About the ProgramGender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Program
Gustavus Adolphus College offers a major and a minor in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. This interdisciplinary program examines gender and sexuality as cultural and social categories that organize and shape human experience.
Students will interrogate the social meanings of femininity, masculinity, sexual behavior, and desire as integral to the ways that groups and individuals construct their identities within and across a variety of historical, social, and cultural contexts. To this end, students will also examine the ways that gender and sexuality intersect with other categories of social difference, such as race, class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, ability, and age. Students will explore such topics as constructions of femininity and masculinity, the history of feminism, gender roles and relations, and cultural configurations of sexual desire and identity, all in discussion-based classes.
Courses in the GWSS program come from a variety of disciplines. A multidisciplinary approach provides students with a foundation for thinking more broadly about categories of social difference and the various cultural and legal institutions that produce and sustain them. Students who successfully complete the program will be exposed to a wide array of methodologies regarding the history, theory, and practice of gender studies and will gain extensive experience with writing and research with a strong emphasis on information literacy.
In order to develop personal experiences with and perspectives on the workings of gender in Western and non-Western societies, the GWSS program recommends that students consider off-campus (international or domestic) academic programs. The GWSS program makes every effort to work with students in selecting courses from these programs that may be applied to the major or minor requirements. See Center for International and Cultural Education Office for a complete list of available programs, or contact the Center for International and Cultural Education for a list of programs that would be particularly interesting to GWSS students.
In keeping with the mission of the College, students will be encouraged to orient these insights toward furthering the cause of social justice.
Course Catalog Faculty and Staff Declare to the Major
Mission
The Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies program at Gustavus Adolphus College seeks to draw connections among areas of scholarship--such as feminist studies, gender studies, and queer studies--that highlight gender and sexuality as categories of analysis. We seek to help students develop an understanding of the protean nature of gender and sexuality and how they are shaped and mediated by aspects of social identity such as race, class, sexual orientation, and ability.
The interdisciplinary Gender Women and Sexuality Studies major and minor engage students in a participatory educational process. Through both course content and teaching methods, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies courses provide a rich base of theory and knowledge in the sciences and the arts, literature and culture, politics and history. Our courses provide students with a greater awareness of the historical and contemporary accomplishments and contributions made by women, LGBTQ+-identified individuals and groups, and people aligned with queer and feminist missions and values. The program especially seeks to encourage students to explore, both in theory and practice, relationships between self and society that promote social justice and gender and sexual equity.
The Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies program applies theories of oppression and activism to create systemic change both on campus and in the larger social world. To that end, the program and its students support campus events and organizations that foster a deeper understanding of women's studies and analyses focused on issues of gender and sexuality. Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies students put queer and feminist theories into practice through their involvement with campus and community organizations.
Guidelines and Policies
GWSS Governance
The Gender, Women, Sexuality Studies department is lead by its chair and the Gender, Women Sexuality Studies Steering Committee (GSC). The GSC is comprised of five faculty members (elected by GWSS affiliated faculty) and one student (chosen by the director from faculty nominations). Though the program director holds ultimate responsibility for programmatic decisions, the GSC advises and provides support to facilitate the various goals of the program. The GSC meets on a monthly basis and all are welcome to attend these program meetings. Each GSC member chairs one of the following subcommittees:Course Approval and Curriculum Development, Assessment, Research Support, Faculty Advising and Development, Events, and Student Initiatives.