About Us

Welcome to The Greater Philadelphia Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Consortium.

The Greater Philadelphia Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Consortium was founded in 1993 as a project of the Greater Philadelphia Human Studies Council. The consortium provides a forum for the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Programs of fifteen of the area's universities and colleges to coordinate programming on topics of importance related to gender and society.

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The Consortium also serves as a network for directors of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies programs. In addition, the Consortium hosts a Student Research Conference and a Scholar in Residence every year.

We have sponsored visits by Scholars in Residence Dr. Chandra Talpade Mohanty (2017), Ruth Wilson Gilmore (2014), Heidi Hartmann (2013), Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (2012), Karen Barad (2011), Audrey Kobayashi (2010), Kate Bornstein (2009), Patricia Williams (2008), Afsaneh Najmabadi (2007), Raka Ray (2007), Janet Jakobsen (2006), Cherrie Moraga (2005), Cynthia Enloe (2004), Octavia Butler (2003), Anne Fausto-Sterling (2002), and Patricia Hill Collins (1995). We have also hosted public lectures by Jean Franco, Barbara Ehrenreich, Akasha Gloria Hull, and Susan Bordo.

We hosted our first annual GPGSWC Student Research Conference on Saturday, April 27, 2013 at Temple University. The second annual GPGSWC Research Conference took place on Friday, April 4th, 2014 and was co-sponsored and hosted by Villanova University's Gender and Women's Studies Program. The third annual GPGSWC conference was held on Friday, April 17, 2015 at Temple University. The fourth annual conference was held on Sunday, April 10, 2016 at Temple University. The fifth annual conference took place Friday, April 7, 2017 and was co-sponsored and hosted by Villanova University's Gender and Women's Studies Program. The conference builds upon the success of the Geis Student Research on Women Conference held annually at the University of Delaware for over 20 years. The conference is open to graduate and undergraduate students at GPGSWC member institutions to attend or present their research related on women, gender and sexualities. The conference has provided graduate and undergraduate students with the opportunity to share their research and network with other students and faculty.

GPGSWC has also organized several other conferences: Environmentalism, Sustainability and Gender (2010); Gender, Pedagogy and New Technologies (2003); What Does It Mean To Be Human: Gender and Disability Across the Life Course (2001); Women and Islam: The Challenge of Combining Tongues (2000); Women and the Law: Retrospect and Prospect (with the Women's Law Project, 1999); Seductions and Betrayals: Latin American Feminisms and the New World Order (with the Latin American Studies Consortium, 1998); Feminism Across the Generations (with Pennsylvania NOW, 1997); and Feminist Perspectives on Welfare (1996). In addition consortium members coordinated campus specific events to address concerns about women in war and conflict during the 2003- 2004 academic year.

In conjunction with Dr. Hartmann's visit as Scholar in Residence, GPGSWC participated in an Advisory Group to the Status Report on Girls, Young Women and those who identify as female in Philadelphia co-organized by the Girls Justice League and Women's Way. In conjunction with Rosemarie Garland-Thompson's visit as our 2012 Scholar in Residence, GPGSWC co-sponsored two special exhibitions as part of our theme of Gender, Disability, and the Arts. What can a body do? was held at The Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College in Fall 2012. Access-Ability: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Art for Access was held at The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College in Fall 2012.

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