Requirements

Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Major

The major consists of nine courses, including three required core courses.

Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Minor

The minor consists of five courses, including two required courses.

Additional Information and Program Policies

• One first-year writing seminar may count toward the major or minor.

• With prior approval, GSWS allows up to two transfer courses to count toward the major; one toward the minor. All core courses must be taken at the College.

• Courses count toward the major if grades of C- or better are earned. One course taken with the Credit/D/Fail grading option may count toward the major as long as a CR (credit) grade is earned for the course. No Credit/D/Fail courses may be counted for the minor.

• Note that GSWS theory courses require prerequisites: GSWS 1000–2969 or GSWS 3000 or higher.

• Only three of the six elective courses for the major may be from any single department outside of GSWS. Only two of the three elective courses for the minor may be from any single department outside of GSWS. The departmental affiliation of a course is considered the department of which the instructor is a member.

• No more than two independent study courses may count toward the major requirements, unless the student is pursuing an honors project, in which case the limit is three independent studies. Normally, students may count up to two independent study courses toward the minor requirements.

• Majors may double-count three courses with another department or program. Minors may double-count one course with another department or program.

• Honors: during the spring of their junior year, students who wish to undertake an honors project must secure the agreement of a faculty member to supervise their independent study project. The honors project supervisor must be an affiliated faculty member with GSWS. If the student’s chosen supervisor is not an affiliated faculty member, the student may appeal for permission from the GSWS Program Committee. Two semesters of advanced independent work (GSWS 4050 and GSWS 4051) are required for an honors project in GSWS.

• Departments and programs that offer GSWS classes include: Africana studies, anthropology, art, Asian studies, cinema studies, classics, economics, education, English, environmental studies, German, government and legal studies, history, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx studies, music, philosophy, psychology, religion, romance languages and literatures, Russian, sociology, theater and dance, urban studies.

Information for Incoming Students

First-year students interested in GSWS have many courses available to them. There are a number of first-year writing seminars as well as GSWS 1101 Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies  which is an introductory course assumes no prior knowledge about the study of gender, sex, and sexuality that introduces key concepts, questions, and methods that have developed within the interdisciplinary fields of gender, sexuality, and women's studies. It explores how gender norms differ across cultures and change over time and examines how gender and sexuality are inseparable from other forms of identification--race, class, ability, and nationality. It also considers the role that gender, sexuality, and other identity knowledges play in resisting sexism, racism, homophobia, and transphobia. It is offered each spring and is not open to students who have taken or are enrolled in GSWS 1103 Foundations in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies.

GSWS 1103 Foundations in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies  is an advanced introductory course intended for students with prior exposure, interest, or activism in gender and sexuality studies, and it prepares students for future course work in the major. Students are exposed to major areas of concerns for feminist and queer scholars. Students will read foundational texts that have led to the way that scholars now understand sex, gender, and sexuality along with its intersections with race, class, and disability. Students will understand the historic context in which foundational texts and theories emerged and ask how these ideas can be applied to contemporary anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-homo-transphobic, and anti-ablist practice. Not open to students who have taken or are enrolled in GSWS 1101 Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies.

First-year writing seminars offered or cross-listed with GSWS this fall: ENGL 1005 Victorian Ghosts and Monsters, GSWS 1010 Sex Work Is Work, and LACL 1045 Social Justice Warriors of the Americas.