2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program - College of Arts and Sciences
237 Rachel Cooper
Campus Box 4260
(309) 438-2947
wgs.IllinoisState.edu
Director: Allison Bailey
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
Degrees Offered: Only a minor and a concentration 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’s histories, literatures, visual cultures, and politics.
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:
9 hours of additional courses from:
- ANT 270
- CJS 307
- CJS 339
- CJS 342
- COM 128 or ENG 128 OR LAN 128
- ENG 206 or LAN 206
- ENG 260
- ENG 261
- ENG 360
- FCS 112 or HIS 112 or SOC 112
- HIS 261 or HIS 262
- HIS 330
- HIS 350
- IDS 121A39
- PHI 202
- POL 225
- POL 337
- POL 338
- POL 363
- PSY 123 or SOC 123
- PSY 305
- SOC 264
- SOC 265
- SOC 341
- SOC 342
- SOC 366
- WGS 292
- WGS 390
- WGS 391
- WGS 392
- WGS 398
Queer Studies Concentration
The Queer Studies Concentration is an option for students wanting to enhance their understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) issues or whose undergraduate curriculum or professional goals would be enriched by additional coursework in this emerging vibrant field. The concentration focuses on LGBTQI+ histories, political movements, aesthetics, arts, cultures, literatures, scholarship, contemporary experiences, and social formations. The Queer Studies Concentration is separate from the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor and is not recognized on university transcripts. The concentration must be planned in consultation with the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program director.
12 hours required
Required courses:
3 hours of additional courses from: