Department of Women’s and Gender Studies

Women’s and Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that fosters active analysis of how gender (together with race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, ability) affects our lives. WGS draws upon anthropology, art history, crime and justice studies, economics, history, literature, philosophy, political science, sociology, and the visual arts. WGS students reflect on how gender structures societies past and present and how it affects people at the individual and group levels; they study the historical factors that have shaped the status of women from varying backgrounds and countries; and they explore paths to achieve equality for all people.

Faculty and Fields of Interest

Anupama Arora, BA 1995 University of Delhi, MA 1997 Jawaharlal Nehru University, PhD 2004 Tufts University

Elisabeth Arruda, MA 1998 Boston College, MA 2004, MA 2010 San Francisco State University

Heidi Berggren, BA 1986 University of California Berkeley, MA 1993 University of Texas Austin, MA 1997, PhD 2005 University of Colorado Boulder

Catherine Villanueva Gardner (Chairperson), BA 1985 University of Leicester, MA 1989 University College of Swansea in Wales, PhD 1996 University of Virginia

Anna Kłobucka, BA, MA 1986 University of Warsaw, PhD 1993 Harvard University

Cristina Mehrtens, BA 1983 University of Sao Paulo, BA 1985, MA 1991 University of Campinas, PhD 2000 University of Miami

Stephanie O’Hara, BA 1995 Wellesley College, MA1998, PhD 2003 Duke University

Faculty Affiliates

Dário Borim, BA 1987 Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil, MA 1991, MA 1995, PhD 1997 University of Minnesota, Portuguese

Anna Dempsey, BS 1978 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA 1990, MPhil 1991, PhD 1998 Columbia University, Art History

Shari Evans, BA University of Pennsylvania, MA, PhD University of New Mexico, English

Lisa Maya Knauer, BA 1977 Oberlin College, MA 1999, PhD 2005 New York University, Sociology/Anthropology

Yoon Soo Lee, BFA 1988, MFA 1991 Seoul National University, MFA 1994 Western Michigan University, Design

Isabel P. B. Fêo Rodrigues, BA 1994 Northeastern University, MA 1996, PhD 2002 Brown University, Sociology/ Anthropology

Viviane Saleh-Hanna, BA 1998 University of Ottawa, MS 2000 Simon Fraser University, PhD 2008 Indiana University, Crime and Justice Studies

Matthew Sneider, BA 1993 University of Colorado at Boulder, MA 1996, PhD 2003 Brown University, History

Bridget Teboh, BA 1986 University of Yaounde, MA 1994 University of California, PhD 2002 University of California, History

Heather Turcotte, BA 1997 George Washington University, MA 2002 San Francisco State University, PhD 2008 University of California, Crime and Justice Studies

Timothy Walker, BA 1986 Hiram College, MA 1990, PhD 2001 Boston University, History

Tryon Woods, BA 1995Wesleyan University, MS 2000 Arizona State University, PhD 2007 University of California, Crime and Justice Studies

Core Major Learning Outcomes

Explain the historical, social, and political contexts of women’s movements and feminist thought
Explain feminist theories and apply them in critiquing and transforming one’s world

Focus Area Learning Outcomes

Intersectional Gender Studies: Identify and evaluate the social construction of gender and the ways gender intersects with other forms of identity such as sexuality, race, class, ability and age in creating and maintaining structures of inequality.

Politics, Justice and Policy: Explain the gendering of our socioeconomic and political worlds and the individual and collective components of social change.

Cross-Cultural and Transnational Inquiry: Identify, compare, and evaluate culturally and historically specific ideas of gender, sex, and sexuality; and identify and examine ideas of gender, sex and sexuality that cross cultural and national borders.

Politics of Cultural Representation: Apply a feminist perspective to the study of literature, history, and/or the arts, with the aim of examing critically the multiple, situated kinds of knowledge that emergae from cultural artifacts and narratives.