Major Overview

Our aim is to provide you with a coherent and comparative study of gender and sexuality within the social sciences and the humanities. Drawing from psychology, feminism, literary theory, sociology, politics, visual culture, and other fields of inquiry, you will develop an informed understanding of the fundamental concepts, theories, issues, and debates that surround gender and sexuality from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. This will lay the foundation for a comparative investigation of interdisciplinary epistemologies and will prepare you for more focused topical, theoretical, and region-specific explorations within three fields of specialization. 

Featured Course

Gender and Sexuality: Global Perspectives

Interrogates gender & sexuality from a global perspective, drawing from multiple disciplines...

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The educational goals for this major are as follows:

  • You will demonstrate knowledge of the developmental, social, theoretical and historical frameworks that define the study of gender and sexuality from both a social sciences perspective and a humanities perspective.
  • You will identify, compare, critique, and analyze the historical, social and cultural specificity of different conceptions of gender and sexuality.
  • You will apply their knowledge of gender and society to a globally informed understanding and evaluation of the pressures, politics and debates of representations of gender and sexuality, particularly those bearing upon legal rights and social justice.
  • You will be able to read and critique literature on sex and gender in the social sciences and the humanities.

Learning Environment

No matter your specialization, you will examine larger social, cultural, and political explorations that involve subjects like the representation and construction of gender, the teaching of sexuality in schools, feminist rights within the workplace, gender and sexuality within colonial and post-colonial studies, and LGBT activism. Your studies will prepare you to interpret and critically analyze the scientific, biological, artistic, and poetic articulations of gender and sexuality at the center of contemporary social, cultural, and political debates.

Emilie

Alumna '15

With the support I received from my professors, I was offered some amazing opportunities...

Major Components
Build Your Degree

With every single one of our majors, you’ll find a carefully curated medley of core courses and electives, which will provide you with the tools you need to establish an unshakeable foundation in the principles and concepts fundamental to your growth within your disciplines of choice. Many majors also enable you to specialize further within the broader area of study.

Core Courses

Core Courses

We aim to help you develop a range of skills, capacities, and modes of inquiry that will be crucial for your future since employers and graduate schools are looking for the critical thinking and innovative problem-solving skills that are associated with a liberal arts education, including sophisticated writing abilities, willingness to pose difficult questions, and an understanding of the historical and cultural contexts surrounding a topic or decision.

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Electives

Electives

You will be required to take at least six elective courses from within the GSS major, including at least three courses from the specialization you choose and two courses from a different specialization, in order to ensure you a well-rounded base from which to pursue your own path. 

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Specialization

Specialization

The Gender, Sexuality and Society major offers courses in the following three specializations: 

  • Politics of Gender and Sexuality: Representations, Rights & Social Justice
  • Psychological and Psychoanalytic Foundations of Gender and Sexuality
  • Constructions of Gender and Sexuality: Global and Historical Perspectives

See the Specializations' Requirements

BROWSE ALL MAJORS AND REQUIREMENTS

Core Courses

The Gender, Sexuality and Society core courses, which you must take as part of the major requirements, will provide you with the tools you’ll need to ground your present and future studies. Your introduction to the fundamentals of Gender, Sexuality and Society will help pave the way for your successful completion of other GSS courses.