Program Description
Master of Arts Degree Program | Women's and Gender Studies

To earn a master’s degree in women’s and gender studies, students choose one of the following two tracks:

1. 33 semester hours of graduate course work, including WGS 410, Readings and Research in WGS, which may be an academic or activist project
2. 30 semester hours, including WGS 490, a research-based thesis

In their coursework, students gain an understanding of women’s experiences and gender roles and representations by studying the scholarship on women and gender in the humanities and social sciences, and they acquire an ability to analyze gender as it intersects with other categories of difference, such as race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality.

Core courses

For students in both tracks, core courses constitute six of the semester hours for the degree. Required core courses are:

• WGS 402: Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (3)
• WGS 404: Topics in Feminist Theories (3)

Core courses acquaint students with key concepts, critical methodologies, and research resources. Students develop knowledge of women’s and gender studies theories and methods through an investigation of the issues, questions, and tasks deemed central to feminist inquiry.
WGS 404 may be taken up to three times. Topics change each semester. 

Recent and upcoming WGS 404 topics include:

Feminist Theories of Women and Global Development
Feminist Theories of the Body
Feminist Theories of Gender, Space and Place
Feminist Theories of Gender and Language—offered in Spring 2006
Feminist Theories of Violence—offered in Fall 2006
Feminist Theories of Identity Politics—offered in Fall 2006
Feminist Theories of Performance
Lesbian Theories
Ecofeminism

Elective courses

Eight elective courses (24 semester hours) for the WGS 410 option or seven courses (21 semester) for the WGS 490 option are required.

• Elective courses draw from academic disciplines including African and African American Studies, anthropology, art and art history, economics, film, history, literature, philosophy, political science, psychology, public administration, social justice, sociology, Spanish, and women’s and gender studies.
• Individual electives provide context-specific knowledge of historical and contemporary issues affecting women’s diverse lives, roles, epresentations, and accomplishments in national and/or global contexts.

Recent and upcoming electives include:

20th Century American Women’s Fiction—offered in Spring 2006
Social Movements—offered in Spring 2006
The African American Woman—offered in Spring 2006
U.S. Women and Comedy
Race, Gender and Mass Media—offered in Spring 2006
Women and the Economy
Sexuality and Literature—offered in Summer 2006
Gender, Power, & the Body
The History and Politics of Women in the United States—offered in Spring 2006
Contemporary Irish Women Writers and the Politics of Gender
Sexuality, Gender and International Human Rights—offered in Spring 2006
Health, Illness and Medicine in American Society
Gender, Work, and Welfare in the Modern Era—offered in Spring 2006
The Politics of Gay and Lesbian Communities
Gender, Sex and Power in Early Modern Europe
Staging Witchcraft Plays

Click here for full course descriptions of WGS course offerings for the Fall 2005 and Spring 2006 semesters.

Post-coursework options

In consultation with the WGS graduate advisor, students choose either a scholarly, curricular, or activist post-coursework option (WGS 410) or a thesis (WGS 490) to complete the degree. Each option results in a specialized and original final project requiring advanced research and analysis. Designed to allow students to dedicate a course to a project of their own development, the post-coursework option might take shape from earlier interests and coursework; focus on a subject that was not part of a student’s coursework, or put into practice theories learned in the classroom through the production of a project that differs from a traditional academic paper.

• WGS 410 Readings and Research in Women’s and Gender Studies (3)
  or,
• WGS 490 Thesis (3)