Bachelor of Arts in Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies

About

Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies offers you the skills to critically and actively engage with the world. In this interdisciplinary field, you will integrate theory and practice to transform social relations, representations, knowledges, institutions, and policies. It utilizes gender, along with race and class, as a category of analysis, helping you investigate the role that gender and sexuality play in our history, literature, art, politics, education, sports, health and family. The integrated BA degree program is comprised of courses from a broad array of disciplines in five different colleges, and provides a strong foundation in the humanities and social sciences.

Our courses offer deeper insight into issues of oppression and create awareness of sexism, racism, and other biases. Our faculty teach you to expand your way of thinking, broaden your perspective, analyze difficult material, build convincing arguments and understand how gender interactions affect the business environment, as well as the cultural, emotional, familial, institutional and political impact.

Curriculum Map

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GWSS One-Page

What You'll Learn

The following information comes from the official EWU catalog, which outlines all degree requirements and serves as the guide to earning a degree. Courses are designed to provide a well-rounded and versatile degree, covering a wide range of subject areas.

Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies Major, Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies (GWSS) is an interdisciplinary field that integrates theory and practice with the aim of transforming social relations, representations, knowledges, institutions, and policies. GWSS works toward these goals by producing and disseminating knowledge through research, teaching, and activism. The interdisciplinary field provides students with the skills to critically and actively engage with the world around them.

Through the GWSS major at EWU, students examine gender and sexuality as they intersect with other socio-political categories and relations of power, such as race, indigeneity, class, nationality, religion, age, and ability.  Issues of justice, social and economic transformation, and agency are central at all levels of the curriculum.  The major is comprised of courses from a broad array of disciplines and interdisciplines and provides a strong foundation in the humanities and social sciences.  

The interdisciplinary major is designed to foster personal and intellectual development, cultivate civic engagement, and provide a sound foundation relevant for employment in a variety of occupations within academia, the private sector, the professions, government, and the nonprofit sector.

Note:

  • students must complete at least 25 credits of this major at Eastern Washington University;
  • two years of a single high school world language or one year of a single college-level world language is required.

​Note: this 45 credit major requires the completion of a minor (minimum of 15 credits) for a total of 60 credits.

Required Foundation Courses
GWSS/HUMN 101INTRODUCTION TO GENDER, WOMEN'S AND SEXUALITY STUDIES5
GWSS 150GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER5
Introductory Course–choose one5
INTRODUCTION TO LGBTQ+STUDIES
GENDER, REPRESENTATION AND POPULAR CULTURE
GENDER, HEALTH AND MARGINALIZATION
Intermediate Course–choose one5
TOPICS: ISSUES IN GENDER
BODIES, SOCIALIZATION AND CULTURE
TRANSNATIONAL FEMINISMS
Required Upper-Division–choose one5
FEMINIST THEORIES
QUEER THEORY
Required Electives15
The elective courses may be GWSS courses cross-listed with at least two other disciplines/programs. Students who want to do an internship or directed study may include 1–4 credits from GWSS 495 or GWSS 499 as elective credits.
Required Senior Capstone
GWSS 490SENIOR CAPSTONE5
Total Credits45

The following plan of study is for a student with zero credits. Individual students may have different factors such as: credit through transfer work, Advanced Placement, Running Start, or any other type of college-level coursework that requires an individual plan.

Courses could be offered in different terms, checking the academic schedule is paramount in keeping an individual plan current. Students should connect with an advisor to ensure they are on track to graduate.

All Undergraduate students are required to meet the Undergraduate Degree Requirements.

This major requires the completion of the World Language requirement. Students pursuing a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree must complete two years of a single language in high school or one year of a single language in college.

First Year
Fall QuarterCreditsWinter QuarterCreditsSpring QuarterCredits
ENGL 1015ENGL 2015GWSS 220, 250, 266, ANTR 266, or DSST 26625
GWSS 101 (Humanities & Arts BACR 1)5GWSS 1505Humanities & Arts or Social Science BACR 215
Social Science BACR 115MATH 1075Natural Science BACR 115
 15 15 15
Second Year
Fall QuarterCreditsWinter QuarterCreditsSpring QuarterCredits
GWSS 339, 326, CDST 326, DSST 326, GWSS 340, or INST 34025Gender, Women's & Sexuality Elective35Gender, Women's & Sexuality Elective35
Natural Science BACR 215Gender, Women's & Sexuality Elective35Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5
Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5
 15 15 15
Third Year
Fall QuarterCreditsWinter QuarterCreditsSpring QuarterCredits
Diversity - graduation requirement or Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective25GWSS 415, HUMN 415, PHIL 415, or GWSS 4205Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5
Global Studies - graduation requirement or Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective25Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5
Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5
 15 15 15
Fourth Year
Fall QuarterCreditsWinter QuarterCreditsSpring QuarterCredits
Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5GWSS 490 (Senior Capstone - graduation requirement)5
Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5
Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective5
 15 15 15
Total Credits 180
1

University Graduation Requirements (UGR) and Breadth Area Course Requirements (BACR) courses may be less than 5 credits and additional credits may be required to reach the required 180 total credits needed to graduate.  Students should connect with an advisor to ensure they are on track to graduate.

2

Course selection may impact choices for graduation requirements and BACRs.

3

Required Electives–the elective courses may be GWSS courses cross-listed with at least two other disciplines/programs. Students who want to do an internship or directed study may include 1–4 credits from GWSS 495 or GWSS 499 as elective credits.

Sample Courses

GWSS 250. GENDER, REPRESENTATION AND POPULAR CULTURE. 5 Credits.

Satisfies: a BACR for humanities and arts.
Students will apply a critical lens on the representation of gender in popular cultural mediums including film, TV, music, the Internet, social media, video games, and magazines. Employing intersectional theory, other social categories are considered including but not limited to, sexuality, race, ability, and class.

Catalog Listing

GWSS 326. BODIES, SOCIALIZATION AND CULTURE. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: CDST 326, DSST 326.
Notes: CDST students only: CDST 300.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201 or equivalent.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course examines cultural beliefs about gender, sex, sexuality, and the body. Experiences throughout our lifetimes impact ways that we learn to embody gender, express sexuality, and live in our bodies. We use intersectional feminist approaches to consider the variety of lived, embodied experiences and social effects of categorizing bodies.

Catalog Listing

GWSS 415. FEMINIST THEORIES. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: HUMN 415, PHIL 415.
Pre-requisites: GWSS 101 or upper level GWSS or PHIL course.
Feminist theories developed to explain women’s subordinate position in society and current trends in feminist thought. Includes psychoanalytic feminism, feminist literary criticism and cross-cultural views of feminism.

Catalog Listing

GWSS 420. QUEER THEORY. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: PHIL 420.
Pre-requisites: any upper division GWSS or PHIL course.
This course examines the emerging field of queer theory. Queer theory questions the stability of various identity categories, suggesting instead that all performances of sex, gender, and sexuality are influenced by cultural, historical and political factors.

Catalog Listing