New BA and Certificate Thematic Concentration: Gender, Sexuality and Health
June 11, 2024
A brand new concentration encourages students to explore the intersection of public health and gender and sexuality studies
The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is excited to announce a brand-new Thematic Concentration in the undergraduate major and certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
What is a thematic concentration?
Thematic concentration areas are a central aspect of the WGSS major and certificate. Each concentration reflects a particular set of interests and scholarly approaches within the fields that make up WGSS and help guide a student’s program of study. Students take 12 credits in one of the 7 areas designed by the department or from an individualized concentration designed with their advisor and approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies..
Just like their analogous subfields within the field of WGSS, courses and topics within these concentrations may overlap with each other encouraging students to explore and develop their specific academic interests in conversation with peers who may be engaging with other concentrations.
NEW - Gender, Sexuality and Health
Social Justice
Transnational Politics and Perspectives
Race, Ethnicity, and Class
Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities
Arts, Technologies, and Cultural Production
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer + Studies
Student Designed
What is the Gender, Sexuality, and Health concentration?
This new concentration explores how structures of racial, colonial, and gendered power influence knowledge and practices of medicine and health, and considers how feminist, queer, and trans thought and activism have worked to reimagine health in the service of justice and liberation. Courses may analyze topics such as feminist critiques of ableism and fatphobia; the politics of sexual health; constructions of mental health, trauma, and illness; reproductive justice and maternal health; disability justice; environmental justice and land-based approaches to health; and visions of care and wellness within feminist, queer, and trans organizing.
Thematic concentrations are open to all students in the WGSS BA or WGSS certificate program and this concentration is recommended for students who are interested in exploring how feminist and queer theory intersect with careers in medicine, public health, public policy, and social work.
Courses included in this concentration
LGBT 200 Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies
LGBT 310 Transgender Studies
WGSS 105 Introduction to Disability Studies
WGSS 205 Reproductive Justice
WGSS 230 Introduction to Humanities, Health, and Medicine
WGSS 290 Bodies in Contention
WGSS 319D Disability Justice
WGSS 319P Pleasure, Intimacy, and Violence
WGSS 379D Feminist Disability Studies
WGSS 488C Capitalism and Disability
WGSS 498B Health Inequality and Social Determinants