UT Austin consolidates gender and ethnic studies programs

AUSTIN, Texas — According to a letter from Jim Davis, president of the University of Texas at Austin, there will be a number of consolidations in the ethnic and gender studies departments at the school’s College of Liberal Arts.

This follows months of pressure from conservatives to eliminate gender and culture-related programs at the university, and after a decision from Texas A&M University earlier this year to eliminate its Women and Gender Studies department under similar pressure.

The following three departments will become the Department of European and Eurasian Studies:

Department of French and Italian
Department of Germanic Studies
Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies

And four others will become the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis. They include:

Department of African and African Diaspora Studies
Department of American Studies
Department of Mexican American and Latina/Latino Studies
Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

In the letter, Davis said that these consolidations result from a review of several factors, including “size, scope, academic mission, student demand, student-to-faculty ratio, resource allocation, and other dimensions.”

The consolidation was first announced in an earlier meeting via phone call, according to the Austin American-Statesman. They indicated that neither the Asian Studies department nor the Middle Eastern Studies department were represented on the call, and there is no word on any potential change to either department.

Being recognized as an official department is important for funding, tenure and decision-making within the university’s structure. There is no word on layoffs in the current departments, and none were announced in either the call or the letter.

“There can be no reason for this decision other than an authoritarian takeover of Texas’ flagship university,” Lauren Gutterman, associate professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, told the Statesman. “If this was about too much fragmentation or small majors, then why are departments like Religious Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Classics unaffected?”

Davis said in the letter that there will also be a review of the curricula in these departments to determine the path forward in the new fields of study.