FGSS-BA - Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (BA)

The interdepartmental Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies provides students with knowledge and skills to investigate the significance of gender and sexuality in all areas of human life. Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies examines how societies structure gender roles, relations, and identities, and how these intersect with other hierarchies of power, such as class, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, and age. The program coordinates courses offered across the University in feminist and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer studies. Students learn to employ critical gender and sexuality studies methodologies to analyze the assumptions about gender and sexuality that inform the study of individuals, cultures, social institutions, policy, and areas of scholarly inquiry. The program prepares majors for graduate study in humanities and social sciences and for professional schools.

The Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers an undergraduate major and minor, and an interdisciplinary honors program that is open to students in all majors. Each Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies student builds an individual program of study around a self-defined thematic focus, integrating courses from multiple departments. The program encourages work in the arts and supports creative honors theses. Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies majors may declare Arts & Culture, Global Studies, Health, or LGBT/Queer Studies as a subplan, or may design their own thematic focus. Subplans are printed on the diploma; individual thematic foci are not printed on the diploma.

Units from courses taken from other Departments/Programs within Stanford may count for Major/Minor requirements if course equivalence is petitioned and approved by the Associate Director. Units from courses taken at institutions that are not Stanford may count for Major/Minor requirements if course equivalence is petitioned and approved by the Associate Director.

The program expects undergraduate majors in the program to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes. These learning outcomes are used in evaluating students and the undergraduate program. Students are expected to demonstrate:

1. understanding of how social hierarchies related to gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity have developed historically, cross-culturally, and transnationally.

2. knowledge of the histories of feminist, gender, sexuality, and/or LGBT/queer social movements and their intersections with other social movements.

3. knowledge and comprehension of feminist, gender, sexuality, and/or LGBT/queer theories and methods for social, historical, literary and cultural analysis.

4. skill in making and communicating feminist, gender, sexuality, and/or LGBT/queer analyses of data, texts, and arguments.

5. competence in applying theory to practical experience for social transformation and citizenship.