Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Major
Notice of Addendum: Learning outcomes were updated effective Spring 2027 and have been published on ADDENDA TO THIS CATALOG.
Department Chair: Neda Atanasoski, Ph.D.
Rooted in the liberatory traditions of Women’s Studies, the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies B.A. challenges structural inequities based on intersecting hierarchies of colonialism, gender, caste, race, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and ability. The WGSS major offers students opportunities to develop community-centered knowledge and practices for collective liberation, with the aim of transforming systems of oppression and imagining freer futures. Students will take courses informed by intersectional and anti-colonial scholarship and methodologies from the arts and humanities, social sciences, and many other fields. Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers students a flexible program of study in which there is focused attention on building students’ analysis of varied modes of structural and interlinked oppressions and devising visions for critiquing, resisting, and dismantling such modes of systemic violence.
Our introductory courses equip students with the tools and vocabulary to both analyze and respond effectively to social problems. Upper-division courses, typically structured as small seminars, focus on cultivating students’ research and writing skills, critical analysis, and synthesis of different disciplines and ways of knowing rooted in topics of deep personal and community relevance. Advanced students will take our advanced research capstone where they will create and carry out a research project that ties together the work done throughout the major, developing methods that students will carry into a variety of careers and into communities beyond the University. The courses and experiences students undertake throughout the major are designed to support students in shaping futures in areas such as community organizing, social justice advocacy, transformative media, care work, medicine and public health, law, public policy, academia and more. The program engages students’ critical thinking and develops their analysis of society’s power structures while centering the importance of relational accountability to the communities we research alongside and serve. We seek to shape a new generation of scholars and leaders who, with us, will work to acknowledge, understand, and critically interrogate hierarchies of difference, while imagining more just futures.
Courses offered by this department may be found under the following acronyms: WGSS, LGBT. They were previously also offered under WMST.
Program Learning Outcomes
Students are expected to fully engage with the curriculum and the opportunities presented for learning and research. Having completed the program, students should have acquired the following knowledge, skills, and practices:
- Students will be able to critically analyze issues of power related to women, race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class.
- Students will understand and be able to critique key developments in gender, critical race, and queer thought as strategies for social change.
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with major concepts and vocabulary of gender, critical race, and queer thought in the field of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Notice of Addendum: Requirements for this program were updated effective Spring 2027 and have been published on ADDENDA TO THIS CATALOG.
Students will earn a total of 33 credit hours, distributed as indicated below. Drawing from more than 50 courses, including many cross-listed with other academic units, students will have the opportunity to explore broadly within the field and to create their own path through the major relevant to their special interests. At least 24 credits must be at or above the 3xx level. No course with a grade less than "C-" may be used to satisfy the major. An overall GPA of 2.0 in the major is required for graduation. Students will design their programs in consultation with a Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies advisor.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| College Requirements | ||
| Introductory Course | 3 | |
| Select one of the following courses: | ||
| Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | ||
| Introduction to Disability Studies (Introduction to Disability Studies) | ||
| Introduction to WGSS: Gender, Power, and Society | ||
| Reproductive Justice: An Introduction | ||
| Introduction to WGSS: Art and Culture | ||
| Introduction to Black Women's Studies | ||
| Lower Level Requirements | 6 | |
| Lower Level Core (LLC) | ||
|
Minimum 3 credits from LLC
|
||
| Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | ||
| Quare/Queer Contentions: Exploration of Sexualities in the Black Community | ||
| Special Topics in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | ||
