Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Requirements

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Colby is committed to feminist anti-racist scholarship and research. We offer interdisciplinary classes that are intersectional and transnational, with commitments to critical race and critical caste scholarship, queer theory and queer of color critique, masculinity studies, Indigenous feminisms, and transnational activisms. We stress multidisciplinary methods in our coursework and provide “real world” application of WGSS knowledge—from writing grant proposals to reading alternative archives.

Our “core courses” taken by majors and minors in WGSS consist of Introduction to Women’s Studies, Feminist Theories and Methodologies, and the Senior Seminar capstone course. We add new electives each semester, but some student favorites include Queer of Color Critique and Critical Race Theory and Tap Dance.

A WGSS major graduates with a strong grounding in a variety of feminist research methodologies. Core courses train students in interdisciplinary methods and rigorous theoretical reading and writing. Students draw on courses in other programs and departments for training in empirical methods and for topical breadth. A WGSS major graduates having completed a program that is tailored to the student’s developing interests. Our program’s graduates are trained to think independently, courageously, and boldly about their own subjectivities and the world around them.

Chair, Associate Professor Sonja Thomas 

Appointments in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: Associate Professors Sonja Thomas and Jay Sibara; Assistant Professor Laura Fugikawa; Visiting Assistant Professor Andrea Breau

Professors with Cross-listed Courses in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: Kimberly Besio (East Asian Studies), Cedric Gael Bryant (English, African-American Studies), Ben Fallaw (History and Latin American Studies), Mary Beth Mills (Anthropology), Nikky-Guninder K. Singh (Religious Studies), Mark Tappan (Education), Larissa Taylor (History), and Andrea Tilden (Biology); Associate Professors Dean Allbritton (Spanish), Chandra Bhimull (Anthropology, African-American Studies), Audrey Brunetaux (French and Italian), Megan Cook (English), Britt Halvorson (Anthropology), Annie Kloppenberg (Performance, Theater, and Dance), Laura Saltz (Art and American Studies), Katherine Stubbs (English), John Turner (History), and Natalie Zelensky (Music); Assistant Professors Ana Almeyda-Cohen (Spanish), AB Brown (Performance, Theater, and Dance), Sarah Duff (History), Jin Goh (Psychology), Annie Hikido (Sociology), Benjamin Lisle (American Studies), Seth Kim (Cinema Studies), Mohammad Shabangu (English), and Gwenyth Shanks (Performance, Theater, and Dance); and Visiting Assistant Professors Danila Cannamela (French and Italian) and Danae Jacobson (History)

Twelve courses, including an introductory course (WGSS 101); a course in feminist theory (WGSS 311); a senior seminar (WGSS 493); and nine additional courses designated as WGSS courses or courses cross-listed under WGSS, at least two of which must be at the 300 or 400 level. Students may also petition the program director to have a non-listed course counted toward the major by demonstrating that the majority of their own course work is on WGSS topics.

Students may count toward fulfillment of the major requirements a maximum of one semester of independent study (WGSS 491 or 492) or four credits of Senior Scholars work (if approved by the WGSS coordinating committee).

The point scale for retention of the major applies to all courses taken toward fulfillment of the major. Courses counted toward the major may not be taken satisfactory/unsatisfactory.

Students majoring in WGSS may apply to participate in the honors program their senior year by submitting a formal statement of their intention to the WGSS coordinating committee by April 15 of their junior year. The written proposal must include a description of the proposed work, a timeline, and the agreement of a faculty sponsor and a secondary faculty reader. A 3.5 major average at the end of the junior year is a condition for entry into the program. By the beginning of the senior year, students must develop and circulate to the WGSS coordinating committee a prospectus for the project, written in consultation with the project’s faculty advisor. A 3.50 major average at the end of the senior year and a public oral presentation of the project are conditions for successful completion of this program. Honors course credits do not count toward elective credits in the major. The final project will usually consist of 50 pages or more of superior quality.

Six courses, including an introductory course (WGSS 101); a course in feminist theory (WGSS 311); and a senior seminar (WGSS 493); and three additional courses designated as WGSS courses or cross-listed under WGSS, at least two of which must be at the 300 or 400 level. No more than one semester of independent study (WGSS 491 or 492) may be counted toward fulfillment of the minor requirements.

The point scale for retention of the minor applies to all courses taken toward fulfillment of the minor. Courses counted toward the minor may not be taken satisfactory/unsatisfactory.

• WG241 A: Disability Studies
• WG 233 Critical Race Theory and Tap Dance
• WG349 A: Queer of Color Critique
• WG 341 Gender and Human Rights
• WG 343 Decolonize this Place
• WG 397 South Asian Feminisms
• WG 341 Gender and Human Rights

• 245 Land Sovereignty and Art
• 254 Surveillance Culture
• 342 Political Violence: American Cultures of Radicalism
• 366 Race, Gender and the Graphic Novel
• 375 Race, Gender, and Visual Culture
• 397 Comparative Ethnic Studies

• 344 Black Radical Imagination
• 373 The Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality
• 397 Indigeneity and the Politics of Authenticity

• 215 The Image of Women and Men in American Film

• 251 Gender Politics in Chinese Drama and Film
• 278 Language and Gender

• 316 Sex, Love, and Marriage in the Middle Ages
• 336 Early American Women Writers
• 369 Reading Race Now
• 413 Virginia Woolf
• 422 Queer Theory and U.S. Literature and Cultures
• 493 Seminar (when appropriate)

• 358 Passionate Discontent: The 19th-Century Epidemic
• 379 Race and Gender in France

• 245 Science, Race, and Gender
• 300 South African Women’s Memoir
• 313 Women in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
• 319 History of Sexuality and Disease in Premodern Europe
• 320 Joan of Arc: History, Legend, and Film
• 324 History of Gender and Sexuality in Antiquity
• 381 Women and Gender in Islam
• 3xx  U.S. as Empire

• 215 Feminist Philosophies
• 217 Feminism and Science

• 223 Social Identities

• 257 Women in American Religion
• 275 Contemporary Witchcraft: Formalists, Feminists, and Free Spirits
• 297 Gender and the Bible
• 312 South Asians and Global Literature, Film, Art, Environmentalism

• 276 Sociology of Gender
• 344 Sociology of Sexualities
• 355 African-American Women and Social Change

• 276 U.S. Latina/Chicana Women Writers
• 362 All about Almodóvar
• 364 Gender, Sex, and the Spanish Body
• 493 Seminar: Queer Spain