Advanced Feminist Studies Graduate Certificate

Web site: www.umass.edu/wost/certificate/certificate.htm

The Graduate Studies Committee of the Women's Studies Program administers the certificate program and advises interested students. Committee members are:

Joyce Berkman, Professor of History

Marta Calás, Associate Professor of Management

Ann Ferguson, Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies

Julie Graham, Professor of Geography

Janice G. Raymond, Graduate Certificate Program Director and Professor of Women's Studies

Women's Studies Faculty

Ann Ferguson, Director, B.A., Swarthmore, 1959; M.A., Brown, 1961; Ph.D., 1965.

Arlene V. Avakian, Associate Professor, B.S., Columbia, 1961; M.A., Massachusetts, 1975; Ed.D., 1985.

Alexandrina Deschamps, Assistant Professor, C.Ed., West Indies, 1975; M.A., Massachusetts, 1975; Ed.D., 1996.

Janice G. Raymond, Professor, B.A., Salve Regina, 1965; M.A., Andover Newton Theological School, 1971; Ph.D., Boston College, 1977.

In addition to the Women's Studies faculty, the Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies draws upon associated faculty in other University departments. Women's Studies faculty and associated faculty are available to serve students as advisers in their graduate studies. Teaching faculty for the Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies vary each semester depending upon course offerings.

The Program

The Graduate Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies is an interdisciplinary program designed for students enrolled in a master's or doctoral degree-granting program. The purpose of the certificate is to enable students in-terested in feminist scholarship to pursue a coherent, integrated curriculum in the field and to credential them as knowledgeable in Feminist Studies, thus qualifying them for positions requiring such expertise. Further, students completing the certificate will have the opportuity to bring a feminist perspective to bear on the practices and ideas of their own discipline, thereby increasing the body of feminist theory and research.

Admission to the certificate program is contingent upon: 1) prior acceptance to the Graduate School of the University into a graduate degree-granting program; or 2) after com-pletion of a graduate degree and acceptance to the Graduate School as a non-degree student.

The candidate should demonstrate a commitment to, and evidence of, research or organizational experience in feminist concerns. A general knowledge of feminist scholarship is expected, but an undergraduate major in Women's Studies is not required.

Requirements

The program consists of the following requirements:

A. Five Women's Studies approved graduate courses:

1. Feminist Theory: A background in theory is required for admission and, in addition, this Women's Studies course is a foundational core requirement. It examines selected paradigms of feminist theory from the interaction of race, class, gender, and sexuality in a national and/or global perspective.

2. Feminist Approaches to History, Literature and the Social and Natural Sciences: With the approval of their adviser and the Graduate Certificate Program Director, students choose a course from the list of approved seminars that focus largely on women's roles, issues and concerns, and are guided by feminist principles.

3. Intercultural Perspectives: With the approval of their adviser and the Graduate Certificate Program Director, students choose a course from the list of crosscultural and multicultural courses examining the lives of populations of women of color from the interaction of race, class, gender, and sex-uality in a national and/or global perspective.

A list of approved courses may be obtained from Nancy Campbell Patteson, Graduate Program Coordinator, 208 Bartlett Hall, tel. 545-1922.

4. Independent Study in Disciplinary Feminist Research and Methods or Practicum: Students are expected to complete a course or an independent study at the 700 level in feminist research methods using their major discipline and demonstrating their competency in research and writing skills. As an alternative, with the approval of their adviser, students may do a practicum or internship guided by feminist perspectives and related to their major discipline.

5. Student Research Seminar and Lecture Series: A three-credit methods seminar in which students and selected guest lecturers present works in progress with critical attention paid to research methodology.

B. Additional requirements:

Research Project: A committee should be named and a prospectus submitted to the Graduate Certificate Program Director by the end of the student's first year.

Degree Students: A master's or doctoral thesis on a topic that has been approved in advance by the student's own department and by the Graduate Studies Committee of Women's Studies, and acceptable to that committee on completion.

Non-Degree Students: A research paper or project of outstanding quality. This research paper can be developed from: 1) a paper submitted to meet one of the core requirements; 2) prior research; 3) a practicum or other project. The research paper must have been approved by a faculty committee of two, one from the disciplinary focus and one from the graduate certificate program list of advisers, and be acceptable to the committee on completion.

For further information, contact the Women's Studies Program, 208 Bartlett Hall, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, tel.: (413) 545-1922; fax: (413) 545-1500; Website: http://www.umass.edu/wost; and e-mail: womens-studies@wost.umass.edu.