About Our Program | Women Studies

The Women Studies Program at Oregon State University was founded in 1972 and has since grown to include four full time faculty and more than 50 faculty members from across the University.

Each term, more than 500 students take Women Studies courses, either to meet baccalaureate core, major, minor, graduate requirements, or for personal interest and fulfillment.

Our core faculty members are (from left to right): Dr. Patti Watkins, Dr. Janet Lee, Dr. Patti Duncan, Dr. Susan Shaw.

Dr. Patti Watkins is a clinical psychologist, whose research interests include women's body image issues. She also teaches Violence Against Women, Self-Esteem and Personal Power, and Women, Weight, and Body Image.
She also teaches one of our introductory courses, as well as, Violence Against Women, Self-Esteem and Personal Power, and Women, Weight, and Eating Disorders.

Dr. Janet Lee is a sociologist by training, although in recent years she has begun to write in women's history. She teaches several sections of one of our introductory courses, as well as, Feminist Teaching and Learning, Theories of Feminism, and Feminist Research.

Dr. Patti Duncan specializes in transnational feminist theories and movements, women of color, and Asian Pacific American women's writings and experiences. Her courses include Women of Color in the U.S., Asian American Women Studies, Disney: Gender, Race, and Empire, and Systems of Oppression.

Dr. Susan Shaw is the director of the program, and her research interests include women and rock 'n' roll, and women and religion. She teaches Women and Sexuality, Systems of Oppression in Women's Lives, Feminist Theology and Spirituality, and Hate, Resistance, and Reconciliation.

Our faculty members have won numerous teaching, research, and development awards and are actively involved in the life of the University.

SO WHAT'S WOMEN STUDIES?

Women Studies puts women's concerns at the center of academic study. Women Studies Classroom Collaboration

At the same time, we recognize that women are themselves very different from one another, and so we also pay close attention to the ways that race, ethnicity, social class, sexual identity, ability, and age intersect with gender in women's lives. Our courses examine a wide range of topics-from sexuality to spirituality, from science to self-esteem.

Women Studies also practices feminist pedagogy in the classroom and feminist ethics in our dealings with students and others outside the classroom.

Our classes are student-centered and discussion-oriented. Our goal is to help students develop critical thinking skills that they can apply in broader contexts. We encourage community involvement and activism, and our minors and graduate students complete internships in social change agencies.

Women Studies graduates go on to a variety of other academic programs and careers.

Our graduates are therapists, professors, non-profit administrators, physicians, librarians, and government workers. Women Studies gives students a perspective to take with them into any career. Our graduates tell us that Women Studies has provided them with a lens with which to understand the world, to analyze the ways gender is operative in the situations around them, and to develop strategies for social change in their local communities and the larger global community.