Requirements for the Major in Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Number of Units
Eight units are required
Required Courses
The following four courses are required of all Women, Gender, and Sexuality majors:
- WGS 101 Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality
- WGS/POLS 265 Feminist Political Theories
- WGS 390 Feminist and Queer Inquiries
- WGS 490 Seminar in Women, Gender, and Sexuality
In the major, required courses are designed to introduce students to fundamental concepts and issues in Women, Gender, and Sexuality through the lens of disciplines representing the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences. Through this core, students should begin to see parallels between disciplines, to develop a basic vocabulary in the field of WGS, and to become familiar with major works, thinkers, and directions in the field.
Elective Courses
Four elective courses representing at least two divisions. Please note: all of the classes listed below have been pre-approved as electives, but any class that substantially includes gender and sexuality as a topic can be counted as an elective with the approval of the WGS program director. This includes classes taken during study abroad or at another college or university.
Fine Arts
- ARTX 160 Art, Power, and Society
- ARTX 290 Art and Gender
- ARTX 345 Performance Art
- ARTX 360 Queer Aesthetics
Humanities
- CLAS/HIST 230 Women in Classical Antiquity
- ENGL 323 Chicanx Literature
- ENGL 324 Early Modern Women’s Literature: Shakespeare’s Sisters
- ENGL 325 19th Century Women’s Literature: The Epic Age
- HIST 204 American Women’s History to 1870
- HIST 205 American Women’s History Since 1870
- HIST 238 Gender and Sexuality in Pre-Modern Europe
- HIST 246 Gender and Sexuality in 19th Century Europe
- HIST/RELG 267 Women and Judaism
- HIST 292 WGS in Early Latin America
- PHIL 311 Postmodern Critical Theory
- RELG 204 Feminist Studies in Religion
- RELG 205 Religion and Masculinity in the U.S.
- RELG 210 Sex and the Bible
- RELG 241 Princesses, Demonesses, and Warriors: The Women of South Asian Epics
Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
- CHIN 260 Women in China
- GERM 204 Advanced German II: German Stories and Histories
- JAPN 236 Pre-Modern Japanese Literature in Translation: Court Traditions of Women
- JAPN 250 Manga/Anime and Gender in Modern Japan
Social Science
- ANSO 220 The Family
- ANSO 225 Sex and Sexualities
- POLS 310 Women, States, and NGO’s
- PSYC 270 Feminist Psychology of Women
- PSYC 465 Advanced Psychology of Sexuality
Requirements for the Concentration in Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Number of Units
Six units are required.
Required Courses
The following three courses are required of all Women, Gender, and Sexuality concentrators:
- WGS 101 Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality
- WGS/POLS 265 Feminist Political Theories or WGS 390 Feminist and Queer Inquiries
- WGS 490 Seminar in Women, Gender, and Sexuality
In the concentration, required courses are designed to introduce students to fundamental concepts and issues in Women, Gender, and Sexuality through the lens of disciplines representing the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences. Through this core, students should begin to see parallels between disciplines, to develop a basic vocabulary in the field of WGS, and to become familiar with major works, thinkers, and directions in the field.
Elective Courses
Three elective courses chosen from the approved list above. Please note: all of the classes listed above have been pre-approved as electives, but any class that substantially includes gender and sexuality as a topic can be counted as an elective with the approval of the WGS program director. This includes classes taken during study abroad or at another college or university.
Senior Integrated Project (SIP)
The SIP in Women, Gender, and Sexuality is encouraged but not required. Any faculty member regularly teaching in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality program may direct a SIP in Women, Gender, and Sexuality.
Juniors planning to write a SIP in WGS are required to enroll in WGS 390: Feminist and Queer Inquiries.
Various resources exist to fund SIP research. A couple to consider are Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Fund and CIP Grants for Student Projects Abroad.
Procedure for Approval
- Enroll in WGS 390 Feminist and Queer Inquiries in your Junior Spring term. Discuss your plans to write a SIP in WGS with your proposed SIP advisor or with the WGS program director, who may recommend an appropriate advisor.
- Revise your SIP proposal on the basis of your advisor’s recommendations and submit it for signatures by the end of Week Eight of Spring term. The SIP proposal should be signed by the student and advisor and be delivered to the WGS program director. (Remember you must also register for the SIP with the Registrar).
- Keep in mind that this is a provisional plan, and while we expect you to stick to your outline and schedule of research, we do recognize that your hypothesis and sources are a bit tentative. If your research takes a substantially different track than that proposed in your proposal, please contact your advisor immediate to get his or her advice.
Length
A thesis or research SIP might be comprised of 2-4 parts/sections/chapters, an introduction and conclusion, or some organizational equivalent. The student may make use of Internet source materials but not exclusively. The number of required bibliographic citations will be determined by the SIP advisor in consultation with the student. Guidelines: 1 unit: 30-50 pages of writing, excluding bibliographic materials; 2 units: 51-80 pages excluding bibliographical material.
Criteria for evaluation of other kinds of SIPs should be established in advance with the SIP advisor(s) and the WGS director.
Evaluation
The SIP is read and evaluated by the SIP advisor, according to the criteria set and agreed upon by the SIP advisor and the student, and on the basis of the student’s success in meeting deadlines, completing revisions, and producing a competent piece of work.
If the SIP advisor would like to recommend the SIP for Honors, another member of the WGS program or occasionally a faculty member outside the program reads it. If that faculty member agrees, then the SIP is awarded Honors. One and two unit SIPs are eligible for consideration for honors.
Submission Requirements
For all SIPs, the final copy (i.e., no more revisions) is due to the SIP advisor no later than Friday of the second week of the term following the SIP quarter. For Summer SIPs, this means the second week of Fall quarter, even though Summer SIPs appear with the Fall registration. Students are expected to be completely finished with all work associated with the SIP by the time, with the possible exception of departmental symposia in later terms.
The time lag between students turning in complete SIPs and faculty deadlines for turning in grades should not be interpreted as extra time for students to make revisions to the SIP. Work on the SIP in a quarter in which the student is not registered for the SIP credit is considered an “invisible overload” for the students and is against College Policy.