The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
Feminism has never been more necessary. The need for queer politics and community, for trans joy and inclusion has never been more urgent. In the U.S. alone, more than 45 anti-trans bills have already been passed this year, with hundreds more in the works. Globally, violence and legislation against women and queer people has been called an epidemic, part of a larger resurgence in populism, nationalism, natalism and anti-immigration.
These problems will not fix themselves. They require collective action and community support. Alongside our allies at the PWC and LGBT Center, we are committed to making GSWS and FQT the home for queer, feminist and trans politics at Penn, and we are inviting you to join us.
GSWS is a degree program that offers a major, minor and graduate certificate to the Penn community. Our courses provide students with the necessary tools for thinking critically and politically about gender, sexuality, race and identity. FQT is the intellectual home for research and policy thinking on feminism, queer theory and trans studies. In addition to a pivotal trans oral history project, we run a podcast and offer year-round programming.
Last year was the 50th anniversary of the GSWS program, which gave us the chance to reflect on the incredible activism that was required to start our program, and to sustain it over the last five decades. To keep it going for another 50 years, we need your input, involvement and support!
If you’ve never had a chance to make it to one of our events or take one of our courses, please come see what we’re up to and how you can get involved. If you can think of programming that you’d like to see, let us know and we’ll do what we can to support you. If you’ve been involved with GSWS/FQT in the past but haven’t been involved lately, now is the time to sync back up. We are calling on our allies and co-conspirators to help us build the tools and communities we need for promoting queer, feminist and trans politics at Penn and in Philly.
Here's our message in video. Please join us!
