Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies

Our required gateway course into both the GWSS major and minor is Introduction to Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, which provides a broad overview of the discipline and a strong background for more advanced courses. Next, students usually advance to Foundations of LGBTQ Studies, which provides an interdisciplinary examination of sexual desires, sexual orientations, and the concept of sexuality, with a particular focus on the construction of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities. All GWSS majors and minors round out the program with a capstone course, such as Race, Gender & Sexuality in Pop Culture or Transnational Feminist Activism, that offers them the opportunity to study a topic in depth and to produce a substantial research paper. Students who decide to major in GWSS take additional upper-level courses in methods and theory and complete a self-directed, advisor-guided senior project.

Major Requirements – 66 Total Credits

Gateway Course – Required 6 credits

• GWSS 110: Introduction to Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies

Methodology Course – Required 6 credits

• GWSS 200: Gender, Sexuality & the Pursuit of Knowledge

Intermediate Course – Required 6 credits

• GWSS 212: Foundations of LGBTQ Studies

Theory Seminar Course – Required 6 credits

• GWSS 312: Queer and Trans Theory (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 334: Feminist Theory

Elective Courses – Required 30 credits

Students must complete an additional five electives (30 credits) from the GWSS Elective/Additional Courses List below. These 30 credits must be spread across at least two disciplines and should include one 300-level course and no more than two 100-level courses:

Capstone Seminar Course – Required 6 credits

• GWSS 397: Decolonial Feminisms
• PHIL 304: Decolonial Feminisms

Senior Integrative Exercise – Required 6 credits

• GWSS 400: Integrative Exercise

Additional Departmental Notes

Students will plan courses in consultation with the program director or a designated faculty adviser when they declare their major, and review their plan each term. The major they design should provide both breadth of exposure to Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies across fields and depth of study in one discipline (normally at least two courses in one area or from one department).

OCS Programs: You may count up to two 6 credit courses taken on either Carleton or non-Carleton OCS programs toward the requirements of the GWSS major or minor. OCS program courses cannot be substituted for core GWSS courses on campus and will only count towards GWSS electives. Two courses from Carleton’s Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe program can count as two GWSS elective courses. Students will need to get all OCS program courses approved by the director of GWSS.

Minor Requirements – 36 Total Credits

Gateway Course – Required 6 credits

• GWSS 110: Introduction to Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies

Intermediate Course – Required 6 credits

• GWSS 212: Foundations of LGBTQ Studies

Capstone Seminar Course – Required 6 credits

• GWSS 397: Decolonial Feminisms
• PHIL 304: Decolonial Feminisms

Elective Courses – Required 18 credits

These 18 credits must be spread across two different disciplines.

