Academics
Insert general "Academics" content here.
01:988:413 The Global Pharmaceutical Economy & Health (3)
Explores aspects of pharmaceutical industry. Analyzes burdens and benefits of drug research and development on different populations.
01:988:412 Global Food Politics: Health Consequences (3)
Investigates shifting modes of food production, distribution, diet, and health. Compares consequences of changes for women in global North with women in global South.
01:988:410 Debt, Crisis, and Women's Health (3)
*Explores relationship between debt and economic crisis; examines impact of austerity policies on women's health in various nations.
01:988:409 Gender, Environmental Justice & Health (3)
Examines women's health in relationship to contradictions between capitalist growth and resource exhaustion. Health consequences of environmental crises linked to new markets and technologies.
01:988:408 Gender, Economic Inequality & Health (3)
Examines how resource distribution shapes health risk, access to health care, and clinical outcomes. Relationship of gender, class, race, sexuality, and nation to health.
01:988:407 Women’s Global Health Movements (3)
Politics and structure of global women's health movements. Relationship between health and phenomena such as international politics, globalization, economic policy, and conflict and war.
01:988:406 Women, Work, and Social Change (3)
Study of problems faced by women working in industry, unions, the home, and professions in light of modern agitation and social trends; analysis of sex-differentiated occupations, legislation, and service roles with attention to biological, psychological, and social differences between the sexes.
01:988:405 Gender and Human Rights (3)
Examines history and discourse of women's human rights; uses of humanitarian law in wartime; issues of gender-based violence, health, and sexuality.
Prerequisite: 01:988:101 or 235 or permission of instructor.
01:988:399 CESEP (1)
Community service placement in women's and gender studies. Corequisite: Must be taken in conjunction with a designated CESEP (Civic Engagement and Service Education Partnerships) course offered in the women's and gender studies program.
01:988:398 Freud and Feminism II--The Unconscious (3)
Examines Freud's account of the unconscious and its relevance to theories of subjectivity, especially to feminist theory and antiracist theory.
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.
Graduate Program
The Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers the Ph.D., the M.A. , and a Graduate Certificate Program. The graduate program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is the joint enterprise of a diverse Graduate Faculty comprising more than 100 scholars. Our students benefit from the rich resources of the larger feminist community at Rutgers which includes 27 Ph.D. students, 21 M.A. students, and over 100 Ph.D. students in other departments who are pursuing certificates in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. In addition, the many Rutgers institutes and centers devoted to feminist research -- the Institute for Women's Leadership, the Center for American Women and Politics, the Center for Women's Global Leadership, the Center for Women and Work and the Institute for Research on Women -- enrich the opportunities for our students to gain practical skills and to broaden their knowledge of feminist research and politics.