The concentration is organized around a focus determined by the student. Students may look at large questions such as gender and health; the acculturation of gender, "race," and ethnicity through education; women and the question of "human rights" in the third world; the representation of women in history; the representation of sexual difference in literature. Within such large topics, the student then formulates a set of questions that both narrow and sharpen the focus.
In addition to choosing a focus, the student must select either a humanities or a social science track. In choosing a track, the student is choosing a set of methodological approaches. A given focus—such as the acculturation of gender and ethnicity through education—might be pursued through either track. Moreover, the choice of one track does not preclude crossover courses. The aim of the two tracks is to help students define their objects of study and to understand better the differences among such practices as historical research, literary interpretation, and sociological analysis, between close textual reading and the collection and analysis of data, and so forth.
The sequence of courses required for the two tracks are listed below.
Ten courses are required, twelve for honors:
1. GN 12, Introduction to Gender Studies and the Disciplines
2. Minimum of one semester of women's history: AC 163-164 History of American Women, HI 126 Modern European Women's History; others as available
3. One feminist theory course to be taken no later than semester 5
4. One advanced feminist theory course
5. Three additional Gender Studies courses (either offered through Gender Studies or cross-listed) relating to the focus
6. Two courses from any field relating to the focus
GN 197,198, Directed Research and Thesis.
Ten courses are required, twelve for honors:
1. GN 12, Introduction to Gender Studies and the Disciplines
2. Minimum of one semester of women's history: AC 163-164, HI 126, others as available
3. Two foundational courses in the social sciences
4. A disciplinary methods course appropriate to the focus
5. Three additional Gender Studies courses (offered through Gender Studies or cross-listed) relating to the focus
6. One course from any field relating to the focus
GN 197,198, Directed Research and Thesis
Page last updated in April, 2006.