Academics
Undergraduate Programs
The Gender and Sexuality Studies Department offers three different degree programs: a Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Sexuality Studies, a GSS minor, and a Queer Studies minor.
Degrees Offered
BA: Gender and Sexuality Studies (36 units)
Minor: Gender and Sexuality Studies (24 units)
Minor: Queer Studies (21 units)
Tracks
Check out the Gender and Sexuality Track (21 units) for Psychology majors.
Course Descriptions
WGST 100 - Introduction to Gender Studies in the Humanities (3)
Gender representation in the humanities, using primary texts from around the world that shape global perspectives on the human condition. Rationality, the moral dimensions of individuals and communities, and the social construction of gender.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer/Winter
WGST 105 - Introduction to Queer Studies (3)
Introduces the field of Queer Studies by examining foundational theoretical texts, contemporary scholarship, and cultural productions that address questions concerning power, desire, sex, politics, bodies, nationalism, citizenship, transnationalism, and race.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
WGST 205 - Gender and Globalization (3)
How globalization affects women's lives through the distribution of wealth, knowledge and opportunity. Local and transnational responses to global processes and how activists can work within and between these movements. International in focus.
Prerequisite: completion of G.E. Category C.1 or D.1.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer/Winter
WGST 220 - Introduction to Gender and Social Space (3)
Introduction to the study of gender within the history of geography as a social science. Concepts such as the social construction of gender and space and how these concepts vary in different geographical regions. (WGST 220 and GEOG 220 are the same course.)
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
WGST 302 - Introduction to Women's Studies (3)
Interdisciplinary introduction to women's issues and research in relevant disciplines. (WGST 302 and PHIL 302 are the same course.)
Prerequisite: PHIL 100, BIOL 101, PSYC 101, or SOCI 101.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer/Winter
WGST 305 - Gender Frameworks: Introducing Intersectionality (3)
Introduces students to intersectionality as a gender framework that contributes to our understanding of power, structures of domination, and gender. Class will examine its origins and how different women have used it to organize their social justice movements.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
WGST 308 - Asian American Women (3)
Interdisciplinary examination of Asian and Pacific Islander American women's experience. Compares and contrasts the experience of women from various parts of Asia and explores the social, cultural and political issues they face in the U.S. and abroad. (ASAM 308 and WGST 308 are the same course.)
Prerequisite: junior or senior standing.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
WGST 310 - Black Women in America (3)
Issues in the study of black women in America, including social, political, economic and intellectual development. Historical and contemporary issues as they affect black American women. (AFAM 310 and WGST 310 are the same course.)
Prerequisite: completion of G.E. Category D.1.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
WGST 313 - La Chicana (3)
Cultural influences that the family, religion, economic status and community play upon the lifestyles, values and roles held by Chicanas. (CHIC 313 and WGST 313 are the same course.)
Prerequisite: completion of G.E. Category D.1.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
WGST 316 - Anthropology of Sex and Gender (3)
Human sex and gender roles in cross-cultural perspective and the role that gender plays in human social organization. Topics covered include cultural construction of gender; homosexuality, rights of women, evolution and gender. (ANTH 316 and WGST 316 are the same course.)
Prerequisite: completion of G.E. Category D.1.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
WGST 320 - Gendered Techno-culture (3)
Current technologies and their relationship to gender issues, combining theoretical considerations with practical applications. Learn some basic technologies to use as tools for projects.
Prerequisites: completion of G.E. Categories C.1 and C.2.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
WGST 332 - Concepts and Approaches in Women's History (3)
Overview of problems, concepts, methodologies and debates that have characterized women's history in recent decades. (HIST 332 and WGST 332 are the same course.)
Prerequisites: HIST 110B; HIST 170B or HIST 180.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
WGST 340 - Masculinities (3)
Critical examination of competing frameworks of masculinity. How the social construction of masculinity is framed by intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality.
Prerequisite: WGST 100 or WGST 302/PHIL 302.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
WGST 343 - Philosophy of Feminism
Philosophical speculations on how the difference of gender and sex is relevant to every area of human life. What does it mean to be a woman, to be the gender and embodiment of female? What do women know? (PHIL 343 and WGST 343 are the same course.)
