What if you could deepen your understanding of any society on the planet by looking through the lens of gender...
Women’s and Gender Studies examines women’s experiences using methods from many fields
WONDER WOMEN
What is life like for women who emigrate from Morocco to live in Paris or London? How do cultural differences of opinion about the role of women play out for them day to day? Our majors study issues such as this firsthand.
You explore the answers through real-life experience and the latest writing and thinking from around the world. In what way do the factors of class, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age and cultural and national identity shape
women’s stories?
Students recently did research and training at the United Nations in New York. They attended important U.N. meetings and interacted with women’s rights activists from 14 countries.
Our courses are taught by amazing faculty spanning nearly every social science, humanities and arts department at Drew. This lets us study women’s contributions to such areas as history, social development, art, science, culture and politics.
Woman’s day
Each year one of our majors is awarded a prize in memory of Shilpa Raval, a 1991 Drew graduate
who studied English, classics and women’s studies. Raval (1969-2004), a popular professor
of Latin at Yale, specialized in gender and sexuality in the ancient world.
Careers Made easy
women’s work
Our majors have gotten great résumé experience through projects such as helping refine the curriculum of Prepare, a New York—based organization that offers self-defense training. Our students, of course, take the training themselves in order to experience and understand it.
Being profoundly interdisciplinary means our majors can go on to a wide variety of careers based on their interests—from graduate school in history or social sciences, to the arts to nonprofit activist and social service organizations.
Students have benefited from combining our major with language studies. We’ve run a number of language-based Drew International Seminar programs and summer programs in places such as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Morocco and France that deal with issues of gender, race and identity.
Full-Impact Students
Kestin Gussoff
For my senior capstone project, I edited workbooks for [professional] self-defense classes designed for both men and women. I made the text more accessible and made sure the language used pertained to both men and women.
Passionate Faculty
Wendy Kolmar
Professor & director
I once had a student tell me that learning to write abstracts in my feminist theory class got her through law school. As for me, I’m working on the fourth edition of my feminist theory reader, a project on Victorian women’s ghost stories and another on an Anglo-Indian writer, Alice Perrin.
Ph.D., Indiana University
Passionate Faculty
Debra Liebowitz
Associate professor
I teach on women and politics, global feminism and international relations. I also direct the Drew Semester on the United Nations. For nearly a decade, I’ve been doing gender and human rights–related training and research at the United Nations, both in New York and Geneva.
Ph.D., Rutgers University
Successful Alumni
Assistant professor of history
Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.
Congressional security scholar
Truman National Security Institute, Washington, D.C.
Graduate student, women’s and gender studies
Rutgers University
We have an active feminist club on campus, as well as WoCo, or Women’s Concerns House, one of Drew’s residential theme houses. Both help create a close community for majors.
My Favorite Course
“It looked at the psychological and feminist theory behind gender violence and resistance efforts. We also spent 20 hours in a self-defense class, integrating the practical and the theoretical.”
Kestin Gussoff on Gender Violence and Women’s Resistance
WGST 101 - Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies (4)
An interdisciplinary course designed to lay the groundwork for the women's and gender studies major and minor. Also appropriate as a first course for any student interested in pursuing the study of gender within their major field. This U.S. focused course considers questions fundamental to the field: What is a woman? What is gender? What is sex? How does culture construct gender and gender difference? How do gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality intersect and interact?; the course, also, lays the groundwork for further work in the field by introducing students to analytical and critical concepts and approaches for understanding the lives of women and the construction of gender within larger social, political, and cultural structures; and it considers how we think about individual lives using these questions.
Offered: spring semester annually.
WGST 201 - Global Feminisms (4) (Same as: PSCI 241.)
This course examines women's movements internationally and globally. It explores the variations in constructions of sex, gender and gender difference as well as the range of feminisms and women's movements that have emerged from these differing cultural, economic and political situations. Such topics as women and development, the sexual division of labor, health, the environment, the international traffic in women and human rights may be among those explored in the course.
Offered: fall semester.
WGST 301 - History of Feminist Thought (4)
An interdisciplinary course that explores the development of feminist theories principally in the United States and Europe from Mary Wollstonecraft through "the Second Wave. The course examines the work of such theorists as Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anna Julia Cooper, Emma Goldman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mary Church Terrell, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, as well as feminism's evolving conversations with liberalism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis and its dialogues with the anti-slavery/civil rights movements and the gay/lesbian rights movements.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Offered: fall semester in alternate years.
