Congratulations to our 2012 Graduates! Be the Change.

Front, L-R: Prof. Jen Riley, Tiffany Gambill, Marie Andre
Back, L-R: Sean Connell, Tyla Mitrano, Suzy Dodenhoff, Vanessa Ortiz-Lora, Kari Rowland

What is Women's and Gender Studies?

The field of Women's and Gender Studies is interdisciplinary. Calling upon such fields as history, economics, psychology, health, music, literature, and visual arts, Women's and Gender Studies seeks to understand the position of women in society. The interdisciplinary nature of Women's and Gender Studies fosters an active examination of the varying influences upon women's and men's lives such as race, class, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexuality, and age. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Department of Women's and Gender Studies provides students an opportunity to think about the construction and influences of gender in contemporary society, to discover the historical factors that have shaped the current status of women from varying backgrounds and countries, and to explore paths to achieve equality for all people.

Core Major Learning Outcomes

• Explain the historical, social, and political contexts of women's movements and feminist thought.
• Explain feminist theories and apply them in critiquing and transforming their world.

Concentration-Specific Objectives

Gender Studies

• Identify and evaluate the social construction of gender and the ways gender intersects with other forms of identity.

Politics, Justice and Policy

• Explain the gendering of our socioeconomic and political worlds and the individual and collective components of social change.

Cross-Cultural Inquiry

• Identify, compare, and evaluate culturally and historically specific ideas of gender, sex, and sexuality.

Arts and Letters

• Apply a feminist perspective to the study of literature, history, and/or the arts.