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.
Intersection of gender and race in contemporary American art. Black and white racial politics in relation to gender and contemporary art in the United States. Special focus on African-American artists.
Examination of representations of gendered bodies in art, sexuality, gender, politics, and pornography. Examines how to understand who defines what is obscene and why some work is called pornography.
Women artists, their achievements, and impact. Social and cultural reasons for their neglect in the visual arts and how that neglect is being remedied today. Different ways in which men and women are depicted in art and how those differences relate to culture and society.Please note that this is an online course.
Feminist theory, model, and practice of mentoring. Topics include definitions and history of mentoring; personal narratives and mentoring practices; and mentoring women's leadership for social change.
Feminist examination of significant contemporary issues. The issue chosen will vary each year. Students should check the department's website for information. Issues to be considered include war, trafficking, poverty, environment, migration, globalization, and religion.
Role of gender, race, and class in production and use of scientific and medical knowledge. Impact of gender bias on research in the life, physical, and social sciences.
Examination of dynamics of, and connections among, classism, racism, and sexism in contemporary American society; ways they influence and are influenced by the structure of society at large; their effect on individuals; and strategies for personal and social change.
Examines how gender is represented in cultural texts and artifacts; introduces students to theories of representation.
Examines development of women's and gender studies as interdisciplinary field of study; explores relationship of feminist scholarship to activism; introduces students to basic research techniques.Required for major.
This course brings together analytic frameworks in feminist theory and gender studies with emerging bodies of theory about digital media, social media, and digital humanities.