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Demonstrators Attend Women's March to Defend Reproductive Rights A demonstrator holds a pro-choice sign during a Women's March in New York on Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. Women's March and more than 90 other groups organized a national rally to protect women's reproductive rights ahead of the Supreme Court reconvening on October 4 / photo by Stephanie Keith, Bloomberg via Getty Images.

On the Implications of Overturning Roe

On June 24, 2022, in a historic and far-reaching decision, the US Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion—upheld for nearly a half-century—no longer exists. The majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization proposes that the various provisions of the Constitution contain no inherent right to privacy or personal autonomy. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito stated unequivocally that abortion is a matter to be decided by the states.

A clip of the poster for Arlene Stein's talk "The Right's Gender Wars and the Assault on Democracy"

Reflections on Gender, Sexuality, and Power

CSWS sponsored three talks during winter and spring 2023. We invited five of our graduate student affiliates below to share some thoughts on the talks’ themes.

February 16: “Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America”

March 13: “The Right’s Gender Wars and the Assault on Democracy”

April 21: “Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics”

Sangita Gopal, Director of CSWS

An Invitation from the Director of CSWS

by Sangita Gopal, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema Studies

CSWS turns 50 in AY 2023-24! We invite you to a thrilling year of events themed “Feminist Futures” that look to the future while commemorating the past. We will celebrate the cutting-edge interdisciplinary scholarship on gender and intersectionality that the Center has sponsored and disseminated for five decades, and showcase feminist collaborations across the arts, humanities, sciences, and technology that imagine feminist futures to negotiate the challenges of the next fifty. 

Opening reception for the Ghost Forest photography exhibit, which included Bellona's sound installation Wildfire—a 48-foot-long speaker array that plays back a wave of fire sounds at speeds of actual wildfires / photo by Jack Liu.

Haunting Ecologies

During spring term, CSWS presented Haunting Ecologies: The Past, Present, and Future of Feminist and Indigenous Approaches to Forest Fire. This two-week event series included the 2023 Acker-Morgen Memorial Lecture as well as a panel discussion on “Native Ecologies.” Both events were presented in conjunction with Ghost Forest—a photography exhibit by Eugene artist Sarah Grew, featuring Jon Bellona’s sound installation Wildfire.
Washington, DC, Sept. 30, 2022—A protester carries a sign at a protest for Mahsa Amini, freedom in Iran, and solidarity with Iranian protesters.

Women’s Visual Protest Movements in Iran: A Conversation with Parichehr Kazemi

Parichehr Kazemi is a political science PhD candidate at the University of Oregon. She received a 2019 Graduate Student Research Award from CSWS and was the Center’s 2022 Jane Grant Dissertation fellow. Kazemi researches women’s resistance efforts, social media, and social movements across the Middle East, focusing on the ways that women use social media images as a means of protest in Iran. As a CSWS Advisory Board member last year, she drafted the Center’s statement declaring solidarity with demonstrators in Iran who protested the tragic death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iranian morality police.
Sangita Gopal / Photo by Brian Davies

A Message from the CSWS Director

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. 

Bryant Taylor invites attendees to play a Bingo icebreaker at the 2023 New Faculty Welcome Reception / photo by Jack Liu

Q&A: Bryant Taylor

by Jenée Wilde, Senior Instructor, Department of English

For two years, Bryant Taylor, a PhD candidate in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies, had a special appointment working as a Graduate Employee (GE) on our 50th anniversary events and projects. I had the opportunity to chat with Bryant about his time at CSWS before he left for a summer internship on an African American archival history project at Harvard University.

Pirctured, from left, are Akiko Hatakeyama, Barbara Lima, and Shannon Mockli.

Feminist Futures: Moments from the CSWS 50th Anniversary

Right from the start, CSWS leaders, affiliates, and collaborators imagined our 50th anniversary as an opportunity to reach beyond the usual partnerships. From the UO Environmental Initiative to the School of Music and Dance, and from UO Common Reading to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, we built a program of events that speak to the ways that intersectional feminism informs research, scholarship, and creative production across the University of Oregon and shapes our collective visions of social justice. 
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