Women, Gender and Sexual Studies Concentration 2023-2024 Edition

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Advisory Board

• Thomas Roach, Program Coordinator, Professor, History, Literature, and the Arts, 
• Kelly Boutin, Assistant Director, Center for Diversity & Inclusion, Hochberg Women's Center & Pride Center 
• Jeffrey Cabusao, Professor, History, Literature, and the Arts
• Amber Day, Professor, History, Literature, and the Arts
• Mailee Kue, Executive Director of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion
• Heather Pond Lacey, Associate Professor, Applied Psychology
 

The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Concentration is a liberal arts, interdisciplinary program that offers students the opportunity to apply a critical lens to fundamental structures of human interaction and cultural production. Students learn about current scholarship in women’s history and culture, gender studies, sexuality studies, and feminist theory. Questions motivating this scholarship include: How have gender and sexuality been used as systems of social control throughout history? How have they served as catalysts for social change? Are gender and sexuality biologically determined or socially constructed? What types of messages do mass media and popular culture give us about gender and sexuality, and how do these messages influence self-identity? Using a range of disciplinary methodologies and perspectives, students develop a deeper understanding of the structures of power that shape gender and sexual identity. Students concentrating in WGSS should be able to:

Learning Objectives:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of interdisciplinary analyses of women, gender, and sexuality and communicate findings and interpretations clearly and effectively.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of intersectionality: how various social systems, such as gender, race, class, and sexual orientation, operate in conjunction with each other.
  • Explain various conceptions of gender and sexuality and indicate how these conceptions might reinforce or disrupt social structures​.

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Concentration Requirements:

Required Courses
WGS/LCS 250Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies3
WGS 490Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Seminar (capstone course)3
Electives
Select four of the following: 1
COM/SOC 359The Sociological Imagination: What We See When We Watch T.V.3
COM 473Gender and Communication3
HIS 263American Women's History3
HIS 361Gender and World War II3
HIS 368Gender and American Culture in the 1950s3
LCS 378African American Studies ((When offered as Black Feminist Foundations & Futures)3
LCS 383Sexuality and Culture3
LCS 464Major Literary Figures3
LCS 466Women and the Creative Imagination3
LCS/WGS 471Sex, Love and Social Media3
PSY 471Gender in Childhood3
SOC 352Sociology of Gender, Illness, and Health3
SOC 356Sociology of Family3
SOC 360Sociology of Sport3
SOC ST300Special Topics in Sociology From Womb to Tomb A Sociological Perspective on Sexuality3
WGS 491Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Internship3

 A minimum of 18 credit hours is required for the concentration.

1

Only one at the 200 level.