Gender and Sexuality Studies

INTN Building

Gender and Sexuality Studies Major

Earn a Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Sexuality Studies

Our Gender and Sexuality Studies program is committed to providing undergraduate students with intersectional feminist perspectives on gender and sexuality and to fostering critical feminist and queer research. We integrate interdisciplinary and transnational approaches to the theorizing and study of gender and sexuality. We also offer a range of courses that facilitate student learning about the diversity of genders and sexualities in the United States and globally.  

If you choose to major in gender and sexuality studies, you will:

  • learn about the history and contemporary structures of cisheteropatriarchy and white supremacy and engage with strategies for resistance
  • be exposed to a wide range of feminist theories and epistemologies through required core courses and electives
  • learn how to be a global citizen, well prepared for future feminist and queer activism
  • prepare for graduate-level study in gender and sexuality studies and/or for a career in education, law, nonprofit work, public policy, social justice, social work, health care, and related fields

We also encourage our students to intern with local feminist and/or queer social justice organizations and learn through study abroad to enrich and enhance their undergraduate experience.

Major Requirements

1. Lower-division requirements (three courses, at least 12 units)

  1. GSST 001 or GSST 001H or GSST 001S
  2. One of the following: GSST 010, GSST 020, GSST 020H, GSST 020S, GSST 030 or GSST 030H
  3. One additional lower-division GSST course

2. Upper-division requirements (10 courses, at least 40 units)

  1. GSST 100
  2. GSST 191A and GSST 191B
  3. Seven courses of electives chosen from the list below with the following distribution requirements:
    • One course focusing on African American women, Asian American women, Chicanas/Latinas, or Native American women in the United States or on women from societies in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, or Africa
    • One course focusing on issues of sexuality, sexual orientation, sexual identification, or masculinity and femininity
    • The following courses may only be counted one time towards the major: GSST 190, GSST 195, GSST 198G

Concentrations Offered

  • gender and cultural production
  • gender and families
  • sexualities and gender
  • gender and work