Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago is a vibrant interdisciplinary department made up of scholars who study a wide range of topics critical to an expansive understanding of how and why gender and sexuality matter in the world. Whether we collect oral histories of Mexican origin women in Chicago to detail and document their extensive commitments to Chicago, or we seek to understand Arab American diasporas impact the lives of women and men in Beirut, Detroit, and San Francisco, or how LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) activists have transformed debates about justice and liberation, we are a community of scholars, students and staff who are committed to the city of Chicago as a global city.<br><br>They share our work with the communities we are in and serve, testifying to our strength as an engaged academic unit. We have been consultants to documentary films, curators for museum exhibitions, expert witnesses in sexual violence and women’s immigration cases, and designers of creative community-based programs. All of these forms, when coupled with our stellar collective record of publishing in both academic and popular venues, widens our reach in and outside the university and allows us to be in conversation with other institutions and communities doing related work.