Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
Overview
The Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) minor is an interdisciplinary program that encourages the study of gender construction and identities, the lives of women, and the range of sexualities, in local and global contexts.
There is no monolithic approach to the study of gender, women, and sexuality, as demonstrated by the wide range of departments across campus that offer related courses. The study of these concepts involves multiple layers of complexity and various disciplinary paradigms. The GWSS minor offers students the opportunity to engage in dialogue with learners across the curriculum as they study the power of critically analyzing gender, women, and sexuality from a multitude of disciplinary perspectives and philosophical positions.
Minor Requirements
The GWSS minor is a five-course (5) program consisting of one (1) required core class and four (4) electives.
No more than three courses from one department can be counted toward the minor.
All students minoring in GWSS must take at least one of the following core courses:
| CTSJ 140 | Critical Theories of Sexuality | 4 units |
| DWA 230 | Gender and International Human Rights | 4 units |
| HIST 237 | Changing Views of Gender, Women, and Sexualities | 4 units |
| POLS 321 | Gender and Politics in the Global South | 4 units |
| SOC 265 | Gender and Society | 4 units |
All of the core courses examine gender, women, and sexuality, and approach these concepts from an intersectional perspective, emphasizing their interconnections with different bases of identity and multiple systems of oppression, including race and class.
Electives
In addition to completing one core course, students will take four additional courses from the list below to fulfill the minor.
| AMST 240/BLST 240 | African American Women Writers | 4 units |
| AMST 256/BLST 256 | Race Women: African American Women's Protest Culture | 4 units |
| AMST 268/BLST 268 | Style Politics: Beauty and Fashion in Black Women's History | 4 units |
| AMST 325/BLST 325 | Toni Morrison and African-American Self-Fashioning | 4 units |
| ARTH 365 | Gender and Art in Japan | 4 units |
| CTSJ 160 | Introduction to Feminist Studies | 4 units |
| CTSJ 210 | Mother Goose to Mash-Ups: Children's Literature and Popular Texts | 4 units |
| CTSJ 222 | Body Politics | 4 units |
| CTSJ 230 | Fundamentals of Queer Theory | 4 units |
| CTSJ 233 | Queer Literature and Culture | 4 units |
| CTSJ 234 | Materialist Feminism | 4 units |
| CTSJ 261 | Race, Gender, Class, and the Media | 4 units |
| CTSJ 311 | Children, Poverty, and Public Policies | 4 units |
| CTSJ 332 | Psychic Life of Violence | 4 units |
| CTSJ 335 | Queer of Color Critique | 4 units |
| CTSJ 337 | Queer Los Angeles: Cruising the Archive | 4 units |
| CTSJ 360 | Methodologies of Gender and Women’s Studies | 4 units |
| CTSJ 361 | Gender, Race, and Nationality in Latin American and Latinx Film | 4 units |
| DWA 230 | Gender and International Human Rights | 4 units |
| DWA 231 | Gender and International Relations | 4 units |
| DWA 329 | Junior Seminar: Human Rights and Trafficking in Persons | 4 units |
| ECON 327 | Economics of Gender - Marriage, Motherhood, and Money | 4 units |
| ECON 328 | Economics of Race and Gender | 4 units |
| ENGL 159 | Lavender Cowboys: Power and Gender in the American Western | 4 units |
| ENGL 248 | Money, Gender, and the Nineteenth Century Novel | 4 units |
| ENGL 274 | Women Writers | 4 units |
| FREN 365 | Seminar in a Literary Theme: French Feminism | 4 units |
| HIST 150/LLAS 150 | Colonial Latin America | 4 units |
| HIST 182 | The Social and Cultural History of the Modern Middle East | 4 units |
| HIST 206 | History of American Women | 4 units |
| HIST 220 | Ancient Athens and Renaissance Florence | 4 units |
| HIST 237 | Changing Views of Gender, Women, and Sexualities | 4 units |
| HIST 258/LLAS 258 | Mexican Cultural Politics | 4 units |
| HIST 277 | Women and Community Health | 4 units |
| HIST 282 | The Muslim World in Modern Times | 4 units |
| HIST 353 | Catholicism and Social Justice in the Americas | 4 units |
| HIST 359 | Mexico-United States Borderlands | 4 units |
| HIST 385 | Identity Formation in the Modern Middle East and Africa | 4 units |
| KINE 201/SOC 210 | Sport in American Society | 4 units |
| KINE 299 | Women's Sports and Empowerment | 4 units |
| MAC 244 | Topics in Media Representation | 4 units |
| PHIL 235 | Feminism | 4 units |
| PHIL 353 | Health and Social Justice | 4 units |
| PSYC 350 | Psychology of Gender | 4 units |
| RELS 266 | Sexuality and Gender in Buddhism | 4 units |
| RELS 282 | "Good" Sex: History of Christian Sexual Ethics | 4 units |
| RELS 305 | Islam, Gender and Sexuality | 4 units |
| SOC 225 | Masculinities | 4 units |
| SOC 255 | Youth Culture in United States Society | 4 units |
| SOC 230 | Marriage and Family | 4 units |
| SOC 265 | Gender and Society | 4 units |
| SOC 320 | Health and Illness | 4 units |
| SOC 355 | Power and Sexuality | 4 units |
