Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies, Minor
Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies Program
Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary academic program designed to acquaint students with current scholarship and theory on women, gender, and feminism. Each semester a wide variety of courses in humanities and social science departments as well as in Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies offers students the opportunity for cultural and cross-cultural studies of the effects of representations and assumptions about gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality on our lives. Courses generally of interest to Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies students and eligible for major credit are listed below; in addition, a separate flyer listing each semester’s eligible courses is available through the Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies office (757) 221-2457 and on the Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies web page (https://www.wm.edu/as/gsws). Students may declare an interdisciplinary major or a minor in Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies.
The Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies major prepares students who wish to gain a strong interdisciplinary perspective in advance of employment and/or graduate or professional study leading to careers in a wide variety of fields including law, education, politics, business, social action, the arts, medicine and so on. Graduates of Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies programs nationwide report reasons for choosing this field of study that range from lifelong interest in feminism, to discovering new intellectual challenges, to providing themselves with the confidence and freedom to “do whatever you choose to do.”
The following guidelines have been reviewed and approved by the Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies Curriculum Committee, the Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies Executive Committee and the Committee for Honors and Interdisciplinary Studies.
Additional Courses Eligible for Major or Minor
Following is a sample listing of courses that have been counted toward the major or minor. Not all of these courses are offered every semester, and additional courses may qualify for Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies credit. Check the Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies flyer or web page or consult a program advisor for a list of each semesters approved courses. (Note: Courses in which topics vary should be selected according to the relevance of the topics offered that semester; sample titles are given. Students may request permission from Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies to count a particular course not listed in the flyer if the course’s relevance to the student’s program of study can be demonstrated.)
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Freshman Seminars: in topics related to Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies (most disciplines; check schedule) | ||
| AMST 470 | Topics American Studies (e.g., Multiculturalism in America; Masculinity in America) | 1-4 |
| AFST 205 | Introduction to Africana Studies | 3 |
| ENGL 465 | Special Topics in English (e.g., Love and the Novel: Lesbian Fictions) | 1-3 |
| ENGL 475 | Seminar in English (e.g., Woolf; The Brontes; 20th Century American Women Writers) | 4 |
| FREN 355 | Contemp Women French Writers | 3 |
| GOVT 360 | Building the American Welfare State | 3 |
| GOVT 390 & GOVT 391 | Topics in Government and Topics in Government (e.g., Varieties of Feminist Ideology) | 1-2 |
| HIST 211 & HIST 212 | Topics in History and Topics in History (e.g., Southern Women) | 3 |
| HIST 490C | Senior Colloquium (e.g., Black Women in the Americas; Gender and the Civil War) | 4 |
| HIST 491C | Senior Colloquium | 4 |
| International Studies 390: Topics | ||
| HHP 460 | Topics Course (e.g., Sport, Body and Culture) | 1-4 |
| MUSC 365 | Special Topics in Music (e.g., Music and Gender) | 4 |
| RELG 208 | Topics in Religion (e.g., Women in the Christian Tradition) | 3 |
| RELG 308 | Topics in Religion (e.g., History of Adam and Eve; Women and Their Bible; Theologies of Liberation) | 3-4 |
| RUSN 308 | Topics in Russian Literature and Culture (Taught in English) (e.g., Women in Russian Literature) | 1-4 |
| RUSN 309 | Topics in Russian Cinema (Taught in English) (e.g., Women in Russian Film) | 3-4 |
| SOCI 342 | Families and Kinship | 3 |
| SOCI 333 | Globalization and International Development | 3 |
| SOCI 356 | Sociology of Work | 3 |
| SOCI 415 | Sociology of Sexualities | 3 |
| SOCI 405 | Special Topics in Sociology (e.g., Race, Gender and Health; Gender and Sexuality in Cross Cultural Perspective) | 3 |
Required Credit Hours: 18
All students must complete at least 18 credit hours distributed across five groups of courses, all meeting approved Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies criteria, as follows:
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| GSWS 205 | Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, & Women's Studies | 3 |
| Select one course with a focus on gender and international issues (outside of the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain) (list available from major advisor and on the GSWS webpage) | 3 | |
| Select one course with a focus on LGBTQ issues (list available from major advisor and on the GSWS webpage) | 3 | |
| Select one course with a focus on gender and race/ethnicity issues (list available from major advisor and on the GSWS webpage) | 3 | |
| GSWS 405 | Feminist Theory | 3 |
| Electives (if necessary). | 3 | |
| Total Hours | 18 | |