Open Letter to President Ó Muircheartaigh

galway | gender and sexuality | other press Friday March 23, 2007 13:59 by Sarah McKibben - University of Notre Dame smckibbe at nd dot edu Headford Rd., Galway

a protest letter concerning the closing of the women's studies centre

The following letter, signed by more than 200 scholars from universities in some 13 countries, asks NUIG to reconsider the decision to close the Women's Studies Centre and to maintain the autonomy of Women's Studies as an interdisciplinary field.

March 22, 2007

Dear President Ó Muircheartaigh,

As scholars working in Women’s Studies outside of Ireland, we write to express our concern at the planned restructuring of Women’s Studies at NUI-Galway.

Galway has long been known for its commitment to Women’s Studies and for its successful development of a diverse, interdisciplinary, rigorous, international vision of Women’s Studies that goes beyond single-unit and narrowly academic concerns to engage with the larger community and political dimensions of the field as well.

We are concerned that the university plans to move Women’s Studies into the Political Science and Sociology Department, effectively reducing an interdisciplinary field into a single discipline and compromising the Centre’s former autonomy as a discrete unit. For example, feminist and gendered readings of literature were a hallmark of Women’s Studies at NUI-Galway. Under this new structure, literature will no longer form a core element in the project of Women’s Studies. With imminent hiring in Women’s Studies occurring under the auspices of a single department, rather than a dedicated centre, there is a risk that NUI-Galway’s special interdisciplinarity will be lost.

We are dismayed at the physical relocation of the Centre for Women’s Studies. The dedicated space they now occupy was specifically designed to meet the diverse needs of the Centre, something vital to creating interdisciplinary exchange, a welcoming environment, and intellectual community. To deprive Women’s Studies of its physical locus risks damaging the advances it has made at NUI-Galway, and does not follow the model of best practice internationally. A pair of faculty offices and a borrowed seminar room seem a poor substitute. A Centre without a centre cannot hold.

