In 2006, Women Studies students traveled to New York and Washington, DC for a course in feminist organizing. During the course, students met with feminist activists and volunteered in feminist organizations. Connecting with older generations of second wave feminists and younger generations of third wave feminists, the students developed a sense of the possibilities for feminist organizing and social change across a wide variety of issues. In New York, the group met with the staff of the Third Wave Foundation, as well as young women leaders from the YWCA, the New York Commission on Women's Issues, the White House Project, the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, the International Organization for Adolescents, and the Women's Institute of the Gay Men's Health Crisis. Young feminist writers Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner talked to the group about their own work in feminist activism and signed copies of Manifesta, the textbook for the course. The course also coincided with Eve Ensler's "Until the Violence Stops NYC" project, and so the students took in a number of theatrical and film events related to the project. In DC, the group met with Bernice Sandler, the Godmother of Title IX, and leaders from the Women's Research and Education Institute and the American Association of University Women. The students also spent time with Representative Darlene Hooley D-OR in the Capitol.
For more information on when the next Feminist Organizing class will be held, please call 541-737-3082.
For a downloadable application, please click here.