The University of Iowa’s Department of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024.
In 2025, it may no longer exist as an individual department.
Established in 1974 as the Iowa’s Women’s Studies Program — one of the first in the United States — the program has since progressed to include a wider study of gender and sexuality, including the current social justice major.
As the spring 2025 semester begins and students start to settle into classes, the University of Iowa will once again propose changes to the UI curriculum offered in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In February, the university will go to the Iowa Board of Regents for approval to create a new School of Social and Cultural Analysis.
The university announced the proposal last month, stating the new school is a part of a “multi-year administrative restructure of the college intended to better serve students and faculty.” The college received approval from the regents for similar proposals in fall 2024, including creating a new School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability.
The creation of the new school will result in the shifting of operations for many programs and departments within the college, including a new major and a Bachelor of Arts degree offered in Social and Cultural Analysis.
If approved, the Department of American Studies and the Department of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies would both close. The current Bachelor of Arts degrees offered in American Studies and Social Justice would also close. However, all other majors, minors, and certificate programs would move into the new school come fall 2025, including:
- The new Bachelor of Arts degree in Social and Cultural Analysis
- The Bachelor of Arts degree in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies
- The African American Studies; American Studies; Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies; Gender, Health, and Healthcare Equity; Latina/o/x Studies; Native American and Indigenous Studies; and Social Justice minors
- The Jewish Studies and Native American and Indigenous Studies certificates
Fewer than 60 students are currently enrolled in the majors of American Studies and Social Justice. The press release states the creation of the new school would simplify the operations of the interconnected departments, as the existing programs have limited faculty and overlapping curricula. These aspects create challenges “for faculty in sustaining teaching capacity.”
Roland Racevskis, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences associate dean for the arts and humanities, said in the release multiple department chairs and directors run the current programs. In the proposed school, abbreviated as SCA, there would be a singular leadership team that oversees the operations of the programs offered, and all faculty would be moved into it.
“This new structure would provide better coordination of curriculum across these related programs, easier pathways for degree completion, and support for interdisciplinary research opportunities,” Racevskis said in the release.
Additionally, the proposed new degree aims to prepare students to go into fields like education, research, public policy, and community engagement, where they have to understand and analyze the world, Cornelia Lang, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences associate dean for undergraduate education, said in the release.
“Students in this major would be able to connect their individual experiences and ideas to larger social contexts,” Lang said. “This would prepare them well for potential careers or graduate work in cultural studies and related fields through highly adaptable skills like analytical thinking, effective communication, and research.”
If approved by the regents, the change and the new school will go into effect on July 1 for the 2025-26 academic year along with the new School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability.
UI students, professionals wary of potential changes
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Sara Sanders said in the December release the proposed change would help further the foundation the UI has created in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies while also enhancing the student experience, supporting faculty, and encouraging collaborative research across fields.
“The creation of a School of Social and Cultural Analysis would allow us to build on our considerable legacy in areas that are essential to our mission while creating more sustainable structures and room for innovative new curricula,” Sanders said.
Jeneane Beck, UI assistant vice president for external relations, added in an email to The Daily Iowan that all associated courses would also be moved into the new school.
Additionally, UI Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies Department Chair Hyaeweol Choi wrote in an email to students that was later shared with the DI, students currently majoring in social justice will continue to be supported by the department as they complete their degrees.
Some UI students, however, are concerned about how these changes could impact the future of the field of study. Madison Bruce, a fourth-year UI student majoring in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, said her experience in the department has helped her develop critical thinking and analytical skills that help her understand the world.
Bruce worries that, if passed, the changes could condense or limit the information currently available for students to learn. Each program has different histories and underlying theories that guide it, and she is concerned those could be lost in the new school or major.
“I am just questioning, what does it mean to have these all combined into one program of study? Like, are there going to be concentrations within that? So, I’m curious to see what that actually looks like in practice,” Bruce said.
With plans to graduate in May, Bruce also worries about how a new school and the closing of the well-known Department of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies could impact her in the job market.
“My resume and my history will always say that I graduated with a B.A. in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies from University of Iowa. And if any people look into that, they’d see that program is gone. That program doesn’t exist,” Bruce said.
Bruce has also recruited prospective students for the department in the past during Hawkeye Visit Days and worries the newness of the school will not interest students like the current program can.
