Requirements for a Major or Minor in Women's Studies


An Interdisciplinary Program

Program offered
• Minor in Women’s Studies (20 credits)

Faculty
Aileen L.S. Buslig, co-director
Elna K. Solvang, co-director
Shawn Carruth
Richard M. Chapman
Alfhild Ingberg
Linda L. Johnson
Hilda P. Koster
Susan J. Larson
Susan J. Lee
Michelle M. Lelwica
Matthew L. Lindholm
Joy K. Lintelman
Megan Orcholski
Susan M. O’Shaughnessy
Natalie M. Peluso
Gay G. Rawson
Mary K. Rice
Darcie R. Sell
Lisa M. Sethre-Hofstad
Jennifer R. Thomas

Women’s studies is an interdisciplinary minor that places the lives and experiences of women at the center of inquiry by analyzing the roles and perspectives of women as well as their contributions to the scholarly, artistic, political, social and religious worlds. Courses incorporate theory and research from different disciplines that examine the degree to which gender is a social construct. The women’s studies program is dedicated to building a more complex and inclusive portrait of humanity by using gender as a category of analysis, along with other differences, such as race, ethnicity, class and sexuality.

The women’s studies program provides learning experiences that prepare students to achieve the following outcomes:
• Critically examine how cultural assumptions about gender, in conjunction with ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation and other social variables, shape the lives of women and men – personal, professional and public.
• Identify how feminist analyses question the traditional boundaries, methods and assumptions of academic disciplines.
• Demonstrate knowledge about women’s contributions to academic disciplines and to society.
• Communicate about key issues and insights in women’s studies in one’s personal, professional, academic and public life.

Minor in Women’s Studies
The requirements for a minor in women’s studies are 20 credits:
• WS 201 U – Women’s Studies: Frameworks and Issues
All minors must take WS 201. Because this course provides a theoretical framework, women’s studies students are encouraged to take it as early as possible in pursuing a minor.
• 16 additional credits from the following:
– ART 375 – Women and Art, 4 credits
– ENG 365 U – Writing of Women, 4 credits
– FREN 223 – Race, Gender and Power in the Francophone World, 4 credits
– GER 440 – Topics in German Film (when the focus is on women, gender or feminism), 4 credits
– HIST 316 H, U – U.S. Women’s History, 4 credits
– HIST 344 H, G – Women and Development: The Asian Experience, 4 credits
– PHIL 337 – Philosophy of Feminism, 4 credits
– PSYC 383 U – Psychology of Gender, 4 credits
– PSYC 384 – The Life of a Psychologist: Women in Science Making Links Between their Work and their World, 2 credits
– REL 318 – Women, Religion and Literature, 4 credits
– REL 374 D – Women in Religious History, 4 credits
– SOC 317 U – Gender, Self and Society, 4 credits
– SOC 332 – Society and Human Sexuality, 4 credits
– SPAN 325 – Hispanic Women Writers, 2 credits
– THR 323 – Women and Theatre, 4 credits
• No more than 6 credits may be accumulated from WS 390 – Cooperative Education, WS 480 – Independent Study and WS 490 – Practicum.
• Students may apply to have a Critical Inquiry Seminar, Capstone and other Concordia courses counted toward completion of a women’s studies minor if the content, pedagogy and assignments of the course fit the goals and outcomes of the minor. For procedures and forms contact the co-directors.