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Help us celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Gender Studies Program at the University of Arkansas!!! Together, we can support the program's next 50 years.
In the 1973-1974 school year, a large group of students at the University of Arkansas successfully petitioned campus leadership to create a Women's Center at 746 Douglas Street in Fayetteville to meet needs of female students who wanted more spaces to discuss issues like the wage gap, the Equal Rights Amendment, and violence against women. That same school year, Professor Margaret Bolsterli in the English Department taught the first gender course on campus called "Women in Modern Literature."
Together, these initiatives sparked decades of coursework, research, job training, and outreach in what we have, since 1993, called the Gender Studies Program. Always student-led, the Gender Studies Program has been adaptive to the interests and needs of its student body, particularly after its introductory course was added to the University CORE requirements in the mid-1990s.
Indeed, in the fifty years since the Women's Center was founded and the template for what became the Gender Studies Program began, thousands of students have benefited from the Program's research opportunities, coursework, and outreach. Hundreds of faculty have taught in the program and courses on gender-related issues appear in nearly every major on campus. Today, the program offers more than 30 courses including Communication and Gender, LGBTQ+ Histories, and Race and Society.
In the month of October, we're celebrating half a century of scholarship, teaching, job training, and mentorship with a campaign to raise $10,000 to support student scholarships, student research projects, and student conference travel! This fundraiser will work toward the larger goal to endow the program at $50,000!
With your generous donation, we can begin to secure the next 50 years of the Gender Studies Program and expand student support opportunities! Our goal is to establish a fund dedicated to Gender Studies - ideally, through an endowment - and we're asking you to help us get part of the way there. If an endowment is not attainable, your gift today will still have an impact on University of Arkansas students by providing immediate scholarship and program support!
Now more than ever, as demand surges for research opportunities, internships, networking opportunities, independent studies, and coursework in Gender Studies, we need the community support that has always been the bedrock of this program and of a land-grant research institution like the University of Arkansas!!
Click to give $19.73 for the year the Women's Center opened and gender coursework first appeared on campus! We'll send you heartfelt snail mail thank you!
When the Women's Center launched, its first yearly budget line item at the University of Arkansas was for $4,682. Support the program for its next 50 years with a gift of $46.82! We'll send along a digital thank you with some incredible historical materials!
In 1982, students and faculty created a Women's Library on campus that eventually housed over 1,000 books to read and lend, in a space dedicated to academic lectures and readings on campus. The Library closed in 2000, but the books were donated to Mullins Library for historic preservation and are now housed in Special Collections! Donate $82.00 to celebrate the Women's Library and we'll send along a digital thank you with some of the treasure from the Women's Library collection at Mullins Library!
Hard Labor was the self-published magazine produced by members of the Women's Center and it was full of articles, poetry, art, events, and ads. It showcased queer content and even included the first examples of men's consciousness raising groups! In 1973, advertisers could purchase 3 full-page ads in Hard Labor for $150! Celebrate the history of independent print culture with a gift of $150 and we'll send along a digital thank you with fabulous vintage Hard Labor ads!
Many of the students in our program have never traveled out of Arkansas. Help us support student travel to conferences, archives, and exhibits that help enhance their research with a $250 gift! We'll send you a digital thank you with student travel stories!
In 1972, the U of A's Association of Women Students (already 50 years old at that time!) proposed the creation of a Women's Center. They offered $500 to help the group who would succeed in founding the Women's Center only a year later! Donate $500 in honor of this august group and we'll send you a digital thank you from GNST faculty members!
In 1996, the Humanities program in Fulbright College was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Grant to fund what is now the Gender Studies Program at the University of Arkansas! Larger and more inclusive than the Women's Center, the Gender Studies Program is home to an undergraduate minor, a graduate certificate, a popular research colloquium series, and a spring research roundtable! Give here to celebrate the early grant writers who made the Program sustainable! We'll add you to the Gender Studies website in thanks for your support!
