The goal of the Department of Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies is to provide for students, the University, and the community an intellectual context from which it is possible to study the experience of women and the interrelated effects of gender, race, class and sexuality.
By definition, this enterprise crosses disciplinary and cultural lines; it means that we are in the University not only to fill in gaps and to facilitate the development of coherent bodies of knowledge, but that we represent a core of emerging knowledge that has quickly grown into a new intellectual discipline.
Upon graduation, our majors are expected to be able to
1) demonstrate familiarity with the history of feminism, the influential texts, the major feminist political movements, and the theories of Women's Studies
2) describe how the interrelated effects of race, class, gender and sexuality function in the construction of identity and in the maintenance of systems of domination
3) recognize the international scope of women's movements and identify the ways in which economic, social, religious, environmental, and political forces exert differing influences on women throughout the world
4) conduct research using primary and secondary source materials specific to the study of women's issues
5) identify the multiple social forces contributing to gendered images and use feminist frameworks to understand these images
6) demonstrate a critical awareness that social justice is a consequence of institutional change and individual choices and actions
The Department of Women's, Gender & Sexaulity Studies seeks to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and perception necessary to their realization of the fullest range of options available to them as human beings.
