Learn More About GWSS
Â鶹ÊÓƵ offers a major and a minor in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. This interdisciplinary program examines gender and sexuality as cultural and social categories that organize and shape human experience.
Students will interrogate the social meanings of femininity, masculinity, sexual behavior, and desire as integral to the ways that groups and individuals construct their identities within and across a variety of historical, social, and cultural contexts. To this end, students will also examine the ways that gender and sexuality intersect with other categories of social difference, such as race, class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, ability, and age. Students will explore such topics as constructions of femininity and masculinity, the history of feminism, gender roles and relations, and cultural configurations of sexual desire and identity, all in discussion-based classes.
Courses in the GWSS program come from a variety of disciplines. A multidisciplinary approach provides students with a foundation for thinking more broadly about categories of social difference and the various cultural and legal institutions that produce and sustain them. Students who successfully complete the program will be exposed to a wide array of methodologies regarding the history, theory, and practice of gender studies and will gain extensive experience with writing and research with a strong emphasis on information literacy.
In order to develop personal experiences with and perspectives on the workings of gender in Western and non-Western societies, the GWSS program recommends that students consider off-campus (international or domestic) academic programs. The GWSS program makes every effort to work with students in selecting courses from these programs that may be applied to the major or minor requirements. See Center for International and Cultural Education Office for a complete list of available programs, or contact the Center for International and Cultural Education for a list of programs that would be particularly interesting to GWSS students.
In keeping with the mission of the College, students will be encouraged to orient these insights toward furthering the cause of social justice.
Exploring Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice
The Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies program at Â鶹ÊÓƵ seeks to draw connections among areas of scholarship--such as feminist studies, gender studies, and queer studies--that highlight gender and sexuality as categories of analysis. We seek to help students develop an understanding of the protean nature of gender and sexuality and how they are shaped and mediated by aspects of social identity such as race, class, sexual orientation, and ability.
The interdisciplinary Gender Women and Sexuality Studies major and minor engage students in a participatory educational process. Through both course content and teaching methods, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies courses provide a rich base of theory and knowledge in the sciences and the arts, literature and culture, politics and history. Our courses provide students with a greater awareness of the historical and contemporary accomplishments and contributions made by women, LGBTQ+-identified individuals and groups, and people aligned with queer and feminist missions and values. The program especially seeks to encourage students to explore, both in theory and practice, relationships between self and society that promote social justice and gender and sexual equity.
The Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies program applies theories of oppression and activism to create systemic change both on campus and in the larger social world. To that end, the program and its students support campus events and organizations that foster a deeper understanding of women's studies and analyses focused on issues of gender and sexuality. Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies students put queer and feminist theories into practice through their involvement with campus and community organizations.
GWSS Governance
The Gender, Women, Sexuality Studies department is lead by its chair and the Gender, Women Sexuality Studies Steering Committee (GSC). The GSC is comprised of five faculty members (elected by GWSS affiliated faculty) and one student (chosen by the director from faculty nominations). Though the program director holds ultimate responsibility for programmatic decisions, the GSC advises and provides support to facilitate the various goals of the program. The GSC meets on a monthly basis and all are welcome to attend these program meetings. Each GSC member chairs one of the following subcommittees:Course Approval and Curriculum Development, Assessment, Research Support, Faculty Advising and Development, Events, and Student Initiatives.
Guidelines for GWSS Course Approval
Courses designated for credit in the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies major and minor should meet the following guidelines:
- The Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies curriculum invites the interdisciplinary examination of issues related to gender/sex, women, and sexuality from cultural, critical, and/or theoretical perspectives. In general, courses approved for GWSS credit should be grounded significantly in feminist and/or queer epistemologies or principles. Courses in the core (i.e. those fulfilling area requirements outside of the elective concentration) should engage issues of difference and intersectionality, including but not limited to race, class, culture, ethnicity, and the body.
- Materials from women and queer sources and the subjects of women, gender/sex, and/or sexuality should be integrated throughout the course.
- Except in cases of oversight or error, a course on a student's transcript cannot be granted GWSS credit after the fact if not approved by the program director at the time it was taken.
- Applications for approval are expected to be submitted to the program director no less than five weeks prior to the start of registration for the semester in which the course will be offered (i.e. early October for spring registration in November, early March for fall registration in April). Contact the program director for information on applying for approval.
- When GWSS-approved courses migrate to a new instructor, the syllabus must be resubmitted for expedited approval.
Student Travel Request
The Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Committee will accept proposals for student travel to women's studies-related conferences. Students are encouraged to find a faculty sponsor to help them develop their proposals and to act as an advocate in the funding process. Proposals should include the following information:
- Name
- Address and telephone
- Faculty sponsor
- Amount of request
- Name of conference
- Statement of significance to individual applicant
- Budget -- include conference fees and estimated cost of transportation and lodging In reviewing proposals, the following guidelines will apply:
- Preference will be given to proposals from students without access to other sources of funding. (Students should explore funds available from departments, CAB, etc., prior to seeking funding from the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Program.)
- Preference will be given to students who did not receive funding in a previous year.
Speaker Funding Policy
The Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Committee is interested in helping departments and interdisciplinary programs fund speakers that contribute to the inclusion of women's lives, work, ideas, and values in each discipline and/or complement the curriculum of the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Program. Preference is given to speakers exploring issues of gender from an interdisciplinary and/or cross-cultural feminist perspective.