WGSS Fist being transported on a truck

50 Years of WGSS at UMass

Our department is one of the oldest of its kind. WGSS came into being through the agitation of students and faculty; we are proud to carry with us a long history of activist and intellectual energy in the Valley. Even our fist traveled with us from Bartlett to our current home in South College!

white and green book cover of undoing monogamy, featuring abstract plants and birds

Faculty Publications

We are committed to interdisciplinary and intersectional analysis in which the study of women and gender is multifaceted, diverse, and embedded in a network of power relations, including race, class, sexuality, and nation. Check out the books our faculty are publishing!

Why Study WGSS

The field views and analyzes intellectual problems and issues of current concern through the perspectives of gender, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and ability. Students think about challenges faced by marginalized (or not) individuals in both domestic and foreign spaces, and work to conceptualize solutions that can be applied in communities around the world. 

four students talking in a room, with window view of library

WGSS News

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Publication Announcement
Dr. Laura Ciolkowski has recently published a chapter in Higher Education and the Carceral State: Transforming Together.
April 15, 2024
JEI Hosts Book Talk
On April 3 2024, the JEI hosted a book talk and Q&A with Michelle Jones and Anastazia Schmid, featuring the book Who Would Believe A Prisoner? Indiana Women's Carceral Institutions, 1848-1920.
April 15, 2024
Apply to WGSS 398/698: Teaching & Learning in Carceral Spaces
Apply now to join the Fall 2024 cohort for WGSS 398/698: Teaching and Learning in Carceral Spaces with Professor Laura Ciolkowski!
April 3, 2024