Women’s Studies Major

Major Requirements

A minimum of eight courses, four of which are required as follows:

Required Courses

• WMST 202 - Women's Lives: An Introduction to Women's Studies A student must receive a minimum grade of C in WMST 202 in order to be admitted to the major program.
• One of WMST 260, WMST 279, WMST 341/ALST 341 as a required theory course
• WMST 301 - Feminist Methodologies: Theory and Praxis
• WMST 490 - Women's Studies Senior Seminar

Feminist Methodology

• WMST 301 - Feminist Methodologies: Theory and Praxis
• WMST 302 - Special Topics: Women's Lives in Text and Context

Feminist Theory

A course in feminist theory:

• WMST 260 - Intersectionality in Theory and Practice
• WMST 279 - Black Feminist Thinkers
• WMST 341 - Corridors of Black Girlhood

Divisions

At least four more courses from the following list, taken from at least two of the divisions:

Division A

• ALST 242/LGBT 242 - Religions of Resistance: Gender, Sexuality and Performance in the Caribbean   
• FMST 350 - Hollywood and the World: Performing Gender and Sexuality Onscreen
• LGBT 220 - Lives, Communities, and Modes of Critical Inquiry: An Exploration into LGBTQ Studies
• LGBT 227 - Machismo & the Latin Lover
• LGBT 303 - Queer Identities and Global Discourses
• LGBT 350 - Sexuality, Gender, and the Law
• NAST 301 - Native American Women
• PCON 260 - Feminist Security Studies
• WRIT 242 - Stand and Speak: Feminist Rhetorics and Social Change
• WRIT 345 - Crafting Bodies: Movement, Gender, and Performance
• WMST 205 - Queer Latina Visualities: Art, Theory, and Resistance
• WMST 260 - Intersectionality in Theory and Practice
• WMST 279 - Black Feminist Thinkers
• WMST 312/ALST 312 - Gender, Race and Punishment: Toward an Inclusive History of the American Carceral State  
• WMST 341/ALST 341 - Corridors of Black Girlhood  

Division B

• ANTH 228 - Women and Gender in Prehistory
• ANTH 315 - Gender and Culture
• ANTH 371 - Gender and Society in Africa
• ECON 234 - Gender in the Economy
• ECON 410 - Seminar in Gender and Development
• EDUC 303 - Decolonizing Development: Gender, Power & Education in International Development
• EDUC 339/ WMST 339 - Critical and Feminist Disability Studies   
• ENGL 208 - Sex and the Global City
• GEOG 321 - Transnational Feminist Geography
• HIST 211 - Women's Rights in US History (US)
• HIST 213 - Women in the City (US)
• HIST 304 - Sex and Sexualities in U.S. History (US)
• JWST 343/RELG 343 - Gender and Judaism   
• SOCI 212 - Power, Racism, and Privilege
• SOCI 220 - Gender, Sexuality, and Society
• SOCI 310 - Sociology of the Body
• SOCI 333 - Sociology of the Life Course (RI) and SOCI 333L 
• SOCI 367 - Sociology of Gender
• SOCI 369 - Women, Health, and Medicine

Division C

• CLAS 232 - Sexuality and Gender in Ancient Greece and Rome
• ENGL 202 - Justice and Power in Postcolonial Literature
• ENGL 207 - New Immigrant Voices
• ENGL 208 - Sex and the Global City
• ENGL 305 - The Female Protagonist
• ENGL 333 - African/Diaspora Women's Narrative
• ENGL 335 - Searching for Home in South Asian Literatures: Gender, Nation, Narration
• ENGL 336 - Native American Literature
• ENGL 363 - Contemporary Fiction
• ENGL 405 - The Brontës
• ENGL 408 - Literature of Medieval Women
• ENGL 412 - Jane Austen and the Rise of the Woman Novelist
• FREN 353 - Introduction to Literature in French: Literary Innovations in the 20th to 21st Centuries
• FREN 453 - Contemporary Literature in French
• FREN 455 - Francophone Voices from North Africa
• JWST 213/RELG 213 - The Bible as/and Literature   
• JWST 343/RELG 343 - Gender and Judaism   
• PHIL 360 - Feminist Philosophy
• RELG 234 - Goddesses, Women and Power
• RELG 253 - Love, God, and Sexuality
• SPAN 474 - Short Fiction in Contemporary Spain
• SPAN 477 - Women Writing in Latin America
• SPAN 488 - Latin American Women Dramatists

Other Courses

Other courses may be counted toward a women's studies major, depending on the orientation of the course, and/or the direction of the readings and student projects during a particular year. Such courses need the approval of the instructor and the women's studies director to be counted toward a women's studies major. Students must check with their WMST adviser about which of the following courses meet WMST concentration requirements. WMST credit cannot be granted once the course is completed with a non-approved instructor.

These courses include:

• EDUC 204 - Child and Adolescent Development
• EDUC 310 - Racial Capitalism and Education Policy
• ENGL 208 - Sex and the Global City
• ENGL 336 - Native American Literature
• ENGL 346 - Victorian Poets & Essayists
• ENGL 363 - Contemporary Fiction
• ENGL 461 - Studies in the Renaissance
• JWST 208/RELG 208 - The Hebrew Bible in America   
• LGBT 220 - Lives, Communities, and Modes of Critical Inquiry: An Exploration into LGBTQ Studies
• RELG 282 - Introduction to Islam
• SOCI 312 - Social Inequality
• SOCI 333 - Sociology of the Life Course (RI) and SOCI 333L 
• WMST 291 - Independent Study
• WMST 391 - Independent Study
• WMST 491 - Independent Study
• WMST 499 - Honors in Women's Studies

Additional Information

Students' relationships with their advisers are a critical part of the women's studies program. Following admission to the program, students, in consultation with their advisers, may develop a sequence of required and elective courses related to a particular topic. Some suggested topics are postcolonial and critical race studies; family studies; women in the United States; global perspectives on women; women, work, and family; women and social change; women and religion; and women, knowledge, and text.

Honors and High Honors

Students interested in pursuing honors can find the additional requirements on the Women's Studies program page.

Women's Studies Program

For more information about the department, including Faculty, transfer credit, awards, and more, please visit the Women's Studies program catalog page.