An Important Message from our Department Head

Dear Friends of WGSS,

The good news is that Week 11 of the semester is over! The bad news . . . is that there is still a lot of difficult news to process. I’m thinking a lot about the political violence that has become increasingly commonplace in our country, and the increasing threats to our democratic system. Today is the midterm elections and so much is at stake, not only in terms of the outcomes, but in regard to the democratic process itself. A recent poll by Reuters/Ipsos reports that 2/5 US voters worry about voter intimidation and violence at the polls. See Exclusive: Two in five U.S. voters worry about intimidation at polls -Reuters/Ipsos | Reuters.

This is not likely a surprise, but still a very disturbing trend. Tensions are at an all-time high, both at macro and micro levels. I hope that over the coming week, you are able to have thoughtful discussions with your students about the importance of voting – and of continuing to fight for social justice even when that feels impossible. And exhausting. No matter what happens on election day, our department will be ready to respond to the needs of our students and to those of our larger community. We are already thinking ahead to the next semester and how we might develop programming that responds to this important political moment.

In solidarity,

Alicia Decker
Department Head, WGSS