Prerequisite: WMST+12.
WGST 310 - Contemporary Feminist Theory and Methodology (4)
An interdisciplinary course focused on contemporary feminist theory. The objectives of the course are first, to explore the broad range of theories that make up the body of contemporary scholarship referred to as "feminist theory"; second, to examine feminist critiques and innovations in methodologies in many fields; and third, to consider some of the fundamental questions these theories raise about the origins of gender difference, the nature and origins of patriarchy, the intersections between gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationality as categories of analysis and bases of oppression or empowerment.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Offered: fall semester in alternate years.
Prerequisite: (WMST+12 or WGST 101).
II. Intermediate and Upper Level (20 credits)
At least 12upper-levelcredits. Eight credits must be in the humanities or arts, and eight in the social sciences. No more than eight credits may be completed in a study abroad program.
A. Women’s and Gender Studies (0-4 credits)
WGST 211 - Topics in Women's Studies (4)
Description pending.
Course may be repeated.
WGST 311 - Advanced Topics in Women's and Gender Studies (2-4)
An interdisciplinary course designed to lay the groundwork for the women's and gender studies major and minor. Also appropriate as a first course for any student interested in pursuing the study of gender within their major field. This U.S. focused course considers questions fundamental to the field: What is a woman? What is gender? What is sex? How does culture construct gender and gender difference? How do gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality intersect and interact?; the course, also, lays the groundwork for further work in the field by introducing students to analytical and critical concepts and approaches for understanding the lives of women and the construction of gender within larger social, political, and cultural structures; and it considers how we think about individual lives using these questions.
Course may be repeated.
Offered: Offering to be determined.
Prerequisite: WGST 101 or permission of instructor.
WGST 390 - Advanced Seminar in Women's and Gender Studies (4)
Graduate courses being taken for undergraduate credit will be cross-listed under this course number. Possible courses include CHSOC+444: Ethically Responding to Violence Against Women; BIBST+731: Gender and Sexuality in the Bible and the Fathers; ENGLG+826: Feminist Criticism.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Offered: Offering to be determined.
Prerequisite: WGST 101 and permission of the instructor.
A study of the construction of gender across cultures. The course considers how culture influences and shapes gender roles in varying human domains, such as religion, creative traditions, work, scholarship and research, and popular culture.
Offered: Offering to be determined.
Prerequisite: ANTH 104 or permission of instructor.
ECON 315 - Political Economy of Race, Class, and Gender (4)
A study of race, class, and gender using the political economic approach to the study of economics. The course will investigate the impact of introducing the categories of race, class, and gender into political economic theory and will also undertake some empirical analyses of the roles of race, class, and gender in producing economic outcomes for minorities and majorities in the U.S.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Offered: alternate years.
Prerequisite: Sophomore or higher standing and one course in Economics.
PSCI 313 - Gender and U.S. Politics (4)
An analysis of the relationship between gender and politics from various theoretical perspectives. Focuses on the multiple ways that gender, race, and class have influenced political participation and political institutions at the at the grass roots, state, and national levels. Explores the construction of women's political interests and how those interests are, and have been, represented in political life in the United States.
Offered: spring semester.
PSCI 367 - Seminar on Gender and International Politics (4)
An analysis and examination of gender issues in international politics with either a regional or thematic focus. The central goal of the course will be to explore how gender, race, class, nation and sexuality are core components of the discourse and practice of international politics. Such topics as gender and Latin American politics, gender and international political economy, international women's organizing, and gender and postcolonial theory will be among those regularly presented.
Offered: annually.
PSYC 360 - Psychology Seminar: Contemporary Issues in Psychology (1-4)
A review and discussion of contemporary issues in psychological theory and practice. Issues explored change from time to time. Selections are made by the department and announced prior to registration.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Course may be repeated.
Offered: Offering to be determined.
Prerequisite: Announced at time of registration.
PSYC 362 - Seminar in the Psychology of Women (2-4)
A review of research focusing on women. Draws upon findings from the various subfields of psychology, including stereotyping, the social construction of gender, female personality development, women and mental health, gender differences in brain lateralization, hormonal influences on behavior, the psychology of women's health, and coping with victimization. Considers how psychological methodology enhances (or obfuscates) our knowledge about women's lives and experiences. The interface between psychology of women as a subfield of psychology and mainstream psychology is explored.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Prerequisite: PSYC 101.
