Resource Library

The Association works, via our leadership and member-driven committees/constituency groups/taskforces, to develop a number of resources available to both the public and exclusively for our members. We're excited to move through this season of growth and collaboration - as we transition to new leadership and stabilize the operations of the National Office, we're galvanized about more resources, more learning opportunities, more space for kinship, more sites of collaboration and coalition building, and more, and more, and more. We invite you to review our current offerings of resources and encourage you to let us know what you would like the Association to offer in the future.

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Navigating Attacks on Our Field | Advocating for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS)

The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) collects resources related to understanding the increasing attacks on Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies and organizing under the Trump-Vance Administration. We’re immensely grateful for members of NWSA, our colleagues at our sibling organizations, and stakeholders in the work that is made possible through anti-racist, decolonial, transnational feminisms. This document is "live" and updated with more resources and opportunities as they arise. 

*Please note that this reviewers list is accessible to members of the Association and is visible when logged in to your account!

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Programs Directory

The NWSA maintains a list of Women’s, Gender, Feminist, and Sexuality Studies Programs in the United States and Canada. This is an ever-growing and shifting list as our field faces consistent critique and attack via anti-DEI and harmful policies. Our 2024 Summer Fellow, Auna McConnaughey (Colorado College '25) worked diligently to update and develop a more robust directory - degree granting programs, including Bachelor's and Certificates are now listed with pertinent details.

View the Directory

AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom Resources

The new Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) views academic professional associations as key allies in the defense of academic freedom and the National Women's Studies Association is proud to elevate their curation of resources - which are all the more needed in this socio-political climate.

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External Funding Opportunities

The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) is a small non-profit organization with a large reach of membership and engagement. We know that our members navigate varying and compounding socio-political issues that impact their ability to participate in NWSA events - like our Annual Conference - and support their own scholarship and activist work. We invite you to explore this growing directory of external funding opportunities, which was curated by Azaria Hampton, our 2024 Summer NWSA Fellow from Colorado College ‘26.

Explore the Directory

Feminist Frequencies

As part of our initiatives to reconnect with our membership, we are excited to offer #FeministFrequencies, a podcast series named and hosted by our Executive Director, Kristian Contreras.

Feminist Frequencies is a conversation space brought to you by the National Women's Studies Association that aims to sit between learning environments and community spaces. Think of Feminist Frequencies as a third space for feminists: leaving abstraction at the door and talking tangibly about what it takes to live and breathe feminisms.

Explore the Episodes!

Feminist Scholarship & Action for this Moment: Assignments & Course Planning Resources

The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) recognizes the service, innovation, and leadership exemplified by our incredible membership. In a climate where many - including a number of our students, peers, and administrators in and outside of formal academia - question the vibrancy and utility of a Women's, Gender, and Sexuality studies, we're particularly proud of our members, Dr. Dána-Ain Davis and Dr. Christa Craven in their offering of this resource - a series of assignments and curriculum tools grounded in feminist ethnography that exemplify "the power of collective scholarship and activism, and our influence as teachers to inspire critical thinking and action in our classrooms!"

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Program Evaluation

NWSA compiles a list of potential program evaluators from among the NWSA membership. 

NWSA requests that all potential program evaluators meet the following minimum requirements for appearing on the list.

  • Have served as a Women's Studies program or department head or have special expertise in a particular subject area;
  • Have undergone a program evaluation themselves;
  • Is a current individual member and/or is the director of a program/department have been an individual member of NWSA on a continuing basis for 3 years;
  • Show evidence of research and teaching experience in Women's Studies

*Please note that this reviewers list is accessible to members of the Association and is visible when logged in to your account!

Women's Centers Resources

The first postsecondary women's center was founded in 1960 at the University of Minnesota and the legacy of addressing national issues of gender equity and support continues to expand - despite the increased efforts to dismantle and disappear this work. Our colleagues in campus-based women's, gender, equity centers (WGEC) work tirelessly to "deploy an intersectional lens in their work" and strive to address the historical (and in many ways ongoing) and institutional contexts that challenge the reach of Women's Centers (Bickford, 2019).

These resources are developed by WGEC educators and advocates and we are proud to amplify these materials. We welcome suggestions, feedback, and collaboration as we curate more robust resources for our community members.

