Women’s and Gender Studies Major

The major in Women’s and Gender Studies consists of at least 36 credits.

A total of twelve credits must be taken at the 300-level or above.
Women’s and Gender Studies majors who have taken a first-year seminar with a member of the Women’s Studies faculty may petition the Women’s and Gender Studies Coordinator to count that FYE towards credit for the major.
Women’s and Gender Studies Majors are urged to pursue internships, service learning opportunities and independent research that will complement their course work in Women’s and Gender Studies.
Courses in Four Specific Areas. These new areas replace the earlier two areas. They were designed explicitly to expand students’ horizons beyond the lives and perspectives traditionally centered in American feminism: white, straight/cisgender women living in the U.S. Therefore students will build their major by choosing one from each area.

Major requirements

Twelve credits in:

Sixteen credits in area courses:

Students will choose four credits from each Area

Eight elective credits:

Eight credits, chosen from any area but not used before.

(Note: other courses may qualify for these various categories with permission of the Coordinator of Women’s and Gender Studies)

Area #1: Choose four credits from a sexuality studies lens

Courses in this area take a critical and contextual approach to the study of diverse genders, sexual identities, and sexual practices.

*Cross listed courses are also accepted

Area #2: Choose four credits from a race & ethnicity studies lens

Courses in this area show how gender can be understood in its relationship(s)to race and ethnicity and their impact on systemic inequality and lived experience.

*Cross listed courses also accepted

Area #3: Choose four credits addressing gender and its interaction with power and place beyond the United States

Courses in this area explore the diverse ways in which gender is constructed around the world and examine gender’s dynamic interactions with power and place. Courses in this area may focus on gender in a single national context and/or in a transnational perspective, but they should be based on experiences beyond the United States.

*Cross listed courses also accepted

Area #4. Choose four credits with a disciplinary perspective on gender and power

Courses in this area question the representation of gender in various academic disciplines – either in the subject matter those disciplines study, or in the makeup of the disciplines themselves – and provide tools for exposing often-obscured relationships of gender and power.

*Cross listed courses also accepted