of the East Carolina University community, offering academic courses, participating in campus events and initiatives, and reaching out to and engaging with diverse communities. And as the program begins its twentysixth year in the fall of 2011, a renaming to Harriot College Women’s and Gender Studies Program is in process.
The program’s executive committee first began considering the name change after an external review in November 2005 by Jean O’Barr, political scientist and eminent women’s studies scholar (now emerita at Duke University). O’Barr’s observation that “the best knowledge is created in a social context” is entirely descriptive of ECU’s program where information becomes a launch platform for new ideas and emerging scholarship. Women’s Studies students have always been challenged to think critically about the world around them and have been encouraged to seek out internships in which they can bring critical skills to bear. Current ECU Women’s Studies Director, Marieke van Willigen, comments, “We have implemented many of Dr. O’Barr’s recommendations, including first conducting a thorough review of our goals; and now this changing of the program’s name to better reflect the scholarship being conducted in the field of gender research. With the change will come an expanded offering of courses as well as increased opportunities for students to showcase their work.”
This Harriot College interdisciplinary program has become a vital part of the East Carolina University community.
The new name more closely reflects what the program has been about since its inception: scholarly examination of roles, assumptions and policies (implicit or explicit) that relate to gender, race, ethnicity, and class, and sexual orientation. In particular, the co-mingling of gender with other issues creates a layered complexity that demands academic study. The critical work of early women’s studies pioneers has brought to light the various ways in which the concept of gender actually structures
12
Seeking both to educate and include the wider community, Women’s Studies has been active in events such as the Pitt County