We hope that you will address these concerns to ensure that Women’s Studies may flourish as an interdisciplinary site at the university.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Emily Abel, Universitiy of California, Los Angeles
Professor Rachel Ablow, State University of New York, Buffalo
Professor Lynn Abrams, University of Glasgow
Professor Lila Abu-Lughod, Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Columbia University
Margaret Allen, Professor of Gender Studies, The University of Adelaide
Professor Edward A. Alpers, Chair, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles
Professor Dorothy Baca, Director, Arts of the Americas Institute, University of New Mexico
Professor Bettina Arnold, Co-Director, Center for Celtic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Professor Paola Bacchetta, Director, Beatrice Bain Research Group, University of California, Berkeley
Professor Margot Gayle Backus, University of Houston
Professor Sukanya Banerjee, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Professor Donatella Barazzetti, Centro di Women's Studies "Milly Villa", Università della Calabria
Professor Judith E. Barlow, University at Albany, SUNY
Professor Sylvia Barnard, State University of New York at Albany
Professor Guinn Batten, Washington University in St. Louis
Rosalyn Baxandall, Distinguished Teaching Professor, American Studies/Women’s Studies, State University of New York at Old Westbury
Professor Gail Bederman, University of Notre Dame
Dr. Anne C. Bellows, Rutgers University
Professor Judith M. Bennett, University of Southern California
Professor Melissa Binder, University of New Mexico
Professor Lisa M. Bitel, Director, Monastic Matrix, University of Southern California
Professor Patricia Blanchette, University of Notre Dame
Eileen Boris, Hull Professor of Women’s Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr. Jacqueline Borsje, University of Ulster, Coleraine and University of Amsterdam
Professor Christine E. Bose, Chair, Department of Women's Studies, University at Albany, SUNY
Rosi Braidotti, Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Utrecht University
Professor Laura Briggs, Acting Head, Department of Women's Studies, University of Arizona
Professor Dana M. Britton, Editor, Gender & Society, Kansas State University
Professor Karen Brodkin, University of California, Los Angeles
Professor Carole H. Browner, University of California, Los Angeles
Professor Chilla Bulbeck, Foundation Chair in Women's Studies, The University of Adelaide
Professor Mary Burgess, University of Notre Dame
Antoinette Burton, Catherine C. and Bruce A. Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies, Chair, Department of History, The University of Illinois
Professor Jill M. Bystydzienski, Chair, Department of Women's Studies, The Ohio State University
Professor Virginia Caputo, Director, Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa
Professor Lorrayne Carroll, University of Southern Maine
Professor Catherine Cavanaugh, Athabasca University
Professor Wendy Chapkis, Chair, Sociology, University of Southern Maine
Professor Piya Chatterjee, University of California at Riverside
Professor Marisela R. Chavez, California State University, Dominguez Hills
Professor Lawrence Cohen, University of California, Berkeley
Professor Patricia C. Cohen, University of California, Santa Barbara
Kathryn Conrad, Conger-Gabel Teaching Professor, University of Kansas
Professor Mary Crawford, University of Connecticut
Professor Ellen Crowell, St. Louis University
Elizabeth Cullingford, Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, Chair of English, University of Texas, Austin
Veena Das, Krige-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Humanities, Johns Hopkins University
Professor Kathy Davis, Utrecht University
Professor Marianne DeKoven, Director, Graduate Program of Literatures in English, Rutgers University
Professor Teresa de Lauretis, University of California, Santa Cruz
Professor Cara M. Delay, The College of Charleston, South Carolina
Professor Jigna Desai, University of Minnesota
Professor Maria DiBattista, Princeton University
Professor Elizabeth Donaldson, Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies, New York Institute of Technology
Dr. Dasa Duhacek, Director, Women's Studies Center, University of Belgrade
Professor Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (emeritus), California State University East Bay
Professor Alice Echols, University of Southern California
Professor Hester Eisenstein, Queens College and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York
Professor Judith Ezekiel, Maître de Conferences, Université de Toulouse le Mirail
Professor Susan F. Feiner, Director of Women's Studies, University of Southern Maine
Paula R. Feldman, C. Wallace Martin Professor of English and Louise Fry Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts, University of South Carolina
Frances Ferguson, Mary Elizabeth Garrett Chair in Arts and Sciences, Director of Graduate Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Joan M. Ferrante, Professor Emerita, Columbia University, New York
Professor Carole Ferrier, Editor, Hecate: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Women's Liberation, General Editor, Australian Women's Book Review, University of Queensland
Professor Jill Fields, California State University, Fresno
Dr. Christina Fiig, Aalborg University, Denmark
Professor Susan Fineran, University of Southern Maine
Professor Nancy Finley, University of Alabama in Huntsville
Professor Mary Margaret Fonow, Director of Women and Gender Studies, Arizona State University
Estelle B. Freedman, Robinson Professor in U.S. History, Stanford University
Professor Carla Freeman, Chair, Department of Women's Studies, Emory University
