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Graduate Certificate Coursework Requirements
Women's and Gender Studies

The WGS certificate consists of four courses (12 semester hours).

There are two core courses:

• WGS 402 Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (offered every fall)

• WGS 404 Topics in Feminist Theories (offered every semester)

There are two electives, which may be fulfilled by any combination of the following:

• Additional Topics in Feminist Theories courses (WGS 404)

• WGS 497 WGS Project

• Cross-listed 400-level WGS electives

 

Core courses
In core WGS courses, students learn how and why the study of gender and sexuality is central to understanding our past histories, the world around us, and our visions for the future.

WGS 402 introduces students to the wide-ranging and growing field of WGS by focusing on several of the ideas, directions, developments, and debates that have defined the field of women's and gender studies. Studying a variety of perspectives, students learn how understandings and analyses of women, gender, and sexuality develop, differ, and change across the globe.

WGS 404 is an advanced graduate seminar that allows students to study a specific topic in-depth. Core WGS faculty members continually design new courses that represent their research specialties, trends in the field, and student interests. These courses invite students to study the complexities and significance of a particular topic while giving them sustained practice employing key concepts, critical methodologies, and research resources in their own work. Students are encouraged to take multiple versions of this course as part of their elective coursework.

Recent and upcoming WGS 404 graduate seminars include:

• The Body: Agency, Pain, and Desire

• Comparative Feminisms: India, Morocco, and the United States

• Feminism and Western Philosophy

• Feminist Theories of Gender and Violence

• Feminist Theories of Identity Politics

• Feminist Theories of Performance

• Feminist Theories of Space and Place

• Gender, Race, and Evnironmental Justice

• Gender, Sexuality, and Popular Culture

• Global Feminist Ethics

• Grassroots Activism and Feminist Theories

• Lesbian Theories

 

Elective courses
WGS 497 provides the opportunity for independent, intensive study and original scholarship in an area of the student's choosing. It consists of the completion of a either a scholarly paper, curriculum development project, or a community outreach project. For more information on this course, please contact the WGS Program Director.

Cross-listed electives draw from offerings of academic disciplines and provide context-specific knowledge of WGS issues in national and/or global contexts. These courses may be from programs outside of the one in which you are pursuing a graduate degree. Or, they may also be cross-listed courses from your home discipline that you simultaneously use to complete your MA degree.

Recent and upcoming electives include:

• 20th Century American Women’s Fiction

• Social Movements

• The African American Woman

• Race, Gender, and Mass Media

• Gender, Power, and the Body

• The History and Politics of Women in the United States

• Contemporary Irish Women Writers and the Politics of Gender

• Sexuality, Gender, and International Human Rights

• Health, Illness, and Medicine in American Society

• The Politics of Gay and Lesbian Communities

• Gender, Sex, and Power in Early Modern Europe

• Staging Witchcraft Plays

 

If you are interested in obtaining a Graduate Certificate in Women's and Gender Studies, please download and complete the Application and submit it to:

Ellen O'Brien

Director, Women’s and Gender Studies Program

430 South Michigan Avenue

Chicago, IL 60605-1394

(312) 341-3723

eobrien@roosevelt.edu

If you have any questions, please contact the WGS Program Director.