Gender and Sexuality Studies Major and Minor
For students interested in studying the category of gender, the partnership between Haverford and Bryn Mawr offers a minor in gender and sexuality studies.
Our highly interdisciplinary program brings together students and faculty from a wide range of departments to investigate the many dimensions of gender and sexuality. We offer students an academic experience that cuts across traditional academic boundaries and thrives on diverse perspectives and approaches.
Students can opt to pursue gender and sexuality studies as a minor; a concentration linked to their major; or as an independent major. No matter which course of study you choose, you emerge from our program with a deep understanding of the many ways in which issues of gender and sexuality shape all of us.
Curriculum & Courses
Students receive a solid grounding in the central concepts and theories that have shaped gender and sexuality studies through a required introductory-level course and through our junior seminar, Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Gender and Sexuality. Beyond that, they have great freedom to shape their course of study. While we require them to take four additional approved courses on gender and sexuality, our menu of approved classes is extraordinarily broad. Based in departments throughout both colleges, they cover a range of topics and bring an array of approaches and methodologies to bear on their study of gender and sexuality.
For students pursuing the minor, none of the courses they take to fulfill the minor requirements can overlap with courses they take to fulfill their major requirements; this is not the case for students pursuing the concentration, where a single course can fulfill requirements for both.
Students wishing to construct an independent major in Gender and Sexuality Studies should file a petition with the Committee on Student Standing and Programs (Haverford College) or make a proposal to the Committee on Independent Majors (Bryn Mawr College).
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Major Requirements
Students wishing to construct an independent major in Gender and Sexuality Studies should file a petition with the Committee on Student Standing and Programs.
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Minor Requirements
Six courses distributed as follows are required for the minor at Haverford College:
- An introductory course GSST H190 Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies (offered in the fall semester).
- The junior seminar: GSST H290, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender (offered in the fall semester), will alternate focus between Queer Theory and Feminist Theory.
- Four additional approved courses from at least two different departments, two of which are normally at the 300 level. Units of Independent Study (480) may be used to fulfill this requirement.
- Of the six courses, no more than two will also form part of the student’s major. This requirement can be waived with approval of the Director, Dr. Gina Velasco.
- No more than two of the six minor credits may come from institutions outside of the Bi-Co.
Neither a senior seminar nor a senior thesis is required for the minor; however, with the permission of the major department, a student may choose to count toward the minor a senior thesis with significant content in gender and sexuality.
Research & Outreach
One of three Hurford Center creative interns, Otterbein is spending the summer combining art and activism to drive awareness of crisis pregnancy centers.
Richie hopes to teach after gradution, before pursuing law study in graduate school to expand modern conceptions of civil rights.
On her Hurford Center-sponsored internship, the religion major and gender and sexuality studies concentrator is working with images and illustrations at the Library Company of Philadelphia to supplement one of the Philadelphia area’s canonical records.
After Graduation
The English major, French minor, and gender and sexuality concentrator is both working at Beautiful Trouble, an organization supporting social movements and grassroots change around the world, and teaching English in France.
Cartwright's career focuses on reproductive health issues, previously in Tanzania and now at a research center at the University of California, San Francisco.
Eisenberg is a writer and teacher of writing who is working on a reported memoir and a novel.
Monroe brings her personal and academic passions to the Women Bike PHL program at the Bicycle Coalition.
The former drama teacher left her job of 10 years to pursue her passion for acting full-time and has recently wrapped the first season of her own web series.
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You can find detailed instructions and information on the Application Instructions page. If you need to contact us directly, please send an email to admission@haverford.edu.
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