Women's Studies at NMSU

Our Program

Women's Studies at NMSU is an interdisciplinary program focusing on the study of women, gender, and sexuality in a global context. Faculty specializes in Journalism and Government, US Comparative and Multi-Ethnic Studies, Postcolonial and Diasporic Studies, and Gender and Sexualities Studies in Contemporary Literatures and Visual Cultures, and Mexican and Native American Studies. Classes are offered in topics such as Women and Public Policy, Transnational Feminisms, Alternative Genders and Sexualities, and Gender and Horror. Our Program equips students with foundational approaches in feminist thought as well as providing a progressive curriculum. Affiliated faculty across campus contributes to our set of courses helping to make Women's Studies at New Mexico State University an exciting program of study.

Mission 

Women's Studies classes are taken by people of all ages, races, classes, sexualities, genders, and cultures. They teach analytic and critical thinking about the social construction of gender in relation to such factors as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, disability, and age. Feminist pedagogy is innovative and decentralized, encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning, and to think critically and creatively in dialogue with others. In Women's Studies classes, students re-examine traditional ideas about gender roles and identities; learn about women's experiences and contributions across cultures, communities, and historical periods; develop the significant analytical skills demanded by feminist theory and methodology; and prepare for a wide variety of job fields. After graduating from our program with majors, minors, or graduate minors our students enter any number of professions or choose to pursue further educational opportunities. In fact, many of our students are double-majors combining Women's Studies with another field of study. 

To that end, we seek to provide a rigorous and rewarding major and minor in Women's Studies, to encourage and support quality scholarship by and about women, to sponsor university based events relevant to women, to develop community partnerships and promote service learning, and to work with other academic units at NMSU to facilitate students in their learning. Underlying these endeavors is a fundamental commitment to equality, diversity, and social justice.

A Brief History 

Women's Studies at NMSU emerged through conversations among women scholars on campus in the late 1980s. Many of these scholars had begun their academic careers during among the women's liberation movements in the 1970s. Their lived experience in the academy and their identification with movements for change during the 60's and 70's informed these early conversations.

After attending a national Women's Studies conference in 1988, Dr. Joan Jensen returned to NMSU determined to work with others to form a Women's Studies Program here. She organized an ad hoc committee to create the proposal to form the Women's Studies Program. On February 3, 1989 the committee presented their proposal to then Dean Thomas Gale. The proposal was accepted and approved later that month and Dr. Jensen became the first Women's Studies Program Director.

The Women's Studies Program was home first to a minor and eventually an interdisciplinary supplementary major. A committee of faculty from across several disciplines created the proposal for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Women's Studies in 2004. The first majors in Women's Studies were welcomed in 2005.

Under the leadership of Dr. Lisa Bond-Maupin, Director of the Women's Studies Program until fall 2010, Mary Benanti became the first regular faculty member in Women's Studies at NMSU in 2007. She was joined in 2009 by the first tenure track faculty members in Women's Studies, Dr. Manal Hamzeh and Dr. M. Catherine Jonet. In 2010, Dr. James Maupin took the reins of leadership with Prof. Mary Benanti serving as Women's Studies Liaison. In 2012, Dr. Laura Anh Williams was hired in January and became the next Director in August of the same year. Dr. Jennie Luna started at NMSU in August 2012 as tenure track faculty jointly hired by the Women's Studies Program and the Honor's College.

*This history is based primarily on the paper, "Gaining a Voice: The Formation of the Women's Studies Program at New Mexico State University" by Maria Woodard (2008) with additions as our story changes.*

Women's Studies Program
New Mexico State University 
MSC3WSP
Box 30001
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001

Fax:(575) 646-6096
Email: wstudies@nmsu.edu

Dr. Jonet is the coordinator of this website as well as a Twitter feed, Facebook group, and Tumblr page connected to Women's/Gender Studies.