Program Overview

The Program

The Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies is an interdisciplinary program designed to broaden and enrich disciplinary scholarship for non-degree students as well as students enrolled in a master’s or doctoral degree-granting program. The purpose of the certificate is to enable students interested in feminist scholarship to pursue a coherent, integrated curriculum in the field and to credential them as knowledgeable in Feminist Studies, thus qualifying them for positions requiring such expertise. Students work closely with faculty and associated faculty from Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies and with a faculty advisor from their degree-granting discipline. Students completing the certificate will have the opportunity to bring a feminist perspective to bear on the practices and ideas of their own discipline, thereby increasing the body of feminist theory and research.

The Certificate curriculum is designed to ground students in the evolving tradition of feminist scholarship while supporting them as they utilize a feminist perspective within their own fields of study. The certificate emphasizes the development of feminist theory, research and analytical skills from an integrative and intersectional perspective, meaning by this the interaction of race, class, gender and sexuality in a national and/or global perspective. Students are required to complete a set of five requirements:*

1. Two core approved graduate courses in the Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Department:
   1. Geneaologies of Feminist Thought (WGSS 701): This graduate seminar in feminist theory constitutes a core course for students enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies. The seminar will be organized around questions that emerge for feminisms from the rubrics of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, transnationalism, human rights, economics and postcolonialism. Feminist theory is inherently interdisciplinary and we will draw on classic and contemporary writings from the many fields that contribute to the "field" of feminist theory. Offered fall semester only.
   2. Feminist Epistemologies and Interdisciplinary Methodologies (WGSS 705): This graduate seminar is a core course for students pursuing the Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies. The course explores a series of key questions, including: How do feminist epistemologies and research methodologies influence how and what we know? How do they determine the claims and consequences of our knowledge projects? Some of the central themes and structuring questions of the course include: What is feminist research? What makes research feminist? What is the relationship between disciplinarity and inter/disciplinarity? Knowledge and power? How might we address the ethics of representation and questions of accountability in our research and scholarship? What is the importance of positionality and subjectivity in our research and writing practices? How might we articulate feminist movements for justice with our research and scholarship? This course aims to build an interdisciplinary community of feminist scholars and to support students in their efforts to develop feminist methodological approaches to the work that they do. Offered spring semester only.
2. Three WGSS electives. At least two of the three electives required for the certificate should be courses taught by WGSS core faculty and selected from the designated options in the WGSS Course Guide. Students may petition to count one course taught by faculty who are not among core WGSS faculty or not listed in the WGSS course guide provided that the course has substantial feminist content and/or is primarily organized by a feminist approach to the course materials. Approval for applying such courses towards the Certificate is at the discretion of the Graduate Program Committee.

*Please note that in the interest of encouraging student involvement in the intellectual life of the program, a maximum of two courses may be applied towards the certificate prior to acceptance as a certificate student.

Courses will be offered and coordinated by core, adjunct and associated graduate faculty of the Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program. Our Graduate Program Director provides supervision of research and advising.

Admission to the certificate program is contingent upon: (1) Prior acceptance to the Graduate School of the University into a graduate degree-granting program; or (2) Completion of a graduate degree and acceptance to the Graduate School as a non-degree student. Candidates should demonstrate a commitment to, and evidence of, research or organizational experience in feminist concerns. Knowledge of feminist scholarship is expected, but an undergraduate major in Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies is not required. Students must complete the Certificate in five years or less.

For further information, contact the Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program, W401 South College, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. 01003. Telephone 413-545-1922.