Women’s Studies, B.A.

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At-a-Glance

Admission to the major: Requires good academic standing in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

Minimum hours required for the major: 38 distributed in three fields

Minimum hours required for the minor: 16 distributed in three fields

Awards: WEAL Scholarship

Advising: Director of Women’s Studies, Individual faculty adviser, CLASS Advising , CB 279.

For Information: Contact the Women’s Studies Program. Phone: 216-687-4675

For the first time in history, individuals must be prepared to pursue sequential careers. To thrive in the 21^st century students need academic credentials, transferable skills, critical & analytical thinking abilities, and the ability to comprehend information from a global perspective. A degree in Women’s Studies prepares women and men for the sequence of careers that will be the hallmark of personal success in the 21^st century. Women’s Studies provides academic credentials and transferrable skills that will serve students for a lifetime.

Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary field offering academic preparation in liberal arts and social sciences. Students earn a B.A. having majored, double-majored or minored in WST. Transferable skills enable students to enter the workforce immediately, or to pursue graduate studies in dozens of disciplines.

Transferable Skills: WST students learn the critical writing, speaking & research skills of many academic disciplines. Students identify, find & interpret information from fields as diverse as philosophy, sociology, psychology, religion & anthropology.

Critical & Analytical Thinking: WST teaches students to discover and communicate new knowledge about women. WST students reinterpret existing knowledge about women’s abilities, values and interests. WST students develop balanced interpretations of gender differences & similarities as they arise outside academia. Students learn to evaluate information presented about women in science, literature, art, marketing, politics & other fields. In the WST Practicum students integrate learning with workplace and/or volunteer experience.

Global Perspectives: WST students understand how gender roles shaped human societies. Because gender differences transcend race, religion, nationality & species, WST students recognize gender issues arising in international trade, migration, law & the environment.

Major-Field Requirements

To earn a Women’s Studies major, students must take a minimum of 38 semester hours in Women’s Studies courses. Courses are to be distributed over three departments with at least 6 credits in the humanities and 6 credits in the social sciences. Independent study (WST 496 ) may be included as part of the major. A grade of C or better must be earned in courses used to fulfill requirements for the major. Students are encouraged to use this framework to develop a more specialized Women’s Studies curriculum based upon their particular career interests.

Required Courses

Additional Women’s Studies Courses

In addition to courses listed below,certain special-topics courses may apply to the major if approved by the Women’s Studies Faculty Curriculum Committee. See individual departmental listing for course descriptions and prerequisites.

Women’s Studies Courses From The Social Sciences

Women’s Studies Courses From The Humanities

ARB 380 - Women in the Arab World
ENF 214 - Women Writers in English Translation
ENF 215 - Women Writers in English Translation (Writing)
ENG 207 - African-American Literature when offered by WST faculty
ENG 208 - Womanism/Feminism
ENG 330 - Studies in Ancient Literature when offered as Feminist Approaches to Classical Literature
ENG 333 - Studies in Restoration and 18th-Century British Literature when offered as Feminist Approaches to 18^thCentury Fiction
ENG 334 - Studies in 19th-Century British Literature when offered as Feminist Approaches to 19th Century Fiction
ENG 335 - Studies in 20th-Century British and Anglophone Literature when offered as Feminist Approaches to 20th Century Fiction
ENG 363 - Gender Issues in Literature
ENG 375 - Major Author when offered as Jane Austen,or the Bronte sisters,or Emily Dickinson, or Toni Morrison.or Virginia Woolf
FRN 365 - Readings in French Literature when offered as French Decadence: Literature & Sexuality
FRN 493 - Special Topics in French when offered as French Women Writers: From the Middle Ages to the Present
HIS 284 - History of Women
HIS 327 - American Sexual Communities and Politics
HIS 354 - European Women’s History
HIS 381 - Class, Gender and Sexuality in China: 1700-Present
HIS 393 - Special Topics in History when offered as History of Women in America, History of African-American Women
MLA 280 - Women in the Arab World
PHL 253 - Philosophy of Feminism
PHL 410 - Studies in the History of Philosophy when offered as Women Philosophers
PHL 446 - Ethics of Human Reproduction
REL 260 - Women & Religion
REL 370 - Sexual Ethics
REL 376 - Women in Early Christianity
SPN 484 - Studies in Spanish American Literature when offered as Latin American Women Writers in the 20th Century