The Major
Requirements for the Major
Gender studies majors cultivate the habit of asking
how gender—through its connections with other forms of power—shapes
bodies, lives, texts, institutions, and worlds. Gender studies is interdisciplinary
and cross-cultural in its approaches. The goal is to provide students
with multiple angles of vision that enrich their learning in and beyond
the major.
Majors are introduced to the foundations of the field in courses on women, feminist theory, global power relations, and methodology. Drawing on courses offered across the Mount Holyoke curriculum and in the five colleges, majors then develop concentrations in areas of particular interest. Possible areas of concentration include, but are not limited to: women’s literary and artistic production; gender in imperial and postcolonial contexts; feminist anti-racism; women’s health; women and labor; violence against women; feminist science studies; queer studies; men and masculinity; transgender politics; U.S. women of color politics; women immigrants and refugees; transnational feminisms.
A field-study seminar, taken in the junior or senior year; and a full-year, two-credit per semester, senior capstone course bring majors together to think through connections among the diverse intellectual and creative approaches they have encountered as well as between scholarship and social action.
Courses
GNDST 101, Introduction to Gender Studies
GNDST 201, Intro to Feminist Methodologies
GNDST 221, Feminist Theory
GNDST 250, Gender and Power in Global Contexts
GNDST 333, Interdisciplinary Seminar (2 courses under this rubric)
GNDST 390, Internship or Field Project
GNDST 391-392, Senior Seminar
The remaining 8 credits (of which 4 credits must
be at the 300 level) may be chosen from Gender Studies courses or courses
approved by the department, for a minimum of 40 credits,
20 credits at the 300 level.
Additionally, all students must submit a focus statement during their junior year.
Majors are required to complete a minor in another discipline or interdisciplinary area.
Each Gender Studies major shall also submit to her major advisor a two page statement that identifies the central question or questions that she anticipates will define her concentration within the major. This statement should include a list of at least four courses that constitute a concentration within the major and an explanation of how these courses cohere around the question or questions that form the central focus. In particular, the statement should clearly identify the substantive focus of the student's program, defend its significance, list the courses she has taken and intends to take, and describe their relation to the theme. This statement is due during pre-registration of the second semester of the student's junior year.
Requirements for the Major Form
