How should feminist studies in the United States mobilize for action?

How should feminist studies in the United States mobilize for action? Karsonya Wise Whitehead (bio) Editors of Pandemonium spoke with Karsonya Wise Whitehead on June 23, 2023. This is not a moment for us to be quiet. This is a point where the NWSA National Women's Studies Association needs to stand in front of our members to support them. My role as president is to use our big, really huge, platform to speak up in this moment and be active. We're facing multiple battles at this point. It's not just women's and gender studies that is under attack, it's also African American history and LGBTQIA+ studies. So it is a multilayered challenge, and all of these issues are equally as important, but they're equally as taxing, and so, yes, the question definitely is: where do we go from here? When I take a look at what is happening around the country and what has been building to the moment that we are in, I'd say we were not prepared for how vicious the attack was going to be, I don't think. We have been watching this build in support of what is happening in places like Florida and Texas. And maybe that did not surprise us so much—I mean seeing all this take place in Texas or North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, even Ohio. But what is surprising is the way in which the conservative End Page 85 right has been able to organize on the local level. And that's giving me a lot of reason for concern. I think we have spent a lot of time watching the national level, watching those politicians, or watching what governors are doing, making sure that we are putting people in those offices, but we haven't been paying enough attention to the local organizing. So if you look at West Virginia and the fact that even though West Virginia positions itself as a blue state, we know it's purple, because on the local level you have conservative right-wing politicians who have been voted onto the school board, or the town council, and that's where the attacks are taking place, and the impact is really being felt. Yes, I would say it's a twofold attack. I think sometimes people conflate the two levels of attack, and I'm not sure it is strategic for us to do so. I think there's a very specific set of attacks on American education happening in the pre-kindergarten through twelfth-grade environment. And when you start talking about public and independent elementary and high schools, well, that is a different attack than what's happening in colleges and universities. Colleges and universities are places where you can really push and believe in and exercise free thought. That's where students are taking courses in women's and gender studies and sexuality studies. They can choose how they want to design their major. Professors in colleges can—well, if their departments are not being closed—still offer those types of courses, and students can participate in this sort of open and free debate and exchange. We can still invite speakers to be able to delve into these topics. And, even if our department has closed, even if we're being funneled to other departments, we can think about what the next step is going to be for ourselves as teachers and as scholars. That's a different battle than what's taking place in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade right now in the U.S. These people's livelihoods are at stake; they are at risk of losing their jobs, or in some states (if you think about Florida and Texas, specifically) you can possibly be arrested and charged with a crime. When you combine that with the book banning? And what's happening with libraries? Well, I think it's clear we have to respond to this in ways that go well beyond just what we see happening in colleges and universities. My greatest concern is what's happening in pre-K through twelfth grade, and so the work around...