The Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies (WGSS) Minor introduces an interdisciplinary, intersectional, and transnational understanding of gendered experiences. It examines how gender is locally and globally constituted at the intersection of race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, religion, (dis)ability, and other forms of differences.
Wherever issues of gender and sexuality are germane to a discipline, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies can be found, bringing new models of understanding to all areas of study, and thus incorporates a diverse range of courses across the university. The WGSS Minor bridges the gap between theory and activism by connecting historical and contemporary feminist theories with local, regional, and transnational feminist activism. It trains students for advanced graduate studies as well as social-justice oriented non-profit, government, and international professions.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Requirements for a Minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | (18 credits) | |
| WO-100 | Introduction to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | 3 |
| A minimum of 15 additional credits. | 15 | |
| At least one elective course must be at the 300 level or higher. | ||
| A maximum of two elective courses can come from the student's major. (If the WGSS minor is part of a Liberal Studies major, the maximum does not apply.) | ||
| A maximum of three elective courses can come from any single discipline. | ||
| Art Since Mid-20th Century | ||
| Gender and the Media | ||
| Intercultural Communication | ||
| Elementary Social Studies and Mulriculturalism | ||
| LGBTQ+ Narratives | ||
| Literature and Human Rights | ||
| Women and Literature | ||
| American Women Writers | ||
| Multiculturalism and Health | ||
| Women's Health Issues | ||
| Human Sexuality and Sex Education | ||
| Labor, Capital, and Power in United States History | ||
| US Social History | ||
| European Intellectual Hist II | ||
| The History of Gender and Sexuality in America | ||
| Women in Latin America | ||
| The Age of Reform: US History,1877-1920 | ||
| Women in Music | ||
| Philosophy of Love and Sex | ||
| Africana Philosophy | ||
| Political Theory | ||
| Genocide and Human Rights | ||
| Global Feminisms | ||
| Gender, War and Peace | ||
| Race, Class and Gender | ||
| Gender and Sexuality | ||
| Spanish for Women's Health | ||
| Spanish-American Literature | ||
| Introduction to Women's Studies | ||
| The Queer City | ||
| Gender and the City | ||
| Total Credits | 18 | |
The WGSS Minor provides recursive opportunities for students to encounter, develop, and master (a) the core knowledge of these interdisciplinary fields, (b) the practices needed to comprehend and communicate this knowledge to diverse audiences, and (c) the dispositions, habits of mind, and practices essential to advancing WGSS’s liberatory values and aspirations. Students who minor in WGSS will
- Compare, critique and challenge the formation of categories of gender, gender identity, and sexuality as they function in social, economic, cultural, and/or political contexts; and as they intersect with other categories of difference such as race, ethnicity, class, nationality, and ability.
- Research, explain, and evaluate the historical development of feminist and queer theories, scholarship, and creative expression; engage in critical debates about those theories, scholarship, and creative expression; and apply feminist and queer critical perspectives to analyze meaningful questions across disciplines.
- Learn and practice how to use intersectional gender- and sexuality-based frames of analysis as tools for academic research, creative production, collaborative work, and social change. WGSS courses substantively address at least one of the above program goals.
As an interdisciplinary minor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) draws its core faculty from multiple disciplines across campus. Each faculty member's information can be found at the respective department for each of the courses.
For more information about Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, including to be assigned a WGSS Advisor, please contact the Chair of the Interdisciplinary Studies Department, Dr. Nafisa Nipun Tanjeem, at ntanjeem@worcester.edu.
Courses
AR-225 Art Since Mid-20th Century
LASC Categories: CA, GP, WAC, DAC
Explores how artists have challenged the traditional definitions of the art object and the expanded materials, media and concepts employed by artists since 1950 to the present era.
Fall only and every year. 3 Credits
CM-213 Gender and the Media
LASC Categories: HBS, TLC, DAC, WAC, DIV
Prerequisites: CM-100 and EN-102
This course will explore how difference is socially constructed along gender lines and will explore the intersections of gender, identity, power and media representation.
Fall and Spring and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
CM-350 Intercultural Communication
Prerequisites: CM-100
Introductory communication theory and practice across cultural groups defined by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, nationality, politics and economics.
