English is, arguably, the most interdisciplinary field of study. It lends itself to a plethora of sister subjects, including Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSWS). These two departments are intimately linked at the University of Pittsburgh, with a long history of overlapping students and instructors—including English Literature professor and current head of the GSWS program, Nancy Glazener.
Nancy Glazener
“English departments have often been places that spawned spin-offs or contributed to other programs. Whether you’re thinking about literature in relationship to structures of language or whether you’re thinking of it in relation to culture and history, there are reasons why this spans out,” Dr. Glazener said in a recent interview with T5F.
Three professors from the English, History, and Psychology departments came together to found the Women’s Studies program in 1972. Women’s Studies would later become GSWS in 2014, after the faculty reflected on the increasing amount of LGBTQ+ content being taught and updated the program title to accommodate that. The first director of the Women’s Studies program was founding member and Emerita English Professor Mary Briscoe, who would later go onto become the chair of the English department.
Dr. Glazener is the fourth English-based director of GSWS. She argues that the relationship between GSWS and English is naturally occurring. "English departments have always been historically feminized. Whether or not women were equally treated or represented in this field, there have been more women who chose to study English, language, and literature than a number of other studies. Consequentially, there have been lots and lots of affiliated faculty, cross-listed courses, and graduate certificates based in English and related to the GSWS program,” she explained.
Book cover: Newton, My Butch Career
This year alone, GSWS offered 10 courses cross-listed with the English department, ranging from more obviously linked topics like Sexuality and Representation and Queer and Transgender Literature, to courses like Seminar in Composition: Gender Studies and Introduction to Critical Reading: Psychoanalysis and Literature—all of which are predominantly English courses tailored to the interests of a potential GSWS student. They also list numerous sponsored events with English and other departments at the University each semester, bringing in authors and guest lecturers to supplement the existing curriculum. For example, this past fall, the program hosted Esther Newton, a pioneering LGBTQ studies scholar and author of the recent My Butch Career: A Memoir (Duke, 2018), while the Writing program offered a related nonfiction workshop led by Senior Lecturer Jennifer Lee.
This overlapping educational culture only serves to benefit the students who interact with it, as it allows them to investigate and identify their own interests when building their academic coursework. In fact, the relationship between the English department and the GSWS program may be best illustrated through the experiences students who chose to major in both subjects. Abhignya Mallepalli, a 2019 alum who triple-majored in Nonfiction Writing, GSWS, and Neuroscience, recalls that, while there are many educational routes that lead to GSWS, hers started with a particular English course, Literature and Science.
“In Lit and Science, I wrote and graphic-designed a white paper based on [Philip K. Dick's] Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and those interests led me to later major in GSWS," Mallepalli, who is currently pursuing an advanced degree in Health Policy and Management at the Columbia University School of Public Health, said. "English taught me to write effectively and conduct socially conscious research. GSWS really worked to inform what I wrote about. It exposes you to historical concepts, as well as current events.”
Abhi Mallepalli
The white paper, titled ‘Building a Modern Woman: A History of Sacrificing Women’s Health, Bodies, and Lives’, was later published by Forbes and Fifth Undergraduate Journal. Mallepalli appreciated the support of her professors, who she said were sure to take into account her personal ambitions and aspirations in their interactions, rather than treat her as an “every-student”.
“There’s a real community in the English department. With my writing major and GSWS, I took classes with professors I knew. I got to explore my own interests, while filling my portfolio at the same time. My office hours weren’t about my grades, they were about my future. That was really valuable to me,” she said.
Krithika Pennathur, another recent graduate who majored in English Writing, GSWS, and History, credits her undergraduate studies as an integral part of her character.
“When I came to Pitt, I really found a home in English and Gender Studies, because they gave me an opportunity to explore myself and my identity through my work, but they also helped me become a better activist and a better human,” she said.
Krithika Pennathur
Pennathur is currently pursuing Masters of Science degrees in Public Health and Health Policy at Johns Hopkins University. While she was an undergraduate student, she was able to combine her passion for storytelling and social activism to form Unmuted, a club at the University of Pittsburgh dedicated to giving sexual assault survivors a platform to raise their voice and share their experiences.
“Without the English and GSWS departments, I don’t think I would have been able to as thoughtfully create that programming. It helped me build a strong personal foundation, and not only for my activism," Pennathur said. "Now that I’m a student of Public Health and health policy, which is typically an economics and statistics heavy field, having that liberal arts background allows me to challenge the ways we think about policy and what we consider evidence.”
The students and faculty at the University of Pittsburgh continue to prove not only that English and GSWS are important, society-shaping studies, but that a background in them has the ability to affect fields one would assume are unrelated. Despite the modern STEM obsession, the ability to research, write, and discuss real-world issues carefully and respectfully is not losing relevance, anytime soon.
If you are a prospective student interested in majoring in English or GSWS at the University of Pittsburgh, please follow the embedded links for more information and opportunities.
—Sarah Tomko
Sarah Tomko, associate editor for T5F, is a junior Public and Professional Writing and English (Fiction) Writing major, with a minor in Religious Studies.