Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
150 Parkmill Building (PKM)
1633 SW Park Ave.
503-725-3516
www.pdx.edu/ws/
- B.A., B.S.—Women's Studies
- Minor in Women's Studies
- Minor in Sexuality, Gender, and Queer Studies
- Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Women's Studies
In the School of Gender, Race and Nations, the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers an interdisciplinary program designed to foster students’ personal and intellectual development and to prepare them for socially responsible citizenship as well as a broad range of careers. Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies advisers work closely with each student to craft a course of study appropriate to the student’s academic interests and post-graduate goals.
An expanding field of scholarship, women, gender, and sexuality studies is on the cutting edge of educational and intellectual innovation. Courses offered through many different disciplines explore how gender has shaped social, economic, and political institutions, culture, and language. Through these analyses, we envision what the world looks like once women’s experience is fully included in our thinking. The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies core curriculum encourages students to develop critical thinking skills and an appreciation for the range of theoretical frameworks and methodologies present in contemporary feminist scholarship. Courses incorporate the diversity of women’s experience with attention to race, class, and sexual orientation as well as gender. Core courses also encourage students’ active participation through discussion, informal as well as formal writing, and collaborative learning in the classroom.
Experiential learning plays an important role in a student’s progress through the women, gender, and sexuality studies curriculum. The program’s extensive and long-established ties with organizations in the metro area provide wide-ranging opportunities for students to apply their classroom knowledge in a community setting. Many students discover a life’s vocation through these experiences, and all develop new skills. Guidelines for women, gender, and sexuality studies practica and independent study are flexible in order to meet individual needs. A degree in Women's Studies provides the foundation for life-long learning as well as background and experience for careers in teaching, counseling and social work, business, law, health sciences, public administration, public relations, and academia.
Sexuality, Gender, and Queer Studies Minor
The minor in Sexuality, Gender, and Queer Studies is an interdisciplinary program which examines sexual desire, sexual practice, gender expression, gender identity, and the sexed body as more than products of biology, but rather as socially organized, even socially produced phenomena located within specific power formations and subject to historical change. This program questions commonplace knowledge, providing new frameworks for the critical study of gender and sexuality. The curriculum includes a broad spectrum of topics related to sexuality and gender, from queer theory and film to the psychology of masculinities, the history of sexualities, and global issues in sexual health.
The minor consists of 32 credits, including four core courses (16 credits) and 16 credits of electives:
Requirements
Core Courses
| UnSt 231 | Gender & Sexualities | 4 |
| WS 332U | Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in the United States | 4 |
| WS 360U | Introduction to Queer Studies | 4 |
| WS 370U | History of Sexualities | 4 |
Electives
Electives must have a focus relevant to sexuality, gender, and queer studies in order to count toward the minor. Elective credit may be fulfilled by the following approved courses or by other courses approved by the faculty adviser for the minor where appropriate.
Total Credit Hours: 32
Courses taken under the undifferentiated grading option (pass/no pass) are not acceptable toward fulfilling minor requirements with the exception of WS 409 Practicum if approved by a program adviser.