by Jenée Wilde, PhD candidate, UO Department of English (Folklore)

1973—More than thirty University Feminists loudly take over the steps of Johnson Hall to demand services for women on campus. The Oregon State Board of Higher Education signs off on the state’s first women’s studies program at University of Oregon. A librarian searches out the papers of early feminist Jane C. Grant for UO Library’s Special Collections. And a small core of faculty creates the Center for the Sociological Study of Women (CSSW) to support feminist research on campus. 

by Jenée Wilde, PhD candidate, UO Department of English (Folklore)

by Carol Stabile, Director , Center for the Study of Women in Society, Professor, UO School of Journalism and Communication and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies

by Margaret Hallock, Director, Wayne Morse Center

The Center for the Study of Women in Society has been a big part of my career at the University of Oregon. I had the honor and pleasure of working with nearly all of the center’s directors—Joan Acker, Cheris Kramarae, Sandra Morgen, and Carol Stabile in particular. 

by Gabriela Martínez, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication

I am honored to have served as the associate director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society for the past three years (2012-2015). CSWS has been, for me, one of the most intellectually nurturing places on campus, a place where I was allowed to explore and learn about the significance and complexities of running a research center at a university. 

by Alice Evans, CSWS Research Dissemination Specialist

by Michael Hames-García, CSWS Director 2014-15, Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies

I am sitting in my therapist’s office. Long after my first women’s studies course, after learning the basic tenets of feminist critique, I hear myself say the words, “I mean, I really shouldn’t have had so much to drink. I should have known better than to get into his car. It was partly my fault for being so stupid.” She interrupts me: “It wasn’t your fault, Michael.” The exchange is so clichéd. Bad dialogue from an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

Interviewed by Alice Evans, CSWS Managing Editor; Gabriela Martínez, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication; and Dena Zaldúa Frazier, CSWS Operations Manager

by Michelle McKinley, Director, CSWS, and Dena Zaldúa Frazier, Operations Manager, CSWS

What a year…in many ways for CSWS and for the UO campus community as a whole, this past year was the best of times and the worst of times. 

by Marjorie Celona, Assistant Professor, UO Creative Writing Program

A 2018 O. Henry Award winner, Marjorie Celona’s short story “Counterblast” first appeared in The Southern Review Permission to reprint this excerpt was given by the author. You can read the story in its entirety in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2018 (September 2018, Anchor).