Procedures
Faculty interested in submitting their course syllabi for possible inclusion in the WGSS curriculum are encouraged to do so.
- Courses may be submitted as a potential WGS core course (which will carry only the “WGS” prefix) or for consideration as a WGSS outside elective (which will not carry the WGS prefix).
- Faculty wishing to submit a core course that carries only the WGS prefix must meet with the WGSS Program Chair before composing/submitting a syllabus.
- Faculty wishing to have a course from their department/program count as an elective should submit two items to the WGSS Program Chair: 1) a complete course syllabus (copying their own Department Head/Program Chair) and 2) a short statement explaining how the the course fulfills the WGSS course criteria (see below). WGSS Advisory Committee members will use the statement to evaluate the course and make a recommendation to the Chair. The Chair will respond in one of 3 ways: accepting the course, declining the course, or returning the course with suggested changes.
Criteria for WGSS Courses
WGSS (core and elective) courses must fulfill the following criteria:
Required — Courses must meet all 3 of the following criteria:
- A majority of course content must directly address women, gender and/or sexuality and involve a level of critical feminist analysis,
- Course content must be informed by contemporary approaches in the field,
- The course must demonstrate substantial 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 at least 2 of the following criteria:
- The course is informed by a feminist theoretical framework,
- The course is informed by feminist pedagogy,
- The course has a feminist praxis, community-based learning and research, and/or activism component.