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Major Requirements

Nine courses are required for the major, distributed as follows:

A. Two core courses

Ordinarily, WMGS 5a will be offered each fall, and WMGS 105b each spring. With permission of the WGS undergraduate advising head, students may be allowed to substitute another feminist theory course for WMGS 105b.

WMGS 5a Women and Gender in Culture and Society
This interdisciplinary course introduces central concepts and topics in the field of women's and gender studies. Explores the position of women in diverse settings and the impact of gender as a social, cultural and intellectual category in the United States and around the globe. Asks how gendered institutions, behaviors and representations have been configured in the past and function in the present, and also examines the ways in which gender intersects with many other vectors of identity and circumstance in forming human affairs. Usually offered every fall.

WMGS 105b Feminist Theories in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective
Students are encouraged, though not required, to take WMGS 5a prior to this course. Examines diverse theories of sex and gender within a multicultural framework, considering historical changes in feminist thought, the theoretical underpinnings of various feminist practices, and the implications of diverse and often conflicting theories for both academic inquiry and social change. With permission of the undergraduate advising head, students may be allowed to substitute another feminist theory course for WMGS 105b. Usually offered every spring.

B. Seven additional courses

Students must take seven additional courses that either carry the WMGS designation or are approved as women's and gender studies electives. These seven courses must meet the following additional requirements.

1. At least one course must have a historical focus encompassing a period before 1945. Courses that fulfill this requirement include but are not limited to:

2. At least one course must engage in a systematic and comprehensive exploration of racial, class and/or ethnic difference within or across cultures. These courses include but are not limited to:

3. No more than three courses may be taken from any one department or program outside women's and gender studies.

4. Students are strongly encouraged to undertake an internship in women’s and gender studies as one of their electives. Students pursuing an internship for semester credit must spend eight hours per week engaged in significant work within a setting that can provide focus on women, gender and/or sexuality. At the placement, the student must work with a supervisor or mentor; at Brandeis, the student must enroll in an internship course with a faculty member who will guide the intellectual component of the internship, read the student's written work and award a course grade. Students are expected to keep and submit weekly journals, to read from a list of relevant scholarship, and to produce a final paper of 15-20 pages in length. Please visit the Hiatt Career Center Web site for more information about women's and gender studies internship opportunities.

C. Requirements for Honors/Completion of a senior essay or thesis

In order to receive honors in WGS, students must complete the research seminar (WMGS 198a) which will guide students in designing and writing a senior essay. Students must then enroll in WMGS 99b in the spring, receive a C or higher on their senior thesis, and two WGS core faculty members must sign-off on the completed essay in order to fulfill the requirement.

Students are encouraged to revise the essay based on the comments of their core faculty readers and submit the revised copy to be considered for the Giller-Sagan Prize ($150) at the end of the spring term. Outstanding submissions will also be published in our online undergraduate research journal.

Students who wish to receive honors in women's and gender studies are required to complete a senior thesis. These students should enroll in WMGS 198a Research Seminar during the fall semester and in WMGS 99b Senior Thesis Research during the spring. WMGS 99 does not count as one of the nine courses required for the major.

Courses that fulfill university requirements or requirements for another major may also count toward the major in women's and gender studies.

No course counting for the major may be taken on a pass/fail basis. Students who maintain a grade average of 3.3 or higher in their women's and gender studies courses, however, will be permitted to count toward the major one credit-bearing peer assistantship in women's and gender studies.