University of Minnesota
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
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gwss@umn.edu


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Graduate Programs

The Ph.D. and graduate minor programs in Feminist Studies are designed to help students develop a high level of competence in feminist theories, research methods, interdisciplinarity, and pedagogies. Our program is especially strong on feminist theory and issues related to women’s diversity, nationally and globally. To guarantee a high level of interdisciplinary exchange, our program is designed to bring Feminist Studies doctoral students together with graduate minor students who are pursuing a disciplinary specialty in their own home department.

PLEASE NOTE: In order to retain the high quality of our Ph.D. program and to maximize time, attention, and resources for our graduate students, the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies will begin a system of every-other-year admissions. Accordingly, applications will be accepted in 2010 to start in the 2011-2012 academic year, but not before that. We apologize for any inconvenience this might generate.

Among the Feminist Studies graduate faculty are the chairs and directors of affiliated internationally acclaimed research centers. Participation in these centers would complement a student’s scholarship in the areas of international studies, women’s sport, Holocaust studies, public policy, global change, technology, music and the arts, law, environment, life sciences, and human rights (see Student Resources Directory). Special opportunities for graduate work at the University of Minnesota are further enriched by resources such as the Givens Collection of Rare Books on African American literature and history, the Social Welfare History Archives, the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, and the East Asian Library. Contact information for all of the centers, institutes, offices, and services mentioned in this guide is listed in the Directory of Student Resources.

Our interdisciplinary curriculum emphasizes the interaction of social conditions such as class, ethnicity, race, sexualities, and national identity with gender. These interactions and their effects are examined in cultural productions such as media representations or colonialist paradigms in social systems and relations of power; in aspects of science such as genetics and new technologies; in epistemologies and philosophy; and in professional areas such as health care to public policy.

A colloquium component in our graduate program encourages lively academic exchange between doctoral and graduate minor students, faculty, and invited speakers. Combining interdisciplinary breadth and specific area concentrations, the Feminist Studies program at the University of Minnesota will prepare graduate students to respond productively to the demands that challenge feminist scholarship and the future development of Women's Studies as a field.

We have a twofold commitment to develop scholars who will:

  • advance interdisciplinary feminist research; and integrate an interdisciplinary feminist perspective into disciplinary research
  • our interdisciplinary faculty represents 28 different programs, departments, colleges, and institutes at the University of Minnesota

We offer a wide variety of courses, including:

  • Post-colonial feminisms
  • Social movements
  • Critical sexualities
  • Environmental justice
  • Intersections of race, ethnicity, and nationalism

For a complete list of courses, please visit OneStop

Students can make use of:

  • Feminist Studies graduate student office and the Feminist Media Center
  • email, internet and on-campus computer access
  • research and reading group
  • events and activities sponsored by Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
  • The University of Minnesota library system, which has holdings numbering over 5 million publications, manuscripts, tapes and microfilms.

About the Twin Cities

Graduate Student Handbook (DOC)