Professor Amanda Frisken, Academic Director, Women's Center, SUNY-Old Westbury
Professor Alyssa Gillespie, University of Notre Dame
Dr. Elizabeth Gilmartin, Monmouth University, New Jersey
Professor Nancy K. Gish, Former Director, Women's Studies, University of Southern Maine
Professor Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Director, Center for Race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley
Linda Gordon, Florence Kelley Professor of History, New York University
Professor Gabriele Griffin, Chair, Board of Studies, Centre for Women's Studies, The University of York
Professor Joan L. Griscom (emerita), William Paterson University
Professor Gayle Gullett, Co-editor, Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, Arizona State University
Professor Judith Halberstam, University of Southern California
Professor Sondra Hale, University of California, Los Angeles
Barbara Harlow, Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor of English Literature, University of Texas at Austin and Visiting Professor and Chair, Department of English and Comparative Literature, The American University in Cairo
Professor María Paz Haro, Stanford University
Professor Betty J. Harris, Director, Women’s Studies, University of Oklahoma, Norman
Professor Sally Haslanger, Acting Director of Women's and Gender Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor Mary Hawkesworth, Editor, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University
Professor Sharon Hays, Streisand Chair of Gender Studies, University of Southern California
Janice Helland, Acting Head, Women's Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
Dr. Jeanette Herman, Coordinator, Bridging Disciplines Programs, Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Rosanna Hertz, Luella LaMer Chair in Women's Studies and Chair of Women's Studies, Wellesley College
Professor Nancy A. Hewitt, Director, Institute for Research on Women, Rutgers University
Professor Barbara Hillers, Harvard University
Professor Susan K. Hippensteele, Director, Women's Studies Program, University of Hawai`i at Manoa
Professor Janell Hobson, University at Albany, SUNY
Professor Christine Holden, University of Southern Maine
Professor Gail Houston, Director, Women’s Studies, University of New Mexico
Jean E. Howard, George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities and Vice Provost for Diversity, Columbia University
Professor Stevi Jackson, Director, Centre for Women's Studies, University of York
Professor Naomi Jacobs, University of Maine
Dr. Rachel Jennings, San Antonio College
Professor Natalie Kampen, Barnard College, Columbia University
Professor Kathleen M. Kane, University of Montana
Professor Amy Kastely, St. Mary's University, San Antonio
Professor Mary C. Kelly, Franklin Pierce College
Professor Mary Kelly, University of California, Los Angeles
Professor Gwynne Kennedy, Director, Center for Women's Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Professor Assunta Kent, University of Southern Maine
Professor Michael Kimmel, SUNY at Stony Brook
Professor Katherine Callen King, University of California, Los Angeles
Professor Toni C. King, Denison University
Professor Katerina Kolozova, Director of the Research Center in Gender Studies, The University of Skopje
Professor Sandra Krajewski, Chair, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Professor José Lanters, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Dr Judy Lattas, Director, Institute for Women's Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney
Professor Ronnie Joy Leah, University of Calgary, Alberta & Centre for Work and Community Studies, Athabasca University
Professor Janet Lee, Women Studies, Oregon State University
Professor Karen J. Leong, Director Asian Pacific American Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe
Professor Lisa Levenstein, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Professor Felice Lifshitz, Florida International University
Professor Christine A. Littleton, Chair, Women's Studies Programs, University of California, Los Angeles
Professor Marieme Lo, State University of New York, Buffalo
Professor Eithne Luibhéid, University of Arizona
Professor Laura Lyons, University of Hawaii
Professor Marilyn MacDonald, Simon Fraser University
Professor Ed Madden, Former Associate Director of Women's Studies, University of South Carolina
Professor Purnima Mankekar, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Patricia Manning, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, University of Arizona
Professor Valerie J. Matsumoto, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Dorota Mazurczak, Women's Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group of Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland
Professor Kari Boyd McBride, Director, Group for Early Modern Studies, University of Arizona
Dr. Geraldine McDonald, University of Glasgow
Professor Bonnie McElhinny, Graduate Coordinator, Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto
Professor Sarah McKibben, University of Notre Dame
Dorothy McMillan, Senior Lecturer, Head of the School of English and Scottish Language and Literature, University of Glasgow
Professor Breny Mendoza, California State University, Northridge
Dr. Maria Mesner, University of Vienna
Professor Michael Messner, Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Southern California
Professor Elaine Meyer-Lee, Director, Center for Women's Inter-Cultural Leadership, St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana
Professor Kathy Miller-Dillon, Assistant Director, Center for Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Professor Juliet Mitchell, Convenor of Gender Studies, Cambridge University
Professor Minoo Moallem, University of California, Berkeley
