Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

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The Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers a major and a minor.

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary exploration through which students examine the social construction of gender and sexuality as well as the material impact of those constructions on the lives of individuals and communities. We offer historical, contemporary, and transnational analyses of how women, men, and transgender people experience the dynamics of power, oppression, and resistance in many different situations. Employing a comparative approach, students explore how gender intersects with issues of nation, geographical location, histories of colonialism, culture, religion, sexuality, class, and race. The program focuses on the nuanced historical processes through which women, men, and transgender people live out gender; the set of institutional and ideological practices that shape it; and the concrete processes and political moments through which inequities are transformed.

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies prepares students to utilize feminist methodologies, sexuality studies and approaches to examine and enrich other disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and the arts. Our goal is to help students see the ways in which gender is being thought about and practiced, as well as to help them develop their own analytical skills to evaluate, assess and imagine differently.  A student who majors in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies will gain a strong liberal arts background linked to a range of practical experiences. Graduates may pursue advanced training and degrees in the arts, humanities, social sciences, or law or pursue work in the private sphere, government, social services, and advocacy programs that serve women, gender variant populations, and sexual minorities.

The Dorothy E. Brody ‘35 Endowment Fund for Women’s Studies annually supports a prize for academic excellence in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The fund also supports internships specifically related to improving women’s positions in society.

Study-abroad programs are also offered to Women, Gender, and Sexuality students.

An internship in Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies is required for students in the major.

Program Faculty

Professors

Kelly Brown Douglas (philosophy and religion), Marianne Githens, (political science, founder), Flo Martin (modern language), Richard Pringle (psychology), Janet Shope (sociology), Michele Tokarczyk (English)

Associate Professors

Nsenga Burton (communication and media studies), Seble Dawit (peace studies), Irline François, director (women, gender, and sexuality studies), Margret Grebowicz (philosophy), Gail Husch (art), Jeanie Murphy (Hispanic languages & literatures), Antje Rauwerda (English), Juliette Wells (English)

Assistant Professor

Mel Michelle Lewis (women, gender and sexuality studies)

Internships and Leadership Program

Public Leadership Institute for Women

Under a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Goucher established a Public Leadership Institute for Women to prepare students for leadership roles in the public arena. The institute provides an opportunity for students to work as interns with women leaders at all levels of government. Goucher students have served as interns in Washington, DC, with women lobbyists, members of regulatory commissions, and congresswomen, and in Annapolis with women members of the Maryland legislature and the women’s caucus of the Maryland General Assembly. Placements have also included internships with women judges and members of city and county councils. Internships with women office holders are also available to students in their home communities during January and summer breaks.

The Public Leadership Institute for Women sponsors public leadership conferences that bring prominent women leaders to campus to meet and talk with students. Recent speakers have included judges, members of the Maryland state legislature, and a former member of the European Parliament.

Goucher offers a January seminar on gender and public policy in Washington, DC. The seminar provides students with a firsthand look at the policy-making process at the federal level through faculty lectures supplemented by guest presentations by women judges, lobbyists, regulatory board members, congressional leaders, and government agency representatives. Policy briefings and site visits are an integral part of the seminar. Not limited to Goucher students, this seminar attracts students from across the country.

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