SOC 225 - Sociology of Gender (4)
An analysis of contemporary gender roles from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Focuses on the social construction of gender and how gender affects our most intimate relationships. An examination of the implications of gender stratification for family and workplace. Explores historical and cross-cultural variations in gender roles, as well as variations by race, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation.
Offered: annually.
Prerequisite: SOC 101 or permission of instructor.
WGST 331 - Gender and Culture (4)
A study of the construction of gender across cultures. The course considers how culture influences and shapes gender roles in varying human domains, such as religion, creative traditions, work, scholarship and research, and popular culture.
Same as: ANTH 303.
Offered: Offering to be determined.
Prerequisite: ANTH 104 or permission of instructor.
C. Humanities & Arts (8 credits)
HIST 301 - Selected Topics in History (1-4)
A study of a historical theme or topic that uses a methodological approach or viewpoint not fully explored within the departmental offerings. Topics vary according to student interest and faculty expertise.
May be repeated for credit as topic changes.
Offered: Offering to be determined.
HIST 321 - American Women's History (4)
A survey of the social, economic, political, and intellectual history of women in America from the colonial period to the present, with a special emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Considers the diversity of women's experience as a result of race, class, ethnicity, and geographic location. Emphasizes developing skills in the use of primary sources-written, artifactual, and oral. Topics vary annually.
May be repeated for credit as topic changes.
Offered: fall semester.
HIST 338 - Women in Modern European History (4)
A topical survey of the social, economic, and political history of women in Europe from the 15th century to the present, emphasizing work, family, religion, sexuality, feminism, politics, and the state. Examines geographical and cultural variations in women's roles in history. The focus of the course varies annually and may include such topics as class and gender, work and family, women and politics, institutions and power, or rural and urban experiences.
May be repeated for credit as topic changes.
Offered: Offering to be determined.
REL 207 - Women and Religion (4)
A cross-cultural consideration of images of women in myth and scripture as related to women's actual roles in religious institutions and in societies at large.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Same as: CHSOC+417S.
Offered: Offering to be determined.
REL 362 - Women in Asian Religions (4)
This course examines critically the participation ofwomen in Asian religions. Possible topics include the nature of Goddesses, the social identity ofwomen as wives and mothers and the religious support or critique ofthese roles, biographies and teachings of female spiritual leaders, and the writings of female saints. One or more of these topics may be explored in a given offering of the course. The course will use methods from the history of religions and women's studies disciplines to pose and analyze issues of the construction and significance of gender in religious precepts and practices.
Offered: Offering to be determined.
D. Languages and Literatures (0-4 credits)
ENGL 103 - Gender and Literature (2-4)
An introduction to questions of how gender, as it intersects with race, class, and sexuality, shapes literary texts, authorship, readership, and representation. Most often organized thematically, the course may focus on such issues as creativity, subjectivity, politics, work, sexuality, masculinity, or community in works chosen from a variety of periods, genres, and areas.
Offered: fall semester.
ENGL 104 - Sexuality and Literature (2-4)
This course examines how sexuality is articulated and mediated through literature and such modes of cultural production as film and two-dimensional art. Attention will be paid to specific iterations of sexuality and the labels that attend them (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual). We will address theories of sexuality and study such authors as Jeanette Winterson, Mark Doty, Edmund White, Hart Crane, Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua, and Michael Cunningham. The course may additionally encompass how sexuality intersects with ethnicity, science and politics.
Offered: in alternate spring semesters.
ENGL 303 - Women's Literary Tradition (4)
Examines works by women writers in the Anglo-American and Anglophone tradition through the historical and theoretical approaches that have emerged from recent feminist criticism and theory. May focus on a particular genre, period, author or authors, the literature of a particular region, or on literature in particular social or cultural contexts. Such topics as: Women Writers and World War I; Female Bildungsroman; African American Women Writers; Victorian Women Poets.
Course may be repeated.
Offered: spring semester.
ENGL 304 - Advanced Studies in Sexuality & Literature (4)
In continuing the study of and moving beyond ENGL 104, this class examines how sexuality is articulated and mediated through literature and such modes of cultural production as film and two-dimensional art. Attention will be paid to specific iterations of sexuality and the labels that attend them (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual). Emphasis on queer theory and critical thinking on sexuality. We will read such authors as Sappho, Wilde, Gilbert and Gubar, Whitman, Ginsberg, Winterson, Doty, White, Bishop and Hart Crane. The course may focus on a specific theme or sub-genre such as speculative Utopic narratives or Race, Ethnicity & Sexuality.