• AFST 215: Contemporary Theory in Black Studies (not offered 2026-27)
• AMST 217: Race, Gender, and Sports in America (not offered 2026-27)
• AMST 225: Beauty and Race in America (not offered 2026-27)
• AMST 260: Sexuality in American Film since 1945 (not offered 2026-27)
• ARTH 214: Queer Art (not offered 2026-27)
• ARTH 240: Art Since 1945
• BIOL 101: Human Reproduction and Sexuality
• CAMS 225: Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream
• CAMS 258: Feminist and Queer Film Theory (not offered 2026-27)
• CLAS 214: Gender and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity
• DANC 266: Reading the Dancing Body (not offered 2026-27)
• DANC 270: Performance As Ceremony (not offered 2026-27)
• ECON 257: Economics of Gender
• ENGL 217: A Novel Education
• ENGL 218: The Gothic Spirit
• ENGL 227: Imagining the Borderlands (not offered 2026-27)
• ENGL 229: The Rise of the Novel (not offered 2026-27)
• ENGL 242: Queer Literature: The Pre-Stonewall Origins
• ENGL 319: The Rise of the Novel (not offered 2026-27)
• ENGL 326: Seductive Fictions
• ENGL 327: Victorian Novel (not offered 2026-27)
• ENGL 344: Reading Queerly (not offered 2026-27)
• ENTS 313: Conscious Nature: Towards and Anthropology of Non-Human Beings (not offered 2026-27)
• ENTS 323: Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment (not offered 2026-27)
• FREN 220: From Witchcraft to Hysteria
• FREN 222: Genre and Gender in French and Francophone Cinema
• GERM 221: Modern Love: Sex, Gender, and Identity in Austria-Hungary around 1900 (not offered 2026-27)
• GERM 320: Life under Socialism: Culture and Society in East Germany (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 111: Queer and Trans Memoir (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 114: Love and Sex
• GWSS 117: Queer Joy and Hope
• GWSS 150: Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 200: Gender, Sexuality & the Pursuit of Knowledge
• GWSS 212: Foundations of LGBTQ Studies
• GWSS 225: Women’s and Gender Studies in Europe Program: Gender and the Biopolitics of Health across Europe
• GWSS 233: Feminist Cultural Studies (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 240: Gender, Globalization and War (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 244: Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Ethics and Politics of Cross-Cultural Research
• GWSS 250: Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 265: Black Feminist Thought (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 275: Latina/x Feminisms
• GWSS 312: Queer and Trans Theory (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 325: Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Gender and the Biopolitics of Health across Europe
• GWSS 365: Black Feminist Thought (not offered 2026-27)
• GWSS 397: Decolonial Feminisms
• HIST 122: U.S. Women’s History to 1877 (not offered 2026-27)
• HIST 123: U.S. Women’s History Since 1877 (not offered 2026-27)
• HIST 218: Black Women’s History (not offered 2026-27)
• HIST 229: Working with Gender in U.S. History
• HIST 236: The Worlds of Hildegard of Bingen (not offered 2026-27)
• HIST 270: Nuclear Nations: India and Pakistan as Rival Siblings
• HIST 280: Gender and Sexuality in African History (not offered 2026-27)
• IDSC 203: Dialogue Across Differences (not offered 2026-27)
• PHIL 114: Love and Sex
• PHIL 257: Contemporary Issues in Feminist Philosophy
• PHIL 304: Decolonial Feminisms
• POSC 239: Gender & Politics in Africa (not offered 2026-27)
• POSC 243: Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Socio-Political Systems and Gender Issues Across Europe
• POSC 276: Imagination in Politics: Resisting Totalitarianism (not offered 2026-27)
• POSC 280: Feminist Security Studies
• POSC 287: Queer Theory in the Global Political Context (not offered 2026-27)
• POSC 308: Global Gender Politics
• POSC 324: Rebels and Risk Takers: Women and War In the Middle East (not offered 2026-27)
• PSYC 246: Human Sexuality (not offered 2026-27)
• PSYC 389: LGBTQ+ Psychology (not offered 2026-27)
• RELG 218: The Body in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (not offered 2026-27)
• RELG 221: Judaism, Gender, and Other Intersections (not offered 2026-27)
• RELG 227: Liberation Theologies (not offered 2026-27)
• RELG 233: Gender and Power in the Catholic Church
• RELG 234: Angels, Demons, and Evil (not offered 2026-27)
• RELG 245: Religion and Masculinity
• RELG 265: Religion & Violence (not offered 2026-27)
• RELG 280: The Politics of Sex in Asian Religion
• RELG 287: Many Marys (not offered 2026-27)
• RELG 362: Spirit Possession, Trance, Shamanism
• SOAN 114: Modern Families: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Family
• SOAN 225: Social Movements
• SOAN 257: Culture and Politics in India (not offered 2026-27)
• SOAN 313: Conscious Nature: Towards and Anthropology of Non-Human Beings (not offered 2026-27)
• SOAN 323: Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment (not offered 2026-27)
• SOAN 325: Sociology of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction
• SOAN 395: Ethnography of Reproduction (not offered 2026-27)
• SPAN 244: Spain Today: Recent Changes through Narrative and Film (not offered 2026-27)
• THEA 228: Performing Women (not offered 2026-27)

Additional Departmental Notes

OCS Programs: You may count up to two 6 credit courses taken on either Carleton or non-Carleton OCS programs toward the requirements of the GWSS major or minor. OCS program courses cannot be substituted for core GWSS courses on campus and will only count towards GWSS electives. Two courses from Carleton’s Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe program can count as two GWSS elective courses. Students will need to get all OCS program courses approved by the director of GWSS.

• GWSS 110 Introduction to Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies

  This course is an introduction to the ways in which gender and sexuality structure our world, and to the ways feminists challenge established intellectual frameworks. However, since gender and sexuality are not homogeneous categories, but are crosscut by class, race, ethnicity, citizenship and culture, we also consider the ways differences in social location intersect with gender and sexuality.

  • Offered: Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: SI, Social Inquiry
  • Tags: CL: 100 level EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context GWSS Gateway
  • Faculty: Zosha Winegar-Schultz 🏫 👤 · Iveta Jusová 🏫 👤 · Cynthia Marrero-Ramos 🏫 👤

• GWSS 111 Queer and Trans Memoir

  From Audre Lorde’s biomythography detailing black lesbian life in 1950s Harlem, to Alison Bechdel’s tragicomic comic books, Chelsea Manning’s whistleblower tell-all, or Carmen Maria Machado’s experimental memoir about same sex domestic abuse, LGBTQ+ autobiographical works provide us with richly subjective, historically situated insights into the lived experiences of queer and trans individuals. Interdisciplinary in scope, this course considers a variety of LGBTQ+ takes and twists on the memoir genre, including photo diaries; video selfies; illustrated works; self-ethnographies; life-as-art performances; stand-up specials; auto theoretical works; and literary or lyrical forms centering on the personal.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Prerequisites:

    Not open to students who have previously taken GWSS 100 – Queer Trans Memoir.

