Gender and Feminist Studies

As a Gender and Feminist Studies student, you will focus on the relations of power that have produced inequalities among genders through three avenues of study: examining the lives and contributions of women and other historically marginalized genders, grappling with the role of gender in existing theories of society and being, and exploring intersections of race, class, ethno-national origin, and sexuality in theories and identities.  

What You Will Learn

1. How to connect knowledge about women, gender, and sexuality across multiple disciplines.
2. The interdisciplinary, intersectional, international, and transnational approaches of different feminist and/or queer scholarly and activist perspectives.
3. How to address social inequality and injustice, both in theory and in practice.
4. How to examine the interrelationship of theories, methods, and ways of knowing (epistemologies) about gender and sexuality.
5. Understand how gender and sexuality have key roles in the formation of transnational, national, and local identities, desires, and bodies. 

The major requires a minimum of ten (10) courses, distributed among core courses and three tracks. If students have two majors, no more than two (2) courses, including a methods course, may be counted toward the completion of both majors.

Required Courses

Core Courses

(one course from each numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 below):

Group 1

• GFS 026 PZ -Introduction to Gender Studies
• GWS 026 PO -Intro Gender and Women’s Studies or
• FGSS 026 SC FGSS 026 SC -Intro Fem+Gndr+Sexuality Studies or
• GFS 036 PZ -Introduction to Queer Studies
• FGSS 036 SC FGSS 036 SC -Introduction to Queer Studies or
• ID 076 JT ID 076 JT -Intersectn:Gender/Race/Sexuality

Group 2 (Feminist Theory)

• CHLT 166 CH -Chicana Feminist Epistemology;
• GFS 170 PZ -Queer of Color Critique
• GWS 180 PO GWS 180 PO -Queer Feminist Theories ; or
• FGSS 184 SC FGSS 184 SC -Intersectional Feminist Theories .

Group 3 (Intersectionality of gender/race/class/sexualities)

• CHLT 060 CH -Women in the Third World;
• CHLT 061 CH -Contemporary Issues of Chicanas;
• CHLT 115 CH -Gender, Race & Class;
• CHLT 154 CH -Latinas in the Garment Industry;
• CHLT 166 CH -Chicana Feminist Epistemology;
• ARHI 178 PO -Black Aesth/Poli (Re)presentatn;
• ASAM 090 PZ -Community Studies;
• ENGL 140 PO -Literature of Incarceration: Writings from No Man’s Land;

Group 4

• GWS 190 PO -Senior Seminar or GFS 191 PZ -Senior Thesis or Project (Candidates for Honors must complete both the Sr. Seminar and Sr. Project/Thesis)

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 
    

The combined major in Gender and Feminist Studies requires a minimum of eight (8) courses, distributed among core courses and two tracks.

Required Courses

Core Courses

(one course from each Group numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 below):

Group 1

• GFS 026 PZ -Introduction to Gender Studies
• GWS 026 PO -Intro Gender and Women’s Studies or
• FGSS 026 SC FGSS 026 SC -Intro Fem+Gndr+Sexuality Studies or
• GFS 036 PZ -Introduction to Queer Studies
• FGSS 036 SC FGSS 036 SC -Introduction to Queer Studies or
• ID 076 JT ID 076 JT -Intersectn:Gender/Race/Sexuality

Group 2 (Feminist Theory)

• CHLT 166 CH -Chicana Feminist Epistemology;
• GFS 170 PZ -Queer of Color Critique
• GWS 180 PO GWS 180 PO -Queer Feminist Theories ; or
• FGSS 184 SC FGSS 184 SC -Intersectional Feminist Theories

Group 3 (Intersectionality of gender/race/class/sexualities)

• CHLT 060 CH -Women in the Third World;
• CHLT 061 CH -Contemporary Issues of Chicanas;
• CHLT 115 CH -Gender, Race & Class;
• CHLT 154 CH -Latinas in the Garment Industry;
• CHLT 166 CH -Chicana Feminist Epistemology;
• ARHI 178 PO -Black Aesth/Poli (Re)presentatn;
• ASAM 090 PZ -Community Studies;
• ENGL 140 PO -Literature of Incarceration: Writings from No Man’s Land;

Group 4

• GWS 190 PO -Senior Seminar or GFS 191 PZ -Senior Thesis or Project (Candidates for Honors must complete both the Sr. Seminar and Sr. Project/Thesis)

Tracks

Students should take at least one (1) course from two of the tracks that focuses on gender and empowerment; and complete an additional two (2) courses from one of those two tracks.

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

Students interested in completing a minor in GFS are required to complete a minimum of six (6) courses: one (1) course from each of the core course sections 1, 2, and 3 (introductory, feminist theory, and intersectionality courses) and one (1) course from each of the three tracks.

Required Courses

Core Courses

Group 1

• GFS 026 PZ -Introduction to Gender Studies
• GWS 026 PO -Intro Gender and Women’s Studies or
• FGSS 026 SC FGSS 026 SC -Intro Fem+Gndr+Sexuality Studies or
• GFS 036 PZ -Introduction to Queer Studies
• FGSS 036 SC FGSS 036 SC -Introduction to Queer Studies or
• ID 076 JT ID 076 JT -Intersectn:Gender/Race/Sexuality

Group 2 (Feminist Theory)

• CHLT 166 CH -Chicana Feminist Epistemology;
• GFS 170 PZ -Queer of Color Critique
• GWS 180 PO GWS 180 PO -Queer Feminist Theories ; or
• FGSS 184 SC FGSS 184 SC -Intersectional Feminist Theories .

Group 3 (Intersectionality of gender/race/class/sexualities)

• CHLT 060 CH -Women in the Third World;
• CHLT 061 CH -Contemporary Issues of Chicanas;
• CHLT 115 CH -Gender, Race & Class;
• CHLT 154 CH -Latinas in the Garment Industry;
• CHLT 166 CH -Chicana Feminist Epistemology;
• ARHI 178 PO -Black Aesth/Poli (Re)presentatn;
• ASAM 090 PZ -Community Studies;
• ENGL 140 PO -Literature of Incarceration: Writings from No Man’s Land;

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 

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.