In the Fall of 2020, during a contentious election season and against the backdrop of a pandemic that ran unchecked in our community, I taught a class titled "Introduction to Feminist Theories" at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. For 15 weeks, we met on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 75 minutes at a time. We discussed feminist thought, broadly defined, and in the process we couldn't help but notice how the rhetoric swirling around us about democracy, about morality, and about whose lives matter in the United States of America converged with the reality and the inconvenient truths that shaped and continue to shape life at the University of Georgia. 

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This project, which applies a critical feminist and anti-racist lens to the past, present, and future of Greek life at the University of Georgia, was designed and brought to fruition through a process of collaboration and a generosity of spirit that is all the more impressive considering the circumstances under which it came into being. At its core, this project represents an awareness and articulates a belief that white supremacist patriarchy and its legacies cannot be remedied until recognized.

 

Though they might suspect how much they have come to mean to me, it is an honor to write this foreword and memorialize my admiration for this group of students. It has been my privilege to steward their learning during an otherwise impossible time. I am sure you will learn as much, if not more from them in these pages as I did over these past three months.

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Rumya S. Putcha, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

The University of Georgia

Athens, Georgia

December 8, 2020

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