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Wellness Resources

We know that, as Audre Lorde wrote, that “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Tricia Hersey reminds us that Rest is Resistance, and I hear Alexis Pauline Gumbs' writing constantly reminding us all that survival is a promise:

The university was not created to save my life.  The university is not about the preservation of a bright brown body.   The university will use me alive and use me dead.  The university does not intend to love me.  The university does not know how to love me. The university in fact, does not love me. But the universe does.

And so I am proud to make available our growing directory of mental health resources - a labor of love between myself, Kristian Contreras, and our 2024 Summer Fellow Azaria Hampton (Colorado College, Class of 2026).

Explore the Directory

An Ethic of Accountability | Educational Resources for Meaningful Solidarity

From crossing the academic picket line in 2022 and undermining our commitment to BDS to relegating members with disabilities to the margins to operating in ways that are inconsistent with organizations of similar scope and size, especially blurring the lines between President and Executive Director, the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA or the Association) has understandably lost a lot of respect and trust. 

The fissures within and throughout our 2023 Annual Conference warrants/ed continued restorative work that is one facet of a much larger, layered, and intentional quilting of what is possible for the field and as feminists. Therefore, the National Office worked to curate an offering of resources specific to sites of occupation and the current genocide of Palestinians.

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Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Journals 

The Association proudly supports the work of journals relevant to the fields of Gender, Women's, Feminist, and Sexuality Studies - especially as we strive to uplift scholarship, as well as creative work, that exemplifies the multidirectional and multivocal facets of our field! 

The Association recognizes that WGSS-grounded scholarship and literature lives beyond the confines of academia and we seek to uplift all avenues of publication that celebrates such work. Therefore, our Directory is constantly growing - should you have recommendations, please contact us at NationalOffice@nwsa.org

Download the Directory

Association of University Presses Subject Area Grid

Our colleagues at the Association of University Presses cultivated a free, downloadable spreadsheet that can be sorted by subject or publisher, for publishing based upon subject area. The grid offers an accessible overview of 130 subject areas published by more than 140 of the Association’s member publishers worldwide - it is our hope that prospective authors, researchers, librarians, bibliographers, and publishers engage this valuable reference for discovering publishers that have either an active program acquiring new work in a subject or in-print backlist still available.

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Annual Conference Resource Lists 

Our Annual Conference is the Association's core program - we bring together over 1,500 members to support the work of women's studies practitioners, amplify and disseminate research on the field, and cultivate multi-racial, multi-ethnic programs, services, and operations that align with our investments in feminist world making. 

We strive to keep the conversations that arise at our annual gathering flowing; it is vital that we provide resources that augment the discussions we are able to have on-site; I invite you to review the companion resource lists for every Plenary and Presidential Session featured in our 4th Annual Conference program. These resources were curated by members of the Governing Council in an effort to align with my (Kristian Contreras) and our President, Heidi R. Lewis’ visioning for the future of NWSA. 

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What's On Our Bookshelf

When we're not conference planning, working on member engagement, or organizing our archives, the National Office takes pause to reset and reflect. This looks like re-reading your kind emails in our #WarmFuzzies email folder, practicing mindfulness, snoozing emails, and revisiting rich lessons from our past Author Meets Critics (AMC) and Celebration of New Books and Authors presenters at the Annual Conference. Explore the work of our members - maybe you missed their session or are curious about scholarship that we've featured in the past - whom we are proud to have on our bookshelves!

Our Virtual Bookshelf

GET: The Project – Free Gender Equity Curriculum & Student Certification

The Representation Project, a leading gender justice organization fighting sexism and harmful stereotypes through films, education, and activism, now offers GET: The Project - a resource on addressing critical issues such as gender-based violence, mental health, media literacy, and leadership development

The curriculum, aimed at high school and college students, features eight modules that cover critical topics like healthy relationships, body image, healthy masculinity, and gender justice activism. Each module includes facilitator guides, handouts, and video clips from our award-winning films, Miss Representation, The Mask You Live In, and Fair Play. Evidence from the program shows measurable improvements in students' ability to advocate for themselves, understand healthy masculinity, engage in gender justice activism, practice mindful social media use, and more.

Program highlights:

  • Free Access: Available to all at no cost.

  • Certification: Students receive a Certificate of GET Program Completion.

  • Comprehensive Support: Each module is designed for easy implementation, either individually or as a series.

  • Impact: Students have reported significant knowledge gains and a notable decrease in sexism.

Explore Get: The Project