Deadlines for applications to the Certificate - March 7, 2008

This interdisciplinary program is designed for students enrolled in a disciplinary master's or doctoral degree granting program. The purpose of the Certificate is to enable students interested 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 opportunity 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.

OBJECTIVES AND RATIONALE

As a nationally recognized undergraduate major and minor program, Women's Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is in its 30th year of operation. We have developed an undergraduate curriculum that has become a model for many across the country. The program is grounded in a sequential series of historical and theoretical courses developed by our Womens Studies faculty and recently revised to reflect an integrative approach to the interconnection between gender, race, class, sexuality and transnational issues. The program has also encouraged and supported courses offered by some traditional departments that have, in turn, restructured their own undergraduate curricula in response to feminist scholarship. The success of the undergraduate major and minor, coupled with the dramatic achievements in feminist research itself, has created a demand for more advanced curricular and research-oriented interdisciplinary work.

ADMISSION INFORMATION

Admission to the Certificate Program is contingent upon, (1) prior admission to the Graduate School of the University into a graduate degree-granting department, or (2) after prior completion of a graduate degree and acceptance as a non-degree student.

You will need to obtain a Graduate School application and/or a non-degree student application directly from the Graduate Admissions Office, Goodell Building, UMass, Amherst, MA 01003; or call (413) 545-0721; or visit their website at www.umass.edu/gradschool. In addition to the Graduate School application, contact Nancy Patteson at the Women's Studies Office, 208 Bartlett Hall or call (413) 545-1922 to receive the Certificate application or print the PDF.

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, and a background in feminist theory and/or activism with women's issues is preferred, but an undergraduate major in Women's studies is not required as prerequisite for admission to the program.

The Women's Studies application deadline for fall admission is set for late February or early March. Please contact the office or see above for the date.

Upon admission to the certificate program each student will meet with both the graduate program coordinator and the Graduate Certificate Program Director to plan their program of study. A list of disciplinary advisors is available for committee support. Successful completion of the required course work will constitute a certificate in Women's Studies.

CURRICULUM

The curriculum is designed to ground students in the evolving tradition of feminist scholarship while supporting them as they utilize feminist perspectives within their own fields of study. The certificate emphasizes the development of theoretical perspectives, research and analytical skills from an integrative perspective, meaning by this the interaction of race, class, gender and sexuality in a national and/or global perspective. Specifically the certificate seeks to enable its students to acquire skills and competencies in four general areas:

1. feminist theory

2. women’s history, literature and the social and natural sciences

3. intercultural research with a focus on women of color

4. feminist research and methods

The program consists of the following requirements to fulfill the minimum 15 credits:

• Five Women's Studies approved graduate courses:

• Two core Women's Studies approved graduate courses:
  • Feminist Theory: A background in theory is required for admission and, in addition, this Women's Studies course is both a foundational core requirement and prerequisited for the Issues in Feminist Research Seminar. Course content explores an integrative perspective* and may examine selected paradigms in feminist theories.
    
  • Issues in Feminist Rsearch Seminar: A three credit methods seminar where students and selected guest lecturers prsent works in progress with critical attention paid to feminist research methodology.

• Two interdisciplinary electives from the following approved categories:
  • Feminist Approaches to History, Literature and the Social and Natural Sciences: Students will choose a course from the list of approved seminars that focuses largely on women's roles, issues and concerns, and is guided by feminist analysis.

  • Intercultural Perspectives: Students, with the approval of their will choose a course from the list of crosscultural and multicultural courses that examine the lives of populations of women of color from an integrative perspective*.

• One Independent Study Final Research Project:
  Ordinarily, a committee must be named and a research prospectus submitted to the Graduate Certificate Program Director at the beginning of work on the final research project. Women's Studies students must also sign up for at least a 3 credit independent study with the Gradute Program Coordinator when beginning the final research project.

  Research project options include but ar enot limited to: a master's thesis or doctoral dissertaiton; a publishable research paper or project of outstanding quality; a book chapter; a performance or multimedia presentation. The 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. A faculty committee of at least two will evaluate the project, one from the disciplinary focus or class in which the student originallly wrote the paper or conducted the research or practicum, and one other faculty member approved by the Graduate Certificate Program Director. A final copy of the the research project is to be left with the Women's Studies Program.

Courses will be offered and coordinated by core, adjunct and associate graduate faculty of the Women's Studies Program.

*By integrative we mean the intersection race, class, gender and sexuality in a national and/or global perspective.