Women's Studies Research Center
Anti-Racism Plan
Dec. 2, 2021
As part of our strategic planning process over the last year and a half, the Women's Studies Research Center has put diversity in the scholar body as a top priority.
The plan to institute term limits for scholars is fundamental to creating space for a new diversity of visiting scholars. So is the newly constituted committee for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, composed of scholars and faculty, at the WSRC. Faculty affiliates to the center, largely from the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies program, bring much needed diversity to the WSRC in terms of their research topics, backgrounds and social locations. The new director, Harleen Singh, who takes office Jan. 1, 2021, will extend and deepen those strong faculty connections and internationalize the research agenda.
We have also set as a goal diversifying the composition of the board. We plan to invite Mark Brimhall-Vargas to a board meeting in October to help us think about how to do that.
When the Black Lives Matter mobilization took center stage in spring, we wrote and published a Statement of Solidarity, signed by the director, the director-designate, the staff and the entire National Board of Advisers. In its wake, two visiting scholars, both of whom are the only African American scholars, made a public demand to become resident scholars. We took quick action to extend that offer to them, granting a three-year courtesy appointment effective Sept. 1.
Our lecture series this fall includes talks addressing different dimensions of racial inequity — from discussion about women of color candidates for office, to Black women involved in the suffrage movement, to rural women in India hit by the Covid epidemic while struggling with the agricultural enterprise. The Kniznick Gallery curated "Root Shock" and "Krautsourcing," shows by artists of color and a transgender artist in FY20. The current show, "How Will They Know We Were Here? 100 Years Beyond Women's Suffrage," engages the issues of voting and citizenship.