  • Tags: AMST Production Consumption of Culture CL: 100 level GWSS Elective

• GWSS 114 Love and Sex

  From Disney fairytales to blockbuster rom-coms; dating apps to hook-up culture; and ongoing debates in mainstream media concerning reproductive, trans, and LGBTQ rights— love and sex are ever-present concepts in our day-to-day lives. This course offers an opportunity to critically explore, discuss, and challenge our understanding of love and sex through an interdisciplinary lens. We will explore questions like: What is the difference between the way we love our friends, parents, and lovers? How do intersections of race, gender, class, and ability affect experiences of love and sex? How does technology affect the future of love and sex?

  GWSS 114 is cross listed with PHIL 114.

  • Offered: Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry
  • Tags: CL: 100 level GWSS Elective PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Value Theory 1
  • Faculty: Cynthia Marrero-Ramos 🏫 👤

• GWSS 117 Queer Joy and Hope

  This course explores LGBTQ cultural perspectives that emphasize the importance of cultivating joy, play, optimism, and utopic thinking. The seminar aims to highlight recent work in gender and sexuality studies that theorizes alternative, intentionally-forged forms of relationality and kinship and emphasizes questions of care, ethics, pleasure, mutuality, and exchange in queer and trans contexts. We will study historical and contemporary traditions of camp, ballroom, and drag and assorted other joyful or hopeful queer practices, creative forms, gathering spaces, subcultures, dynamics, and aesthetics.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AMST Production Consumption of Culture CL: 100 level GWSS Elective
  • Faculty: Candace Moore 🏫 👤

• GWSS 150 Politics of Reproductive Justice

  Feminist mobilization around reproductive rights in the US has changed in its focus and intensity over the past 50 years. Black American and other transnational feminists have argued about the necessity of distinguishing between reproductive rights and reproductive justice. How has this argument impacted the ideology and collective-change strategies of different feminist communities mobilizing for reproductive rights? What collective-change strategies have they proposed and what obstacles have they faced? This course has a major civic engagement component that requires students to work with feminist non-profit organizations in and around Northfield or in the greater Twin Cities area. Offered at both the 100 and 200 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
  • Tags: ACE Applied ACE Theoretical AFST Social Inquiry AMST Democracy Activism AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity CL: 100 level GWSS Elective SOAN Elective Eligible

• GWSS 200 Gender, Sexuality & the Pursuit of Knowledge

  In this course we will examine whether there are feminist and/or queer ways of knowing, the criteria by which knowledge is classified as feminist and the various methods used by feminist and queer scholars to produce this knowledge. Some questions that will occupy us are: How do we know what we know? Who does research? Does it matter who the researcher is? How does the social location (race, class, gender, sexuality) of the researcher affect research? Who is the research for? What is the relationship between knowledge, power and social justice? While answering these questions, we will consider how different feminist and queer studies researchers have dealt with them.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level GWSS Elective GWSS Methodology PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Social and Political Theory 1 RUSS Methods SOAN Elective Eligible
  • Faculty: Zosha Winegar-Schultz 🏫 👤

• GWSS 212 Foundations of LGBTQ Studies

  This course introduces students to foundational interdisciplinary works in sexuality and gender studies, while focusing on the construction of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identities in the United States. In exploring sexual and gender diversity throughout the term, this seminar highlights the complexity and variability of experiences of desire, identification, embodiment, self-definition, and community-building across different historical periods, and in relation to intersections of race, class, ethnicity, and other identities.