3 Credits
ED-330 Elementary Social Studies and Multiculturalism
Goals, curriculum, skills, issues, teaching strategies in educating diverse populations in a global context. 10 hours of fieldwork. Prerequiste: Admitted into Stage 2
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-115 LGBTQ+ Narratives
LASC Categories: DIV, ICW, TLC
This course approaches narrative as a key tool for LGBTQ+ individuals to create life-sustaining community, establish identity as artists and activists, and combat social discrimination and stigma. Students will analyze a diverse array of material, including memoir, fiction, poetry, painting, film, and music. Collectively, we will ask what qualifies as a LGBTQ+ narrative: is it determined by the content of a piece, its formal manifestation, the identity of its creator, or something else entirely? The intersections of gender identity and sexual orientation with other components of selfhood-including race, disability, and class-will be essential to our conversations.
Alternating and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-167 Literature and Human Rights
LASC Categories: GP, DAC, DIV
The course examines writing about human rights, including memoirs and novels, and examines issues of social justice. Violations of human rights that may be addressed include genocide, political repression, and torture; while social justice issues that may be examined include women's rights, justice and punishment, disability rights and methods of protesting for human rights. The course will examine definitions of human rights as well as reparations and living with the aftermath of human rights violations.
Fall and Spring and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-172 Women and Literature
LASC Categories: WAC, TLC, GP
Explores basic issues and problems in literature by and about women.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-345 American Women Writers
LASC Categories: USW, DAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
The course examines major works by American women writers in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama within applicable critical contexts.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
HC-234 Multiculturalism and Health
Examination of diverse ethnic/racial and cultural beliefs beliefs and practices affecting health and illness
Spring only and every year. 3 Credits
HE-210 Women's Health Issues
Overview of women's health issues: women in the health marketplace, a woman's right to control her body, media images and illness, eating disorders, therapy, alcohol, aging and the women's health movement.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
HE-230 Human Sexuality and Sex Education
Prerequisites: HE-100
Focus on the need for and understanding of sex education, along with the process of implementing sexuality education, with emphasis upon teacher preparation.
Every year. 3 Credits
HI-216 Labor, Capital, and Power in United States History
LASC Categories: HBS, USW
The history of the United States economic development. Topics to be addressed include: slavery; consumerism and market economies; industrialization and de-industrialization; gendered and racialized divisions of labor; the global movement of capital, goods, and workers; union organizing; and the role of government and the law in shaping the economy. Counts for Europe/United States in the History major.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
HI-217 US Social History
LASC Categories: TLC, USW, WAC, DIV, DAC
Considers topics and approaches in the field of social history in the United States. Counts for Europe/US in History major. [Applicable to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minor.]
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
HI-232 Modern European Intellectual History
LASC Categories: TLC
Intellectual history is an interdisciplinary approach to studying the development of ideas and thought over time. This course investigates the ways in which European writers and thinkers articulated ideas, movements, and ideologies between the Enlightenment and the present, contextualized by conflict, politics, imperialism, trade and economics, society, and culture. This course will uncover the interplay between events, individual actors, movements and ideas, and contextual circumstances to highlight how ideas morphed, were put into practice, and reevaluated over time, leading us to examine our own intellectual lives. Counts for Europe/U.S. in the History major.
Other or on demand and other or on demand. 3 Credits
HI-274 The History of Gender and Sexuality in America
LASC Categories: TLC, USW, DIV, DAC
The history of sexuality and gender in America. Includes investigations of lesbian and gay histories; transgender histories; attempts to regulate and define sexuality; practices of birth control; the intersections of race, class, and gender; the social construction of gender; and the challenges of doing hidden histories. Counts for Europe/US in the History major. [Applicable to the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minor.]
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
HI-333 Women in Latin America
Prerequisites: HI-213 HI-214 HI-226 or HI-247
Examines the roles of women in diverse societies including Mexico, Brazil and Caribbean nations. Emphasis on the modern period. Counts for Africa/Latin America in the History major.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
HI-353 The Age of Reform: US History,1877-1920
Prerequisites: one History course.
