Women's and Gender Studies Collection

The Women’s Studies Program was founded at Pepperdine University beginning in 2001. The program was spearheaded by Dr. Erika Olbricht, a previous assistant professor of English, who noticed the lack of gender based curriculum at Pepperdine and organized professors to meet in 1999 to discuss the possibility of introducing a new curriculum. This meeting would lead to the proposal and introduction of the program as a minor in 2001.

The program’s goal, as outlined in the original proposal, is to highlight women’s contributions to academic, cultural, political, and historical institutions, as well as to encourage rigorous critical examination of assumptions about gender in our culture. The program was established in order to allow Pepperdine University to remain competitive with peer and higher ranked institutions, where Women’s Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies Programs had been largely adopted by the early 2000s, as well as in response to student interest and an expressed need on campus for a program related to women’s, gender, or feminist studies.

The program is an interdisciplinary minor consisting of nineteen to twenty units. According to the Program Learning outcomes, students graduating with a minor in women's and gender studies will be able to: explain the impact of gender on human relations within local, national, transnational, and/or global communities, both past and present; demonstrate interdisciplinary skills in research through analyses of femininity and masculinity in written, verbal, visual, and other creative forms; understand and analyze how race, class, ethnicity, ability, religion, and nationality intersect with gender identity in order to use this understanding in dialogue with others; and articulate and assess their own gender role assumptions and identity. The program enrollment fluctuates between 4 and 9 students. It primarily recruits students through social media, professor recommendation, and word of mouth.

The program is housed under the Humanities and Teacher Education Division but offers a wide array of courses across several divisions at the university in addition to a required Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies Course (WMST 300). These courses vary based on specific course offerings, but can include Gender and Communication (COM 411), Topics in Literature when deemed appropriate (ENG 380), Topics in the History of Women in the US (HIST 435), Women and Politics (POSC 409), Psychology of Gender (PSYC 334), Women in the Early Church (REL 312), Gender in Society (SOC 452), Women in Film (WMST 441). Additional courses that focus on women, gender, or in some cases sexuality may be approved for the minor by the dean of the Humanities Department.

The program has been directed by Dr. Erika Olbricht (Professor of English), Dr. Lee Carroll (Emerita Professor of English), Dr. Julie Smith (Emerita Professor of English), Dr. Maire Mullins (Blanche E. Seaver Chair of English Literature and Professor of English), Dr. Tanya Hart (Associate Professor of History), Dr. Loretta Hunnicutt (Professor of History). The current program director is Dr. Katie Frye, Associate Professor of English. Dr. Olbricht, Dr. Carroll, and Dr. Smith were all present for the original 1999 meeting of faculty in support of the program, and were involved in its foundation. Dr. Novak was also present, and while she did not serve as the program director, was also instrumental to the program’s foundation and early direction.

Beginning in Fall of 2022, the program became known as Women’s and Gender Studies rather than Women’s Studies. This change is informed by a more inclusive approach to the critical examination of gender and an increased focus on intersectionality with other cultural and political differences based on sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and ability. This change also reflects courses which focus on Gender as a whole, rather than specifically Women.

The goal of this collection is to promote institutional history within the program and increase student awareness and engagement with Women’s and Gender Studies on Pepperdine’s campus. Dr. Katie Frye, who has been director of the program since 2019, began this program working with Special Collections Librarians Bailey Berry (Librarian for Digital Publishing, Curation, and Conversion) and Christopher Miehl (Archivist for Special Collections and University Archives) to bring together materials.