News

The WGSS MA Program is pleased to allow students to matriculate in the spring semester each year. For Spring '26 Matriculation, applications are due November 15. For Fall '26 Matriculation, applications are due to December 20, 2025. For more information, visit https://womens-studies.rutgers.edu/academics/graduate-program/ma-program

Fall_2022_Welcome_Back_Letter.pdf September 6, 2022 Dear WGSS community, As we begin this new school year, I want to extend a warm welcome to the new members of our community and to those who are returning. We are coming together in person as a community for the first time in two-and-a-half years, and in the midst of the continuing challenges of the pandemic, attacks on reproductive justice and LGBTQ+ communities coming from the Supreme Court and into people’s everyday lives, ongoing war, gun...

The Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University stands in solidarity with Asian-Americans and against anti-Asian violence and attacks on Asian-American communities that have increased over the last year. Across the country, Asian-Americans, mostly women, have been targets of hate crimes ranging from verbal and physical assault to murder. This past week in Atlanta, eight people were murdered, six of them Asian-American massage workers, targeted by a white...

I proudly announce the recipients of the 2021-22 Chancellor-Provost’s Awards for Faculty Excellence, which recognize excellence in innovative teaching, cross-disciplinary research, public engagement, and service. The individuals receiving these awards were nominated by their colleagues for their outstanding contributions. I present these awards with great pride in our entire Rutgers–New Brunswick faculty, and with admiration and gratitude for the outstanding work performed by all of our...

We are pleased to announce that WGSS is currently accepting applications to the new BA/MA Track in Feminist Practices for Social Change. Now in its second year, this track is designed for Rutgers students interested in becoming professional leaders in the areas of social justice and human rights in local through international contexts immediately upon graduation. Click here for more information Are you interested in working inSocial Justice,Activism, andHuman Rights? Apply to the WGSS BA/MA...

Written by John Chadwick | SAS Senior Writer Ameena Qobrtay's double major at Rutgers University puts her on the cusp of contemporary thought while laying the foundation for a career as a writer, scholar, or critic. A School of Arts and Sciences junior, Qobrtay is majoring in women’s and gender studies, and journalism and media studies. Her work at The Daily Targum shows how those two majors can work together as a singular calling. Journalism is my profession, and women’s and gender studies is...

The election of Kamala Harris as Vice President of the United States has made history and broken many barriers that have been in place since the founding of our nation: she is the first woman, the first Black person, the first person of South Asian descent, the first child of immigrants, and the first biracial person to be elected to the Vice Presidency. In her acceptance speech, Kamala acknowledged the firsts of her election, saying “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not...

In the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, we, the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University--New Brunswick affirm the following: We support the worldwide protests against police brutality and the white supremacist state. We want to take part in making the future better for everyone, particularly Black people who have been marked as subjects and targets of police violence and state-sanctioned racism throughout the history of...

September 8, 2020 Dear WGSS community, As we begin this new year full of promise and uncertainty, I want to extend a warm welcome to the new members of our community and to those who are returning. We are celebrating more than 50 years of WGSS at Rutgers, 20 years of being a department, and 20 years as a PhD program. This year has brought us challenges, difficulties and possibilities that were unimaginable fifty or 20 years ago, or even one year ago, and through it all, we have continued the...

By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist Excerpt by Rebecca Mark, Ph.D. Director of the Institute for Women’s Leadership and Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University. Essential worker status, school closures, unemployment, and quarantining within the home, put an enormous burden on everyone. But for women already in precarious economic and social positions, this COVID-19 crisis has meant increasing the demand for their paid and unpaid care work. They...

April 11, 2020 – Professor Ruth B. Mandel, who escaped the Holocaust with her family and devoted her life to promoting democracy and civic engagement, died this morning. Her death at age 81 was caused by ovarian cancer. “This is very sad news at a difficult time,” said John J. Farmer, Jr., director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. “The loss of Ruth will be felt not just by Eagleton, by Rutgers, and by The National Holocaust Museum, but by the thousands of students, colleagues, and...

Faculty, staff, and students mourn the loss of our beloved colleague Cheryl Wall, Board of Governors Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English, who was a leading voice in the field of African-American literature, a generous mentor to so many, and an institution builder at Rutgers and beyond. Excerpt from announcement by President Robert Barchi: Mourning Cheryl Wall, Beloved and Brilliant Rutgers Scholar We are profoundly saddened by the death of this amazing scholar, teacher, and...

Apply to the new WGSS Master’s Track in Feminist Practices for Social Change starting fall 2020! In one to three years, you will be ready to pursue professional activist work in a social justice and human rights organization immediately upon graduation. After completing classes focused on social justice and human rights theory and practice, you will complete a Practicum internship to put your academic knowledge to use in your field of interest, for example: UN Women; on campus in units of the...

A note from the Chair, Dr. Mary Trigg Dear Members of the WGSS Community, I am delighted to write with the news that on Tuesday of this week the Board of Governors officially approved the requested name change for our department. We are now the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies! Here is the formal memo about our name change from that meeting: School of Arts and Sciences states - The name of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences has...

The Department of Women's and Gender Studies would like to congratulate Dr. Deborah Gray White and Dr. Marisa Fuentes for their milestone acknowledgment 15 Remarkable Moments of the Decade at Rutgers–New Brunswick and RBHS On its 250th anniversary, Rutgers undertook the Scarlet and Black Project, a historical examination of the experiences of African Americans and Native Americans at the university. Scarlet and Black, Volume 1: Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History traced the...

The Department of Women's and Gender Studies would like to congratulate Jasbir Puar on receiving the 2019 KESSLER AWARD CLAGS, the Center for LGBTQ Studies at CUNY’s Graduate Center, is proud to announce scholar and activist Jasbir Puar as the winner of the 2019 Kessler Award, given every year to a scholar and/or activist who has produced a substantive body of work that has had a significant influence on the field of LGBTQ Studies. Testimonial Speakers: David Eng, Anjali Arondekar & Jennifer...

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...

The Department of Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) at Rutgers University has established collaboration with Erasmus Mundus Joint European Master’s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies (GEMMA), coordinated by the University of Granada and in cooperation with the GEMMA Consortium.  Since 2013, our department has participated in a student exchange program with GEMMA, the first Erasmus Mundus Master´s Degree in Women's and Gender Studies in Europe supported by the European Commission since 2006...

Naomi Klein, Gloria Steinem Discuss Media, Politics, #MeToo at Rutgers-New Brunswick The Rutgers University Board of Governors approved the appointment of Klein on September 12, 2018. Naomi Klein, a public intellectual whose best-selling explorations of social, economic and ecological injustice have made her a global thought-leader, has been selected as the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.  The Rutgers University...

The Gloria Steinem Chair honors and draws to campus eminent scholars and practitioners to immerse the university community in debate and scholarship about new media, social change, and power structures. Occupants of the chair design and teach courses, providing unique opportunities to connect students with media experts who focus on gender equality and creating a more inclusive and democratic media. The Steinem Chair was launched in 2018 with Naomi Klein serving as the inaugural occupant. The Gloria...