Home > Academics > Majors/Concentrations > Women's Studies

Advisory Board: Dr. Wairimu Njambi and Dr. Daniel White

Description: Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary field designed to provide an understanding of the complex ways in which gender and sexuality are defined in relation to society, culture, science and technology. Its critical perspectives are both analytical (synchronic) and historical (diachronic). The field of Women's Studies challenges and transforms traditional disciplines through new methods and theories generated by feminist scholarship. It offers students critical ways of thinking about how prevailing issues of gender and sexuality shape social, political, economic, and institutional structures as well as personal experiences and perceptions. At the same time, it offers diverse perspectives on women's issues, within local, regional, and global contexts, self-critically presenting continuous challenges to Women's Studies itself. In this sense, Women's Studies promotes awareness of diversity among women through the integration of content and theory to reflect the racial, social, ethnic, sexual and other forms of diversity of women's experiences and practices. Hence Women's Studies is, by design, an interdisciplinary, multicultural, and critical project with both theoretical and practical goals.

Women's Studies promotes and encourages practices of empowerment including campus activism, as well as political involvement in the community. Among areas of emphasis within Women's Studies are the study of gender and sexuality, including gay and lesbian studies; race, ethnicity, and class; science, technology, and medicine; feminist theories and feminist activism.

The Honors College concentration in Women's Studies provides the necessary background for students wishing to do graduate work in Women's Studies; cultural studies; sociology; social studies of science, technology and medicine; feminist philosophy; law; international studies and other related studies in humanities and social sciences.

Available options: Concentration in Women's Studies; Minor Concentration in Women's Studies

Important Notes:
In order to obtain a minor from the Honors College or the Certificate in Women's Studies from FAU, students must take 15 credits in Women's Studies, including WST 3015 (Introduction to Women's Studies) and WST 4344 (Feminist Theory).
Students are highly recommended to do their internship or study abroad in an area related to Women's Studies. Also, students are reminded they need 45 upper-level (3000 or 4000-level) credits to graduate.
A Woman's Studies concentrator will have acquired the following specific skills upon completion of the concentration: critical thinking and writing skills; an historical and critical comprehension of the interdisciplinary contributions of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, psychology, biology, and economics to the understanding of gender and the situation of women; appreciation of international and multicultural perspectives on the lives and contributions of women to civilization; a critical understanding of the ways in which systems of knowledge and power operate in the making of the interlocking structures of sexism, racism, heterosexism and classism, as well as an understanding of how one's own identity is informed by those systems; an ability to establish connections between feminist theories and other academic areas of study, as well as between feminist scholarship and feminist activism; an ability to comprehend the challenge of living in the multicultural, globally interdependent world of the twenty-first century.

Concentration in Women's Studies

Note: at least 15 of the 18 credits in the Area of Emphasis must be 3000 or 4000 level and at least 3 credits of Related Area Electives must be at the 3000 or 4000 level

Areas of Emphasis:

Feminist Studies Emphasis (9 credits) (At least 6 credits must be at the 3000-4000 level) (Courses in this area relate directly to feminist approaches to Women's Studies and their interrelationship with critical race, class, and sexuality studies).
WST 4563 Honors Representation of Female Bodies: Science, Medicine, Culture 3
SYD 4792 Honors Race, Gender, Class, Sexuality, Science 3
SYP 4303 Honors Sex Panics in History and Society 3
WST 4905 Honors Directed Independent Study (Note: only 3 DIS credits may be applied to the WST concentration) 1-3
WST 4930 Honors Special Topics in Women's Studies 3 (variable topic, may be repeated)
SYG 1933 Honors Lesbian, Gay, Bisexuality, and Transgender Studies 3
SYP 4803 Honors Gender and Technology 3
WST 3325 Women, Violence, Resistance (MacArthur Campus ) 3

Gender and Society Emphasis: (9 credits) (At least 6 credits must be at the 3000-4000 level) (Courses in this area more broadly address gender issues in various social contexts.)

POS 3693 Women and The Law (MacArthur Campus) 3
WST 3640 Sex/Gender In American Culture (MacArthur Campus) 3
ECP 3145 Honors Gender in Economics and the Global Economy 3
WST 4905 Honors Directed Independent Study (Note: only 3 DIS credits may be applied to the WST concentration) 1-3
WST 4930 Honors Special Topics in Women's Studies 3
ANT 4302 Gender and Culture (MacArthur Campus ) 3
HUM 3320 Honors Contemporary Multicultural Studies 3
ANT 3212 Honors Peoples Around the World 3
SPW 4492 Honors New Literature of the Spanish Caribbean 3
PHI 3882 Honors Philosophy of Literature 3
PSY 4930 Honors Special Topics: Human Sexuality Psychology 3
SYG 3401 Honors Introduction to Cultural Studies 3
PHI 4804 Honors Critical Theory and Practice 3
PHI 2642 Honors Ethics of Social Diversity 3
PSY 4930 Honors Special Topics: Psychology of Women 3

Electives in Related Area of Studies: (6 credits) (At least 3 credits must be at the 3000-4000 level) (Courses in this area of electives need not be about Women's Studies or gender studies but reflect the interdisciplinary emphasis of the Honors College program by providing an important opportunity critically to understand the connections between Women's Studies and other fields of study. Please note that courses that students can take in this area are not limited to the ones listed here. Beyond this list of electives, students may petition to include special topics and other courses when the subject matter is relevant.)
ANT 2410 Honors Culture and Society 3
ANT 1933 Honors Freshman Seminar: Anthropology of Religion 3
SOP 3004 Honors Principles of Social Psychology 3
SYG 1000 Honors Introduction to Sociology 3
SYG 1933 Honors Freshman Seminar in Sociology 3
PHI 2361 Honors Ways of Knowing 3
POS 4603 Honors Constitution Law I 3
POS 4604 Honors Constitution Law II 3
CPO 4305 Honors Religion and Politics in Latin America 3
PHI 3682 Honors Environmental Philosophy 3
ARH 4930 Honors Special Topics in Art History: The Artist's Body 3
PPE 3003 Honors Personality 3
DEP 4905 Honors Personality and Social Development 3
GEA 3003 Honors Geography of the Developing World 3
AMH 2010 Honors U.S. History to 1877 3
AMH 2020 Honors U.S. History Since 1877 3
LIT 1933 Honors Freshman Seminar in Literature: "Humanism" 3
LIT 3361 Honors Postmodern Literature 3
EVR 2017 Honors Environment and Society 3
EUH 3604 Honors Intellectual History I 3
EUH 3607 Honors European Intellectual II 3
EUH 3618 Honors "Sense of Place" Across Time 3


Minor Concentration in Women's Studies
Students must take at least 15 credits of coursework to obtain a minor concentration in Women’s Studies. At least 9 of these credits shall be at the upper level and at least 50% of upper level courses must be from the Honors College. Students must maintain at least a 2.0 grade point average in coursework that counts toward the minor concentration. A student earning the minor in Women’s Studies may also qualify for the Certificate in Women's Studies from FAU.
Requirements:

WST 3015 Honors Introduction to Women’s Studies
WST 4505 Honors Feminist Theory
9 credits from the courses in the table below