by Sangita Gopal, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema Studies
Thank you all for making the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Center for the Study of Women and Society so rich and fruitful! And filled with joy and remembrance. Indeed, it was an eventful 18 months where we collaborated with partners across the disciplines at the University of Oregon to showcase how diverse fields imagine feminist futures and archive feminist pasts at a time when gender and justice are once more at the forefront of our attention globally.
It was such a pleasure to get this programing started with Haunting Ecologies in Spring 2023. This collaboration with the Provost’s Environment Initiative, Center for Environmental Futures, Just Futures Institute, and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program was truly eye-opening for it demonstrated how gender, race, and climate justice are intertwined. We were so heartened by the robust participation of students, faculty, and community members and by the curricular engagements this event fostered.
The 2023-24 academic year featured collaborations with departments and schools across campus with an emphasis on feminist engagements in the creative and performing arts as well as workshops aimed at building skills and networks. Our anniversary events enjoyed great attendance—several were filled to capacity—and we were able to bring new folks into the Center. We have documented these events in a photo essay and features in this issue. You can also access video content including interviews with artists, guest speakers, and audience members on our website and on the CSWS YouTube channel. The year came to a glorious close with a keynote lecture by Professor Anita Hill to a packed audience in the EMU Ballroom, followed by an Alumni Symposium where we celebrated the accomplishments of the past five decades and set the agenda for feminist futures.
We take inspiration from Professor Hill’s address, which outlined the perils facing just and democratic futures everywhere while reminding us that this fight can and must be won—in the streets and in the courts, through research and community outreach, by remembering the many tactics that the feminist and civil rights movements employed, and by learning from our students who model for us daily the ethics and politics of activism and global solidarity. We are in the process of preparing and sharing with you a report that documents the impacts of CSWS over time, but here is a key takeaway from this golden anniversary—the Center will continue to create, fund, share, and support work that addresses the complicated nature of gender identities and inequalities. With this enduring mission, CSWS welcomes feminist futures!
CSWS is honored by and grateful for your steadfast friendship and support that enabled us to meet and exceed an ambitious $50,000 fund-raising goal that will go toward two initiatives to support undergraduate engagement with the CSWS mission. The first are the Calderwood Seminars focused on gender that prepare students to address issues of import to the broader public, and the second is a summer fellowship focused on undergraduate research. Our partners at the Calderwood Foundation, the Division for Undergraduate Research, and the Office of Research and Innovation have lent their generous support to fund these programs for the next three years. The first CSWS Calderwood Seminar will be offered in Spring 2025.
We have also launched, with great success, a CSWS undergraduate internship program. This past year we trained and mentored five interns in research, social media management, and video production. We thank them for the energy and creativity they brought to the Center, and we look forward to extending our commitment to undergraduate education, skill-building, experiential learning, and mentorship as our internship program continues.
This special anniversary provided an opportunity for sprucing up the Center with some long-overdue improvements and upgrades. We now have a cozy lounge to welcome fellows and associates and a much-improved Jane Grant Room for meetings, conference calls, and talks. Much gratitude to our Business Manager Angie Hopkins whose prudent management of the budget made this happen.
Under the guidance of our Research Dissemination Specialist Jenée Wilde and our 50th Anniversary Project Manager Agnese Cebere, and with assistance from our Graduate Employee Bryant Taylor, student employees, and interns, we have completely revamped our communications infrastructure. We invite you to browse our dynamic content-rich website and active social media feeds. Please let us know what we can do better, and if new media platforms are not your jam, please know that we are still available by phone and email.
Looking ahead to the new year, we are very excited to gather a committee to embark on strategic planning. The anniversary and the Alumni Symposium provided great opportunities to assess what we do well and where we might grow. We also received a wealth of ideas and suggestions. We are gathering this into an impact report that we will soon share with you and the committee to assist in their deliberations and recommendations for the Center’s priorities for the next five to ten years.
In closing, my heartfelt gratitude to my team—Angie, Jenée, Agnese, Bryant, and Kristin—whose relentless labor allowed us to produce such an eventful year. A shout-out to our collaborators and sponsors who came on board with such enthusiasm. And finally, your unstinting support is the Center’s most precious treasure. Thank you, and onward!
—Sangita Gopal is an associate professor of cinema studies and director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society.