Minor in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies

The interdisciplinary minor in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGS) introduces students to methods for identifying and critiquing the impact of hierarchies based on gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, and other social groupings. WGS courses explore gender and sexuality using tools drawn from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. In consultation with the director of undergraduate studies, students develop a minor that is suited to their fields of interest and that enhances their understanding of their major and other academic disciplines.

Requirements

Students must complete six 4-credit CAS WS courses with a grade of C or better. The six courses must include:

• CAS WS 101 Gender and Sexuality: An Interdisciplinary Introduction
• Five additional courses (at least two of which need to be Core courses) selected from the lists below

Courses offered by Boston University’s Study Abroad and Internship Programs or other BU full-time schools and colleges may be taken with the approval of the director of undergraduate studies. For additional information, please email wgs@bu.edu. Website: bu.edu/wgs.

Core Courses

• CAS WS 200 Thinking Queerly: An Introduction to LGBTQ Studies
• CAS WS 213 Resistance, Protest, and Empowerment: Global Women’s Movements
• CAS WS 317 Gender & Crime (also offered as CAS SO 317)
• CAS WS 325 Bombs and Bombshells: Gender, Armed Conflict, and Political Violence (also offered as CAS PO 346)
• CAS WS 328 Madonnas, Martyrs, and MILFs: Gender and Motherhood
• CAS WS 329 LGBTQI+ Representation in Film
• CAS WS 347 Feminist Inquiry
• CAS WS 352 American Masculinities (also offered as CAS SO 352)
• CAS WS 400 Gender and Healthcare (also offered as SAR HS 400)
• CAS WS 420 Queer Theory (also offered as CAS XL 420)
• CAS WS 425 Sex and the City (also offered as CAS SO 425)
• CAS WS 431 Genders, Sexualities, and Youth Cultures (also offered as CAS SO 431)
• CAS WS 450 Internships: Women, Gender, and Social Change
• CAS WS 454 Religion and Sexuality in the US (also offered as CAS RN 454)

Elective Courses

This is a partial list of courses that may be taken to satisfy the elective requirement. An updated list of courses counting toward the minor can be found on the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program website.

• CAS WS 233 The Evolutionary Biology of Human Variation (also offered as CAS AN 233)
• CAS WS 240 Sexuality and Social Life (also offered as CAS SO 240)
• CAS WS 241 Sociology of Gender (also offered as CAS SO 241)
• CAS WS 263 Behavioral Biology of Women (also offered as CAS AN 263)
• CAS WS 300 Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Topics in Literature and the Humanities
• CAS WS 301 Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Topics in the Natural Sciences
• CAS WS 302 Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Topics in the Social Sciences
• CAS WS 303 Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Topics in Film and Media
• CAS WS 304 Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Topics in Global and Transnational Studies
• CAS WS 305 Topics in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
• CAS WS 326 Arts of Gender (also offered as CAS EN 326)
• CAS WS 327 Immigrant Women in Literature: Found in Translation? (also offered as CAS LR 327, CAS XL 327)
• CAS WS 330 Transforming Life: Anthropology of New Medical Technologies (also offered as CAS AN 302)
• CAS WS 335 Sociology of Race, Class, and Gender (also offered as CAS AA 335, CAS SO 335)
• CAS WS 350 Women and Politics (also offered as CAS PO 309)
• CAS WS 375 Growing Up in Korea (also offered as CAS LK 375)
• CAS WS 377 Gender and Sexuality in Judaism (also offered as CAS RN 337)
• CAS WS 380 Gender and Identity in Contemporary Middle Eastern Film (also offered as CAS XL 380)
• CAS WS 393 Technoculture and Horizons of Gender and Race (also offered as CAS EN 393)
• CAS WS 396 Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality (also offered as CAS PH 256, CAS PO 396)
• CAS WS 403 Gender Stratification (also offered as CAS SO 403)
• CAS WS 405 Topics in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
• CAS WS 430 Global Maternal and Child Health (also offered as SAR HS 430)
• CAS WS 434 Monarchy in Modern Britain (also offered as CAS HI 434)
• CAS WS 451 Fashion as History (also offered as CAS HI 451)
• CAS WS 452 Contemporary Debates in Sexualities Research (also offered as CAS SO 452)
• CAS WS 456 Neurobiology of Sex and Aggression (also offered as CAS NE 456)
• CAS WS 480 Japanese Women Writers (also offered as CAS LJ 480)
• CAS WS 505 Topics in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
• CAS WS 516 Gender and Politics (also offered as CAS PO 309)
• CAS WS 530 Global Intimacies: Sex, Gender, and Contemporary Sexualities (also offered as CAS AN 530)
• CAS WS 558 Biology of Human Sex Differences (also offered as CAS AN 558)
• CAS WS 570 French and Francophone Women Writers since 1945 (also offered as CAS LF 570)
• CAS WS 594 Historical Traditions of Feminist Theory (also offered as CAS PO 594)