Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Degree Options: Major, Minor
Locations: Lincoln Center, Rose Hill
Visit the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Take an interdisciplinary approach to a profound social justice goal: understanding how gender and sexuality shape our culture, daily lives, social institutions, and interactions.
More and more, society is recognizing that gender and sexuality affect how we navigate the world around us, that these pervasive forces can reshape old axes of power and cultivate new ones. Times are changing. If you want to be a part of that change, consider the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Fordham.
Originally founded as the Women’s Studies program, the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program takes an expansive view of gender and sexuality studies as both a lens on and a vehicle of social change. Our dynamic interdisciplinary curriculum covers the breadth of the human experience with gender and sexuality. Our courses explore the diversity of women’s experiences, investigate women’s contributions historically and across cultures, and delve into concurrent emphases on gender and sexuality as primary categories of analysis. By looking at gender today—especially where it intersects with sexuality, class, and race—you’ll become an expert in these intersectionalities that modern-day scholars have embraced. You’ll also learn how to use that information to create positive change. And since this is an integrative program, you’ll take classes in the humanities, arts, and social and natural sciences that focus on these themes.
By studying a broad range of topics and taking literal, empirical, and theoretical approaches to your major coursework, you will become adept at traversing a world molded by gender and sexuality, and be encouraged to become an agent of social change who works for the public good.
We want you to excel in your field—and as a human being. That’s why your course of study will be complemented by Fordham’s core curriculum. It’s the centerpiece of our liberal arts education and the foundation upon which every one of our majors is built. In addition to courses on women, gender, and sexuality, you’ll also study philosophy, theology, history, mathematics, languages, science, and the performing arts.
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As a women, gender, and sexuality studies major, you’ll take 10 courses in a range of disciplines.
1. Three required courses.
- WGSS 3000: Gender and Sexuality Studies
- WGSS 3001: Queer Theories
- WGSS 3002: Feminist and Women’s Studies
2. Six elective courses with the WGSS attribute code. These courses are offered across the disciplines.
3. A senior capstone, which may be fulfilled by one of the following courses under the direction of an adviser from the program.
- WGSS 4910: Internship
- WGSS 4920: Senior Project
- WGSS 4930: Senior Thesis
Internships
We connect you with internships in New York City—the diverse cultures who call this city home offer an equally diverse range of female lived experience.
On-Campus Events
We sponsor a range of events and lectures that address concerns you encounter in the classroom and beyond. You’ll have an opportunity to hear from key artists, activists, scholars, and policymakers from New York City, the U.S., and around the world whose work focuses on gender and sexuality.
Study Abroad
We enthusiastically encourage you to venture abroad for your education in women, gender, and sexuality studies. There is a globe of possibilities available through Fordham’s International and Study Abroad Program.
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Modern U.S. Women’s History
Race, Class, and Gender in the Media
Politics, Sex, and Sexuality in the U.S.
Gender, Crime, and Justice
Hysteria/Sexuality/Unconscious
Women in the Bible
The Bible and Human Sexuality
Gender Politics in Latin America
Philosophical Issues in Feminism
Gender, Race, and Class (Sociological Perspectives)
Women Writing Africa
European Women 1500–1800
Work, Family, and Gender
Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
Gender and Modern Art
Jane Austen in Context
Women and Independence in Africa
Queer Theory and the Americas
Marriage in the 21st Century -
Policymakers, nonprofits, and the private sector alike recognize the importance of diversity, multiculturalism, and social justice as broad social goals and as a training ground for quizzical, curious minds. Undergraduates with a concentration in women, gender, and sexuality studies are well-prepared for graduate programs in social work, education, arts, and sciences, as well as for professional programs in:
- Public policy
- Law
- Medicine
- Business
Whether or not you choose to go to professional or graduate school, you’ll be especially well positioned to work in:
- education
- policy institutions
- development
- media
- social work
You also get access to our powerful (and Fordham-loyal) network of alumni, who want to see you succeed as they have!