  • Offered: Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
  • Tags: AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level GWSS Elective GWSS Intermediate
  • Faculty: Candace Moore 🏫 👤

• GWSS 225 Women’s and Gender Studies in Europe Program: Gender and the Biopolitics of Health across Europe

  This course investigates the concept of biopolitics and applies intersectional feminist theories to examine how European states control the biological aspects of human life, including birth, health, mortality, and sexuality. It examines how health serves as a domain of power, shaping the lives and well-being of individuals and populations while reinforcing disparities based on race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability. Analyzing the biopolitics of health across different Western and East Central European political systems, case studies include medicalized childbirth, forced sterilization, immigration policies, and LGBT rights. Critical theories of gender, sexuality, and race are central to the course’s analysis. This course is offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
  • Prerequisites:

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

  • Tags: ACE Theoretical CL: 200 level EUST Transnational Support GWSS Elective
  • Faculty: Iveta Jusová 🏫 👤

• GWSS 233 Feminist Cultural Studies

  Who does popular feminism speak for; what does it stand for? How are earlier feminist movements reimagined, remediated, and rebranded to make feminism “cool” or “empowering”? What gendered subjectivities, knowledges, and practices are constituted—and marginalized? How do new technologies, media, practices of everyday life, and self-representations contribute to the making and unmaking of feminist activism and social change? We use an interdisciplinary approach: scholarship in queer theory, affect theory, Marxism, media studies, cultural studies, and sociology alongside the ephemera of mass culture, to illuminate intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, religion, nationality, and ability and intersectionality’s role in creating new feminist theory and praxis.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level GWSS Elective

• GWSS 240 Gender, Globalization and War

  We are surrounded by images, stories and experiences of war, conflict, aggression, genocide, and widespread human suffering.  In this course we will engage with the field of transnational feminist theorizing in order to understand how globalization and militarism are gendered, and the processes through which gender becomes globalized and militarized.  We will examine hegemonic ideals of security and insecurity and track how they are gendered. You will learn to conduct and analyze in-depth interviews focusing on the militarization of civilians/ordinary people so as to understand how all our lives have been shaped by the acceptance and/or resistance to globalized militarism.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: CX, Cultural/Literature IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
  • Tags: CL: 200 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective/Non POSC SOAN Elective Eligible

• GWSS 244 Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Ethics and Politics of Cross-Cultural Research

  This course explores the following questions: What are the ethics and politics of cross-cultural research? What is the relationship between methodology and knowledge claims in feminist research? What are the power interests involved in keeping certain knowledges marginalized/subjugated? How do questions of gender and sexuality, of ethnicity and national location, figure in these debates? We will also pay close attention to questions arising from the hegemony of English as the global language of WGS as a discipline, and will reflect on what it means to move between different linguistic communities, with each being differently situated in the global power hierarchies.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
  • Prerequisites:

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

  • Tags: ACE Theoretical CL: 200 level EUST Transnational Support GWSS Elective
  • Faculty: Iveta Jusová 🏫 👤

• GWSS 250 Politics of Reproductive Justice

  Feminist mobilization around reproductive rights in the US has changed in its focus and intensity over the past 50 years. Black American and other transnational feminists have argued about the necessity of distinguishing between reproductive rights and reproductive justice. How has this argument impacted the ideology and collective-change strategies of different feminist communities mobilizing for reproductive rights? What collective-change strategies have they proposed and what obstacles have they faced? This course has a major civic engagement component that requires students to work with feminist non-profit organizations in and around Northfield or in the greater Twin Cities area. Offered at both the 100 and 200 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
  • Tags: ACE Applied ACE Theoretical AFST Social Inquiry AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level GWSS Elective AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity SOAN Elective Eligible

• GWSS 265 Black Feminist Thought

  This seminar offers students an opportunity to engage closely with key concepts, figures, and arguments in the Black Feminist intellectual tradition. We will focus primarily on texts by key figures/scholars from the Americas/Caribbean—in order to situate Black Feminisms within a transnational feminist context. We will take a historical approach, starting in the 19th century and work our way to more contemporary figures and texts throughout the term. Some of the key figures we will examine are Sojourner Truth, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells, Angela Y. Davis, Sylvia Wynter, Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and Patricia Hill Collins. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
  • Tags: AFST Humanistic Inquiry AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level GWSS Elective PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Social and Political Theory 1 AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity

• GWSS 275 Latina/x Feminisms

  Latina feminist thinkers have developed and continue to develop valuable contributions to feminist, interdisciplinary scholarship. This course sheds light on these contributions by exploring the major questions, concepts, and debates within the Latina (and Latinx) feminist tradition. We will specifically explore the relationships between race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and identity; lived experience, embodiment, and knowledge; and the possibilities for self/social transformation through the process of creative writing.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level GWSS Elective LTAM Electives PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Prac/Value Theory PHIL Value Theory 1
  • Faculty: Cynthia Marrero-Ramos 🏫 👤

