Gender & Women's Studies

Major, Minor

How We Work

1. Our faculty come from many backgrounds, but we're equally committed to a feminist understanding of our fields. With more than a dozen cooperating faculty from a variety of disciplines, your path through the major will be as diverse and varied as your own interests. You may take Women Playwrights with theatre professor Elizabeth Carlin-Metz, Global Feminism and Antifeminism with political science professor Karen Kampwirth, or Gay and Lesbian Identities with psychology professor Heather Hoffman. 

2. Our feminism is intersectional. In Theory in the Flesh: Writings by Feminists of Color, you'll investigate the question of why non-white, non-middle class women have challenged Euro-American feminism through the rich contributions of women of color to feminist theory. Classes like Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement, Race & Gender in the U.S. Welfare State, and LGBT Politics in Latin America help us explore the intersections of identity and find a basis for feminist solidarity.

3. We're active thinkers and thoughtful doers. We know that feminism doesn't just exist in the classroom. It is a way of navigating-and changing-the world. In order to pass the introductory course, Women, Culture, and Society, you must complete an Action Project to better life on campus or in your own communities. But we also know that activism requires thoughtful preparation, so we are committed to giving you the research skills and knowledge of theory to put your ideas into action.

4. We want you to forge your own path. With only three specific courses that are required for the major, you'll have the freedom to choose how you'd like to concentrate your attention. Your experience will culminate in a Capstone Experience involving significant individual initiative. Some of our students pursue a research project, some undertake an internship, some join in the Women's and Gender Studies in Europe Abroad Program, and others create something uniquely their own.

5. We're motivated to deeply understand society. We want to know where power is located—and why. You'll take two courses in another discipline, one of which must be a methods or theory course, in order to provide a base for the interdisciplinary nature of our program. You'll examine how academic disciplines have shaped our ideas of what knowledge is: how it has taught us who or what is worthy of study and which questions are worth asking.