Academic Programs

Students choosing a minor or independent major in gender and sexuality plan their programs in consultation with the Gender and Sexuality Director. Members of the Gender and Sexuality steering committee serve as their individual mentors. All students in the program take the core courses, "Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies" and "Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality." Other courses in the program allow them to explore a range of approaches to gender and sexual difference: critical feminist theory; women's studies; transnational and third-world feminisms; the experiences of women of color; gender and science; the construction of masculinity; gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, and transsexual studies; the history and representation of gender and sexuality in a global context.

Learning Goals

Students in the Program in Gender and Sexuality will:

understand how social hierarchies related to gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity have developed historically, cross-culturally, and transnationally.
develop a high level of fluency and rigor in understanding how issues of gender and sexuality shape our lives as individuals and as members of larger communities, both local and global.
gain competence in applying theory to practical experience for social transformation and citizenship.
become critically conversant with theories of gender and sexuality, and their intersectionality with issues of race and class.
draw upon and speak to feminist theory; women’s studies; transnational and third-world feminisms; womanist theory and the experiences of women of color; the construction of masculinity and men’s studies; lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender studies; and theories of gender as inflected by class, race, religion, and nationality.

Haverford’s Institutional Learning Goals are available on the President’s website, at http://hav.to/learninggoals.

Curriculum

Students choosing a minor or independent major in gender and sexuality plan their programs in consultation with the Gender and Sexuality Director. All students in the program take the core course, “Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies.” Other courses in the program allow them to explore a range of approaches to gender and sexual difference including: critical feminist theory; women’s studies; transnational and third world feminisms; the experiences of women of color; gender and science; the construction of masculinity; gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, and transsexual studies; the history and representation of gender and sexuality in a global context

Major Requirements

Students wishing to construct an independent major in Gender and Sexuality Studies should file a petition with the Committee on Student Standing and Programs.

Minor Requirements

Six courses distributed as follows are required for the minor at Haverford College:

An introductory course GSST H190 Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies (offered in the fall semester).
The junior seminar: GSST H290, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender (offered in the fall semester), will alternate focus between Queer Theory and Feminist Theory.
Four additional approved courses from at least two different departments, two of which are normally at the 300 level. Units of Independent Study (480) may be used to fulfill this requirement.
Of the six courses, no more than two will also form part of the student’s major. This requirement can be waived with approval of the Director, Dr. Gina Velasco.
No more than two of the six minor credits may come from institutions outside of the Bi-Co.

Neither a senior seminar nor a senior thesis is required for the minor; however, with the permission of the major department, a student may choose to count toward the minor a senior thesis with significant content in gender and sexuality.

Gender and Sexuality Studies