Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies is a rapidly growing field, with more than a thousand undergraduate and graduate departments nationwide. Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, what was then called "women’s studies" developed as an interdisciplinary academic field alongside ethnic and critical race studies, which were also initiated at that time. At first addressing the omission or distortion of women’s contributions to society, the field of women, gender, and sexuality studies brought a feminist critique to the conceptual frameworks of the entire academy. Admitting its first students in 1974, the department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is one of the oldest in the country. The field has had an enormous impact on other academic disciplines as well. A number of programs and departments now offer graduate training. While maintaining a core interest in power as it is expressed through systems of gender-based hierarchies, the field continues to expand to include new areas of work, insights and critiques.

Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst offers an undergraduate major and minor, focusing on the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality. This integrative analysis is at the center of the curriculum. Faculty expertise includes: Asian American feminisms; body politics; class and political economy; critical race feminisms; development and migration studies; feminist science studies; feminist philosophy and theory; history of feminism and sexology in Europe; Latin American studies; sexuality studies; social movements; South Asian studies; sustainability; transnational and post-colonial feminisms; work and family; and women and U.S. radicalism. In addition, faculty in other departments who do feminist, queer and transgender studies focus their research in areas as diverse as history, literature, education, management, and health. For students interested in graduate work, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies offers a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies.

Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Course Offerings Guide

Each semester the Department publishes the Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Course Offerings Guide which contains more than a hundred courses from the University and Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges. Copies of the Course Offerings Guide are available for the next semester during the registration counseling period and may be obtained from the Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies office, (413) 545-1922, or viewed from the department's website: www.umass.edu/wgss.

Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Resources

The Five College Women’s Studies Research Center, located at Mount Holyoke College, facilitates the discussion and critical analysis of women’s studies research. The University of Massachusetts W.E.B. Du Bois Library has a Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies reference librarian available.