by Victoria Stavish

The University of Maryland’s College of Arts and Humanities announced earlier this month that the women’s studies department will be named after Harriet Tubman. The department will now be known as the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, marking the university’s first honorific naming of an academic department. 

Born in Maryland, Tubman became an abolitionist, activist and a crucial member of the Underground Railroad after escaping slavery. Tubman is recognized as one of the most remarkable activists to date and played a pivotal role in the fight for both racial and gender equality.

“Harriet Tubman’s life and her dedication to freedom and equality speaks directly to the department’s mission, now and in the years ahead,” University President Darryll Pines wrote in a campus wide email. 

This name change represents advances in the field of women, gender and sexuality studies as a whole, not just at this university, said Bonnie Thornton Dill, the dean of the department. 

“The department was looking at the ways in which the field of women and gender studies was changing nationwide. They wanted to reflect on what they were doing in the name of the department and all of the aspects of the work that they cover,” Dill said, adding, “It was in the context of that conversation that the faculty came up with the idea of naming the department after Harriet Tubman, because that would reflect the full range of work that they do.”

Senior communications major, Arielle Hall, said she believes that the renamed department is a great first step for the university to continue honoring women.

“It’s critical for women to be honored for their achievements and receive recognition for all that they’ve done,” Hall said. 

The decision to officially change the department name took about two years, partly due to the lack of formal guidelines or policies about honorifically naming departments, Dill said. When the department finally made its recommendation, it had to be approved at both the college and campus level first. Then, the Board of Regents held the final decision. 

Department faculty also took time to meet with Harriet Tubman’s relatives to gain their support, and so that the family could learn about the department and its goals before announcing the name change. 

“In my mind, it’s an act of restorative justice in many ways,” Dill said. “This was a segregated university until 1951 … Having Harriet Tubman’s name and ideas represented in our curriculum as well as having a square and a memorialization of Frederick Douglass, who are two of the most important Marylanders in U.S. history, is significant at the state flagship university.”

In 1951, after the Board of Regents met in a special session to review and discuss his application, Hiram Whittle became the first Black student to be admitted to the University of Maryland. 

Now more than 50 years later, the University of Maryland continues to try to create a more collaborative, safe space for women and racial minorities alike. Some students, though, think that the department’s name change simply isn’t enough. 

“The University of Maryland should continue to find ways to highlight the accomplishments of women in history and continue Tubman’s legacy by recognizing the accomplishments of the current women scholars attending UMD,” Hall said.

Featured photo: Woods Hall houses the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Photo by Victoria Stavish.