The Department of Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies fosters innovative teaching and cutting-edge research by focusing on how relations of gender—intersecting with race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, nation and other differences—affect every aspect of society. With a core faculty of three professors and more than 15 contributing faculty members, our department is truly interdisciplinary in its scope, breadth and depth.
Our courses explore women’s and men’s historical lives and contemporary experiences around the world, cross-cultural analyses of gender, gendered economies around the world, women’s and men’s roles in religion, same-sex sexualities and theories of gender, sexualities and intersectionality. The department pushes majors (and minors) to develop a rich and complex understanding of the range of women’s and men’s gendered experiences, underscoring differences based on class, race, culture, ethnic origin, religion, age and sexual identity.
We sponsor the Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality by Students Symposium every spring with the President’s Commission for Women, Gender & Sexuality; teach introductory and advanced courses on such topics as feminism and spirituality, fat studies and sexual labors; and work with other departments and offices to bring compelling speakers to campus.