Women’s and Gender Studies Minor

Undergraduate Program

Clark launched its Women’s Studies program in 1979. In spring 2006, the university approved the Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) major, effective fall 2006. The Women’s and Gender Studies major provides students with a solid foundation in women’s studies and gender analysis, introduces them to a range of disciplinary approaches to women and gender, and helps them to develop an area of specialization within the field. Courses stress the importance of social ideas and relationships such as those shaped by gender, ethnicity, race, and class to understand better individual and collective experiences, past and present. The major requires a minor in another field (and encourages a double major) in order to reinforce connections with existing majors.

WGS courses are offered by faculty throughout the university, but students are required to take three core courses within the Women’s Studies Program: Introduction to Women’s Studies, Feminist Theory, and Senior Capstone seminar. With the exception of these core courses, most offerings are cross-listed with the departments in which they originate.

Program Faculty

María Acosta Cruz, Ph.D.
Michael Addis, Ph.D.
Margarete Arndt, D.B.A.
Kiran Asher, Ph.D.
Belén Atienza, Ph.D.
Parminder Bhachu, Ph.D.
Sarah Buie, M.F.A.
Michael Butler, Ph.D.
Marcia Butzel, Ph.D.
Carol D’Lugo, Ph.D.
Judith DeCew, Ph.D.
Gino DiIorio, M.F.A.
Jody Emel, Ph.D.
Patricia Ewick, Ph.D.
Rachel Falmagne, Ph.D.
Odile Ferly, Ph.D.
William Fisher, Ph.D.
Ellen Foley, Ph.D.
Beth Gale, Ph.D.
SunHee Kim Gertz, Ph.D.
Abbie Goldberg, Ph.D.
Janette T. Greenwood, Ph.D.
Betsy P. Huang, Ph.D.
Fern Johnson, Ph.D.
Lisa Kasmer, Ph.D.
Sharon Krefetz, Ph.D.
Thomas Kuehne, Ph.D.
Nina Kushner, Ph.D.
Deborah Martin, Ph.D.
Amy Richter, Ph.D.
Heather L. Roberts, Ph.D.
Dianne Rocheleau, Ph.D.
Paul Ropp, Ph.D.
Laurie Ross, Ph.D.
Robert Ross, Ph.D.
Srinivasan Sitaraman, Ph.D.
Valerie Sperling, Ph.D.
Shelly Tenenbaum, Ph.D.
Robert D. Tobin, Ph.D.
Alice Valentine, M.A.
Virginia Mason Vaughan, Ph.D.
Kristen Williams, Ph.D. - Director
Kristina Wilson, Ph.D.

Affiliate Faculty

Ya-chen Chen, Ph.D.

Research Faculty

Cynthia Enloe, Ph.D.
Susan Hanson, Ph.D.
Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Ph.D.

Emeriti Faculty

Serena S. Hilsinger, Ph.D.
Dorothy Kaufmann, Ph.D.

Courses

• ENG 133 - Survey of Women Writers I
• FREN 256 - No More Classrooms, No More Books: Education in 20th Century French Novel and Film.
• HIST 236 - Gender, War and Genocide in 20th Century Europe
• ID 125 - Tales from the Far Side: Third World Development and Underdevelopment in the Age of Globalization
• PSCI 090 - Political Science Fiction
• PSYC 265 - Psychology of Men
• PSYC 275 - Societal Approaches to Thinking
• PSYC 326 - Feminist Perspectives on Self, Mind, Identity and Development
• SOC 105 - Social Research Process
• WS 037 - 19th-Century America Through Women’s Eyes
• WS 040 - The Witchcraze: Witch Hunts in Early Modern Europe
• WS 091 - The Gender Gap and American Politics
• WS 092 - Women and War
• WS 109 - Contemporary Women Playwrights
• WS 110 - Introduction to Women’s Studies
• WS 112 - Fairy Tales of the World
• WS 117 - Revolution and Political Violence
• WS 124 - Women in the Ancient World
• WS 131 - Local Action/Global Change: The Urban Context
• WS 134 - Survey of Women Writers II
• WS 138 - Gender and Environment
• WS 147 - World Order and Globalization
• WS 175 - Women and U.S. Politics
• WS 190 - Japanese Women Writers
• WS 200 - Feminist Theory
• WS 204 - Sacred Space
• WS 207 - Her Story: History and Fiction of Caribbean Women Writers
• WS 209 - Beyond Victims and Guardian Angels: Third World Women, Gender and Development
• WS 210 - Spirited Rebellion: Adolescence French Novel and Film
• WS 212 - History of Sexuality: 1750 to the Present
• WS 213 - Gender and the American City
• WS 219 - History of American Women
• WS 229 - Women in European History
• WS 236 - Women in Hispanic Literature
• WS 237 - Feminism, Nature and Culture
• WS 247 - Women in Society
• WS 248 - Gender and Representation
• WS 252 - Gender, Families and Close Relationships
• WS 254 - The Psychology of Couples and Intimacy
• WS 260 - Studies in 18th-Century British Literature
• WS 262 - Studies in 19th-Century British Literature
• WS 263 - British Romantic Literature: Race and Imperialism in Romanticism
• WS 266 - The European Mind, History & Theory, 1700-2000
• WS 268 - Peace and War
• WS 269 - Capitalism, Nature Development
• WS 278 - Family Issues in an Aging Society
• WS 282 - Chinese Women in Literature and Society
• WS 288 - Gender and Film
• WS 291 - Dangerous Women
• WS 295 - Gender and Discourse
• WS 296 - Internship Seminar:Gender
• WS 299 - Undergraduate Directed Readings in Women’s Studies
• WS 361 - Gender, Militarization and Development
• WS 386 - Gender in Development Planning