Theory and Praxis

Community colleges enroll over 40% of all undergraduates, catering to historically underserved, less privileged, and minority populations. Women’s and gender studies programs, with their focus on connecting the personal and political, exposing the constructedness of knowledge, centering the experiences of the   oppressed, and emphasizing the connection between knowledge and activism, are thus critical sites of learning on community college campuses, and these spaces at community colleges are important points of intervention for the larger field of women’s and gender studies. 

Despite their importance, women’s and gender studies at community colleges are woefully under-researched. Theory and Praxis: Women’s and Gender Studies at Community Colleges is the first book on this topic. By bringing together voices from faculty, researchers, program administrators, and students, this edited collection provides a comprehensive look at the promise and challenges of these important sites of higher education. The topics addressed include:

• historical narratives and current data on women’s and gender studies at community colleges;

• theoretical discussions of critical and liberatory pedagogies in the community college classroom and an articulation of these spaces as inherently activist sites;

• strategies and suggestions for curriculum development, co-curricular programming, and assessment; and

• critiques of the positioning of community colleges within neoliberal frameworks.