Women’s and Gender Studies, CAS

Department of Women’s and Gender Studies
340 Sims Hall
315-443-3560

Office Coordinator

Alice Loomis, 340 Sims Hall, 315-443-3707

Administrative Specialist

Susann DeMocker-Shedd, 340 Sims Hall 315-443-3560

Graduate Studies Director

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

340 Sims Hall

315-443-7099

Faculty

Himika Bhattacharya, PJ DiPietro, Eunjung Kim, Vivian M. May, Danika Medak-Saltzman, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Dana M. Olwan, Gwendolyn D. Pough, Robin Riley

Women’s and Gender Studies integrates theory and practice with the aim of transforming social relations, representations, knowledges, institutions, and policies. Through interdisciplinary and comparative approaches, students engage in the study of gender intersectionally and transnationally as a means of understanding the complex ways that ideas and practices about gender, past and present, shape the world around us. Issues of justice, social and economic transformation, and women’s agency are central and at each level of study the curriculum emphasizes race, ethnicity, nationality, class, age, sexuality, and different abilities as categories of analysis.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Apply interdisciplinary multiracial, intersectional, and transnational feminist theories and methods to investigate how gender relations and practices are embedded in and shaped by diverse social, political, material, and cultural realities

2. Recognize, interpret, and analyze issues of power, oppression, and injustice and social, economic, and epistemic violence

3. Identify histories and contemporary forms of feminist agency and resistance, social movements, and collective action

4. Integrate feminist theory and practice to challenge social relations, representations, knowledges, institutions, and policies

5. Engage and employ multiple modes of knowledge including conventional texts as well as creative work, activism, and popular culture

Certificate Requirements

Students must take a minimum of 12 credits of graduate coursework cross-listed as WGS courses or approved by the Chair of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. At least one course (3 credits) must be an approved Theory course and at least one course (3 credits) of the CAS coursework must be a Core Graduate WGS course. A single course may not be used to fulfill both the Theory and Core course requirements.

Approved WGS Theory Courses:

WGS 601 - Feminist Theories 3 credit(s)
WGS 607 - Indigenous Feminist Thought and Theory 3 credit(s)
WGS 636 - Feminist Rhetoric(s) 3 credit(s)
WGS 644 - Feminist Theology 3 credit(s) (IR)
WGS 652 - Feminism and Postcolonial Studies 3 credit(s)
WGS 671 - Latin American Literature and Feminist Theory 3 credit(s)
WGS 673 - Women, Rap and Hip-Hop Feminism 3 credit(s)
WGS 701 - Intersectionality 3 credit(s)
WGS 705 - Negotiating Difference: Coming of Age Narratives 3 credit(s)
WGS 710 - Feminist Inquiries 3 credit(s)
WGS 740 - Feminist Theories of Knowing 3 credit(s) (O)
WGS 757 - Black Feminist Theories 3 credit(s)
WGS 795 - Practice of Transnational Feminism 3 credit(s) (IR)

Additional Information

With departmental approval, various sections of Special Topics courses can satisfy the WGS Theory requirement as well.

Core Graduate WGS Courses:

WGS 601 - Feminist Theories 3 credit(s)
WGS 607 - Indigenous Feminist Thought and Theory 3 credit(s) (Y)
WGS 625 - Feminist Organizations 3 credit(s)
WGS 636 - Feminist Rhetoric(s) 3 credit(s) (Y)
WGS 652 - Feminism and Postcolonial Studies 3 credit(s) (Y)
WGS 673 - Women, Rap and Hip-Hop Feminism 3 credit(s)
WGS 701 - Intersectionality 3 credit(s)
WGS 705 - Negotiating Difference: Coming of Age Narratives 3 credit(s) (IR)
WGS 710 - Feminist Inquiries 3 credit(s)
WGS 740 - Feminist Theories of Knowing 3 credit(s) (O)
WGS 757 - Black Feminist Theories 3 credit(s) (Y)
WGS 795 - Practice of Transnational Feminism 3 credit(s) (Y)

Additional Information

With departmental approval, various sections of Special Topics courses can satisfy the Core WGS requirement as well.

Admissions

The Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) in women’s and gender studies is a 12-credit graduate-level certificate that can be taken as a stand-along certificate or as part of a graduate degree program. Current students already matriculated in a master’s or doctoral program must apply for certification at least one semester before receiving their degree. The chair of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies will confer with each student and approve each student’s program. A list of appropriate courses is available in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies office, 340 Sims Hall, 315-443-3707.

Graduate Award

Awarding of the Certificate of Advanced Studies will be in the spring semester of each year.

Certificate of Recognition

Certificates of Recognition are awarded to doctoral students who have produced dissertations in Women’s/Feminist Studies. To receive certification, the candidate must submit a petition listing the title and abstract of the dissertation, the defense date, and the dissertation advisor. Awards will be made at the end of the spring semester of each year.

Prizes

Each spring there is an essay contest for the Toni Taverone Graduate Paper Prize that carries an award. The Joan Lukas Rothenberg Graduate Student Service Award is also awarded annually.