This guide was created in collaboration with Instructor Jane Cantwell and drew upon the work of UNC University Libraries: WGST 101 Libguide, UC Santa Barbara Library Feminist Studies Libguide, and ACRL Women's and Gender Studies Libguide.
Women’s studies has its roots in the student, civil rights, and women’s movements of the 1960s and 70s. In its early years the field’s teachers and scholars principally asked, “Where are the women?” Today that question may seem an overly simple one, but at the time few scholars considered gender as a lens of analysis, and women’s voices had little representation on campus or in the curriculum.
Today the field’s interrogation of identity, power, and privilege go far beyond the category “woman." Drawing on the feminist scholarship of U.S. and Third World women of color, women’s studies has made the conceptual claims and theoretical practices of intersectionality, which examines how categories of identity (e.g., sexuality, race, class, gender, age, ability, etc.) and structures of inequality are mutually constituted and must continually be understood in relationship to one another, and transnationalism, which focuses on cultures, structures and relationships that are formed as a result of the flows of people and resources across geopolitical borders, foundations of the discipline.
"What is Women's Studies?" National Women's Studies Association. https://www.nwsa.org/page/About-NWSA
Companion to Women's and Gender Studies by
A comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary field of Women's and Gender Studies, featuring original contributions from leading experts from around the world The Companion to Women's and Gender Studies is a comprehensive resource for students and scholars alike, exploring the central concepts, theories, themes, debates, and events in this dynamic field.
Key Concepts in Gender Studies by
Each of the entries: begins with a concise definition outlines the history of each term and the debates surrounding it includes illustrations of how the concept has been applied within the field offers examples which allow a critical re-evaluation of the concept is cross-referenced with the other key concepts ends with guidance on further reading.
Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies by
This book deepens analyses of the relationships among race, gender, sexuality, nation, ability, and political economy by foregrounding justice-oriented intersectional movements and scholarship including: Black, Indigenous, and women of color feminisms; transnational feminisms; queer of color critique; trans, disability, and fat studies; feminist science studies; and critiques of the state, law, and prisons that emerge from within queer and women of color justice movements.
