Summary

The Centre for Women's Studies at James Cook University was established as an independent research centre in 1994 and formally disestablished in 2012. The Centre for Women's Studies has continued in various iterations through to the present day. This archive records the many contributions of the Centre to the scholarly life of James Cook University and to the local feminist community.

The archive includes a range of formal and informal documents that exemplify the activities of the Centre for Women's Studies. The collection also features several interviews with women who contributed to the establishment of the Centre and highlights the sustained impact and value of the Centre for Women's Studies for university staff, students, and community members. The archive records the ways in which the Centre for Women's Studies was able to provide an important space, both within the university and more broadly in the community, where interdisciplinary feminist knowledge and research was highly valued and supported. The volume and quality of post-graduate research projects, many receiving national recognition and success, attests to this claim. The importance of linking with, and contributing to, the local community through vibrant national and international feminist events is highlighted as an important strategy, in sustaining the influence of the Centre for Women's Studies over a significant period.

The archive also documents the many challenges confronted by those involved in the Centre for Women's Studies including, but not limited to, the ongoing and sustained pressure to dilute and temper the focus on women by expanding the title of the Centre and its purpose to include all gender issues. The documents and interviews included in the archive describe the processes of resistance various women engaged in as they fought to preserve the women-centred focus of the Centre. One important aspect of this preservation was the integration of the Centre for Women's Studies into the social work discipline where it remains an entity long after the formal cessation of funding.

Much of the work in creating this archive was made possible by a generous bequest from Ginni Hall (1932–2020), senior lecturer in Social Work, past Director of the Centre for Women's Studies, and highly respected local feminist.

List of this archive's contents

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