Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies


Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality
Studies Program
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Overview
The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Program offers an interdisciplinary and multicultural series of courses that explore and question the intersections of gender, sexuality, culture, ethnicity, social class and race. Courses are taught by faculty members from various departments and fields of study and provide a critical framework to explore the significance of gender (along with race, sexuality, and class) in the shaping of women’s and men’s lives. The program focuses on the recovery of women’s contributions in a variety of fields, on women’s and men’s roles in society across cultures, and especially on critical questions about gender neutrality in the shaping of culture.
The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program complements any course of studies and prepares you well for any career in the arts, sciences and technology, health professions, business, law, social and community service, and education.
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Faculty members from across RIT contribute to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
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Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies courses offered
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3 Minors and 5 Immersions offered:
Gender and STEM Studies
Gender, Art, and Media
Gender Equity, Social Institutions, and Public Affairs
Queer and Transgender Studies
Women’s and Gender Studies
Careers
For what jobs, careers, and professions is an education in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies highly beneficial? For what is it an excellent complement? Find out here.
Speaker Series
The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program is pleased to announce its Spring 2023 Speaker Series.
February 9, 2:00 – 3:45p.m.
Milo Obourn
“What’s so Funny about Trans Justice?”
March 8, 3:00—4:15p.m.
International Women’s Day
Ling Ma and Shahin Monshipour
“Standing Together: Patterns of Resistance in China and India”
Latest News
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March 8, 2023
Ada Lovelace and computers, music, needlepoint and weaving
ABC Radio National in Australia interviews Corinna Schlombs, associate professor of history, about Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician.
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February 27, 2023
Events planned at RIT to commemorate Women’s History Month
Several organizations at RIT, including the new President’s Commission on Women, are putting together a month of events to celebrate Women’s History Month and women in the RIT community, including panel discussions, one-on-one talks, self-empowerment, music, a trip to Seneca Falls, and more.
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January 9, 2023
Pursuing the promise of Title IX
Fifty years ago, Title IX set the stage for change. But the reason why RIT now has more women faculty, administrators, coaches, and exemplary students is that women acted. Prior generations of women invested their careers to make RIT a better version of itself, including winning two transformative grants from the National Science Foundation focused on gender equity.
Faculty / Staff
Past Directors
Tina Lent
Retired Professor, former Director of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
Degree Program
RIT’s women’s, gender, and sexuality studies major critically explores how gender and sexuality interact with science, technology, and the arts to shape aspects of our personal, social, and professional lives and career paths.
Learn more about the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies BS programMinors and Immersions
The gender and STEM studies immersion is an interdisciplinary set of courses that enable you to investigate, analyze, and critically question a range of issues at the crossing of gender (in its intersection with sexuality, race, class, and ethnicity) with the STEM fields.
Learn more about the Gender and STEM Studies Immersion programThe gender equity, social institutions, and public affairs immersion equips you with the ability to view the social domain of public affairs, institutions, practices, and policies through a gendered lens and prepares you for future potential roles as advocates and leaders in the struggle toward gender equity and social justice at local, national, and global levels.
Learn more about the Gender Equity, Social Institutions, and Public Affairs Immersion programThe gender equity, social institutions, and public affairs minor is an interdisciplinary course of study that equips you with the ability to view the social domain of public affairs, institutions, practices, and policies through a gendered lens and prepares you for future potential roles as advocates and leaders in the struggle toward gender equity and social justice.
Learn more about the Gender Equity, Social Institutions, and Public Affairs Minor programIn the gender, art, and media immersion students explore how gender issues and identities, in their intersections with culture, race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, age, and (dis)abilities, are represented and portrayed in various artistic, literary, and media forms. By engaging with cultural texts and productions from both historical and contemporary perspectives, the immersion introduces students to critical analysis and knowledge-building methods drawn from fields such as women's and gender studies, feminist theories, critical race studies, queer studies, social justice work, and activism. The immersion teaches students to analyze gendered images as they appear in arts and media, recognize power inequalities and stereotypes in gender representations, and acquire the conceptual skills to critique and improve current conditions of artistic, literary, and media production and consumption in view of increased gender equity and fairness. The immersion complements any course of studies in a number of art and media-related fields such as art and literary criticism, art curation and exhibition, journalism and photojournalism, media studies, filmmaking, literature, photography, advertising and marketing, public relations, social services, and more.
