About Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Our vision statement
As an academic unit at UW-Eau Claire, the race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality studies department coordinates teaching, research and scholarship in the field of REGSS. This is a unique academic program that incorporates praxis--practice that is informed by theory and gendered analyses. REGSS is a discipline in its own right yet operates most often in multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary modes.
Enacted as a discipline, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality studies is a site of social change/activism as much as theory; therefore, the program supports and incorporates the following theoretical approaches to REGSS courses:
- They are taught with feminist pedagogical techniques and from a feminist theoretical perspective;
- They integrate theory with activism whenever possible; and
- They advocate for gender justice both on campus and in the larger community.
Though other offices advocate for gender justice on campus, REGSS currently serves as an identifiable center for focused concern about issues of climate affecting women students, faculty and staff at UWEC. In addition, REGSS actively fosters interaction with surrounding communities.
Program objectives
The teaching and learning process in race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality studies is centered on inter-disciplinary research, collaboration, and services. Outreach and action projects are integral parts of this process. Interaction with the world tests academic theory learned in coursework against the realities of women's lives. The race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality studies paradigm thus incorporates teaching, research, and service as necessary components to developing curriculum and extending frontiers of knowledge in an evolving interdisciplinary field and a changing world.