Florida Archives Spotlight: The Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, FIU University Archives

Florida International University Special Collections & University Archives

In 2025, FIU Libraries celebrated the expansion of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies (CWGS) digital archive, a project developed in collaboration with CWGS intern, Amanda Sentmanat-Perez. This collection preserves over four decades of feminist scholarship and academic activity, from its beginnings in the 1973 Institute for Women, founded at the urging of activist Roxcy Bolton, to the formalization of the Women’s Studies Center in 1982, and the ongoing work of today's CWGS.

Now available in FIU’s Digital Commons, the archive includes scrapbooks, photographs, event programs, newsletters, occasional papers, and recordings featuring notable scholars such as Mary Daly, Betty Friedan, Lois West, and Elena de Jongh. The materials showcase the Center’s role in shaping feminist discourse in Florida and beyond.

Link: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cwgs-archival/

Submitted by: Rhia Rae, Florida International University Special Collections & University Archives