Master of Arts - Women's and Gender Studies

Program Description

The MA in Women's and Gender Studies offers a cutting edge curriculum that focuses on the interconnectedness of local, global, and transnational feminist theories, methodologies, research, public policies, and social movements; attends to interlocking systems of oppression and privilege--gender, race, sexuality, class, nation--to address issues of power, resistance, and social transformation; connects feminist theories to activism and social justice; and engages communities through research, advocacy, and service.

Women’s Studies and Gender Studies are complementary interdisciplinary fields whose research, scholarship, and creative activities examine women’s lives, conditions, and contributions within their historical, social, cultural, national, and transnational contexts and explore how gender is constructed and negotiated within and across societies. Women’s and men’s identities and experiences are examined through the constructs of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability, culture, religion, nation etc. within broader historical, social, and global contexts, such as colonialism and globalization, among others.

Through feminist and gender-based theories and methodologies, the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies offers critical analyses, reflections, and contributions to knowledge regarding interlocking systems of oppression and privilege, thereby addressing issues of power, resistance and social transformation. In addition, the emphasis on critical theory and analysis allows for work that interrogates feminist discourses as well as those of other disciplines in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. By crossing the boundaries of traditional fields of study, the department seeks to create new, coherent understandings of human experiences. For more information, contact Dr. Sanjukta Mukherjee, Graduate Director.

The MA in Women’s and Gender Studies requires completion of 48 credit hours. All Core, and many Elective courses, will be offered during the evening. The program requires six Core courses, five Elective courses organized around a focus tailored to the individual student’s needs, and a Capstone consisting of one course Thesis Option, a one course Practical or Creative Project Option, or a one-course Portfolio option.

Learning Outcomes

⦁    Students can identify the experiences of women within multiple local, national, and transnational contexts.

⦁    Students can compare various historically situated theoretical frameworks central to the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender Studies.

⦁    Students can articulate the relationship between social and historical constructions of gender and various theoretical frameworks central to the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender Studies.

⦁    Students can analyze gender issues and/or women’s experiences in terms of intersectional identities and interlocking systems of power, privilege, and/or oppression.

⦁    Students can utilize appropriate interdisciplinary methodologies which inform their own scholarship and/or creative work in the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender Studies.

⦁    Students can analyze issues informed by the integral relationship of scholarship and activism, paying particular attention to issues of social justice and/or social transformation.

⦁  Students can construct knowledge informed by socially responsible ethical frameworks relevant to the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender Studies.