Oberlin’s Gender and Women’s Studies program may be undergoing a major restructuring in the fall of 2008 if a GAWS proposal goes through. Faculty in GAWS want to convert the program from a department with two full-time faculty members to an interdisciplinary “institute” that would continue to offer a major related to Gender and Women’s Studies, but would be composed wholly of faculty members in other College departments.

The proposal for a restructuring of the GAWS program comes after the program has spent many years struggling with a limited number of resources and during a year where one of the program’s two full-time faculty members is on leave. Faculty members and students involved with the GAWS proposal characterized the changes as a way to make better use of limited resources currently held by the GAWS program.

GAWS Program Committee Chair and Theater and Dance Professor Ann Cooper Albright told the Review that the current structure of GAWS has been difficult to maintain because of the department’s limited number of faculty members, and the tendency of faculty members to go on leave.

“From my point of view, the staffing issue is that we have two full-time faculty members who are both very active scholars,” Albright said. “It’s hard to sustain when there are only two people.

“If we have an institute, then you’ll have more people involved at the same level,” she continued. Albright explained that the institute proposal is also an attempt to respond to changes within the field of feminist studies, which has become increasingly interdisciplinary over the past three decades.

“Part of [the decision to restructure GAWS] was just a time thing...it’s time to reevaluate,” Albright said.

Currently, it is expected that the institute — officially called the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies — will offer courses taught by faculty members from related departments. It is unclear, however, which professors, or even which departments, will be participating in the institute. Both of the current full-time GAWS faculty members will be reassigned to other College departments, but they are expected to be active in the institute.

Faculty members and students knowledgeable about plans for the institute were generally positive about the changes.

Professor of English and GAWS Program Committee member Anuradha Needham expressed excitement about the changes. “I think that the idea of the institute is very innovative, and it may be a model for the College to take on [in other contexts],” she said.

GAWS Professor Wendy Kozol, who was the primary person involved in drafting the GAWS proposal, said, “My opinion is that the major is more interesting and innovative with the changes.

“Small programs in general, and GAWS in particular, labor under limited resources,” Kozol continued. “This is an effort to try to be innovative and rethink resources.” Kozol and Albright both emphasized that the institute’s structure will allow students to pursue topics related to feminist studies, which were not previously available for study. The institute is also expected to offer programming for students and faculty from other departments through lectures, workshops and other events.

Kozol also remarked that the resource problems facing Oberlin’s GAWS program are not unusual among gender studies programs. However, she said some liberal arts schools of comparable size — notably Wellesley, Smith and Barnard — have programs two or three times the size of Oberlin’s GAWS program.

Some faculty members and students involved with the GAWS program expressed frustrations with the long period of limited resources that has lead to the proposed reorganization. Michaela Ferrari, a senior College student and GAWS major representative, said, “It does seem strange to me that Oberlin College does not put more emphasis in developing these programs because they do represent the ideals that the college has historically represented.”

College senior Krista Lewicki, also a GAWS major representative, said that she would prefer to see the department supported with additional commitments from the College. “I would have loved to bring in more full time professors...but the politics of the College will not support that,” she said.

Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies Frances Hasso, who is on leave this semester and was interviewed via e-mail, said that prior to the restructuring, she had requested to move to the sociology department because of the lack of support given to her as a GAWS professor.

“I requested this shift because of the history of limited resource support for the women’s studies — later gender and women’s studies — program at Oberlin, as well as a problematic governance structure in which the faculty who deliver the significant labor of the major…are not self-governing,” Hasso said.

“Generally, GAWS has been administratively conceived as providing service courses, especially at the 100 level, to other departments.” she said. “The treatment of the faculty, many of whom have been women of color, has been commensurate with this service assumption.”

Despite this, Hasso indicated that she believes that the institute, if created, will improve Gender and Women’s Studies at Oberlin. “This proposed institute has the strong potential to improve the situation in a number of ways,” she said, commenting that the institute will integrate existing courses into the major and encourage faculty to develop new classes.

However, in the end, Hasso said that the success of the new institute will rely largely on community support. “The strength of gender, sexuality and feminist studies at Oberlin is a collective responsibility for faculty, students and administrators, and should not remain a burden that two people primarily carry,” she said. Before it can become a program, the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies must be approved by the Educational Plans and Policies Committee and later by the College Faculty Council.