威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校

The master's degree in gender and women's studies provides advanced feminist training in gender analysis for students with a variety of academic backgrounds and career plans. Incorporating local, cross-cultural and transnational emphases, the curriculum encourages students and faculty from the humanities, arts, social sciences and natural sciences to develop innovative ways of expanding knowledge about gender in global, local, and historical contexts. As the name gender and women's studies indicates, the M.A. retains the emphasis on women's lives and situations that have historically informed the field of women's studies, while also emphasizing the incisive import of gender as a category of analysis transforming knowledge about, for example, masculinity and men's lives, transgendered lives, as well as other complex topics. The degree engages the wide-ranging and multidisciplinary perspectives associated with gender studies and women's studies: queer studies, transgender studies, sexuality studies, race and ethnicity studies, disability studies, area and global studies, cultural studies, postcolonial and transnational studies.

?The M.A. curriculum draws from the strengths of current course offerings in the program, as well as from methodologies and course offerings in other fields and departments. Among the domains of inquiry explored within the curriculum are: work, family and education; social movements, the state and civil society; bodies, genders, health and sexualities; individual, collective and communal identities; communications, technology and culture industries; politics of representation, media and cultural practices; migration, immigration, labor and political economy; militarism, international relations and governmental processes; intersectionality of systems of women's oppression; and arts, performance, and visual cultures. Some courses investigate these topics at the global level while others focus on the local, regional or national levels. The curriculum ensures an overarching transnational and cross-cultural framework. Courses use interdisciplinary methodologies and/or disciplinary approaches.

The degree program is designed to be a two-year full-time sequence; however, the program is also flexible enough to allow part-time students to pursue the M.A. All students are expected to maintain satisfactory progress in the graduate program in accordance with the regulations of the Graduate School and department policies. Each student will complete 30 credits of coursework plus a thesis or a comprehensive exam project. Of the 30 credits, at least 15 must be in designated courses in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies. The remaining credits may also be departmental courses or may be chosen (entirely or in part) from graduate-level courses in other departments and programs in the university. All courses should be selected in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies and/or the advisor, who must approve the selections.

Learning outcomes

• Demonstrate the ability to read, understand, and critique the major concepts and theories related to feminism, women, and gender, and apply these critical perspectives across disciplines.
• Understanding of historical and contemporary agency by people across a spectrum of gender and the ways this agency has shaped lives in various geographic settings.
• Demonstrate the ability to analyze the intersections between gender and other socially meaningful categories, such as race, class, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, nation, religion, and sexuality, and to explain how gender functions as a social institution.