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Professor of Women's Studies and Dean's Professor of the Humanities, Syracuse University
Professor Shahrzad Mojab, Director, Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto
Caroline Moloney, Senior Administrator, University of Notre Dame-Dublin
Professor Radhika Mongia, University of California, Santa Cruz
Dr. Teresa Morgan, Chair, Women's Studies, Oxford University
Professor Colette Morrow, Past President, National Women's Studies Association, Purdue University
Professor Claire G. Moses, Editorial Director, Feminist Studies, University of Maryland
Professor Paula M. L. Moya, Stanford University
Dr. Kathie Muir, Senior Lecturer, The University of Adelaide
Dr. Ishita Mukhopadhyay, Director, Women Studies Research Centre, University of Calcutta, India
Professor Nancy A. Naples, Interim Director, Women’s Studies Program, University of Connecticut
Professor Mary Nolan, New York University
Professor Joseph Nugent, Boston College
Professor Isis Nusair, Denison University
Professor Ben V. Olguín, University of Texas at San Antonio
Professor Frances Olsen, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Elzbieta Pakszys, Women's Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group of Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland
Patricia Parker, Margery Bailey Professor of English and Dramatic Literature, Stanford University
Professor Vrushali Patil, University of Mary Washington
Professor V. Spike Peterson, University of Arizona
Professor Andrea Peto, Central European University, Budapest
Dr. Alison Phipps, Head of Graduate School for Education, Director, Graduate Research and Development, University of Sussex
Elizabeth Potter, Alice Andrews Quigley Professor of Women's Studies, Mills College
Mary Louise Pratt, Silver Professor, New York University
Professor Louise Prochaska, Notre Dame College, Cleveland
Hanneke Pyck, Centre for Gender Studies, Ghent University
Professor E. Moore Quinn, The College of Charleston, South Carolina
Professor Joanna Regulska, Chair, Department of Women's and Gender Studies; Director, Office of International Programs, Rutgers University
Professor Paige Reynolds, College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts
Professor Denise Riley, University of East Anglia
Dr. Judy Rohrer, Women's Studies Program, Syracuse University
Professor Rodolfo Rosales, University of Texas, San Antonio
Professor Leah Rosenberg, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Professor Lisa Thomson Ross, College of Charleston, South Carolina
Professor Esther Rothblum, Editor, Journal of Lesbian Studies, San Diego State University
Professor Modhumita Roy, Director, Women's Studies, Tufts University
Professor Vicki L. Ruiz, Chair, Department of History, University of California, Irvine
Mary P. Ryan, John Martin Vincent Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
Professor Ann K. Schonberger, Director, Women's Studies Program, University of Maine
Monika Shafi, Elias Ahuja Professor of German, Interim Director of the Women’s Studies Program, University of Delaware
Professor Jenny Sharpe, University of California, Los Angeles
Professor Patricia Shelly, Associate Director, Gender Institute, State University of New York at Buffalo
Kaja Silverman, Class of 1940 Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Professor James Smith, Boston College
Professor Sandra K. Soto, University of Arizona
Dr. Mary Speidel, University of Arizona
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities and Director, Center for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University
Professor Arlene Stein, Rutgers University
Dr. Sally J. Stevens, Executive Director, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, University of Arizona
Professor Diana Strassmann, Editor, Feminist Economics, Center for the Program of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Rice University
Professor Veronica Strong-Boag, F.R.S.C., University of British Columbia
Professor Shannon Sullivan, Head of Philosophy, Penn State University
Andrea Sutton, Program Coordinator, Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies, Boston
Dr. Deborah Sweeney, Senior Lecturer in Egyptology, Tel Aviv University
Professor Elizabeth Tallent, Stanford University
Professor Bahram Tavakolian, Director of Environmental Studies, Denison University
Professor Gwynn Thomas, University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Professor Barrie Thorne, Chair, Gender and Women's Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Professor Nayereh Tohidi, Chair, Women’s Studies, California State University, Northridge
Professor Mary Trotter, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Professor M. Belinda Tucker, University of California, Los Angeles
Mary Tuominen, Warner Professor of Sociology/Anthropology, Denison University
Professor Susan Udin, State University of New York, Buffalo
Professor Margarita Vargas, State University of New York, Buffalo
Professor Lise Vogel, Rider University, New Jersey
Professor Berteke Waaldijk, Academic Coördinator of Thematic Network in Advanced Women's Studies Activities in Europe, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Professor Eamonn Wall, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Professor Laura Wexler, Chair, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Yale University
Professor Sophie White, University of Notre Dame
Professor Keira V. Williams, College of Charleston, South Carolina
Dr. Barbara Scott Winkler, Director, Women’s Studies Program, Southern Oregon University
Shiori Yamamoto, Research Specialist, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, University of Arizona
Virginia Yans, Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, Rutgers University
Dr. Arlene Young, Athabasca University