Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies

Program Description and Opportunities

The Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGS) prepares students enrolled in graduate programs across the University to conduct research and develop innovative courses in the vibrant, interdisciplinary fields of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Students interested in earning a Graduate Certificate in WGS must be in good standing in their graduate program at Boston University and fulfill the requirements listed below as well as those of their degree program. The certificate is awarded under the auspices of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (GRS).

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the interdisciplinary foundations of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies;
2. Apply women’s, gender, and sexuality studies theoretical and methodological tools to graduate research;
3. Appreciate the connection between scholarly engagement and activism around issues of gender and sexuality;
4. Master the existing scholarship in the study of women’s, gender, and sexuality with the goal of applying this scholarship in the pursuit of their own research.

Requirements

1. CAS WS 801 Theories and Methods in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies

2. One of the interdisciplinary, team-taught courses offered by the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women & Sexuality or a WGS-Concerned Course taught outside your home department. If the latter, the course must be approved in advance by the WGS Director of Graduate Studies.

3. Two courses centrally concerned with examinations of women, gender, or sexuality from offerings in graduate programs across Boston University, such as the following:*

College of Arts & Sciences

• CAS AN 720 Women in the Muslim World
• CAS AN 744 Modern Japanese Society: Family, School, and Workplace
• CAS EN 676 Gender in Literature and Film
• CAS EN 726 Seventeenth-Century Women Writers
• CAS EN 774 Lecture-Performances, Poetic Essays, and other Generic Monsters
• CAS EN 775 Issues in Gender and Sexuality Studies
• CAS EN 776 Performing Gender in the Twentieth Century
• CAS HI 813 Gender in Medieval Christian Mysticism
• CAS HI 875 A History of Women in the United States
• CAS LF 860 Gender and Nineteenth-Century French Literature
• CAS LS 850 Women Painters and Writers in Latin America
• CAS PH 636 Gender, Race, and Science
• CAS PO 516 Gender & Politics
• CAS PS 572 The Psychology of Women
• CAS PS 790 Family Theory and Research
• CAS RN 637 Gender and Judaism
• CAS RN 735 Women, Gender, and Islam
• CAS SO 803 Seminar: Gender Stratification
• CAS SO 820 Graduate Study in Women and Social Change in the Developing World
• CAS SO 852 Contemporary Debates in Sexualities Research
• CAS WS 501 Justice and Community Engagement (also offered as MET SS 501)
• CAS WS 505 Topics in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• CAS WS 507 Diversity of Sex (also offered as CAS BI 507)
• CAS WS 512 Sexual Violence (also offered as MET CJ 512 and MET PS 512)
• CAS WS 525 Judith Butler (also offered as CAS PH 525 and CAS XL 525)
• CAS WS 530 Global Intimacies (also offered as CAS AN 530)
• CAS WS 542 Language, Race, and Gender (also offered as CAS XL 542)
• CAS WS 559 Feminist Killjoys & Cynical Queers (also offered as CAS EN 558)
• CAS WS 594 Advanced Feminist Theory (also offered as CAS PO 594)
• CAS WS 631 Genders, Sexualities, Youth Cultures (also offered as SO 631)

School of Law (LAW)

• LAW JD 731 Critical Race Theory
• LAW JD 787 Crime and Punishment: Philosophical Perspectives
• LAW JD 814 Family Law
• LAW JD 829 Domestic Violence
• LAW JD 834 Employment Discrimination and Employment Law
• LAW JD 947 Sex Crimes
• LAW JD 957 Law and Sexual Minorities
• LAW JD 966 Gender, Law and Policy Colloquium
• LAW JD 990 Feminist Jurisprudence

School of Public Health (SPH)

• SPH EP 775 Social Epidemiology
• SPH GH 735 Gender, Sexuality, Power, and Inequity in Global Health
• SPH GH 753 Beyond Reproductive Health; International Women’s Health (2 units)
• SPH GH 766 Sexual and Reproductive Health in Disaster Settings
• SPH GH 795 Global AIDS Epidemic: Social & Economic Determinants, Impact, & Responses
• SPH MC 705 Safer Sex in the City: From Science to Policy
• SPH MC 785 Introduction to Reproductive Health Advocacy (2 units)
• SPH MC 815 Sexual and Reproductive Health Advocacy: Science, Values, and Politics
• SPH MC 840 Women and Health Policy: Gender, Evidence, and Politics
• SPH SB 807 Health of LGBT Populations

* This is a small sample of eligible courses. Other courses may be applied to the Graduate Certificate with permission of the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Director of Graduate Studies PRIOR to enrolling in the course. Substitutions are granted on a case-by-case basis and requests to the Director MUST include a copy of the course syllabus for the course for proper consideration.

4. Participate in at least one pedagogical workshop: An annual workshop supplements the pedagogical training graduate students receive in their home departments by focusing on the specific challenges and opportunities graduate students face when incorporating gender analysis into their teaching. Scheduling information for the workshop, which typically occurs mid-spring, can be found on the WGS website.

Admissions Information

To enter the program, please submit the Graduate Certificate Enrollment form.