- BA/MA DEGREE IN WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES, WITH A TRACK IN FEMINIST PRACTICES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
- NEW TRACK IN FEMINIST PRACTICES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE IN MA DEGREE IN WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES
The Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS), Rutgers-NB, is pleased to announce the implementation of two new academic programs: a five-year BA/MA Degree in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with a track in Feminist Practices for Social Change; and a new track in Feminist Practices for Social Change in our Master’s Degree in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Both initiatives are innovative in that they address the growing demand for professional leaders devoted to social justice and human rights initiatives in local through international contexts.
Since its initiation in 1995, the WGSS MA Program has provided courses interdisciplinary and comparative in content that examine conditions under which women and men live, engage challenges, and devise strategies to promote gender justice. Increasingly, strategies for social change have become a consistent component of the WGSS curriculum in response to the growing demand for courses addressing the diverse ways in which women and men have mobilized at various levels, from local to global, to challenge racial, sexual, and gender injustice.
The BA/MA Degree in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with a track in Feminist Practices for Social Change is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to assume leadership roles in contemporary social justice activism and human rights through a combined Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree that they can earn within five years. Students interested in the degree will apply for admission to the BA/MA Program in their sophomore year. If accepted, they will initiate Master’s coursework in the spring of their junior year and complete academic requirements for the degree by their fifth academic year.
Students will complete traditional courses in feminist theory as well as courses specifically developed for the newly implemented Master’s Degree (see below), including “Social Justice Movements” and “Advocacy: Tactics and Techniques.” These core classes, in conjunction with a range of electives including Gender and Human Rights and Gender and Development, will guide BA/MA students to best cultivate their abilities to think creatively about short-term tactics and long-term strategies for social transformation. They will examine in detail the inequities and challenges facing diverse women, men, non-binary, transgender and gender nonconforming human beings in the contemporary world. Students will complete the degree by translating what they have learned in the classroom into social justice and human rights initiatives through placement in professional settings resonant with their interests, including in units of the Institute for Women’s Leadership Consortium at Rutgers-NB; non-governmental organizations; and the United Nations.
The new track in Feminist Practices for Social Change is designed to properly equip Master’s students with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively assume leadership roles in contemporary social justice activism and human rights. Students will complete the thirty-credit degree by taking traditional courses in feminist theory as well as courses specifically developed for the Degree, including “Social Justice Movements” and “Advocacy: Tactics and Techniques.” These core classes, in conjunction with a range of electives including Gender and Human Rights and Gender and Development, will guide MA students to best cultivate their abilities to think creatively about short-term tactics and long-term strategies for social transformation. They will examine in detail the inequities and challenges facing diverse women, men, non-binary, transgender and gender nonconforming human beings in the contemporary world. Students will complete their Degree by translating what they have learned in the classroom into social justice and human rights initiatives through placement in professional settings resonant with their interests, including in units of the Institute for Women’s Leadership Consortium at Rutgers-NB; non-governmental organizations; and the United Nations.
For more information, please contact: Ileana Nachescu,
