A Celebration of Gender Studies for the First Night of Ḥanukah.

On the 21st of November, I took part in a faculty panel as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the Gender Studies Master’s Program, the program in which I teach, at the Faculty of Humanities (FHS) at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.  The event featured the afore-mentioned faculty panel, a panel of program graduates, and an invited lecture entitled “Care as Taking Part,” by Prof. Estelle Ferrarese of the Institut Universitaire de France, organized in cooperation with CEFRES and CETE-P.  After the formal part of the program, we all enjoyed refreshments and socializing with current and former students, faculty, and staff.

Perhaps the reader of this blog has not heard about the existence of a Gender Studies Master’s Program in the heart of Central Europe.  I would like to take some time in my post this month to explain what we do and why we are, in the spirit of Ḥanukah, bringing more light into the world.

The Gender Studies Program at FHS has three tracks: what is called a Czech “present” program (meaning they attend classes every week), a Czech “combined” program (meaning these students attend courses once a month four times a semester from Friday to Sunday), and an English program.  The English Program is only offered in the “present” format.  The students take a variety of required courses in feminist literary theory, feminist history and politics, medicine, identity politics, feminist research methodologies, intersectionality, cultural studies, textual analysis, comparative sexualities, and more.  There are also a wide range of elective courses available to the students as well on postcoloniality, race, bodies, ecofeminism, post-socialism, art, museums, religion, geographies, psychology, and the list could go on.  This semester there was a new course on reading climate fiction, and I offered a new course entitled, “Lesbian and Feminist Separatisms,” in addition to the other elective course I teach in the winter semester.

This two-year Master’s Program is rather intense.  At 120 credits and a thesis requirement, it is one of the most demanding programs I have encountered.  Yet, the change that I see within the students from their start in the program to when they successfully pass state exams and defend their theses is immense.  They have grown not just in knowledge, but also in confidence, in conviction, and in presence, and their abilities to articulate their ideas and positions is almost unimaginable from their very first day in the classroom. 

At the same time, they leave as committed feminists continuing to do justice work.  This is true no matter the profession or calling they pursue.  In fact, some of the most interesting hard-fought feminist gains that the graduates of our program spoke about during the graduate panel were of the everyday variety.  One graduate mentioned a discussion with her children and the joy she felt as they self-identified in front of their classmates as feminists.  Another graduate discussed being aware of unacknowledged gender dynamics in a meeting and needing to reiterate numerous times within the meeting that his boss, a woman, is the one that makes the decisions, not him, the man.  

In the 20 year history of the program, we have had more than 400 graduates although many more students have stayed for a semester, a year, or have almost finished but then other duties got in the way.  We have made an impact in a country that approximately 35 years ago was still communist. That does not mean that everything is rosy; the Czech society still has a ways to go.  Nonetheless, the Gender Studies Program of the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University is a beckon of light as are my colleagues, our students, past and present, and the community surrounding and supporting us in a world that threatens to grow dimmer by the day.

Happy 20th Anniversary to the Gender Studies Program at FHS!  I hope that we will continue to flourish well, well into the future. 

May the light of justice burn bright this first night of Ḥanukah (and every night!).  Ḥag semeach!