Major & Minor

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Major Requirements

Starting with the Class of 2023, Nine courses are required for the major in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies:

  1. WGS 120: Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  2. WGS 300: Feminist Theories OR WGS 310: Queer Theories
  3. WGS 290: Practicum
  4. WGS 340: Methods
  5. WGS 400: Senior Seminar
  6. Four (4) electives. courses from the categories of core, cross-listed, affiliated courses, or approved courses of Individualized Study:
    (a) At least one course must be a core or cross-listed course above the 100-level that focuses in depth on gender, sexuality, and/or the experiences of women, outside the United States and Europe.
    (b) At least one must be a core or cross-listed course above the 100-level that focuses in depth on the experiences of historically marginalized women or on the ways that gender intersects with other forms of inequality or on LGBT or Queer scholarship.

Core Courses with full course descriptions

Minor Requirements

Starting with the Class of 2023, six courses are required for the minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies:

  1. WGS 120: Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies2)
  2. WGS 300: Theories OR WGS 310: Queer Theories
  3. WGS 290: Practicum OR WGS 340: Methods 
  4. One core or cross-listed course above the 100-level that focuses in-depth on one of the following:
    • On gender, sexuality, and/or the experiences of women, outside the United States, and Europe
    • On the experiences of historically marginalized women
    • On the ways that gender intersects with other forms of inequality
    • On LGBT or Queer scholarship.
  5. One core or cross-listed course
  6. One additional WGS course (core, cross-listed, affiliated, or approved courses of Individualized Study)

Planning Your Courses:
Prospective majors and minors in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies are encouraged to talk with a WGS faculty advisor as early as possible in their academic career. Procedures for declaring a Major/Minor.

Because there is a preferred sequence of courses, all mandatory courses require careful planning. Students are strongly encouraged to take:

  • WGS 120 in the first or second year
  • WGS 300 OR WGS 310 (Fall) and WGS 290 (Spring) in the third year.
  • WGS 340 (Fall) and WGS 400 (Spring) in the senior year.
  • WGS 300 and WGS 310 are offered alternating years in the fall. Students planning to study abroad are strongly encouraged to do so in their sophomore year or in the spring of their junior year.

In order to help students design their majors and minors, the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies faculty has designated the following course categories:

Cross-Listed and Affiliated Courses

View Cross-Listed and Affiliated Courses by logging into Campus Experience
Note: Log in to campus experience and navigate to Class Search. Use the drop down fields to search for courses or select more filters to help narrow your search.
Cross-listed courses reflect the latest feminist and/or sexuality studies scholarship and are located in other academic departments. Affiliated courses are offered by academic departments and contain significant feminist and/or sexuality studies content.

Cross-Listed Courses

Cross-listed courses reflect the latest feminist and/or sexuality studies scholarship and are located in other academic departments.

Affiliated Courses

Offered by academic departments and containing significant feminist or queer content