Women's and Gender Studies Minor

The Women's and Gender Studies Program at The College of St. Scholastica offers a minor designed to cultivate critical thinking about women, sexuality, and gender as it engages with topics of immediate social and political concern. These issues include objectification of women in media and advertising, wars on women's bodies and reproductive health, trafficking of women and girls, systemic sexism within institutions, homophobia, and racism in white middle-class feminist movements.

To introduce students to the history and complexity of these political, intellectual, and cultural issues, the program stresses the critical importance of feminist theory, intersectionality, and global engagement with women's and LGBT movements and lived experiences in the United States and around the world. In this sense, the program turns on a debate that remains central to Women's and Gender Studies - the relationship between academics and activism, between theory and practice.

Students graduating from St. Scholastica with a minor in Women's and Gender Studies have pursued careers in healthcare, midwifery, advocacy, publishing, and have completed graduate study in the humanities, social work, and management.

The program offers both research and internship opportunities. Practicums have been completed at Safe Haven, PAVSA, the YWCA, and the Duluth Building for Women.

Contact Information

wgs@css.edu

Learning Outcomes

Through the Women's and Gender Studies minor, students will:

1. Analyze written, visual, and musical forms of expression and representation related to gender.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of research methods in the humanities and sciences informing the critical and historical study of women, sexuality, and gender.
3. Critique, assess, and construct arguments based on theoretical sophistication and historical investigation of gender expression.
4. Examine the ways race, ethnicity, religion, class, sexuality, and other social categories and identities intersect with gender.

Requirements

Students must achieve the following program requirements for all courses listed under Program Requirements and Program Required Courses for the Women's and Gender Studies minor.

Program Requirements

Minor Credits: 20

Program Required Courses

The Women's and Gender Studies minor requires 20 credits within two schools, including at least three departments.

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Required Courses
WGS 1011	Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies: History and Theory	2
WGS 1012	Intro to WGS: Intersectionality and Agency	2
WGS 4555	Women's and Gender Studies Practicum/Seminar	6
Elective Courses
Select ten credits of the following:		10
CME/WGS 2525	The Media, Race and Gender
ENG/WGS 2230	Women Writers on Writing
GCL 2220	Dance, Gender and Culture
GCL/WGS 2231	Cultural Anthropology
HIS 3333	Issues in United States History
HIS/WGS 3355	Islam and the Modern World
HON/WGS 2332	Reading Ida B. Wells
HON 3350	Psychology of Human Sexuality
PHL 3360	Philosophies of Feminism
PSY 3340	Psychology of Gender
SOC 1125	General Sociology
SOC 2125	Sociology of Health
SWK 3350	Understanding Systems of Privilege and Oppression
TRS/WGS 2243	Women and Religion
WGS 3350	Feminism & Globalization: Women, Religion and the Body
Total Credits		20

Various departments offer courses that are applicable to women's studies. Check with the director for current offerings on the schedule.