Undergraduate Program
Undergraduate Program
Undergraduate Director:Dr. Yana Rodgers
Sr. Department Administrator: Monique Gregory
The Women's & Gender Studies undergraduate program, founded in the early seventies, is one of the oldest in the nation. Currently, the program has over 200 majors and minors and serves over 1900 students annually in a wide array of core and cross-listed courses. The major, approved in 1984, introduces students to significant issues and debates in feminist scholarship, theory, and activism.
“Women’s & Gender Studies seek to enrich traditional disciplinary approaches not simply by including women but by transforming the categories, through which knowledge is produced and disseminated.”
All courses are interdisciplinary and each considers the complex dynamics among race, ethnicity, locality, class, gender, and sexuality. The readings and discussions in each class represent a wide variety of women's perspectives concerning issues such as: the conceptualization of difference, the production and recreation of femininity and masculinity, language and gender, the division of labor, women and poverty, sexual violence, reproductive rights, gay and lesbian theory, gender and popular theory, and contemporary feminist politics. Ultimately, we strive to ground both research and theory in the everyday realities of feminist activism around the globe. Women’s & Gender Studies program faculty, students and staff are active members and leaders of academic and community women’s organizations.
The WGS alumnae pursue their professional career in various fields. One-fifth of our graduates continue their education in graduate programs in different fields (political science, English, law) around the country. Many alumnae also engage in work in the area of health and pharmacy (about one fourth). Others choose law (one-fifth of the alumnae), education (one fourth) media or computer studies. Many WGS graduates continue their activist work in non-governmental organizations that engage with women and work, international politics and women’s leadership.
Grounded in feminist leadership and inclusive practice, this course prepares students to lead with purpose, empathy, and intention. Emphasizing emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and mentoring, students develop the skills to foster dialogue, support others, and build equitable communities. This course is also a prerequisite for applying to the Barbara Voorhees Mentoring Program at Douglass Residential College.
Selected topics in women's and gender studies. Topics vary each term. Consult department.
Selected topics in women's and gender studies. Topics vary each term. Consult department.
Introduction to the study of sexuality as well as sexual and gendered identity from multidisciplinary and historical perspectives. Includes U.S. and European approaches to sexology, legal regulation of sexual practices, and family formation.
Introduction to various disciplines' contributions to understanding the relationship of homosexuality, particularly lesbianism, to society. Includes a section on the political organization and recent theory coming out of the gay movement.
Investigation of how to study the complexity of women¿s, men¿s, and trans¿ lives in ways that take race, gender-power, ethnicity, class, and nationality seriously. Includes projects that use different techniques of knowledge production including qualitative methods.
Interdisciplinary and comparative introduction to the study of masculinities in the United States. Includes social history, and analyses of contemporary national and international contexts.
Critical examination of the nature, functions, and effects of war with particular attention to racialized and gendered dynamics of militarization, terrorism, counterterrorism, and genocide. Credit not given for both this course and 01:920:273.
Just after the end of the First World War, a new creature appeared on the streets of cities around the world. Her hair was short, as were her skirts. She smoked, wore lipstick, and went out dancing without a chaperone. No one knew what to make of her. To some, she was dangerous; to others, exciting. She was the flapper, garçonne, neue Frau, moga, modeng xiaojie, kallege ladki, la pelona: all terms for what we will call the “Modern Girl.” This course examines the so-called Modern Girl of the 1920's and 1930's, considering how she reflected—and helped to create—a new modern lifestyle. The Modern Girl was both a fictional creation and a flesh-and-blood creature. We will investigate “her” in her many manifestations, from fiction, film, and advertisements, to the sound of her heels clicking on actual city streets. This course will concentrate on the Modern Girl in Europe and the United States, but will also consider examples from Asia and Africa.
Central role of homosexuality and homoeroticism in visual culture in the distant and recent past as well as the present. Marginalization of homosexual artists, critics, and patrons despite direct participation in cultural production of art and popular culture.