Sunday, March 18, 2007
Gender Studies Major Cut
The gender studies major has been cut from the list of available majors under the new model. This is not a politically neutral decision, and its removal does not make sense in the context of the university’s rhetoric of ‘breadth’. The gender studies major, previously women’s studies, is an area of study that has been politically fought for and its removal can only be seen as trying to remove dissent to white hetero male HIStory.
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6 comments:
It seems riculous to cut undergraduate Gender Studies in this way. It is already largely made up of subjects from other disciplines and the core subjects always seem to have lots of students. It just doesn't make sense to cut a major made of up subjects that will be running anyway.
Sorry I couldn't make it to the rally today. Would love to hear how it went.
If we were to take just the past 50 years, we would notice that some of the world's most excellent scholars have been feminists - Irigaray, Beauvoir, Kristeva, Cixous etc. If we look outside the humanities, we see that Harvard University has recently appointed a woman (Drew Gilpin Faust) as its president - without the work of feminists, Harvard would have had to settle for a slightly less competent male. To shut down the 'feminist factory' of gender studies deprives Melbourne of the chance to produce a certain kind world-class scholar, leaving a void for say a La Trobe graduate to fill. It won't be Melbourne academics that feminist lawyers, philosophers, economists and scientists will be citing in their articles, but people from other universities; thus Melbourne will not be growing in esteem. Without feminism, we wouldn't have female doctors, scientists, lawyers or businesswomen. We need the feminist factory so that there will be feminists who will struggle to close the gender gap, inevitably enhancing every discipline. By cutting gender studies, Melbourne University has disregarded a major that is valuable in-itself as well as injured its capacity cultivate its academic clout.
Ahoy hoy kids
Melbourne Uni’s Academic Board today passed the 6 new undergraduate degrees of the Melbourne Model – including the new BA which excludes Gender Studies as a major.
As depressing as this is, the support from students was amazing. On a days notice, almost 100 students protested outside the meeting. As a member of Academic Board trying to get the other members to actually listen (a pointless venture, I know), the very loud support of students outside was what made the entire ordeal bearable (and at times, hilarious).
The university went to great effort to make protest invisible, changing the entrance for the meeting and essentially locking down the building from 9am.
The ‘chamber’ (which is, quite literally, a chamber) in which the
meeting was held was fucking hot. It was a 32 degree day but the windows were closed in an attempt to block out the voices of students outside.
The protest was so loud that that not only did the windows remain
closed, but members on the board closed the enormous wooden shutters, which made it even hotter. This wasn’t enough to soften the sounds from outside, and the uncomfortable looks of uni admin absolutely made my day.
To those who came on such short notice, who hung around for so long in the heat, who signed the petition, who helped out with postering and banner making – You kids are the reason our student union will continue to be an active, fighting union despite VSU. The protest lasted an hour and a half, and for the whole time was loud enough to be heard over much of the campus.
While we had drinks in commiseration, Academic Board celebrated the passing of the new degrees with champagne at the DVCs office (!!)
Defeat at Academic Board is not the end of the campaign. Let’s pressure the Faculty of Arts, and continue to pressure the University. Other Student Unions will be facing similar challenges as universities become increasingly profit driven and as departments like Gender Studies become too challenging for fundamentally conservative institutions. This is not a fight specific to Melbourne.
I think it is really important for other campuses to publicly shame the University of Melbourne for its decision to cut Gender Studies as a major. I’ll be creating a second petition for other organisations in
solidarity with UMSU, to send out to other campuses. Contact us if you have any other ideas or if similar stuff is happening at your campus
Yours in anger (but still a little optimism),
Bree x
UMSU President
i'm feeling full of righteous feminist rage - yay! we need to keep protesting about this. i've heard one suggestion that we could hold a "funeral" for the demise of gender studies on south lawn at lunchtime one day. any other ideas?
erin
umsu womyn's officer (one half of)
I completed a BA at Melbourne and undertook almost all my third year subjects in the area of sex and gender politics, as an exchange student at the University of Amsterdam. It was brilliant.
Not having gender studies at Melbourne strengthens the case for students going on exchange to study discipline that Melbourne doesn't offer. And my new classmates were from more diverse areas than Melbourne, with the academic programs being equally as rigourous. The experience was amazing, especially the $2500 scholarship which paid for my round the world plane ticket. I see this change as an opportunity not a loss.
I don't see that removing one study area will lead to the loss of this skill/trait from the BA as I studied feminist and post-modern anayltical methods in all my subjects. Foucault did great work and he was researching criminology. For me, the field of study is not so critical. Skills are transferrable - so learn the skills however you can - but it need't be in a specific discipline area. If you really want to do gender studies, find the uni that offers it an go there - directly or on exchange.
Ultimately, if the new BA doesn't offer you what you want to study, as a consumer you can vote with your feet and study elsewhere.
i think you've missed the point happyshopper, we cant all go to amsterdam, as much we want to...
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