An analysis of the transformation of America, including reform response to the Gilded Age's industrialization, urbanization and immigration patterns. Counts for Europe/United States in the History major.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
MU-231 Women in Music
LASC Categories: CA, TLC
A survey of the role of women in music, particularly the great composers from Medieval to Contemporary times.
3 Credits
PH-152 Philosophy of Love and Sex
LASC Categories: HBS, ICW, DAC
Investigates the concepts of love and sex and structural and discursive factors contributing to our daily experiences of these phenomena.
Every year. 3 Credits
PH-178 Africana Philosophy
LASC Categories: TLC, USW, DAC
Explores the philosophy of the African diaspora in African, African American and Caribbean writings. The course addresses both historical and contemporary material across intersections of race, gender, and class using philosophy, history, and literature.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
PH-240 Political Theory
LASC Categories: USW, TLC, DIV
Investigates concepts including political power, equality, revolution, liberties, slavery, socialism and patriarchal power, race and gender.
Every year. 3 Credits
PH-241 Genocide and Human Rights
LASC Categories: USW, GP, DIV
This course treats the ethical, political, and other dimensions of systematic mass violence through case studies and general theoretical analyses.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
PH-250 Global Feminisms
LASC Categories: TLC, GP
Investigates the theoretical underpinnings of women's movements for equal rights around the globe.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
PO-203 Gender, War and Peace
LASC Categories: GP, HBS, DAC, DIV
A practical and thematic examination of the relevance of the concepts of gender to war and peace. Students will become familiar with multiple, feminist approaches to topics such as: militarization, gender and armed actors, wartime violence, the impact of war on gender relations, peace activism, peace processes, and peacekeeping. Classes will also cover the emergence of new norms adopted by the UN system to address these issues, as well as the emergence of feminist foreign policies. We will examine cases drawn from across the globe.
Alternating and every year. 3 Credits
SO-285 Race, Class and Gender
LASC Categories: HBS, DAC
An introduction to dominant-minority group relations through the investigation of the patterns and dynamics of differentiation, inequality and discrimination.
3 Credits
SO-355 Gender and Sexuality
LASC Categories: HBS, ICW, DAC
This course introduces the sociologist study of gender and sexuality. This course examines how social institutions and cultural norms construct particular gender roles and sexual identities within society.
3 Credits
SP-292 Spanish for Women's Health
LASC Categories: GP, ICW, DAC
Prerequisites: SP-210 or above, or instructor permission.
In this course, students will develop communication skills in Spanish using information and vocabulary related to women's health. The content of this course focuses on language used in health professions as well as cultural situations. By familiarizing students with conversational Spanish and medical Spanish, this course will enable students to apply their learning to real-world situations, to assist in communications, and ultimately to break down the barrier between professionals and Spanish-speakers. Finally, the course's focus on cultural competency interrogates intersections between women's health and topics including but not limited to politics, economics, gender, sexuality, race and age.
Spring only and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
SP-349 Spanish-American Literature
Prerequisites: SP-321
Representative works from South and Central American authors from the colonial period to the present.
Fall only and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
UR-103 Introduction to Women's Studies
LASC Categories: DAC, ICW, HBS
This course uses a variety of academic disciplines to study the situation of women around the world.
Every year. 3 Credits
UR-280 The Queer City
LASC Categories: GP, DIV, TLC
This course is an introduction to the study of same-sex sexualities, their meanings and social organizations, across cultures and through time. The materials for the course are drawn from an array of disciplines, from biology to history, but center upon cultural and urban anthropology. Students will learn to think critically about the role of culture and society in the construction of genders and sexualities worldwide, with an emphasis on urban contexts.
Fall only and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
UR-290 Gender and the City
LASC Categories: WAC, GP, HBS
Prerequisites: EN-102
Exploration of the ways in which gender, both male and female, structures responses of individuals to urban life and spaces.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
WO-100 Introduction to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
LASC Categories: ICW, DAC, DIV
How do the experiences of women reflect broader structures of power? What is gender? How does sexuality inform the construction of identity and relationships of power? How do gender, gender identity, and sexuality function in intersection with other categories of difference such as race, ethnicity, class, nationality, and ability? How have scholars, authors, and artists made sense of of these questions in their own work? In answering these questions, this course will introduce students to the interdisciplinary academic field of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits