Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Program

Director: Kristin Sánchez Carter;

Steering Committee: Sole Anatrone (Italian Studies), Anne Brancky (French and Francophone Studies), Paulina Bren (International Studies), Kristin Sánchez Carter (Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies), Jean M. Kane (English), Hiram Pérez-Piña (English), Shivani Radhakrishnan (Philosophy), Jeffrey Schneider^b (German Studies), Kirsten Wesselhoeft (Religion), Kimberly Williams Brown (Education),

Advisory Board: Mita Choudhury (History), Susan Hiner^b (French and Francophone Studies);

Participating Faculty: John Andrews (Media Studies), Leonisa Ardizzone (Education), Nancy Bisaha (History), Light Carruyo(Sociology), Mita Choudhury (History), Colleen Ballerino Cohen^a(Anthropology), Lisa Gail Collins (Art), Darlene Deporto (Sociology), Hiromi Dollase^a (Chinese and Japanese), Peter Gil-Sheridan (Drama), Diane Harriford (Sociology), Susan Hiner^b (French and Francophone Studies), Tracey Holland (Latin American and Latinx Studies), Erin McCloskey^ab (Education), Molly S. McGlennen (English), Daniel Mendiola (History), Mootacem Mhiri (Africana Studies), Seungsook Moon (Sociology), Lydia Murdoch (History), Barbara A. Olsen (Greek and Roman Studies), Sarah Pearlman (Economics), Claire Sagan (Political Science), Jill S. Schneiderman (Earth Science), Ashanti Shih (History), Rachel Silverbloom (Philosophy), Jasmine Syedullah (Africana Studies), Christie VanHorne (Science, Technology and Society), Nicolás Vivalda(Hispanic Studies), Silke von der Emde (German Studies), Eva Woods Peiró^b (Hispanic Studies).

^aOn leave 2026/27, first semester

^bOn leave 2026/27, second semester

^abOn leave 2026/27

Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies is a multidisciplinary program that explores gender and sexuality across feminist, queer and trans methodologies. Using an intersectional framework, students explore gender and sexuality through multiple axes of power, including race, class, ethnicity, disability, and more. We offer a curriculum in which students study the way that gender and sexuality help organize the world (and in turn are organized by culture and society), but also how they constitute a methodological prism through which to transform it.

Through a variety of feminist analytics including transnational feminism, Black feminist thought, decolonial feminism, indigenous feminism, queer studies, and transgender epistemologies, WFQS interrogates the interconnectedness of global forces and local realities. We draw on activist efforts for knowledge-building toward a just society and political coalitions (not just individual solutions), and transformative pedagogical practices for undergraduate students.

We engage these frameworks to analyze human experience in its bodily, political, economic and cultural dimensions. Students learn to use a variety of theoretical and empirical research as well as anti-racist queer and feminist praxis to produce critical knowledges that envision possibilities for transformation and change.

Our gateway courses are WFQS 130 and WFQS 201 , which provide an introductory and advanced overview of the literature, issues, and debates in the field. WFQS majors then deepen their studies in one of four thematic focus areas: Theory and Methods; Historical and Transnational Experiences; Politics and Activism; Culture, Media, and the Arts. In their final year, WFQS majors embark on a capstone project as part of their yearlong Senior Capstone Seminar: they may choose a traditional written thesis, a creative project, an extended CEL, etc.

Programs

Major

• Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Major

Correlate Sequence in Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies

• Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Correlate Sequence

Approved Courses

• Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Approved Courses

Courses

Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies: I. Introductory

Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies: II. Intermediate

Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies: III. Advanced