Gender and Feminist Studies

Pitzer Advisers: M. Banerjee, C. Fought, C. Johnson, A. Juhasz, J. Parker, S. Snowiss.

Scholarship on women addresses three kinds of pressing intellectual needs. The first is to provide more information about women's lives and contributions. The second is for the revision of existing theory that claims to speak for all human beings while it has been based almost exclusively on the experience of men. The third is for the integration of perspectives shaped by sensitivity to race, class, ethno-national origin, and sexual orientation within the study of gender.

Courses in Gender and Feminist Studies focus on the relations of power that have produced inequalities between genders. We consider gender inequality a human construction subject to change rather than an innate, ordained condition. In the classroom and in research, our critical perspective challenges conventional concepts and methods of analysis and encourages the formulation of new paradigms of teaching, learning, and research that reflect the diversity of women's experience.

Pitzer offers a major and a minor in Gender and Feminist Studies and combined majors with other disciplines in the social sciences, in the humanities and fine arts, in the natural sciences, as well as in interdisciplinary subjects, including Asian American, Black, and Chicana Studies.

Pitzer's Gender and Feminist Studies courses are part of the rich variety of Women's Studies courses offered by all The Claremont Colleges. Students w ho are interested in courses other than those listed below should consult the Intercollegiate Women's Studies brochure of courses offered each semester. The Intercollegiate Women's Studies Teaching and Research Center is located at 107 Vita Nova on the Scripps College campus. Open to all faculty and students of The Claremont Colleges, it provides programs of lectures and seminars each semester.

The Pitzer Women's Center, located upstairs in the Grove House, has a small library devoted to gender and feminist studies and provides a meeting space for interested students.

The major requires a minimum of ten [10] courses, distributed among core courses and three tracks.

Core Courses

  • (one course from each numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 below):
  • 1. Introduction to Women's Studies, ID 26
  • 2. Feminist Theory, such as Post 163; CHLT 155CH; CHLT 168
  • 3. Intersectionality of gender/race/class/sexualities CHLT 60, CHLT 61CH, CHLT 115, CHLT 154CH, GCHLT 155CH, GCHLT 168 Arhi 178; ASAM 90; Engl 42eAF; Engl 125d; Engl 134AF, Engl 140; Hist 171AF; MS 80
  • 4. Senior Seminar [WS 190] or Senior Project/Senior Thesis [ID 191] (Candidates for Honors must complete both the Sr. Seminar [ID 190] and Sr. Project/Thesis [ID 191])

Tracks

Students should take at least one [1] course from each track that focuses on gender and empowerment; and complete an additional three [3] courses from one of the tracks:

  • 1. Global, National and Local Communities
  • 2. Creativity: Art, Literature, Spirituality, Identity
  • 3. Sciences, Medicine and Technologies

If students have two majors, no more than two [2] courses, including a methods course, may be counted toward the completion of both majors.

Combined Major: Students wishing to complete a combined major in GFS and another discipline are required to complete all the core courses, one course from two of the tracks and two additional courses from one of those two tracks. All combined majors have two advisers.

Minor: Students interested in completing a minor in GFS are required to complete the Introduction to Women's Studies, Feminist Theory and Intersectionality courses from the Core Courses and one course from each of the three tracks.

Honors: Students are required to have a cumulative and GFS GPA of 3.5 and the recommendation of the field group based on the quality [A or A-] of the senior project or thesis. In addition, candidates for honors must complete both the Senior Seminar and the Sr. Project/Sr. Thesis. Two advisers are required for the Sr. Thesis/ Sr. Project and one must be from the Pitzer GFS field group. The final version of the honors thesis or project to be reviewed by the field group is due two weeks before the end of classes.

Gender & Feminist Studies in the Pitzer College course catalog