150 Parkmill Building (PKM)
1633 SW Park Ave.
503-725-3516
www.pdx.edu/ws/
- B.A., B.S.—Women's Studies
- Minor in Women's Studies
- Minor in Sexuality, Gender, and Queer Studies
- Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Women's Studies
In the School of Gender, Race and Nations, the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers an interdisciplinary program designed to foster students’ personal and intellectual development and to prepare them for socially responsible citizenship as well as a broad range of careers. Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies advisers work closely with each student to craft a course of study appropriate to the student’s academic interests and post-graduate goals.
An expanding field of scholarship, women, gender, and sexuality studies is on the cutting edge of educational and intellectual innovation. Courses offered through many different disciplines explore how gender has shaped social, economic, and political institutions, culture, and language. Through these analyses, we envision what the world looks like once women’s experience is fully included in our thinking. The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies core curriculum encourages students to develop critical thinking skills and an appreciation for the range of theoretical frameworks and methodologies present in contemporary feminist scholarship. Courses incorporate the diversity of women’s experience with attention to race, class, and sexual orientation as well as gender. Core courses also encourage students’ active participation through discussion, informal as well as formal writing, and collaborative learning in the classroom.
Experiential learning plays an important role in a student’s progress through the women, gender, and sexuality studies curriculum. The program’s extensive and long-established ties with organizations in the metro area provide wide-ranging opportunities for students to apply their classroom knowledge in a community setting. Many students discover a life’s vocation through these experiences, and all develop new skills. Guidelines for women, gender, and sexuality studies practica and independent study are flexible in order to meet individual needs. A degree in Women's Studies provides the foundation for life-long learning as well as background and experience for careers in teaching, counseling and social work, business, law, health sciences, public administration, public relations, and academia.
Women’s Studies B.A./B.S.
In addition to meeting the general University degree requirements, the student majoring in Women's Studies must complete a required core program of 36 credits and 20 credits of WS electives (with a minimum of 16 upper-division credits) for a total of 56 credits to complete the major.
Each student pursuing a Women's Studies major will select or be assigned an adviser who is knowledgeable in the student’s area(s) of academic interest.
Courses taken under the undifferentiated grading option (pass/no pass) are not acceptable toward fulfilling major requirements with the following exceptions: one Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies elective course, WS 404 Cooperative Education/Internship, or WS 409 Practicum.
Requirements
Core courses (28 credits)
| WS 101 | Introduction to Women's Studies | 4 |
| WS 301 | Gender and Critical Inquiry | 4 |
| WS 305 | Women of Color Feminist Theory | 4 |
| WS 307 | Women, Activism and Social Change | 4 |
| WS 315 | Feminist Analysis | 4 |
| WS 412 | Feminist Methodologies | 4 |
| WS 415 | Senior Seminar | 4 |
Experiential learning (8 credits)
Electives (20 credits; with a minimum of 16 upper-division credits)
| WS 306U | Global Gender Issues | 4 |
| WS 308U | Topics in Gender, Literature, and Popular Culture | 4 |
| WS 310U | Psychology of Women | 4 |
| WS 312U | Feminist Philosophy | 4 |
| WS 317U | Writing as Activism | 4 |
| WS 330U | Women of Color in the United States | 4 |
| WS 331U/Intl 331U | Women in the Middle East | 4 |
| WS 332U | Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in the United States | 4 |
| WS 337U | Communication and Gender | 4 |
| WS 340U | Women and Gender in America to 1848 | 4 |
| WS 341U | Women and Gender in America 1848-1920 | 4 |
| WS 342U | Women and Gender in the U.S. 1920 to the Present | 4 |
| WS 343U | American Family History | 4 |
| WS 346U/Bi 346U | Genes & Society | 4 |
| WS 347U/Sci 347U | Science, Gender, and Social Context | 4 |
| WS 348U/Sci 348U | Science, Gender, and Social Context | 4 |
| WS 351U | Gender and Education | 4 |
| WS 360U | Introduction to Queer Studies | 4 |
| WS 365U/Sci 365U | The Science of Women's Bodies | 4 |
| WS 367 | War, Sexual Violence and Healing | 4 |
| WS 370U | History of Sexualities | 4 |
| WS 375U | Topics in Sexuality Studies | 4 |
| WS 372U/Eng 372U | Topics in Literature, Gender, and Sexuality | 4 |
| WS 377U | Topics in Feminist Spirituality | 4 |
| WS 380U | Women and Politics | 4 |
| WS 387 | Feminist Organizations: Theory and Practice | 4 |
| WS 410 | Selected Topics | 1-6 |
| WS 417 | Women in the Economy | 4 |
| WS 424/PS 425 | Women and the Law | 4 |
| WS 425/Soc 425 | Sociology of Gender | 4 |
| WS 426 | Gender & Mental Health | 4 |
| WS 428 | Lesbian History | 4 |
| WS 431U/ArH 431U | Women in the Visual Arts | 4 |
| WS 443 | British Women Writers | 4 |
| WS 444 | British Women Writers | 4 |
| WS 445 | American Women Writers | 4 |
| WS 446 | American Women Writers | 4 |
| WS 451 | Interrupting Oppression | 4 |
| WS 452/Comm 452 | Gender and Race in the Media | 4 |
| WS 467 | Work and Family | 4 |
| WS 470U | Asian American Women's Studies | 4 |
| WS 471 | Global Feminisms | 4 |
| WS 479 | Women and Organizational Psychology | 4 |
| WS 480 | Introduction to Critical Disability Studies | 4 |
| WS 481 | Disability and Intersectionality | 4 |
| Intl 360U | Bollywood: Communicating Contemporary South Asia through Cinema | 4 |
| JSt 335U | Sex, Love, and Gender in Israel | 4 |
Total Credit Hours: 56