Women's & Gender Studies

Women's Studies seeks to understand the contributions of women to human cultures and their experiences as women in those cultures. Women's studies is interdisciplinary: it draws ideas, information, and methods from many traditional academic disciplines in order to explore the full range of women's lives and the role that gender plays in organizing knowledge and in our social and political structures. While Women's Studies takes steps to integrate women fully into the pursuit of knowledge, the perspective it offers on matters of gender is broad and far-reaching. Women's Studies courses are likely to treat such issues as the relationship between gender, race and class, multiculturalism, cultures of work, and global feminism. Women's Studies courses are for all students—male and female, white students and students of color, middle class and working class—who are interested in getting a pluralistic approach to gender issues.

At The University of Southern Mississippi, the Women's Studies Program offers both an undergraduate and a graduate minor. In addition to courses specific to the program—Introduction to Women's Studies, Special Topics in Women's Studies and African Women Writers—we offer classes in a variety of academic areas, from sociology to literature, nursing to human performance, theatre and dance to speech communication, history, and political science. Please see the link below for specific program requirements.

Undergraduate Minor

The undergraduate minor in Women’s Studies requires 18 hours. All students must complete Women's Studies 301: Introduction to Women’s Studies, and five other courses from at least three disciplines.

The following are regularly taught courses with a standing course number for the minor:

Graduate Minor

The graduate minor is designed to develop the student’s proficiency in a variety of feminist theories and research methodologies at an advanced level.

Requirements include:

A minimum of nine hours for the master’s-level minor or a minimum of 12 hours for the doctoral minor.  WS601, “Feminist Research Methods,” or the director’s approval of previous course work in WS as an equivalent.  The remaining hours fulfilled in electives from approved courses numbered 500 or above and distributed across at least two disciplines in addition to WS.

The courses include: