2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog Women鈥檚, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program - College of Arts and Sciences

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

Degrees Offered: Only a minor and a certificate are offered.

The Minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies enhances any undergraduate major by offering students an interdisciplinary curriculum that focuses on diverse experiences of women in both national and international contexts. The program provides a wide range of electives that offer students the conceptual tools to critically examine the meanings of gender and its intersections with race, sexuality, class/caste, coloniality and ability as they shape our ways of knowing, behaviors, and political identities. Curricular areas of emphasis include the study of feminist theories and methodologies, social justice and activism, LGBTQ studies, women鈥檚 histories, literatures, visual cultures, and politics.

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Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary minor that analyzes structures of power and systemic inequalities grounded in gender and its intersections with other identity categories as they are expressed in historical and contemporary struggles for social change. Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is not only about learning facts and theories, but also about using our collective knowledge to become scholars, practitioners, leaders, and agents of social change. Courses encourage students to analyze the world in which they live, in order that they might act transform it. The minor must be planned in consultation with the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program director.

Minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

21 total credit hours required
Required courses:

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9 hours of additional courses from:

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Queer Studies Certificate

The Queer Studies Certificate is an option for students wanting to enhance their understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and two-spirit (LGBTQIA2+) issues or whose undergraduate curriculum or professional goals would be enriched by additional coursework in this vibrant field. The certificate focuses on LGBTQIA2+ histories, political movements, aesthetics, arts, cultures, literatures, contemporary experiences, and social formations from an interdisciplinary perspective.

12 hours required
Required courses:

3 hours of additional courses from: