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How do I enroll in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies at Yale?
Many courses of interest to LGBTQ students are offered at Yale. You can find out about these courses by checking the section of our website called The Pink Book or by picking up a hard copy outside our offices. There are usually a wide-ranging variety of courses, from the introductory to the highly specialized. These can be as diverse as a course on Gay Paris in the 1920's to a course on homosexual themes in Japanese anime! To major in Lesbian and Gay Studies as an undergraduate, however, you must be enrolled in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Specifics of this can be found below or by contacting the DUS of WGSS. For course or program related queries please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies for WGSS. If you do not receive an answer in a timely fashion please write rachel.pepper@yale.edu and she will assist.
Director of Undergraduate Studies:
Maria Trumpler maria.trumpler@yale.edu
The program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies focuses on gender and sexuality as fundamental categories of social and cultural analysis. Drawing on history, literature, cultural studies, social science, and natural science, it offers interdisciplinary perspectives from which to study the diversity of human experience. Gender, the social meaning of the distinction between the sexes and sexuality, sexual identities, discourses, and institutions are critically explored, with particular attention to the ways that they intersect with class, race, ethnicity, nationality, and transnational movements. Students majoring in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies choose one of two tracks: women's and gender studies (W&GS) or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender studies (LGBT). The major includes a core curriculum of required courses as well as an area of individual concentration that students develop in consultation with program faculty and the director of undergraduate studies.
Students in the women's and gender studies track focus on the history, expression, and diversity of women's experiences and on the historical and theoretical construction of the category of woman. They work toward completing a senior essay broadly concerned with women as social actors, feminist theory and methodology, and gender as a significant category of social organization and meaning. Students in the LGBT track analyze social, historical, and theoretical constructions of sexuality and identity, including (but not limited to) gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gendered. They work toward completing a senior essay broadly concerned with the construction of sexual difference as a significant category of social organization and meaning. Students in both tracks select from a wide range of social science, humanities, and natural science courses in developing their program of study.
Requirements of the major.
The requirements of the major outlined below apply to majors in the Class of 2008 and subsequent classes.
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies may be taken either as a primary major or as one of two majors. The major requires twelve term courses. Students take the foundational course, one intermediate course, one disciplinary methods course, the junior sequence, and the senior sequence. At least one of the twelve courses in the major must focus on women, gender, and/or sexuality in Africa, Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East. (WGSS 295a does not fulfill this requirement.) All majors define and develop an area of concentration consisting of five electives in a particular area of interest. With permission of the director of undergraduate studies, majors may make an appropriate substitution for one course counting toward the required twelve term courses; students who are completing two majors may make a second substitution.
The foundational course, Gender and Sexuality in Society (WGSS 110a), is required for all majors, and students are encouraged to take that course in their freshman or sophomore year. In addition, all majors must take either Women and Gender in a Transnational Context (WGSS 295a) or Making Modern Sexual and Gender Difference (WGSS 296b), preferably after the foundational course and prior to the junior sequence. WGSS 295a is required for majors specializing in the W&GS track, while WGSS 296b is required for those choosing the LGBTQ track. All majors are encouraged to take both WGSS 295a and 296b, although both courses are not required.
Methods requirement. Students are required to take a methods course, which can be chosen from a variety of designated electives in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. In special circumstances, the director of undergraduate studies may allow a student to fulfill the methods course requirement by counting a course that is not listed among the designated WGSS electives. Majors should choose a methods course that will provide them with the analytical tools necessary to carry out the senior essay. Students are advised to complete the methods requirement in their sophomore or junior year. The following courses fulfill the methods requirement: WGSS 351b, 352a, 361a, and 362a.
Junior sequence. The two-term junior sequence consists of History of Feminist Thought (WGSS 340a) and the Junior Seminar: Theory and Method (WGSS 398b).
Senior sequence and senior essay. The senior sequence consists of two courses. In the fall term of the senior year, all majors take the Senior Colloquium (WGSS 490a) and begin researching and writing a senior essay. The senior essay topic, which should reflect the student's area of concentration, is written under the guidance and supervision of a faculty member with expertise in that area; students are expected to meet with their essay adviser on a regular basis. Students typically complete the senior essay in the spring term of the senior year while enrolled in the Senior Essay (WGSS 491a or b).
Area of concentration. All students majoring in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, in consultation with the director of undergraduate studies, design an individual area of concentration consisting of five courses in a single disciplinary topic or substantive area of interest. Examples include but are not exhausted by the following: women's health and public policy; science, technology, and feminist theory; gay and lesbian arts and intellectual history; transgender history; transnational feminism; gender and development in South Asia; gender, race, and visual culture; and postcolonial women writers.
For any questions concerning the pursuit of Lesbian and Gay Studies or Queer Studies at Yale, please contact Rachel Pepper: rachel.pepper@yale.edu
Official Yale College course information is found on the Yale Online Course Information Web site,www.yale.edu/courseinfo
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