Critical Gender Studies
[ Professors] [ Courses]
OFFICE: 2073 Humanities & Social Sciences Building, Muir College
(858) 534-3589
http://cgs.ucsd.edu/
Critical Gender Studies
The UCSD Critical Gender Studies Program 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 program’s 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 program’s 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 women’s 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 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 constructions—the majority of a student’s 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 program’s 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 women’s 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 advisor 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 program’s upper-division course list.
Quarterly Course List
When the UCSD Schedule of Classes for an upcoming quarter goes online, the Critical Gender Studies (CGS) Program makes available a list of that quarter's proposed CGS courses. The list also includes gender- and sexuality-based upper-division courses offered by departments and programs throughout the campus. The quarterly list may be found at the CGS Web site, and paper copies are provided at the CGS office. The list identifies the cluster(s) for which departmental courses will work in a given quarter; it also indicates whether a departmental course is considered applicable or petitionable to the major or minor.
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: Honors Research, four units of independent study with a faculty member associated with critical gender studies. With the guidance of this advisor, 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.
Students who complete the thesis with a grade of B+ or above and make an oral presentation 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 student’s college advising office. Critical gender studies will accept up to two upper-division courses which overlap requirements for the two majors.
Critical Gender Studies Major Course Checklist
During advising sessions with the critical gender studies faculty director or staff, critical gender studies majors make use of a checklist to determine how courses already taken fulfill the major’s requirements. An example of the checklist may be found at the CGS Web site.
Minor Program (and Program of Concentration)
Critical gender studies minors are required to complete: 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 who declare the critical gender studies minor (or program of concentration) with junior or senior standing may petition to substitute an upper-division critical gender studies course or a departmental elective course of comparable content 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 consult with college academic advisors and critical gender studies advisors.
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 advisor. Some graduate and professional schools will consider it easier to evaluate a student’s transcript if there are more letter grades. College guidelines and requirements for grade options also vary. Please see college academic advisors and critical gender studies advisors.
