Critical Gender Studies
(Formerly Womens Studies)
OFFICE: 2073 Humanities & Social Sciences Building, Muir College,
(858) 534-3589
Professors
Courses
Critical Gender Studies
The UCSD Critical Gender Studies Program, formerly Womens Studies,
is an interdisciplinary academic program, offering students the opportunity
to study gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationalism as intersecting
categories of analysis and experience. Some basic questions that anchor
the programs core curriculum include asking how these categories
become institutionalized and yet change over time? How do they work
together to shape individual identity?; contribute to the organization
of social life?; become essential to the production of many different
kinds of knowledge about that life?
The programs core curriculum builds upon feminist scholarship
of the last decade, incorporating the new interdisciplinary agendas,
intellectual debates, changing methodological practices, and major scholarly
shifts that have reshaped the field of womens studies. Informed
by the insights of critical race feminism, feminist critiques of conventional
domains of knowledge, and gay and lesbian inquiries challenging traditional
understandings and assumptions about sexuality, this new core curriculum
is designed to move students beyond simple binary descriptions and contemporary,
popularized accounts of gender. Instead, gender is analyzed in the full
complexity of its construction over time and in a variety of cultural,
scholarly, and global arenas.
Students can expect to encounter a rich spectrum of approaches in studying
these complex constructionsthe majority of a students advanced
work in the program consists of upper division courses from history,
communication, literature, ethnic studies, sociology, anthropology,
philosophy, and political science. However, despite their important
differences, what these approaches share is a critical stance with respect
to the subject of gender. This stance, reflected in the programs
name Critical Gender Studies, refuses easy answers when
exploring the social relations of gender and reaches, instead, for detailed
accounts of the intricacies and paradoxes of power through which these
relations are and have been made and maintained.
Critical gender studies prepares undergraduates for a variety of careers
through the study of social, political, economic, historical, and cultural
contexts. For example, the interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary
course work that students complete as part of a major in critical gender
studies provides an excellent foundation for those students with career
aspirations in law, medicine and health sciences, public administration,
and social services. Students wishing to pursue doctoral work will also
find that interdisciplinary training in critical gender studies equips
them with theoretical and methodological strengths in most disciplines
and applied research fields. Specialists in gender studies are increasingly
being used as consultants in industry, higher education, insurance companies,
and personnel firms. State and federal government agencies require people
who have special training in analyzing gender relations. Finally, educational
institutions need specialists to develop and administer womens
centers and gay and lesbian centers as well as other institutional structures
and programs.
The Critical Gender Studies Program offers two options of study: an
undergraduate major and an undergraduate minor (or program of concentration).
To declare a major, a department stamp is required. Because critical
gender studies is an interdisciplinary major, it is important to work
closely with a faculty adviser in the planning of your program.
Preparation for the Major and Minor
All critical gender studies majors and minors are required to take
the Introduction to Critical Gender Studies sequence: Critical Gender
Studies 2A-B, 100, and 101.
Major Program
Students are required to concentrate in one of five cluster areas:
culture and representation; sexualities; work, migration, and globalization;
science, technology, and medicine; history, society, and inequalities.
Concentrating in a cluster area entails taking five upper-division courses
(twenty units) in that area. To complete the major, students are required
to complete five additional upper-division courses (twenty units) in
cluster areas outside their chosen area of concentration. At least one
of the five upper-division courses a student takes outside their chosen
area of concentration must be selected from the programs upper-division
course list.
Concentration in Culture and Representation
Group A. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in the culture
and representation cluster area from the critical gender studies
approved course list.
Group B. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in cluster areas
other than culture and representation to be selected from the critical
gender studies approved and petitionable course list. At least one of
these courses must be chosen from Critical Gender Studies 102-103-104.
All five courses may be chosen from Critical Gender Studies 102-103-104
(i.e., each course may be repeated once, provided the course content
is different). A maximum of three courses (twelve units) may be selected
in any one cluster area.
Concentration in Sexualities
Group A. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in the sexualities
cluster area, from the critical gender studies approved course list.
Group B. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in cluster areas
other than sexualities to be selected from the critical gender studies
approved and petitionable course list. At least one of these courses
must be chosen from Critical Gender Studies 102-103- 104. All five courses
may be chosen from Critical Gender Studies 102-103-104 (i.e., each course
may be repeated once, provided the course content is different). A maximum
of three courses (twelve units) may be selected in any one cluster area.
Concentration in Work, Migration, and Globalization
Group A. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in the work,
migration, and globalization cluster area, from the critical gender
studies approved course list.
