Women's Studies at Earlham College

women's art show

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women's Studies fosters self-reflection and rigorous, feminist, interdisciplinary analysis. We combine these practices with collaborative and activist work for social justice. As we examine the category "women" and its instability, we also keep faith with living humans, nationally and internationally, for whom being a "woman" is a daily concern.




Earlham offers both a major and minor in Women’s Studies through courses in a full range of disciplines. We strive to ensure that no student graduates from Earlham without having come into direct and regular contact with a wide range of women's voices, issues and perspectives.

In Women’s Studies, one is continually coming to new ideas and understandings about the field itself. This lack of clarity is one of the most powerful and important gifts the field has to offer. It is noteworthy that the name of our field contains within it a sort of central tension. Committed to bringing value to women’s voices, history, literature while troubling the category of “woman” itself, Women’s Studies contains within its perimeters profound challenges to its deepest concerns. Confrontations to the category of "woman" are central to the Women’s Studies program at Earlham. Women’s Studies classes are responsible for both grounding students’ strongest convictions and undermining and troubling those very convictions.

women's art show

Women's Studies classes attract students who pursue degrees in all disciplines and programs at Earlham. We particularly enjoy close and reciprocal relationships with African and African American Studies, and Peace and Global Studies. The Women's Studies classes challenge students and faculty on intellectual, political and emotional levels. They encourage us to examine and respond to our own lives and the lives of people unlike ourselves. They provide glimpses of possibility and offer opportunities to envision collective futures. A lot of the work we do together is fun, much of it is moving, all of it is transforming.