• GWSS 312 Queer and Trans Theory

  This seminar offers students familiar with the foundational terms and concepts in gender and sexuality studies the opportunity to engage in more advanced explorations of relevant topics and debates in contemporary queer and trans theory. Seeing queer theory and trans theory as theoretical traditions that are historically and philosophically entangled but which at times necessarily diverge, the course focuses on “state of the field” essays from Gay and Lesbian Quarterly and Transgender Studies Quarterly as well as works that put gender and sexuality studies into conversation with disability studies, critical race theory, indigenous studies, and critiques of neoliberalism and imperialism.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 300 level GWSS Elective GWSS Theory AMST Democracy Activism PHIL Interdisciplinary 2

• GWSS 325 Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Gender and the Biopolitics of Health across Europe

  This course investigates the concept of biopolitics and applies intersectional feminist theories to examine how European states control the biological aspects of human life, including birth, health, mortality, and sexuality. It examines how health serves as a domain of power, shaping the lives and well-being of individuals and populations while reinforcing disparities based on race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability. Analyzing the biopolitics of health across different Western and East Central European political systems, case studies include medicalized childbirth, forced sterilization, immigration policies, and LGBT rights. Critical theories of gender, sexuality, and race are central to the course’s analysis. This course is offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
  • Prerequisites:

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

  • Tags: ACE Theoretical CL: 300 level EUST Transnational Support GWSS Elective
  • Faculty: Iveta Jusová 🏫 👤

• GWSS 334 Feminist Theory

  This seminar explores key feminist theoretical perspectives and debates, using a historical framework to situate these ideas in relationship to philosophical and political discourses produced during specific cultural moments. This seminar ultimately aims to interrogate the positionality of the theorists we study, considering the cultural privileges as well as vectors of marginalization that influence those viewpoints. We follow feminist thinkers as they propose, challenge, critique, subvert, and revise theoretical traditions of liberalism, Marxism, Socialism, radicalism, separatism, utopianism, multiculturalism, postmodernism, queerness, and post-colonialism. We ask: What gets counted as feminist theory? What gets left out?

  • Offered: Winter 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AMST Democracy Activism CL: 300 level GWSS Theory PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Social and Political Theory 1 RUSS Methods
  • Faculty: Cynthia Marrero-Ramos 🏫 👤

• GWSS 365 Black Feminist Thought

  This seminar offers students an opportunity to engage closely with key concepts, figures, and arguments in the Black Feminist intellectual tradition. We will focus primarily on texts by key figures/scholars from the Americas/Caribbean—in order to situate Black Feminisms within a transnational feminist context. We will take a historical approach, starting in the 19th century and work our way to more contemporary figures and texts throughout the term. Some of the key figures we will examine are Sojourner Truth, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells, Angela Y. Davis, Sylvia Wynter, Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and Patricia Hill Collins. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ACE Theoretical CL: 300 level GWSS Elective LTAM Electives PHIL Prac/Value Theory PHIL Social and Political Theory 1 PHIL Value Theory 2

• GWSS 397 Decolonial Feminisms

  This course familiarizes students with major issues and debates within the field of decolonial feminisms. We will start by considering some of the historical, geopolitical, and theoretical underpinnings from which decolonial feminisms emerged. We will then investigate core concepts and problems pertaining to decolonial feminisms as a critical methodology and as a practice to build solidarity between and across anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-sexist, anti-capitalist schools of thought and/or political coalitions. We will pay particular attention to Latina feminist philosopher María Lugones and her development of the “colonial modern gender system” and her articulation of “decolonial feminism.”

  Recommended Preparation: One prior course in Philosophy or a relevant area of studies.

  PHIL 304 is cross listed with GWSS 397.

  • Offered: Winter 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
  • Tags: ACE Theoretical AMST America in the World AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity AMST Space and Place CL: 300 level GWSS Capstone GWSS Elective LTAM Electives PHIL Advanced PHIL Interdisciplinary 1 PHIL Prac/Value Theory PHIL Social and Political Theory 2
  • Faculty: Cynthia Marrero-Ramos 🏫 👤

• GWSS 400 Integrative Exercise

  This directed independent study course supports students as they make progress on the conception, research, writing, and presentation of their comprehensive exercise project during their senior year. Students should sign up for Integrative Exercise credit with the primary advisor of their project. The six credits required are generally split between Fall and Winter terms of a student's senior year, unless otherwise explicitly arranged with the GWSS director and both comps advisors. Students will meet with both their primary and secondary advisors for scheduled check-ins during the term and will be expected to make all agreed upon deadlines for turning in and editing drafts.

  • Offered: Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027
  • Grading: S/NC
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: No Exploration
  • Prerequisites:

    Student is a GWSS major AND has Senior Priority.

  • Faculty: Candace Moore 🏫 👤 · Cynthia Marrero-Ramos 🏫 👤 · Meera Sehgal 🏫 👤