Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven has announced that it is changing the name of its Women’s Studies Program to the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. In addition to the name change, the program will be strengthened with new offerings.
Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, stated that “we never doubted for a moment that we taught gender studies. The program’s name was Women’s Studies, but within Women Studies, we know it’s about women, but it’s not all about women; it’s about the world we live in looking through multiple lenses.” Dr. Lin explained that the name change is a good way to help the faculty recenter the classes offered by the department and help the professors within it rethink their teaching.
“Whatever the name we give our program – Women’s Studies or Women’s and Gender Studies – it’s all about transforming our world for the better, really for our children so that we leave behind us a better world,” Dr. Lin added.
Dr. Lin holds degrees from National Taiwan Normal University and Tamkang University.
Women make up 61 percent of the undergraduate student body at Southern Connecticut State University, according to the latest data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education.