Prerequisite: three units of philosophy or women's studies.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
WGST 350 - Research, Methodology, and Writing (3)
Study and evaluation of various methodological approaches used to address gender issues, such as survey analysis, oral history, personal narrative and ethnography. Development of research skills, including computer applications. Development of writing skills, including research papers.
Prerequisite: WGST 302.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall
WGST 355 - Economics of Gender and Work (3)
Economic analysis of demographic trends and changing gender roles and experiences in paid and unpaid work, education, earnings and market discrimination using economic theory. International comparisons. (ECON 355 and WGST 355 are the same course.)
Prerequisites: completion of G.E. category D.1, junior or senior standing.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
WGST 360 - Politics of Sexuality (3)
Cultural politics of sexuality within the U.S. and across national and cultural boundaries using feminist theories and methods. A focus on sexual controversies illuminates the relationship between sex, power and social change.
Prerequisite: completion of G.E. Category C.2 or D.1.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer/Winter
WGST 370 - Gender, Activism and Social Change
Advanced introduction to activism studies and the role of gender, race, and sexuality in activist movements both in the US and abroad. Topics may include: labor, environmental, trade, women's, queer, immigrant, consumer and celebrity activism among others.
Prerequisite: completion of G.E. Category D.1.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
WGST 420 - Queer Theory (3)
Theories and debates in Queer Studies, emphasizing sexualities and the settings in which they are lived, celebrated and contested. Critically assess sexuality as an economic, political and social category of identity.
Prerequisite: completion of G.E. Category C.2 or D.1; or graduate standing.
400-level Undergraduate Course available for Graduate Credit
Typically Offered: Spring
WGST 430 - Women and Crime (3)
Women as criminals and victims, gender differences in criminal behavior and the role of women as professionals in the criminal justice system. (CRJU 430 and WGST 430 are the same course.)
Prerequisite: CRJU 300 or PHIL 302.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Periodically
WGST 470T - Topics in Women's Studies (3)
Discussion and analyze current topics and issues from an interdisciplinary perspective including: Feminism and Populare Culture; Sex, Gender and Rock and Roll. May be repeated for credit for a maximum of 9 units.
Prerequisite: WGST 205 or WGST 302 or graduate standing.
400-level Undergraduate Course available for Graduate Credit
Typically Offered: Periodically
WGST 480 - Feminist Theories (3)
History and theories of feminism. Readings and discussions of theoretical developments in feminist thought and activism. Historical overview of connections between women as social actors and agents of social change and feminist theorizing. May be repeated once for credit.
Prerequisite: WGST 302, WGST 343 or graduate standing.
400-level Undergraduate Course available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Fall
WGST 485 - Women, Gender and Politics (3)
Changing political environment and women's role in elected, appointed and other public agencies; issues of particular concern to women, including family issues, comparable worth and other economic issues and political participation. (POSC 485 and WGST 485 are the same course)
Prerequisite: POSC 100 or HONR 201B.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
WGST 490T - Advanced Readings in Feminist Theory (3)
Covers the work of a single feminist writer within the larger field of feminist theory, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Angela Davis and Gloria Anzaldua for an entire semester. May be repeated with different topics for a maximum of 12 units.
Prerequisite: WGST 302, WGST 480; or graduate status.
400-level Undergraduate Course available for Graduate Credit
One or more sections may be offered in any online format.
Typically Offered: Periodically
WGST 492 - Capstone in Women and Gender Studies (3)
Culminating experience for Women and Gender Studies majors and minors. History, politics and current debates within the field of Women and Gender Studies.
Prerequisite: WGST 480 or graduate standing.
400-level Undergraduate Course available for Graduate Credit
Typically Offered: Spring
WGST 495 - Internship and Community Service (3)
Internship with guided tutorial in community organizations. Focus on gender and women's issues in a feminist framework.
Prerequisites: WGST 302 and WGST 350.
Undergraduate Course not available for Graduate Credit
Department Consent Required
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
WGST 499 - Independent Study (1-3)
Conduct extended research in Women's Studies, or link an interest in another discipline to an interest in Women's Studies. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 units. Requires approval by instructor teaching a Women's Studies class, or by Chair of Women and Gender Studies.
400-level Undergraduate Course available for Graduate Credit
Department Consent Required
Typically Offered: Fall/Spring