Madam, - I was bemused by Sean McDonagh's letter of January 12th. Clearly, Mr McDonagh has been out of contact with his Alma Mater, NUI Galway, for a considerable time, since women's studies have been in existence at that university since 1988.
In recent years, the centre has expanded, and I'm certain the same gentleman will be even further distressed to learn that we not only facilitate the development of women's studies, feminism and gender-related issues, but offer "academic" programmes at pre-graduate, undergraduate and post-graduate levels.
I can only assume that Mr McDonagh's own background is in physics, or perhaps classics - certainly it must be in one of those disciplines that might arguably hold a primary place in any discussion of university origins. And, clearly, it would suit Mr McDonagh better if we reverted to the idea of a university that had no connection to the changes that occur around it, and admitted no new departments or disciplines to its ranks; though if we did that, of course, there would be no sociology, anthropology, archaeology, political science, law, biochemistry, nursing studies, commerce, engineering or economics - fields that are all as historically based as women's studies ever was.
For Mr McDonagh's information, the modern concept of disciplinarity is a product of the 19th century and is linked to a number of important shifts in Western epistemology, including the evolution of the modern natural sciences, a general "scientification" of knowledge, the industrial revolution and technological advancements, among other things. I would remind him also that "academic" once simply concerned the academy or the site of learning, while "discipline" was not used to describe a particular brand of learning, but the exercise of one's mental faculties. That Mr McDonagh feels so hostile towards women's studies says much to me about the real danger of a form of anti-intellectualism that would judge applying our mental faculties to study one half of the world's population as a waste of time.
For my own part, I'm happy to be associated with a field that struggles with inequities and injustice, and which exposes the foolishness of dividing human knowledge into categories - which get labelled as "disciplines" when they often mean institutional/departmental structures. The true nature of "discipline" surely requires that we continuously strive for something beyond categories and certainties. - Yours, etc.,
Dr REBECCA PELAN, Director, Women's Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway.