Program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) is an interdisciplinary field of research and teaching that places gender and sexuality at the center of inquiry. In WGSS courses students work together to explore the ways that race, ethnicity, sexuality, social class, nationality, age, and ability intersect to shape gendered experience, injustice, and social change. Using an intersectional lens, students gain expertise in analyzing gendered social roles and the ways in which they affect personal lives, artistic expression, work, relationships, institutional structures, the production of knowledge, and national and international political and economic relations. WGSS offers a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and minors in Women’s Studies and Queer Studies. The program is administered through the Department of English. Students interested in declaring a major or minor should contact the program director, Pamela Thoma, professor of English.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Recognizes intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability in the social construction and perpetuation of structural inequities and injustice.
• Understands intersectionality as a critical framework for analyzing structural inequalities and for recognizing the complexity of social identity. 
• Analyzes social norms and assumptions to envision alternative, socially just relations, practices, and policies.
• Asks critical questions to understand problems and formulate viable research plan.
• Accesses information tools to identify relevant context, scholarship, and support for developing arguments and strategies for social justice. 
• Examines the influence of historical context on the formation of local, national, and global cultural narratives and political narratives struggles.
• Identifies the key texts of feminist and queer studies and applies key concepts of the interdiscipline.
• Demonstrates critical oral and written communication skills in the use of scholarly sources in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.

For more information, please see degree options at https://wgss.wsu.edu/degree-options/.