Get Herald RSSMichel Foucault writes in "Discipline and Punish" that "discipline" is a force that "makes individuals; it is the specific technique of a power that regards individuals both as objects and instruments of its exercise." Discipline, both in terms of penal and academic-institutional power, defines and regulates subjects. Once subjects internalize discipline, they become self-regulating and no longer need to be punished.
Gender studies at Brown is fantastically self-conscious in its attempt at subversion; by understanding itself as interdisciplinary, the concentration refuses to submit to any single epistemology, methodology or even ontology. Instead, it draws from a wide range of knowledge, thought and discipline, as do the various other interdisciplinary programs at Brown, which include urban studies, development studies and ethnic studies. The problem with interdisciplinary programs at Brown is that the University asks and allows programs to be interdisciplinary but then punishes them precisely because they are not single disciplines or departments.
I will be the first to praise the academic flexibility that comes with having an interdisciplinary concentration. It has allowed the five gender studies students in this year's senior seminar to shape their courses of study according to themes ranging from transfeminism to creation of marked subjectivities, from eating disorders and media to intersex assignment surgeries. However, while the University claims to support our intellectual pursuits by funding a number of cross-listed courses, Brown has failed to support our programs as such, leaving concentrators desperate and potential concentrators disheartened.
For example, there are no upper-level gender studies classes this year other than our one-semester senior seminar (an option which will no longer exist after this year, as it has been eliminated through a merger with sexuality and society). The two other upper-level seminars were cancelled for lack of funding, despite their popularity even outside of the gender studies concentration. Courses that had once been offered by advanced graduate students - a compromise that benefited all involved - have also disappeared due to bureaucratic complications.
The lack of funding to hire more gender studies professors or instructors to teach even the basic core courses has left the program's few instructors scrambling to cover them all.
Though I realize that the University is interested in having the majority of its courses taught by instructors with professorial status, I wonder whether the institution is not grossly misguided when its policies lead to not having classes offered at all. This institutional preoccupation with status is preventing one of the most brilliant, thoughtful scholars I know from teaching this semester - simply because she's not a professor. Of course, the funding and oversight issues are complex, but since when has Brown been an institution that stops at the first sign of difficulty?
Some might argue that this trend is excusable because there is relatively little interest in the field. I would counter that there is plenty of interest, on the parts of both faculty and students. Sadly though, professors cannot teach courses that are not funded, and students cannot take courses that are not offered.
It is not acceptable for the University to simply neglect the needs of interdisciplinary students by pointing to the range of cross-listed courses available. At the end of the day - or at the end of shopping period - it doesn't matter if a limited-enrollment seminar is cross-listed in gender studies (or any other interdisciplinary program), because interdisciplinary concentrators do not get preference in courses that are not "ours." We never get the privilege of being "senior concentrators" when the 20 seats in cross-listed seminars go to the modern culture and media, English and history students in whose departments these classes have their primary listings. And while lower-level lecture courses are great, their appeal starts to wear off once you're facing the end of your senior year with nothing but waitlist seats in classes that were supposed to be the highlight of your undergraduate career.
Brown is in the midst of the largest fundraising campaign in its history, and there is no reason that the institutional focus on established conservative disciplines should continue to negatively affect interdisciplinary students' experiences. The University needs to make good on its promise to students and staff and provide support to the programs it claims to be so proud of. We will not be disciplined, and we refuse to be punished.
Kate Horning '07 relaxes by reading Foucault.
