Program Overview

Introduction to the Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program

The Department of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at Western Washington University pursues critical inquiry through queer and feminist scholarship, teaching, and activism. The department draws on intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches to study how sex, gender, and sexuality are shaped by race, indigeneity, ethnicity, class, age, ability, nationality, and religion. The program interrogates the conditions that render specific populations vulnerable to violence in a range of local and transnational contexts.

Program Overview

Through classes, service learning, and internships, students develop a critical, socially engaged sense of how gender and sexuality shape and are shaped by the world around them. The WGSS major provides students with the skills to critically and actively engage with the world around them. The plan of study equips students in various ways:

• to understand, apply, analyze, and critique key concepts and theoretical positions in feminist, gender, sexuality, race, indigeneity, ethnic, class, ages, disability, national, and religious studies
• to assess and denaturalize identities and experiences as embedded in and produced by interlocking and intersectional systems of power and inequalities
• to integrate liberatory analysis into a variety of scholarly, social, political, creative, and activist practices

Program Benefits

Students enjoy small class sizes, close faculty interaction, personalized mentorship and advising, and internships. The community is intellectually challenging, supportive, and creative. The diverse faculty encourages scholarship that is interdisciplinary and intersectional. WGSS students become innovative thinkers and engaged citizens who understand the increasingly diverse world in which they live. They learn the most in-demand skills for the current job market, including critical thinking, effective writing skills, public speaking, collaboration, and leadership skills that can be applied to various careers.

Career Opportunities

The department prepares students to pursue careers in graduate school, law, social service, counseling, public policy, health care, teaching, social activism, and the arts. WGSS alumni have become professors, lawyers, politicians, psychologists, journalists, public health professionals, environmental scientists, health organization directors, grant managers, business owners, and more. A WGSS Major will make students an asset to any workplace.

Admission and Declaration Process

Students who wish to declare a major in Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies can find the declaration form on the WGSS webpage. For program advisement, contact the Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies office.

Grade Requirements

A grade of C- or better is required for a student’s major or minor courses, and supporting courses for majors and minors.

Program Requirements

The program requires 60 credits, including:

• Two 200-level courses:
  • WGSS 211 - Introduction to Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies (5 credits)
  • WGSS 212 - Introduction to Feminist Theory (5 credits)
  • WGSS 213 - Introduction to Sexuality and Queer Studies (5 credits)
• WGSS 350 - Feminist and Queer Methodologies (5 credits)
• WGSS 450 - Capstone Seminar in Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies (5 credits)
• 40 credits at the 300- and 400-level, with at least 20 credits in WGSS and the additional 20 credits in WGSS and/or pre-approved elective courses.

University Graduation Requirements

• General University Requirements
• Writing Proficiency Requirement (WP)
• 180 Minimum Total Credits
• 60 Minimum Upper Division Credits
• Residency Requirement
• Minimum Grade Requirements
• Final Quarter Requirement