| Introduction to Disability Studies (Introduction to Disability Studies) | ||
| Gender, Race and Computing | ||
| Introduction to WGSS: Gender, Power, and Society | ||
| Reproductive Justice: An Introduction | ||
| Introduction to WGSS: Art and Culture | ||
| Introduction to Black Women's Studies | ||
| Constructions of Manhood and Womanhood in the Black Community | ||
| Introduction to Black Women's Cultural Studies | ||
| Monsters and Racism: Black Horror and Speculative Fiction | ||
| Gender and Science in Film and Media | ||
| Bodies in Contention | ||
| Racialized Gender and Rebel Media | ||
| Lower Level Electives (LLE) | ||
|
Maximum of 3 credits of LLE
|
||
|
Students may also take a second course from the Intro or LLC list instead of from the LLE list
|
||
| LGBTQ+ Literatures and Media | ||
| Love, Labor, and Citizenship: Women in America to 1880 | ||
| Women in America Since 1880 | ||
| Women in Western Europe 1750-Present | ||
| Introduction to Humanities, Health, and Medicine | ||
| Reading Women Writing | ||
| World Literature by Women | ||
| Special Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | ||
| Man Up! Where Are The Fathers? | ||
| Women in Western Europe to 1750 | ||
| Hoop Dreams: Black Masculinity and Sport | ||
| Foundation Courses | 6 | |
| Introduction to Research in Gender, Race, and Queer Studies | ||
| Advanced Research Seminar in Gender, Race, and Queer Studies | ||
| Upper Level Requirements | 18 | |
|
9 of the 18 credits are required to be ULC, 6 are required to be ULE, the remaining 3 credits can come from either the ULC or ULE lists
|
||
| Upper Level Core (ULC) | ||
| Minimum of 9 credits | ||
| Transgender Studies | ||
| Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film and Video | ||
| LGBTQ+ Public Speaking and Facilitation | ||
| Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Organization Internship | ||
| Special Topics in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | ||
| Black Queer Studies (Black Queer Studies) | ||
| Special Topics in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | ||
| Seminar in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | ||
| Independent Study | ||
| Feminist, Critical Race, and Queer Theories | ||
| Intro to Fat Studies: Fatness, Blackness and Their Intersections | ||
| Workshops in Gender, Race, and Queer Studies | ||
| Indigenous Feminisms (Indigenous Feminisms) | ||
| Undergraduate Teaching Assistantship | ||
| Caribbean Women | ||
| Undergraduate WGSS Internship | ||
| Black Feminist Thought | ||
| Undergraduate Research and Creative Works Assistantship | ||
| Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | ||
| Women of the African Diaspora | ||
| Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | ||
| Feminist Cultural Studies | ||
| Advanced Feminist, Critical Race, and Queer Theories | ||
| Senior Seminar | ||
| Individual Research in Gender, Race and Queer Studies | ||
| Professional Development | ||
|
WGSS498Z
|
(Black Women's Art and Culture) | |
| Independent Study | ||
| Upper Level Elective | ||
| Minimum of 6 credits | ||
| Special Topics in LGBTQ+ Literatures and Media | ||
|
or ENGL359
|
Special Topics in LGBTQ+ Literatures and Media | |
|
LGBT448C
|
(Sex and the City) | |
| Sex, Gender, and Jewish Identity | ||
| (Spotlight on Major Writers Dickinson, Erotics, Poetics, Biopics: Some (Queer) Ways We Read Poetry) | ||
|
or ENGL439I
|
||
| Black Women in United States History | ||
| Women in Classical Antiquity | ||
| The Sociology of Gender | ||
| Biology of Reproduction | ||
| Psychology of Women | ||
| Literary Works by Women | ||
|
or ENGL348
|
Literary Works by Women | |
| Literature by Women Before 1800 | ||
|
or ENGL408
|
Literature by Women Before 1800 | |
| Asian American Women: The Social Construction of Gender | ||
| Gender Roles and Social Institutions | ||
| Feminist Critical Theory | ||
|
or ENGL444
|
Feminist Critical Theory | |
| Literature by Women of Color | ||
|
or ENGL448
|
Literature by Women of Color | |
| Women in the Media | ||
| Women in Medieval Culture and Society | ||
| Women and Society in the Middle East | ||
| Redefining Gender in the U.S., 1880-1935 | ||
| Literature by Women After 1800 | ||
| Study Abroad Special Topics IV | ||
| Women's Health | ||
| Judaism and the Construction of Gender | ||
| Sex, Gender, and Jewish Identity | ||
| Advanced Special Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | ||
| Feminist and Nationalist Thought in Black Communities | ||
| (Dis)ability in American Film | ||
| Queer Anthropology (Queer Anthropology) | ||
| Domestic Violence | ||
| Women and French Cinema | ||
| Communication and Gender | ||
| Total Credits | 33 | |
Click here for roadmaps for graduation plans in the College of Arts and Humanities.
Additional information on developing a graduation plan can be found on the following pages:
- http://4yearplans.umd.edu
- the Student Academic Success-Degree Completion Policy section of this catalog