As women’s and gender studies strives to increase its presence within HBCUs, its prominent scholars also seek greater recognition in the national landscape.
“While it is laudable that academicians nationally have begun grappling with the theoretical importance of the intersection of gender, race and class, women’s and gender studies programs at HBCUs offer unique and powerful guideposts to organic articulations of intersectionality, which can serve to inform and broaden the work of our colleagues at TWIs [traditionally White institutions],” says Dr. Anika Simpson, an associate professor of philosophy and religious studies and coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies program (WGST) at Morgan State University.
Morgan State has historically been a leading institution within social justice movements. Its WGST program began in 2009 and at present offers a minor.
“We drew upon this rich legacy as we began to conceptualize our vision for a WGST minor and program that reflected our commitment to gender-inclusive racial justice,” Simpson says. “As such, we prioritized the centrality of race, specifically through the lens of the African diaspora, to the development of our courses and programming on gender and sexuality.”
As gender figures into the discourse at many HBCUs, it would seem natural for the subject to flourish at those schools. Unfortunately, financial constraints and, in some cases, cultural and/or administrative biases may keep some HBCU institutions from developing programs.
Women’s studies grows
HBCU professors find creative ways to incorporate gender-related topics into the curriculum, but at present only Spelman College and Bennett College, both women’s colleges, offer a major in women’s studies. In fact, Africana women’s studies at Bennett is not a stand-alone major, but a major track within the interdisciplinary studies major.
