Women’s Studies Minor

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Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary program offered jointly by 18 departments and three colleges. Students majoring in any field may choose to minor in Women’s Studies or to take Women’s Studies courses. A minor in Women’s Studies helps women and men prepare for the sequence of careers that will be the hallmark of personal success in the 21st century. A background in Women’s Studies provides academic credentials and transferrable skills including critical thinking, writing, speaking and research skills through the methodologies and subject matters of multiple academic disciplines that study women’s abilities, history, values and interests.

Women’s Studies helps students understand reasons for social changes in women’s roles. It provides informative perspectives on career options. It prepares students for graduate work in Women’s Studies and other disciplines. And Women’s Studies educates students to become effective agents for change in the community and work place. Thus, Women’s Studies enhances career preparation and provides a more accurate and balanced view of the society in which the student will serve.

Students electing this minor should inform the Women’s Studies Director, who will serve as adviser in cooperation with the Women’s Studies faculty.

Required Courses

The Women’s Studies minor requires a minimum of 16 credit hours in courses designated as Women’s Studies, of which 8 credit hours must be at the 300- to 400-level. There are three distribution requirements:

1. COURSES MUST BE SELECTED FROM AT LEAST THREE DEPARTMENTS

2. COURSES MUST INCLUDE AT LEAST ONE COURSE 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 taught 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 18th Century 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
ENG 363 - Gender Issues in Literature
ENG 375 - Major Author when offered as: Jane Austin, or 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 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 Black 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 376 - Women in Early Christianity
SPN 484 - Studies in Spanish American Literature when offered as Latin-American Women Writers in the 20th Century

3. AND, AT LEAST ONE COURSE FROM THE SOCIAL SCIENCES:

NOTES

The

Advanced Seminar WST 495

) is required for the minor in Women’s Studies.

Up to 6 credit hours of independent study,

WST 496

, involving investigation of a topic relevant to Women’s Studies, will be accepted toward the required credits. Students who wish to take an independent study course should contact the Director of the Women’s Studies Program who must pre-approve the prospectus for independent study.