The Women’s Studies Program at William & Mary was always destined to be bigger than its name implied. In 1991, the program emerged with its own major, but the birth of feminist research at William & Mary preceded this formal recognition. The inaugural Women’s Studies course was conceived by a group of Arts & Sciences faculty who recognized and valued the interrelations between gender studies and their own areas of scholarship. In 2013, the program was renamed Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, a change that reflects the program’s aspirations for the growth of feminist research and activism at William & Mary. Today, the program’s reach connects faculty and students from all corners of campus. The humanities, the sciences, the social sciences, and the professional schools all share a collaborative voice in GSWS at William & Mary.

On display here is an interdisciplinary collection of scholarship and research works by GSWS core and affiliated faculty. From transgender literary studies to marital law review; from women in ancient science to domestic labor in Turkey; from racial and sexual violence in the postemancipation South to the politics of reproduction, GSWS faculty confront existing ideological frameworks in which women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and other underrepresented groups are marginalized. By engaging students in internships, activism, technological inquiry, and research, GSWS faculty connect scholarship at William & Mary to the global community.

View Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies faculty profiles on W&M ScholarWorks, a W&M Libraries service that provides open access to the active research & scholarship produced by our faculty, staff, and students.

Library Liaison to the GSWS Program: Candice Benjes-Small, Head of Research
Exhibit preparation: Jacob Hopkins, Mosaic Fellow; Marian Taliaferro, Digital Scholarship Librarian; and Jennie Davy, Exhibits Manager
Exhibit design: Abram Clear '21, SCRC Graphics Student Assistant
Exhibit installation: Daniil Eliseev '19, Undergraduate Student Assistant; Ashley Gonzales, Makerspace Coordinator & User Services Supervisor; and Jennie Davy