Gender is an important aspect of personal and social identity, a criterion for social stratification and differential political treatment, and a favored symbol for expressing values and beliefs.
Gender studies offers an opportunity for focused study of issues including: biology of human reproduction, gender roles in the family and society, psychology of identity, images of men and women in literature and art, and how race, class, sexual orientation and other identities affect our experiences.
Get seriously interdisciplinary.
Use analytical tools and perspectives from the natural and social sciences, history, literary analysis and aesthetics to discover gender’s important implications for biology, psychology and culture. More than 20 faculty members from disciplines all across the curriculum teach courses in the program.
Tackle difficult and controversial topics safely.
We encourage classrooms that are safe and willing to tackle difficult and controversial topics, and support students making a difference through research, critical inquiry and social activism. Recent courses include: Transgender Lives Introduction to Queer Theory; Black, Brown, and Queer on Film; Gender, Politics, and Current Events in Spain; Music and Gender; Reel Men: Masculinity in American Film; Gender and Enlightenment; Feminism and Philosophy
Experience topical and relevant off-campus study programs
From IES Abroad’s Amsterdam program that offers courses like Conflict and Cultural Diversity, to the Gender and Sexuality Seminar, pursuing off-campus study develops your understanding of the social construction of gender in varied settings.
Access the Excellence in Gender Studies Fund
This fund enables you to become a productive researcher and scholar in gender studies through collaboration with departmental faculty, who are among the nation’s leading writers, creators, and thinkers in the discipline. Funds can be applied to travel, research or other activities that immerse students in the real world of scholarly research.
Marketing, human resources management, consulting, writing/editing/publishing, law, business, higher education, sales, social services, education, communications, arts administration, nonprofit work
M & R Strategic Services NYC, Minnesota Reading Corps, Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Feminist Press, Kimberly-Clark, Race Forward (Brooklyn, NY), Teach for America NYC, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, UW–Madison School of Social Work, Teach for America
Communications, English, gender studies, social work, sociology
Marquette, Loyola (Chicago), Northwestern, Golden Gate University, Oregon, Washington, Northern Illinois, UW-Oshkosh, Södertörn University College (Sweden)
You will design an independent research project with one or more of our 20+ gender studies faculty members from all across campus—from biology, anthropology, psychology, art, film, music, theatre and literature—to explore the ways gender shapes personal identities, relationships and social structure.
The Effects of Gender Variant Fiction on Adolescent Attitudes and Behaviors
The Paradox of Psychological Research on Black Women
Searching for Adequate Masculinity: Theorizing the Relationship Between Masculinity and Violence in Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at the Columbine High School Massacre
Transgender Support Systems: Exploring Ethnography in Appleton, Wisconsin
Valerie Solanas and a Feminist Theatre of the Abject
What Does a Cyborg Music Sound Like? Configuring Gender in Electroacoustic Flute Music by Thea Musgrave and Kaija Saariaho
