A major in WGSS leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree and requires the completion of a minimum of 40 semester credit hours, of which at least 12 must be at the 300- or 400-level. At graduation, WGSS majors are required to have a GPA of at least 2.0 in fulfillment of major requirements. All Allegheny courses required for a WGSS major must be taken on a letter-grade basis and are included in the GPA calculation with the exception of repeated courses, for which only the most recent grade counts.
Because this major is interdivisional, students may complete any minor to satisfy the college requirement that the major and minor be in different divisions.
All courses marked with an asterisk (*) below have prerequisites.
Requirements:
Core Courses:
All majors must take the following core courses:
WGSS 100 - Introduction to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
WGSS 210 - Social Movements in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies OR
WGSS 211 - Queer Lives
WGSS 300 - Feminist and Queer Theory *
WGSS 400 - Transnational Feminisms *
WGSS 580 - Junior Seminar in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies *
WGSS 620 - Senior Project *
Electives:
In addition to the Core Requirements listed above, WGSS majors must take 16 credits of electives selected from the lists below. At least eight out of the 16 elective credits must come from program based and/or discipline-focused courses, and at least four of the elective credits must be at the 300 or 400 level. At most four credits from the internship courses WGSS 501, WGSS 502, WGSS 503, and PSYCH 540 may count toward the elective requirement.
Program Courses:
WGSS 207 - Human Sexual Identities
WGSS 255 - Women and Migration
WGSS 275 - Bodies in American Culture
WGSS 306 - Cultural and Evolutionary History of Sexuality
WGSS 310 - Gendered Violence *
WGSS 410 - Critical Perspectives in Global Women's Health *
WGSS 501 - Internship: Women's Services I * (Note: PSYCH 540 is a co-requisite for this course and may be counted as elective credit towards the WGSS major.)
WGSS 502 - Internship: Women's Services II * (Note: PSYCH 540 is a co-requisite for this course and may be counted as elective credit towards the WGSS major.)
WGSS 503 - Internship: Women's Prison * (Note: PSYCH 540 is a co-requisite for this course and may be counted as elective credit towards the WGSS major.)
Discipline-Focused Courses:
COMRT 251 - Gender in Public Communication
COMRT 331 - Bodies and Health in Public Communication *
COMRT 351 - Media and Identity *
ENGL 211 - Women and Literature *
ENGL 324 - Latino/a Literature *
ENGL 415 - Topics in Literature of the Middle Ages *
HIST 261 - A Survey of American Women's History
HIST 339 - Problems in the History of American Women *
HIST 353 - Women and Revolution in China *
PSYCH 423 - Gender and Families *
PSYCH 453 - Psychology of Women *
Other Electives:
COMRT 277 - Video Activism: History, Theory, Politics and Practice
COMRT 336 - The Visual in Public Communication *
COMRT 465 - Media and Cultural Theory *
COMRT 471 - Theories of Identity and Representation *
DMS 470 - History of Contemporary Dance
HIST 380 - Disease and Medicine in Modern History *
HIST 571 - The Civil Rights Movement *
PHIL 210 - Oppression and Liberation
POLSC 303 - Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
PSYCH 452 - Psychology of Prejudice *