Strengthening women's studies through applied activism: Theoretical, classroom, regional, and cross-border strategies for participating in change

Through activist scholarship Women's Studies has helped to support material and cultural change in the university and in social-change projects around the world. To strengthen Women's Studies social-change applications, this article stresses the importance of consciously integrating material and cultural knowledge and recognizing material feminism's historical, social relational, and local-to-global contributions. Applied activist knowledge in Women's Studies would be enhanced by more engagement in theoretical, classroom-based, and organizational work in regional and cross-border feminist social-change networks. Examples are drawn from the author's experiences teaching Women's Studies, her work in feminist theory construction in relation to historical analysis, and her activist research in U.S. urban areas, the U.S. Great Plains, and in regions of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. Emphases are placed on the grounding of gendered and intersecting hierarchies within our historical, global society; the connection of social-change frameworks to an exploration of democratically defined women's and community needs; and the preparation of applied activists for the work of developing new, redistributive models of inclusive regional and global development.