(pleasant melody)
- When I was a college student way back in the day, I took a Women's Studies introductory course
and I remember really vividly how much the course, the material, resonated with me.
But also, it depressed me because learning about things like racism, and sexism,
and homophobia, and xenophobia was really discouraging to me.
I was, you know, learning about laws and the history of laws that oppressed people.
And so, I've always had a real awareness
as I've moved into the field of Women and Gender Studies
that the material that we teach is difficult to learn about.
It's hard to learn about histories of racism,
histories of sexism, and current racism and sexism.
And so, in thinking about how can I be more responsive to those needs of students,
I think about it along the lines of the past, the present, and the future.
I organize my teaching strategies around these three time periods
and so I take them into the Sophia Smith Collection,
the archives here at Smith, which are just an incredible trove,
treasure trove of history of women's history and women's activism.
And for our students to be able to go in and learn those histories,
to be able to touch the materials that, you know,
with the writing of Margaret Sanger or Gloria Steinem,
and to be able to see the action plans,
to see, you know, photographs and newsletters,
and all the materials of these activists.
In the present, what I do is I bring current activists into the classroom.
I brought in Gillian Thomas who works for the ACLU Women's Rights Project
and does a lot on employment law.
And it was wonderful.
My students got to meet her.
She got to, kind of, advise them about summer internships.
And so, students feel like they're really hearing cutting-edge strategies,
meeting, you know, real activists,
and getting opportunities to learn from people that are out there doing what they are doing.
As far as the future, I encourage my students
and I teach creative arts, actually,
things like poetry, art, film, even sometimes music,
to talk about how people are trying to educate others,
or raise awareness about issues through the creative arts,
or engage with issues of social injustice through the creative arts.
The two most important foundational things that we teach in the Study of Women and Gender
is intersectionality and to think structurally.
Very fundamental to the field and fundamental to social justice activism
is that you've got to think intersectionally,
which means you think not only about gender,
but also about race, sexuality, class, nationality,
religion, ability or disability,
that you think about people in all of their complexities
and that you center the most marginalized, the most vulnerable
in thinking about social policy or social activism.
And then the other is that we try to teach our students to think structurally.
A lot of times, people think sexism or racism is just an individual problem.
It's like somebody being mean, somebody using a racial slur,
or somebody with a discriminatory intent,
like "I'm not going to hire you because you are of certain sex or race."
That is really just the tip of the iceberg,
and you know, most of things like racism and sexism are built into our very institutions.
You know, Smith students have always been activists.
They've always cared about the world
and been very informed about the world
and wanted to go, want to go change the world,
which is one thing I love about Smith students.
But in the last two years, the urgency has been increased.
And you know, if you think about it, you know,
they grew up under the Obama Administration,
and then you know, Trump was elected in 2016,
so incoming first-year students were, you know,
in high school, you know, like sophomores or juniors in high school,
and they have observed these last two years of the intense politicization.
Things like the women's marches,
many of my students have attended women's marches because they're everywhere
and they were so widespread whereas in the past, you know,
not that many have necessarily yet participated in a march.
Now when I ask, and I often do,
most of the hands in the room go up,
and if it's not the women's marches
it's marches around gun control, the Parkland situation.
I mean, if you think about it across the country,
young people have been mobilized by the last two years.
They are doing incredible things,
not only in the country, but around the world.
Again, these issues weren't prioritized three or four years ago
and now they are,
and so that's a real opportunity, I think,
for young people to get involved.
It's been such an incredible experience to be able to write for Ms. Magazine over the last ten years.
And so, I've been writing both for the magazine and online for Ms.
on a wide range of issues relating to women's rights, including trafficking,
sexual harassment, reproductive rights,
most recently women in athletics.
I also co-write with my students.
So, I have a woman's rights journalism research internship.
It's funded through the S.W.A.G. program
and I have students that help me with my public work,
but also we co-write pieces.
And, for instance, my current student, Marcela Rodrigues has written two articles for Ms. online that went viral.
They were the most popular pieces of the week.
And now the magazine has asked her to write a piece for the magazine.
So, it's been really fun to be able to get my students involved in my public writing in all sorts of ways.
So, I'll stop there.