Procedures

Faculty interested in submitting their course syllabi for possible inclusion in the WGSS curriculum are encouraged to do so. Please note:

  • Courses may be submitted as a potential core course (which will carry the WGS prefix) or for consideration as a WGSS elective (which will not carry the WGS prefix).
  • Faculty wishing to submit a core course that carries the WGS prefix must meet with the WGSS Program Chair before composing/submitting a syllabus.
  • Faculty wishing to have a course in their department/program count as a WGSS elective should submit the course syllabus to the WGSS Program Chair (copying their own Department Head/Program Chair) along with a short statement explaining how the the course fulfills the WGSS criteria (below).

WGSS Advisory Committee members will use the short statement provided to evaluate the course and make a recommendation to the Program Chair. The Chair will respond to the faculty member’s proposal in one of 3 ways: by accepting the course, declining the course, or returning the course with suggested changes.

Criteria

WGSS (core and elective) courses must fulfill the following criteria:

Required — Courses must meet all 3 of the following criteria:

  1. A majority of course content must directly address women, gender and/or sexuality and involve a level of critical feminist analysis.
  2. Course content must be informed by contemporary approaches in the field.
  3. The course must demonstrate attentiveness to intersectionality, linking its investigation of gender and sexuality to race, class, ethnicity, global positionality, and/or other salient aspects of identity

Additional — Courses must meet 2 of the following criteria:

  1. The course is informed by a feminist theoretical framework.
  2. The course is informed by feminist pedagogy.
  3. The course has a feminist praxis, community-based learning and research, and/or activism component.