Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies to celebrate 50 years at Ohio State

Melissa Meloui
Fri, 19 Sep 2025 01:19:07 +0000
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The Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies on Thursday. Credit: Daniel Bush | Campus Photo Editor

The Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies will host a two-day event Friday and Saturday to celebrate its 50th anniversary at Ohio State.

The celebration will begin Friday at 8:45 a.m. on the first floor of Hale Hall and end Saturday at 3 p.m. in Curl Viewpoint at Curl Market, according to the department’s website.

LaVelle Ridley, an assistant professor of queer and transgender studies in the department, said that the goal of the celebration is to reflect on the department’s history and provide opportunities to look forward and ensure another 50 years of success in the department.

The event will have three different alumni panels, ranging from some of the earliest alumni to recent graduates, Ridley said.

“We’re going to learn about what they’ve done with their degrees and how being at OSU has impacted them in terms of their current practice,” Guisela Latorre, a professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, said.

There will be an alumni oral history project during lunch on Friday where former students will share their testimonies and different experiences of being at Ohio State, dating back to the 1970s, Latorre said.

“A lot of those testimonies that are going to be shared are going to be uploaded to a website, so that we can keep that memory and that history alive,” Latorre said.

There will also be a dinner and dance party on Friday evening at the Ohio Union, said Mytheli Sreenivas, the chair and designated professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

“It’ll be a chance for us all to celebrate and reflect together about the last 50 years,” Sreenivas said.

The event will finish off Saturday afternoon with a feminist mural workshop led by Latorre, Sreenivas said.

Latorre said she wants to encourage attendees to add their art to large pieces of paper to create a paper mural to close the event.

“We’re going to work collectively to create images, create poetry or whatever way people want to express their joy and their strategies of resilience,” Latorre said.

Sreenivas said the event is meant to motivate people to work together.

“This is a celebration of what students and faculty have been able to achieve together, and I hope that makes them feel inspired about what we can do next,” Sreenivas said.

Ridley said she hopes that this event will motivate people to keep their head up and “keep the community bonds together.”