Course may be repeated for credit.
Offered: spring semester in alternate years.
FREN 235 - Francophone Literature in Translation: Women Novelists (in English) (4)
A critical reading of novels written in French by women from the late 17th through the 20th centuries. The study of 20th-century authors also includes women writers from the Francophone world (Quebec, Africa, and the Caribbean).
Course may be repeated.
Offered: in 2008-2009.
MUS 236 - Women and Music (4)
A study of women composers/performers through the ages emphasizing their changing roles and society's changing attitudes. The seminar focuses on selected works of Hildegard von Bingen, Clara Schumann, Fanny Hensel, Maria Grandval, Ellen Taafe Zwilich, and Laurie Anderson, among others.
Offered: Fall Semester.
THEA 265 - Women in Theatre (4)
A selected study of the contributions of women in the theatre, with special focus on plays by women. Course may be organized by historical period(s) or appropriate theme. Also could include study of other women theatrical artists and practitioners: actors, directors, designers, artistic directors, producers.
May be repeated for credit as topic changes.
III. Internship (4 credits)
Selected in consultation with the advisor, and to be planned as experience/praxis linked to an aspect of the student’s major.
IV. Independent Senior Project (4 credits)
WGST 300 - Independent Study in Women's and Gender Studies (4)
A tutorial course. Independent investigation of a topic, preferably interdisciplinary, chosen in consultation with the instructor and the director of women's studies. Regular meetings by arrangement with the instructor. Oral and written work.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Course may be repeated.
Offered: offered every semester.
Prerequisite: WGST 101.
WGST 410 - Specialized Honors I (0-8)
WGST 411 - Specialized Honors II (4)
Notes
Majors, particularly those intending to pursue graduate studies, are strongly encouraged to have a minor in a traditional discipline rather than in an interdisciplinary field.
Majors should consult the list published each semester by the Women’s and Gender Studies program for additional courses that may be applied to the major.
Other courses may be applied to the major if they are proposed to and approved by the Women’s and Gender Studies Committee.
Minor
Requirements for the Minor (24 credits)
I. Core (4 credits)
WGST 101 - Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies (4)
An interdisciplinary course designed to lay the groundwork for the women's and gender studies major and minor. Also appropriate as a first course for any student interested in pursuing the study of gender within their major field. This U.S. focused course considers questions fundamental to the field: What is a woman? What is gender? What is sex? How does culture construct gender and gender difference? How do gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality intersect and interact?; the course, also, lays the groundwork for further work in the field by introducing students to analytical and critical concepts and approaches for understanding the lives of women and the construction of gender within larger social, political, and cultural structures; and it considers how we think about individual lives using these questions.
Offered: spring semester annually.
II. Elective (4 credits)
WGST 201 - Global Feminisms (4) (Same as: PSCI 241.)
This course examines women's movements internationally and globally. It explores the variations in constructions of sex, gender and gender difference as well as the range of feminisms and women's movements that have emerged from these differing cultural, economic and political situations. Such topics as women and development, the sexual division of labor, health, the environment, the international traffic in women and human rights may be among those explored in the course.
Offered: fall semester.
WGST 301 - History of Feminist Thought (4)
An interdisciplinary course that explores the development of feminist theories principally in the United States and Europe from Mary Wollstonecraft through "the Second Wave. The course examines the work of such theorists as Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anna Julia Cooper, Emma Goldman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mary Church Terrell, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, as well as feminism's evolving conversations with liberalism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis and its dialogues with the anti-slavery/civil rights movements and the gay/lesbian rights movements.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Offered: fall semester in alternate years.
Prerequisite: WMST+12.
WGST 310 - Contemporary Feminist Theory and Methodology (4)
An interdisciplinary course focused on contemporary feminist theory. The objectives of the course are first, to explore the broad range of theories that make up the body of contemporary scholarship referred to as "feminist theory"; second, to examine feminist critiques and innovations in methodologies in many fields; and third, to consider some of the fundamental questions these theories raise about the origins of gender difference, the nature and origins of patriarchy, the intersections between gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationality as categories of analysis and bases of oppression or empowerment.
Signature of instructor required for registration.
Offered: fall semester in alternate years.
Prerequisite: (WMST+12 or WGST 101).
III. Additional (16 credits)
No more than 8 credits in any one department, chosen in consultation with the Director.
