Gender and Sexualities Studies

The Gender and Sexualities Studies Minor offers a global, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of gender and sexualities. The wide variety of courses offered by the minor enables students to analyze gender and sexualities in diverse historical eras, geographical regions, political and legal systems, and racial identities. The courses also consistently reflect the University's commitment to social justice and the diverse communities, local and global, that shape our understanding of our world, our knowledge, our labor, our arts, and our personal lives.

The Gender and Sexualities Studies minor has two important sets of goals. Conceptually, it aims to develop analytical skills that enable students to understand gender and sexuality as fundamental categories of social, political, and cultural analysis; to build a knowledge base regarding the intersections of race, class, gender, nation, age, and sexuality; and to theorize about the issues of identity and difference at the core of Gender and Sexualities Studies. Pragmatically, it aims to train students for graduate work in areas such as social work, health sciences, the arts, law and management; to position students for jobs that require a background in Gender and Sexualities Studies; and to prepare students for informed political action.

Gender and Sexualities Studies Minor Requirements

• Download the Gender and Sexualities Studies Minor Requirements Checklist 

The minor consists of five courses (for a total of 20 credits), two of which are required foundational courses, two of which are met through distribution requirements, and one of which is an elective. No more than two courses in the student's major will count toward the minor.

Foundational Courses (2 courses for 8 credits):

Students take two foundational courses that underpin the curriculum as a whole. These courses provide the theoretical and historical foundation for the study of gender and sexualities and lay the foundation for the electives. Students are encouraged to complete the foundational courses in the freshman and sophomore years.

Gender Courses (One required)

• COMS - 337 Rhetorics of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
• MS - 335 Feminist Thought

 Sexualities Courses (One required)

• HIST - 331 History of Sexuality
• PSYC - 331 Psychology of Sexuality
• SOC - 347 Sex and Sexualities

Electives (Three required)

Students must choose three courses in in at least two of the following categories:

• Humanities
• Social Sciences
• Natural and Physical Sciences

Humanities Courses:

• ART - 306 Women and Art
• CLAS - 320 Gender and Power in Antiquity
• ENGL - 208 Survey of Women's Literature I
• ENGL - 209 Survey of Women's Literature II
• ENGL - 230 Literature, Gender & Sexualities
• ENGL - 335 Feminist Thought
• ENGL - 410 Special Topics in Literature and Film
• GERM - 350 Paris-Berlin: Connections and Contrasts at the Turn of the 20th Century
• HIST - 270 Sex and Transgression in the Islamic World
• HIST - 358 Women in United States History
• HIST - 331 History of Sexuality
• HIST - 358 Women in United States History
• HIST - 360 American Women and Political Activism
• MUS - 231 Gender and Music
• THRS - 262 Homosexuality and the Bible
• THRS -s 327 Social Justice, Activism and Jews
• THRS - 390 Islamic Feminist Ethics

Social Science Courses:

• MS - 335 Feminist Thought
• MS - 405 Gender and the Media
• POLS - 338 Gender and Politics in Comparative Perspective
• POLS - 381 Feminist International Relations
• PSYC - 331 Psychology of Sexuality
• PSYC - 335 Psychology of Gender
• SOC - 229 Diversity of American Families
• SOC - 233 Gender, Development and Globalization
• SOC - 260 Sociology of Gender
• SOC - 304 U.S. Inequalities and Social Justice
• SOC - 345 Feminism, Gender, and the Body
• SOC - 347 Sex and Sexualities

Natural and Physical Sciences Courses:

• BIOL - 330 Female Biology