What’s so scary about gender studies?
BOO! Gender studies has been cast as the villain in today’s political theater—misrepresented, attacked, and even treated as a threat to society itself. But maybe what's so "scary" about gender studies isn't the critiques; it's the power of the field to expose oppression, envision more just futures, and imagine different worlds. To address the taboos about WGSS in a post-SB1 Ohio State, the department decided to host a Halloween-themed dialogue about the stakes of gender studies today, the challenges we face in and outside of the classroom, and the transformative possibilities we can collaboratively envision as a part of a unique community of like-minded feminist change-makers and revolutionary scholars devoted to uplifting liberatory education and organizing for generations to come. The panel brought together long-time professors Dr. Linda Mizejewski, Dr. Treva Lindsey, Dr. Jian Neo Chen, Dr. Shannon Winnubst, and Dr. Guisela Latorre on October 27, 2025 in the topically red Ohio Union Traditions Room. “What’s Scary” was a massive success with over 75 students in attendance. The discussion also introduced undergraduate students to our interdisciplinary WGSS faculty, gave us the forum to spotlight our upcoming hair-raising classes for the Spring semester, and emphasized the spook-tacular value of the WGSS major and minor in our current political moment.
The first annual Love Club
What’s Love got to do with it? This academic year, the WGSS department hosted its first annual Valentine’s-themed Love Club! February 26, 2026 marked the start of a new tradition of undergraduate-focused dialogue that critically engages Love through its expansive implications. The event was hosted by PhD graduate student, Kashif Dennis, and Ali Alkhalifa who mediated a dialogue between Dr. Ashley Smith-Purviance, Thaís Lopez Espinosa, Amika Starr, Katie Johnson, and Bhada Han as their respective research and community work shaped our dialogue on Love. In the MLK Jr. Auditorium, WGSS students, faculty, and staff fostered a learning community where our shared experiences and WGSS theories and frameworks converged to bolster critical dialogue and spawn an artivist craft-making session. As part of the programming, attendees created handmade Valentine’s cards to creatively share their ideas of love beyond the event with friends and family. In addition, Amika Starr guided our Love Club through a letter-writing activity to send words of support and encouragement to an activist behind bars, Tarek Bazrouk. We were able to send over 20 letters to Tarek, someone rendered "unlovable" both for their activist work and status as incarcerated.