Learn more about the Gender, Art, and Media Immersion programIn the gender, art, and media minor students explore how gender issues and identities, in their intersections with culture, race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, age, and (dis)abilities, are represented and portrayed in various artistic, literary, and media forms. By engaging with cultural texts and productions from both historical and contemporary perspectives, the minor introduces students to critical analysis and knowledge-building methods drawn from fields such as women's and gender studies, feminist theories, critical race studies, queer studies, social justice work, and activism. The minor teaches students to analyze gendered images as they appear in arts and media, recognize power inequalities and stereotypes in gender representations, and acquire the conceptual skills to critique and improve current conditions of artistic, literary, and media production and consumption in view of increased gender equity and fairness. The minor complements any course of studies in a number of art and media-related fields such as art and literary criticism, art curation and exhibition, journalism and photojournalism, media studies, filmmaking, literature, photography, advertising and marketing, public relations, social services, and more.
Learn more about the Gender, Art, and Media Minor programThe queer and transgender studies immersion is an interdisciplinary set of courses whose primary concern is the critical study of cultures, creative expressions, histories, economic structures, and socio-political and legal institutions as they impact the formation of queer and transgender identities and the lives and experiences of people in the LGBTQ+ community.
Learn more about the Queer and Transgender Studies Immersion programThe women’s and gender studies immersion allows students to explore the significance of gender as it intersects with racial, ethnic, religious, national, class, sexuality, and dis/ability-based identities, past and present. The immersion introduces critical analysis and knowledge-building methods drawn from fields such as women's and gender studies, feminist theories, critical race studies, queer studies, social justice work, and activism. Courses build knowledge about the personal, social, cultural, economic, and historical dynamics that inform gender and intersecting social categories. The immersion provides valuable skills and experiences applying these different lenses to real-world interactions with diverse individuals and communities, to current social challenges that impact multiple parties, and with an eye to improving equity and fair outcomes for everyone concerned.
Learn more about the Women’s and Gender Studies Immersion programThe women’s and gender studies minor provides a critical framework to explore the significance of gender—as it intersects with racial, ethnic, religious, national, class, sexuality, and disability-based identities, past and present. Course builds knowledge about the personal, social, cultural, economic, and historical dynamics that inform gender and intersecting social categories. The minor builds fluency with critical analysis and knowledge-building methods drawn from women's and gender studies, feminist theories, critical race studies, queer studies, social justice work, and activism. The minor also provides valuable skills and experience applying these different lenses to real-world interactions with diverse individuals and communities to current social challenges that impact multiple parties, and with an eye to improving equity and fair outcomes for everyone concerned. Students will learn how to analyze and question power relations in all their rich complexities, locally, and globally.
Learn more about the Women’s and Gender Studies Minor programCourses
Student Resources
Here you can find resources related to women’s, gender, and sexuality studies such as award opportunities, contest prizes, career information, links to graduate programs, and campus, local, and national organizations.
Award Opportunities
Contest Prizes
Careers
Other resources for the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
Moving Forward: Suffrage Past, Present, and Future
RIT celebrates the 19th Amendment, Equal Rights, and the Power of Voting through a series of initiatives focused on the history of women’s voting activism; the problems and questions that the 1920 expansion of voting rights opened and left unsolved; and the work that remains to be done to continue expanding political representation and participation for all women.
Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
RIT is built on the traditional territory of the Onöndowa'ga:' or “the people of the Great Hill.” In English, they are known as Seneca people, “the keepers of the western door.” They are one of the six nations that make up the sovereign Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
The WGSS Program honors the land on which RIT was built and recognizes the unique relationship that the Indigenous people have with their land. As, through our Program, we endeavor to achieve dignity, respect, justice, equality, peace, and reconciliation for all, we are mindful of the histories of violence, genocide, colonization, and assimilation of Indigenous people that also took place on this territory and we are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and share ideas on this land.
Make a Gift
Help support the many activities of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and provide increased opportunities that benefit students.
Learn more about how to support the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program