Gender Studies has had an uneven and complicated history at The New School. Courses on gender were first taught at Eugene Lang College when that division was established in 1986. “Gender and Knowledge” was one of twelve concentrations available to undergraduate students. By the early 1990s, these twelve concentrations were reduced to six due to the college’s small faculty.

“Gender and Knowledge” did not survive the consolidation. Instead a “Cultural Studies” concentration included tracks in media, race and gender. Over time these tracks merged and the gender track became narrower. “Feminist Inquiry,” the founding undergraduate course in gender studies, disappeared from the curriculum. According to Ann Snitow in an oral history interview (transcript page 27), the development of media studies was at the expense of gender studies.

Despite the decline and disappearance of gender studies at the undergraduate level, a master’s program was developed at The New School in response to student demand. The MA in Gender Studies and Feminist Theory was first taught in 1993. Rayna Rapp, an anthropology professor at the New School for Social Research (at that time known as the Graduate Faculty), served as director. The MA program was short lived. The New School’s administration closed the program in Spring 1997.

According to Snitow (transcript page 30), the University's administration did not want the MA program and used the "Mobilization for Real Diversity, Democracy, and Economic Justice" as a justification for closing it prematurely. The Mobilization followed the denial of tenure to Jacqui Alexander – a gender studies professor of color at Eugene Lang College. It culminated in a hunger strike, which lasted nineteen days and involved students taking the provost and vice president hostage for five hours. The protesters were made up of students from many ethnic backgrounds as well as the LGBTQI community. In 2003, informal discussions began between engaged faculty to develop a gender studies minor at the undergraduate level. According to Snitow (transcript page 48), it was a deliberate decision by those involved to develop a minor rather than a major. By 2006, the proposal went through the committee process at The New School and received state accreditation in 2009. The minor in gender studies was launched in 2010 with a two-day conference, No Longer in Exile: The Legacy and Future of Gender Studies at the New School held at the New School's Theresa Lang Center.

As of February 2017, it remains a thriving program and the model for interdisciplinary minors at Eugene Lang College.

References

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Audio interview with Ann Snitow by Julia Foulkes and Wendy Scheir. 15 Oct 2014. The New School Oral History Program. NS.07.01.01. New School Archives and Special Collections Digital Archive. Web. 03 Jan 2017.

Ann Barr Snitow is an associate professor in literature at Eugene Lang College and senior lecturer in liberal studies at the New School for Social Research, both divisions of The New School. Her association with The New School began in 1973 when she taught a literature course for the university’s Adult Division called “Women Without Men.”

Snitow received her BA from Cornell University and a PhD in literature from the University of London. After her graduate training, she returned to New York City in 1968 where she was involved with the city’s first feminist radio show Womankind (directed by Nanette Rainone on WBAI) and other feminist activism.

Snitow was hired by Livingston College at Rutgers University in 1972. She was part of the nascent gender studies program spearheaded by Kate Ellis. By 1982, most of the gender studies faculty at Livingston were fired, including Snitow. Later, faculty at Douglass College developed gender studies at Rutgers into the thriving program it is today.

After leaving Rutgers, Snitow returned for a time to feminist writing and activism before being offered a position at The New School’s recently created undergraduate liberal arts division, Eugene Lang College, to help establish its curriculum.

Snitow arrived at Eugene Lang College in the fall of 1986 and was instrumental to the teaching and development of that college’s gender studies concentration. As gender studies at The New School has waxed and waned, Snitow has been central in developing new programs or specializations.