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

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Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

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

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  • Minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  • Queer Studies Certificate

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’s 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:

  • WGS 120
  • ENG 160 or ENG 260 or ENG 261 or ENG 360
  • HIS 261 or HIS 262
  • PHI 246 or POL 338

9 hours of additional courses from:

  • ANT 270
  • ART 175
  • ART 305a01
  • ART 311a03
  • ART 311a04
  • CJS 306
  • CJS 339
  • CJS 342
  • COM 128
  • ENG 128
  • ENG 206
  • ENG 206a01
  • ENG 206a02 
  • ENG 206a03 
  • ENG 206a04 
  • ENG 260
  • ENG 261
  • ENG 262
  • ENG 360
  • FCS 112
  • HIS 112
  • HIS 261
  • HIS 262
  • HIS 330
  • HIS 350
  • LAN 128
  • LAN 206
  • LAN 206a01
  • LAN 206a02
  • LAN 206a03
  • LAN 206a04
  • MUS 356a02
  • PHI 202
  • PHI 246
  • POL 225
  • POL 337
  • POL 338
  • PSY 123
  • PSY 305
  • SOC 112
  • SOC 123
  • SOC 264
  • SOC 265
  • SOC 341
  • SOC 342
  • SOC 366
  • SOC 368
  • SWK 310
  • WGS 177
  • WGS 292
  • WGS 390
  • WGS 391
  • WGS 392
  • WGS 393
  • WGS 398

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:

  • WGS 120
  • WGS 292
  • WGS 392

3 hours of additional courses from:

  • ANT 270
  • ENG 262
  • PHI 202
  • POL 337
  • SOC 123
  • WGS 177

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2025-05-14T11:33:55.520219857-07:00 2025
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