Feminist Digital Center

Welcome to the Feminist Digital Center: Open Access Student-Based Research and Writing Collaborations at the University of Washington Bothell. The Feminist Digital Center, co-curated by Dr. Julie Shayne and Denise Hattwig, is a hub for student feminist scholarship at the University of Washington Bothell. Projects you’ll find here include the Feminist Community Archive of Washington, Feminist Archive Exhibits, Badass Womxn and Enbies in the Pacific Northwest zines, student reflections, public writing, and more.

Why Feminist Knowledge Preservation Matters

By Tessa Denton and Dr. Julie Shayne

Intersectional feminism is about more than academic theory or physical action. Feminist writing and scholarship tell hidden and/or minoritized histories and allow for those intentionally silenced to use their voices. This Feminist Digital Center is a space for internal discovery and external change in which community can be fostered through shared experience and collaborative efforts to dismantle discriminatory institutions shaped by patriarchy and white supremacy. This space is not just about women or women’s rights – it is about widespread marginalization of peoples in intersecting communities and social locations, including gender presentation, sexuality, race, nationality, disability, class, age, size, and more. It is in writing, reading, and sharing these texts that ideas are spread and the silenced are heard.

If feminist knowledge and histories are not deliberately documented, those stories are lost both to time and to erasure from the very institutions feminist work intends to dismantle and then reconstruct. As we hope this site captures, it takes intentional effort to curate feminist scholarship, activism, and pedagogy, or it will disappear. Purpose and passion fueled the design of the class projects, which ultimately translated into students having the opportunity to collect and document the histories housed here; many of which were deeply personal and validating for the student scholars.

Feminists always take the lead in capturing the stories that others will let evaporate without our activism and this project is yet another example of that. The Feminist Digital Center is about documenting the feminist scholarship of UW Bothell Students so that it can continue to be accessed and shared to educate, incite change, and transform. We invite you to browse this site so you can explore and discover students’ engagement with feminist communities and organizations in the Pacific Northwest, original research, and writing with a purpose. There is so much more work to be done, but to get there, we must remember and build upon that which has come before us.