Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minor
Program Director: Neda Atanasoski, Ph.D.
Rooted in the liberatory traditions of Women’s Studies, the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor can supplement any student’s program of study at the University of Maryland. It allows students to explore structural inequities based on intersecting hierarchies of colonialism, gender, caste, race, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and ability, with the aim of transforming systems of oppression and imagining freer futures. Students will take courses informed by intersectional and anti-colonial scholarship and methodologies from the arts and humanities, social sciences, and many other fields. Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers students a flexible program of study in which there is focused attention on building students’ analysis of varied modes of structural and interlinked oppressions and devising visions for critiquing, resisting, and dismantling such modes of systemic violence.
Courses offered by this department may be found under the following acronyms: WGSS, LGBT. They were previously also offered under WMST.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Students will be able to critically analyze issues of power related to women, race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class
- Students will understand and be able to critique key developments in gender, critical race, and queer thought as strategies for social change.
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with major concepts and vocabulary of gender, critical race, and queer thought in the field of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Students will earn a total of 15 credit hours, distributed as indicated below. At least 9 credits must be at or above the 3xx level. No course with a grade less than "C-" may be used to satisfy the minor. An overall GPA of 2.0 in the minor is required for graduation. Students will design their programs in consultation with a Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies advisor.
Students may use a maximum of six credits (or two courses) to satisfy the requirements of both their major and the minor in WGSS. However, courses taken to complete the minor in WGSS may not be used to satisfy the requirements of another minor. No more than six of the required credits (or two courses) may be taken at an institution other than the University of Maryland, College Park. However, at least six 3xx or 4xx-level credits applied to the minor must be taken at this university.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Introductory Course | 3 | |
| Select one of the following courses: | ||
| Queer Worlds: Studies in Gender and Sexuality | ||
| Introduction to Disability Studies (Introduction to Disability Studies) | ||
| Gender, Power, and Society | ||
| Reproductive Justice: An Introduction | ||
| Gender, Art, and Culture | ||
| Introduction to Black Women's Studies | ||
| Lower Level core or elective 1 | 3 | |
| WGSS301 | Feminist Knowledge Production | 3 |
| Upper Level Requirements 2 | 6 | |
3 credits from the UL Core or Elective List | ||
3 credits of 4xx level from the UL Core list | ||
| Total Credits | 15 | |
- 1
Please refer to the WGSS major in the Undergraduate Catalog for the full list of Lower Level Core and Elective Courses
- 2
Please refer to the WGSS major in the Undergraduate Catalog for the full list of Upper Level Core and Elective Courses