Making I.S. Feminist

Independent Study projects in the Women's Studies (later WGSS) Program at The College of Wooster have, from the Program's inception, challenged traditional academic norms both in form and content. WOMN/WGSS IS projects have consistently pushed the boundaries of the traditional thesis model, with work presented as novels, memoir, documentaries, manifestas, vlog (video blog) series, studio art exhibits, performance, and as virtual reality video games.

Student interest in some topics has been enduring and others have shifted over time.  This line graph shows some of the most studied topics over the decades since the first WOMN majors completed I.S. in the mid-1980s. (Click on the image and then the image file to enlarge.)  You can see interest in feminist approaches to race & racism peaking in the early 2000s and again in the 2015s, the increasing attention to LGBTQ+/queer experiences since the early 2000s & transgender experience since the 2010s, consistent interest in topics like activism, body image & beauty ideals, feminism & religion, and masculinity, as well as a renewed commitment to global, transnational, and decolonial feminisms in recent years.

Looked at in a different way, the Bubblelines below show the shifting frequencies of terms like feminism/t, women, gender, queer, trans*, activism/t, and masculinity over time.