Women's and Gender Studies

Director: Erin Speese, Ph.D.

The Women’s and Gender Studies undergraduate second major and minor are part of an inter- and multi-disciplinary program, based in the humanities and social sciences, available to all students across the University.

This program introduces students to the rapidly expanding areas of scholarship focused on gender issues that have developed within the academy and that are transforming scholarship in virtually every academic discipline today.  The program promotes open dialogue directed toward a vision of a world community that embraces diversity, justice, peace, freedom--values central to a liberal education.  This program participates in Duquesne University’s mission to provide for its students not only intellectual breadth but also a moral and ethical foundation for their lifelong personal and professional growth.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Focus on how women’s and men’s experiences within history, society, and culture are shaped by their gendered positions and how these gendered positions in turn shape women’s and men’s responses/reactions to experiences.
• Examine institutional structures and structures of power in terms of their implications for women and men as gendered beings.
• Engage with the established field of women’s and gender studies and the body of scholarship it has produced over the last 30 years.
• Address ways in which a focus on women and/or gender allows for the rethinking of a given scholarly field or discipline.
• Promote open dialogue directed toward a vision of a world community that embraces diversity.

Requirements for a Second Major

A total of 24 credits:

• These courses must be taken in at least two disciplines.
• At least 15 of these credits must be above the 200 level.
• Students may count toward the major one internship via Career Services that deals with women and / or gender studies, with the approval of the WGS Director.
• Students may seek permission from the WGS Steering Committee to substitute one course not cross-listed with the Women's and Gender Studies program. The course should include identifiable content devoted to women's or gender studies, and the student must be able to do a significant project or assignment based within the fields of women's studies or gender studies. The student must submit a short proposal to the Steering Committee by mid-term of the semester in which the course is taken, explaining how the student plans to fulfill the requirement. This proposal must be approved by and signed by the instructor.
• Students may seek permission from the WGS Steering Committee to take one directed reading course for WGS credit.

Courses are cross-listed under WGS and other departments each semester.

The second major in Women’s and Gender Studies is not a free-standing major; it must complement another major, for example, English and WGS, or Philosophy and WGS.

Requirements for a Minor

A total of 15 credits:

• These courses must be taken in at least two disciplines.
• Students may seek permission from the WGS Steering Committee to substitute one course not cross-listed with the Women's and Gender Studies program. The course should include identifiable content devoted to women's or gender studies, and the student must be able to do a significant project or assignment based within the fields of women's studies or gender studies. The student must submit a short proposal to the Steering Committee by mid-term of the semester in which the course is taken, explaining how the student plans to fulfill the requirement. This proposal must be approved by and signed by the instructor.
• Students may seek permission from the WGS Steering Committee to take one directed reading course for credit toward the minor.

Courses are cross-listed under WGS and other departments each semester.