Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Program

Director: Kristin Sánchez Carter (2025/26);

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

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

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

^a On leave 2025/26, first semester

^b On leave 2025/26, second semester

^ab On leave 2025/26

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

• Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Major

• Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Correlate Sequence

• Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Approved Courses

Courses

• WFQS 122 - Queer Italian American Media
• WFQS 123 - Women on the Italian Screen
• WFQS 130 - Introduction to Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies
• WFQS 181 - Friendship and Love in the Ancient World

• WFQS 201 - Critical Conversations in Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies
• WFQS 203 - Women in Greek and Roman History and Myth
• WFQS 205 - Arab Women Writers
• WFQS 206 - Gender Issues in Economics
• WFQS 210 - Domestic Violence
• WFQS 214 - Transnational Perspectives on Women and Work
• WFQS 218 - Literature, Gender, and Sexuality
• WFQS 221 - Captive Genders and Methods of Survival
• WFQS 222 - Women, Gender, & Sexuality in Islamic Spaces
• WFQS 224 - Intersectionality in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
• WFQS 230 - European Women’s Cinema
• WFQS 231 - Women Making Music
• WFQS 236 - The Black Freedom Struggle
• WFQS 237 - Gender and Sexuality in Black America
• WFQS 244 - Topics in Feminist and Queer Politics and Activism
• WFQS 250 - Feminist Theory
• WFQS 251 - Global Feminism
• WFQS 254 - Decolonial Feminisms
• WFQS 260 - Sex & Reproduction in 19th Century United States: Before Margaret Sanger
• WFQS 261 - Performance and Politics in 1970s Italy
• WFQS 262 - Native American Women
• WFQS 267 - Topics in Gender, Media, Culture
• WFQS 271 - Hello, Dear Enemy: Mounting an Exhibition on Children’s Experiences of War and Displacement
• WFQS 272 - Feminist Thought and Politics: Sex, Gender, Matter
• WFQS 278 - Women’s History of Latin America
• WFQS 279 - Rethinking Gender in an Educational Context
• WFQS 280 - Gender and Genre in Hindu Literature
• WFQS 287 - Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Modern America
• WFQS 288 - Public Health and Social Welfare Policy in Modern America
• WFQS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning
• WFQS 297 - Reading Course
• WFQS 298 - Independent Study

• WFQS 303 - Senior Capstone: Interdisciplinary Research Methods and Writing Seminar
• WFQS 304 - Senior Capstone: Interdisciplinary Research Methods and Writing Seminar
• WFQS 321 - Feminism, Knowledge, Practice
• WFQS 322 - Caribbean Spaces: Discourses of West Indian resistance, love and hope
• WFQS 336 - Black Ecologies
• WFQS 352 - Studies in Romanticism
• WFQS 354 - Critical Issues in Women’s Health
• WFQS 355 - Childhood and Children in Nineteenth-Century Britain
• WFQS 357 - Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature
• WFQS 360 - Religion, Sex, and the Modern State
• WFQS 366 - Art and Activism in the U.S.
• WFQS 369 - Masculinities: Global Perspectives
• WFQS 372 - New Materialism
• WFQS 375 - WFQS Senior Seminar
• WFQS 381 - How Queer is That?
• WFQS 382 - Marie-Antoinette
• WFQS 399 - Senior Independent Study