Group B. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in cluster areas
other than work, migration, and globalization to be selected from
the critical gender studies approved and petitionable course list. At
least one of these courses must be chosen from Critical Gender Studies
102-103-104. All five courses may be chosen from Critical Gender Studies
102-103-104 (i.e., each course may be repeated once, provided the course
content is different). A maximum of three courses (twelve units) may
be selected in any one cluster area.
Concentration in Science, Technology, and Medicine
Group A. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in the science,
technology, and medicine cluster area, from the critical gender
studies approved course list.
Group B. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in cluster areas
other than science, technology, and medicine to be selected from
the critical gender studies approved and petitionable course list. At
least one of these courses must be chosen from Critical Gender Studies
102-103-104. All five courses may be chosen from Critical Gender Studies
102-103-104 (i.e., each course may be repeated once, provided the course
content is different). A maximum of three courses (twelve units) may
be selected in any one cluster area.
Concentration in History, Society, and Inequalities
Group A. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in the history,
society, and inequalities cluster area, from the critical gender
studies approved course list.
Group B. Five upper-division courses (twenty units) in cluster areas
other than history, society, and inequalities to be selected from
the critical gender studies approved and petitionable course list. At
least one of these courses must be chosen from Critical Gender Studies
102-103-104. All five courses may be chosen from Critical Gender Studies
102-103-104 (i.e., each course may be repeated once, provided the course
content is different). A maximum of three courses (twelve units) may
be selected in any one cluster area.
Honors Program
The Critical Gender Studies Honors Program allows advanced critical
gender studies majors to pursue individual projects in the context of
collective intellectual exchange with their peers and advising faculty.
Students are eligible if they a) have senior standing at the time they
begin the program, b) are approved by the critical gender studies faculty
director and steering committee. Normally, students eligible for honors
will have a 3.5 grade-point average in upper-division courses taken
for the major, but highly motivated students who do not meet this criterion
may be admitted to the program at the discretion of the director and
the critical gender studies steering committee.
In the fall quarter of their senior year, students take the Honors
Seminar (CGS 190), taught by a member of the critical gender studies
faculty. The first half of the quarter is devoted to intensive analysis
and discussion of recent publications in the fields of gender and sexuality.
During the second half of the quarter, each student develops a short
thesis proposal and presents it for group discussion. While taking the
Honors Seminar, each student also registers for CGS 196A: The Honors
Thesis, 4 units of independent study with a faculty member associated
with critical gender studies. With the guidance of this adviser, the
student carries out background research for the thesis prospectus and
selects a thesis director. In the winter quarter, students complete
the thesis under the supervision of their thesis director in the Honors
Thesis course, CGS 196B.
In the spring quarter, each student who has successfully completed
a thesis will present it in the CGS 90 undergraduate seminar.
Students who complete the Honors Seminar and the thesis with a combined
grade of B+ or above and make the required oral presentation of the
thesis in CGS 90 have the words with distinction added to
the notation of the major on their diplomas and transcripts.
Double Major in Critical Gender Studies and Another Department or
Program
Students who wish to major both in critical gender studies and in another
department or program must fulfill all requirements for the critical
gender studies major as described above. Students must submit a double
major petition for approval by the participating departments and the
students provost. Critical gender studies will accept up to two
upper-division courses which overlap requirements for the two majors.
Minor Program (and Program of Concentration)
Critical gender studies minors are required to complete the Introduction
to Critical Gender Studies sequence: Critical Gender Studies 2A-B, 100,
and 101 and three additional upper-division courses (twelve units) applicable
to the critical gender studies major and minor. Students may take all
three required upper-division courses in the same cluster area or three
upper-division courses in three different cluster areas. Students who
petition the critical gender studies minor (or program of concentration)
with junior or senior standing may petition to substitute two comparable
upper-division critical gender studies courses for Critical Gender Studies
2A or 2B. Critical gender studies permits one lower-division course
and one upper-division course to be taken P/NP. College grading options
vary. Please see college academic advisers and critical gender studies
advisers.
Special Studies, Internships, and Grade Options
Many critical gender studies majors and minors elect to do gender research
under the rubrics of Directed Group Study (198), Independent Study (199),
internships, and mentor programs. Because these courses can be taken
only with a P/NP grade option, the number of such courses to be applied
to the major should be carefully discussed with a critical gender studies
adviser. Some graduate and professional schools will consider it easier
to evaluate a students transcript if there are more letter grades.
College guidelines and requirements for grade options also vary. Please
see college academic advisers and critical gender studies advisers.
Critical Gender Studies
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