The women, gender and sexuality studies minor at Rockhurst examines the historical and contemporary circumstances that have shaped the relationships between women and men, and between women and women, in a variety of social settings.
Program Overview
This gender studies minor raises fundamental questions about gender identity and relations, gender roles, gender equality, and about philosophical, natural scientific and social scientific assumptions regarding human nature.
The minor explores critically how gender and sexuality intersects with other axes of identification, such as race, class, nationality, science or religion, hence showing how these intersecting identities influence an individual’s experiences, achievements and positions in society.
This interdisciplinary minor requires a total of 12 credit hours which include one required course: either WGS 3000 or WGS 3010. In addition to choosing one of these two courses, the minor requires three upper-division electives chosen from the list below as well as special topics courses. Please note that these courses are described as cross-listed in the departments that offer them.
Other courses may be used by students toward the minor using the Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Option. A course may be counted toward the minor if the student pursues an additional project on a topic pertaining explicitly to women and their roles, treatment, and status in society. Any research should consider questions of method that impact the way data is measured, interpreted, collected, and presented with respect to women. This project must be coordinated through the course instructor, and/or a faculty mentor/advisor in consultation with and with the signed approval of the Director of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Furthermore, classes are continually in the process of being added.
Learning Outcomes
- Students with a women, gender and sexuality studies minor will have the ability to think critically and originally about relationships and roles between people
- Graduates with this minor will take courses that draw upon a variety of scholarly perspectives and pedagogues including feminist scholarship and pedagogy
Program Outcomes
- The addition of Rockhurst’s women, gender and sexuality studies minor to a degree opens up career paths in industries including social services, nonprofit organizations, and public relations
- Graduates with a gender studies minor gain a specialized perspective that is valuable in legal and criminal justice career paths
Journalist
Communications Consultant
Writer
Lawyer
Human Resources Manager
Human Rights Advocate
Counselor
Social Worker
Course Map
Degree and class descriptions and requirements can be found by clicking on the course catalog listing below:
Popular Courses
This course will examine the role of women in science by studying their contributions to the scientific body of knowledge and their influences as professionals in scientific fields. Readings will focus on the lives of many influential women scientists, the influence of women on the origins of modern science and the participation of women in research on both sides of the lab bench, as investigators and as study subjects.
This course offers a selection of fiction and poetry by women and about issues traditionally considered important to women. Fiction includes, but is not limited to, works by Kate Chopin, Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, Alice Walker, and Rachel Ingalls. Poetry includes, but is not limited to, works by Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and Rita Dove. Essays by such authors as Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Catherine McKinnon, and Mary Daley are used to complement the poetry and fiction. The course begins with consideration of Virginia Woolf’s contention that in order to create, a woman needs an independent income and a room of her own. Emphasis is on the works of literature as literature.
The study of the manner in which gender is socially constructed, and the ways in which gender identity is socialized and acquired. Additional topics include: physical health and reproduction, psychological well-being, relationship issues, career and work issues, psychological abilities, media influences, issues concerned with aging, and the role of political movements all in relationship to gender.
A study of the history of women in Christianity with special attention to Christian views of the nature of women and of the “appropriate” roles of women in churches and in society. The course also explores the response of recent feminist theology to these traditional views of women and their roles as well as recent feminist interpretations of basic Christian doctrines.
Degree Info
- Explore critically how gender and sexuality intersect with other axes of identification such as race, class, nationality or religion
- Demonstrate how these intersecting identities influence an individual’s experiences, achievements and positions in society
- Engage in projects pertaining to women and their roles, treatment, and status in society
- Consider questions of method which impact the way data is measured, interpreted, collected and presented with respect to women
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