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Women's Studies
Degree: Bachelor of Arts Contact: Karen Lederer Office: 208 Bartlett Phone: 545-1922 Fax: 545-1500 E-mail: womens-studies@wost.umass.edu Web site: www.umass.edu/wost Program Director: Professor Ann Ferguson. Professors Ahmed, Raymond; Associate Professor Avakian; Assistant Professor Deschamps. Lecturers Fahid, Robinson; Visiting Lecturer Zane. The Field Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary field based on the assumption that women's contributions to human culture have been ignored or distorted. Women's Studies goals are fourfold: to compensate for the distortion or neglect of women's contributions to society by determining the place women have actually occupied in various cultures and historical eras; to provide conceptual frameworks to illuminate the causes and effects of women's subordination; to develop alternatives to traditional attitudes, theories, and institutional structures and to contribute to the elimination of sexism and to the creation of a more equitable society. Beginning in the late 1960s, women scholars across the country and in all fields of inquiry developed courses on women's experience. As the number of courses grew, faculty and students came together to propose and institute Women's Studies programs, many of which offered a major. Women's Studies Five College Course Description Guide Each semester the Program publishes, for its majors and other interested students, a Women's Studies Five College Course Description Guide which contains over a hundred University courses and over a hundred courses from Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges. Women's Studies majors or minors are able to take any of these courses, and, subject to the Women's Studies requirements and restrictions, the courses may count toward the major or minor. Copies of the Women's Studies Five College Course Description Guide are available for the next semester during the preregistration counseling period and may be obtained from the Women's Studies Office, 208 Bartlett, tel. 545-1922, or viewed from the Program's Web site, http://www.umass.edu/wost. The Major The Women's Studies Program provides students with the opportunity to work closely with a faculty sponsor and an academic adviser. Based on a wide range of courses listed in the Women's Studies Five College Course Description Guide (see section above) and optional field work, students design their own courses of study. These can be focused in specific areas (see below), or they can take a more general approach. Requirements A minimum of 36 credits in Women's Studies courses numbered 200 or above is required for the major. Courses which meet the requirements listed below are listed each semester in the Women's Studies Five College Course Description Guide. 1) Core required courses: 201 Critical Perspectives on Women's Studies; 301 Theorizing Women's Issues or WOST 394H Black Womanist/Feminist Theory. WOST 394H can fulfill the theory requirement or a Women of Color requirement, but not both; and 391W Writing for Women's Studies Majors, which fulfills the Junior Year Writing requirement. 2) At least two courses on women of color: one course on Women of Color in the U.S. and one course on Women of Color outside the U.S., including courses that take a diasporan or global approach. 3) Electives which may be earned in WOST courses; in approved courses offered in other departments at the University or in Five College courses; or in component courses, if the paper or project done by the student focuses on an overlapping area within Women's Studies. Restrictions on course selection and on "component courses" are found each semester in the Guide. Elective credit may also be earned, when approved, in independent studies or practica related to the major (to a maximum of 15 credits). Students are encouraged to do field work and assistance is available. Optional Concentrations Majors have the option of designing an individualized course of study focused on a particular theme. Examples of concentrations completed by Women's Studies majors include topics in women's health and sexuality; cross-cultural feminism; the impact of race, sex, and class in American history; the construction of white privilege; Latin American women; women, peace and militarism; ecofeminism; women in poverty; women and labor organizing; feminist therapy and counseling; feminist writing and criticism; arts management and women; women and organizational development; women and sexual violence; women in fashion and media; and women's studies and Romance languages. The concentration should be designed with the faculty sponsor. Honors Departmental and University Honors provide Women's Studies students with further academic challenges. These include the opportunity to participate in the University Honors seminar series, which highlights faculty speakers, and in honors seminars in the Women's Studies Program. Departmental honors (which requires a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.5) requires completion of one of the following: an honors thesis and defense; a research project and report; an internship with detailed report; or an honors portfolio. Regardless of the option chosen, honors work must be conceived as a year-long project. Double Majors Many Women's Studies majors also major in another field, as the interdisciplinary and integrative nature of Women's Studies allows flexibility to develop coherent and complementary programs of study in other disciplines. These might include second majors in the departments of Afro-American Studies, Anthropology, Art, Communication, Comparative Literature, Consumer Studies, Education, English, History, Journalism, Judaic Studies, Legal Studies, Nursing, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Social Thought and Political Economy, Sociology, and Theater. Career Opportunities Women's Studies introduces analytical tools and basic approaches from a variety of fields, and allows students to obtain a broad liberal arts education which is an excellent background for a wide variety of fields. Women's Studies graduates are working in the educational and legal fields, as administrators and managers in the public and private sectors, in human services and the healing professions, the arts and technological sciences, and in many other fields. The major can also be designed to provide appropriate preparation for a range of graduate programs and professional schools. The University of Massachusetts Graduate Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies is designed to complement a major degree-granting discipline and further advance feminist research and methodology. The Minor Students majoring in other departments are offered the opportunity of an academic concentration in Women's Studies through the interdisciplinary minor. Students work with a faculty sponsor to design individualized courses of study reflecting their particular areas of interest. Graduates have found a minor in Women's Studies an excellent asset in competing for placement in professional fields and graduate programs. Students considering a minor in Women's Studies are encouraged to contact an academic adviser in the Program, who can offer assistance with completing the application process, obtaining a faculty sponsor, and identifying courses best suited to a student's interests. Requirements A minimum of 18 credits in Women's Studies is required for the minor; applicable courses are listed each semester in the Women's Studies Five College Course Description Guide. The 18 credits must include WOST 201 Critical Perspectives on Women's Studies, and at least one course on women of color identified in the Course Description Guide. The remaining credits may be earned in WOST courses; in approved courses offered in other departments at the University or in Five College courses; or in component courses, if the paper or project done by the student focuses on an overlapping area within Women's Studies. Restrictions on course selection and on "component courses" are found each semester in the Guide. Elective credit may also be earned, when approved, in independent studies or practica related to the minor (to a maximum of six credits). | |
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