I have spent countless hours in the 3 small offices that comprise the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. They’re where I first read the life-changing words of Audre Lorde, where I brainstormed my first major organizing action on campus, where I’ve grappled with what it means to decolonize knowledge and education, and where I decompress with the honorary office dog, Jamie, in his “pups against patriarchy” sweater.
Until I found WGST, I was a frustrated first-year who was unimpressed by my government major. I felt disconnected from my professors and the other students in my class, and was totally uninspired by Plato the first time I had to read him, and the second, and the third. My Intro to WGST class was the first time I felt truly intellectually engaged at Georgetown, and after that there was no going back. I was hooked on the sweet, sweet juice of feminism, intersectionality, and dismantling oppressions.
The Women’s and Gender Studies Program is a truly unique space on campus. It’s one of the few entities at Georgetown where academics meets activism, where students gain the vocabulary to name their identities and life experiences, and where classmates are better described as friends.
As a senior I cannot even imagine what my Georgetown experience would’ve been like without WGST. I am forever grateful to the professors for their unending support and time, the courses that continue to challenge and re-challenge all I thought I knew, and the 3 offices that have felt like home on campus.