“Even if this change in structure is just a change in name, which I feel like might be the sort of reasoning behind it, a change in name will still affect the way that the department runs, and it also will really affect the way that we draw in new students,” Bruce said.
Katie Henry, a UI third-year student minoring in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, is also disappointed with the proposal. Henry said she was initially confused about what the changes would mean for her ability to complete the minor. She added that she hopes the university would want to promote diversity and inclusion through these areas of study.
“Just the idea of condensing so many of these amazing fields of study that are so important to so many people makes me really sad because it just feels like the university is trying to discredit these [areas of study],” Henry said.
Nick Davis, associate professor and director of the Gender & Sexuality Studies Program at Northwestern University, is also worried about the ripple effects of closing the departments on the larger field of study. Davis said in an interview with the DI that other universities, including the University of California, Santa Cruz, have made similar closures in recent months.
“I think there’s plenty of concern to go around … This closure and its contexts, and the one at UC Santa Cruz and some others, are amplifying, I think, a collective nervousness that did already exist,” Davis said.
While the proposal can create concern and uncertainty for the future of the field of study, Davis added that it does not necessarily have to have a negative impact. Overall, the decision of the program’s future should be a collective one, aimed at aiding both students and faculty. In his role at Northwestern University, Davis said he often tells colleagues and students that gender and sexuality studies is a language department. The skills learned in the study allow people to discuss many different topics, including the changes in the field today and what might come of closures of programs like the UI’s.
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“I think a lot of Americans speak only one language, and we’re happy when we acquire even a second one, and being able to talk articulately and confidently and with nuance about gender and sexuality, feeling comfortable with terminologies, understanding how things sound the same are actually different is a huge asset, whatever you’re going to go on to do,” Davis said.
With many humanities programs across the country facing challenges such as budget, enrollment, and political threats, however, Davis said liberal arts and social sciences as a whole could be seeing a time of unpredictability.
“Campus, professional, state, and national politics are in such chaos and uncertainty and concern in these areas that it’s impossible not to be projecting at least the chance that this represents a real retrenchment in an important field that students care about,” Davis said. “It might not be true, and I hope it’s not, but you cannot blame anybody for asking that question.”
UI proposal draws political attention
Among other worries of UI stakeholders is that the decision is connected to the recent push by the regents to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at Iowa’s three public universities, which includes the UI.
If approved, the proposal would go into effect on the same day as Iowa Code Chapter 261J, which builds upon Senate File 2435, the law prohibiting any DEI office or employment of staff tasked with duties of a DEI office, the requirement of anyone to provide a DEI statement, and the preferential consideration to anyone on DEI principles. Iowa Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, posted the word “winning” on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, as a response to the news of the potential closure of the departments on Dec. 23, 2024. Since then, Rep. Collins has pushed for the regents to reject the UI’s proposal and eliminate the program completely via a letter written with Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia.
Evans told the DI the goal behind the letter was to urge the regents to evaluate all programs at Iowa’s public universities. Evans said the regents should consider if programs are meeting not just the needs of the students but the needs of Iowans.
“The letter was to encourage them to take a deep dive and a deep look into this before approving anything and see how that’s going to benefit Iowa taxpayers,” Evans said.
Evans added that he thinks the discussion around a potential new school and the department closures ties into the topic of DEI on the surface.
“That’s why we want the Board of Regents to pump the brakes, not necessarily just approve this upon recommendation in February so that the Board of Regents is assured that they’re aligning with what the intent of last year’s legislation was,” he said.
This vocal support of the closing of the program from politicians is what worries Elisa Burba, a UI fourth-year minoring in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies. After seeing Rep. Collins’ reaction, Burba worries the proposal is political alongside being beneficial for the UI.
“I don’t think these are histories that need to be more difficult to find. I think these are stories and communities that need to be uplifted more, and I would hope that the new school would be able to do that,” Burba said.
Burba said the changes to higher education, especially in DEI regulation and restriction, make her feel ominous about the future of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies in the state.
“Just the way that you see education kind of moving in Iowa in particular, and conversations surrounding what should and shouldn’t be taught in the state, it definitely doesn’t make you have a positive outlook for this change,” Burba said. “There’s a precedent for trying to continue to marginalize these stories, and it’s one that I worry that the Board of Regents would continue.”