| WRD 265/CTSJ 265 | Feminist Rhetoric and Social Change | 4 units |
Faculty
Advisory Committee
Regular Faculty
Laura Hebert, chair
Associate Professor, Diplomacy and World Affairs
B.A., University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; M.A., University of Oregon Ph.D., University of Denver
Bevin Ashenmiller
Associate Professor, Economics; Advisory Committee, Urban and Environmental Policy
B.A., Princeton University; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
Courtney Baker
Associate Professor, American Studies
B.A., Harvard University; M.A., Ph.D., Duke University
Erica Ball
Professor, American Studies
B.A., Wesleyan University; M.A., Ph.D., The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Mary Christianakis
Professor, Critical Theory and Social Justice
B.A., M.Ed., University of California, Los Angeles; M.A., Loyola Marymount University; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Allison de Fren
Associate Professor, Media Arts and Culture
B.A., Grinnell College; M.F.A., New York University; Ph.D., University of Southern California
Nancy Dess
Professor, Psychology; Advisory Committee, Kinesiology; Advisory Committee, Neuroscience
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Sharla Fett
Professor, History; Advisory Committee, American Studies
B.A., Carleton College; M.A., Stanford University; Ph.D., Rutgers University
Michael Gasper
Associate Professor, History
B.A., Temple University; M.A., Ph.D., New York University
Susan Grayson
Professor, Spanish and French Studies; Advisory Committee, Group Language
A.B., M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles; Ph.D., Wright Institute Los Angeles Attestation d'études, Université de Bordeaux
Marcia Homiak
Professor, Philosophy
A.B., Mount Holyoke College; Ph.D., Harvard University
Maryanne Horowitz
Professor, History
A.B., Pamper College, Brown University; M.A.T., Harvard University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
Krystale E. Littlejohn
Assistant Professor, Sociology
A.B., Occidental College; M.A., Ph.D., Stanford University
Mary Lopez
Associate Professor, Economics; Affiliated Faculty, Latino/a and Latin American Studies
B.A., University of California, Riverside; M.A., Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Heather Lukes
Associate Professor, Critical Theory and Social Justice
B.A., University of California, Riverside; M.A., Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Amy Lyford
Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., Pomona College; M.A., Boston University; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Richard Mora
Associate Professor, Sociology; Affiliated Faculty, Latino/a and Latin American Studies
B.A., Harvard College (Sociology); M.A., University of Michigan (Education); M.A., Harvard University (Sociology); Ph.D., Harvard University (Sociology & Social Policy)
Clair Morrissey
Associate Professor, Philosophy
B.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; M.A., Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel
Jennifer Piscopo
Assistant Professor, Politics; Advisory Committee, Latino/a and Latin American Studies
B.A., Wellesley; M.Phil, University of Cambridge; Ph.D., University of California, San Diego
Julie Prebel
Associate Professor, Writing and Rhetoric; Director of Writing Center and Programs
B.A., University of California, Berkeley; M.A., California State University, San Francisco; Ph.D., University of Washington
Lisa Sousa
Professor, History
B.A., M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Eileen Spain
Associate Dean of the College for Research, Carl F. Braun Professor of Chemistry
B.S., Sonoma State University; Ph.D., University of Utah
John Swift
Professor, English
B.A., Middlebury College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Virginia
Amy Tahani-Bidmeshki
Mellon Postdocutral Fellow, American Studies
A.B., Occidental College; M.A., California State University, Los Angeles; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Kristi Upson-Saia
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
B.A., University of Washington; M.Div., Princeton Teol. Sem.; Ph.D., Duke University
Lisa Wade
Associate Professor, Sociology
B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara; M.A., New York University; M.S., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison
Yurika Wakamatsu
Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; A.M., Ph.D., Harvard University
Jean Wyatt
Professor, English
A.B., Pomona College; Ph.D., Harvard University
On Special Appointment
Motoko Ezaki
Non-Tenure Track Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Culture; Advisory Committee, Group Language
B.A., M.A., Seinan Gakuin University; M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Melinda Houston
Non-Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Kinesiology
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; M.S., California State University, Fullerton; Ph.D., University of Tennessee, Knoxville