I feel cheated out of my Women's Studies education...

I do.  I really do.  I feel cheated out of my Women's Studies education.  The Women's Studies program at the University of Iowa began in 1970 as Action Studies, which was formulated in response to the war and the revolutionary culture that surrounded it.  It was headed by the current Director of the State of Maine Housing Authority, Dale McCormick.  She is considered to be a "founding mother" of the feminist community in Iowa City.  Before long, Action Studies became Women's Studies, and it is one of the oldest programs of its kind in the nation.  It took a bit too long for the program to offer a major - the mid 90s - and even longer for it to offer graduate studies.  Within a couple of years of the graduate program's existance, it face planted.  The graduate program is currently not in operation but is being renovated for future establishment.  The undergraduate program is also being renovated.  This academic year, it merged with the Sexuality Studies Certificate Program, creating Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies (GWS or gee wiz for short, apparently FAGS - Feminist and Gender Studies - was out of the question ;)  ).  The merger was due, in part, to a severely lacking faculty and course listing in both departments.  But of course, we all know budgets were factored into there as well - especially when last year, a visiting Women's Studies Professor with a PhD in Women's Studies (the only of which to hold such a degree at the University of Iowa) was not hired on to the department and forced to retreat to Minnesota State.  Never mind the fact that this merger is not appreciated by virtually all of the Sexuality Studies Certificate students (myself included) and is becoming frustrating to many of the Women's Studies students (myself included) - we must recognize that Sexuality Studies and Women's Studies, while similar and connected in nature, do not actually house the same students (I am the ONLY current exception) and most importantly, take different theoretical approaches to their interdisciplinary areas of inquiry.  Take for example the study of pornography.  As you can imagine, while Sexuality Studies takes an approach designed to normalize pornography and its consumption, defending it and arguing that it is dismissed in large part because of the general stigma surrounding sexuality and sexual expression, Women's Studies takes the approach of oppression and discrimination, examining the power relationships within pornography's production and consumption.  So put the two in the same classroom...  Never mind that this merger is awful - like combining African American Studies and Native American Studies.  Let's focus on the fact that the Women's Studies Department is, shall we say, going under????

The status of the department and its success and budget are unbeknownst to me.  Even though I'm graduating, I do care whether or not it continues to thrive and grow.  But what it is important to me as I prepare to graduate and enter into the next phase of my education and career is that I have been cheated out of my Women's Studies education. 

I'm a feminist scholar.  I'm a feminist theorist of literature.  I'm a gender and power relation analyst.  I even have the University of Iowa's Women's Studies Department Scholarship to prove it!  But for the last two years of my undergraduate career, every Women's Studies classroom that I have entered has either A) included readings that were already in my repertoire or B) dumbed down the course to satisfy students who have NEVER taken a gender course before.  I truly believe that making the conversation accessible to all in the classroom is important, no matter what you are teaching.  I also believe that the department should remain open so that all people can venture into the course material and be exposed to the issues and conversation that take place in a Women's Studies classroom; that's part of the department's purpose as an area of study.  However, what happened to different levels of courses and making certain levels available to certain people?  ie:  You can take the three intro courses no matter who you are or what you study, you can take courses between this number and this number if you've taken at least one intro course, you can't take anything about this number if you're not a Women's Studies major. 

I believe part of this dilemma goes back to hierarchy.  Perhaps Women's Studies, as a department, does not want to create course levels because they believe it is creating a hierarchy in education.  This hierarchy would not be a hierarchy within the department because if you are a Women's Studies major, you can take anything you want in the department whenever you want.  The hierarchy would only exist outside the department, which would make it seem exclusionary and therefore, cut people off from its exposure.  However, Women's Studies is an academic area of study, just like any other area.  And what are your major students LEARNING if they continuously have to take intro because there are students in the class who have not??????????? 

IF WOMEN'S STUDIES IS A SERIOUS FIELD OF STUDY WITH MANY DIMENSIONS OF LEARNING AND THEORY AND AREAS OF INQUIRY, WHY CAN'T IT BE BOTH ACCESSIBLE TO NON-MAJORS AND EDUCATIONAL FOR MAJORS???? 

I can't increase my abilities as a feminist scholar if the courses offered to me only make efforts to increase the abilities of those who are not feminist scholars.  I can't increase my repertoire as a feminist scholar if the materials offered to me are repeated and only new to those who are not feminist scholars.  I can't grow and expand and learn in the classroom as a feminist scholar if I'm asked to write the same papers, make the same arguments, have the same conversation over and over and over again. 

THE ONLY WAY I CAN GROW AS A FEMINIST SCHOLAR IN THIS DEPARTMENT AT THIS UNIVERSITY IS TO EDUCATE MYSELF.

I feel that one of the amazing attributes of Women's Studies is the way in which it teaches its scholars not only the frameworks for inquiry, but how to apply those frameworks to your areas of interest on your own.  That is perhaps the best thing I've learned from my undergraduate education in the University of Iowa's Women's Studies Department. 

So I suppose I will have to keep free reading, and writing, and blogging, and arguing, and of course being an activist in order to grow and thrive as a feminist scholar.  Or I can cross my fingers that I get into a graduate program...  ;)