About Us

Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at UMass Amherst is one of the oldest departments of its kind.

We are committed to an interdisciplinary and intersectional analysis, drawing from different disciplines, in which the study of women and gender is multi-faceted, diverse, and embedded in a network of power relations including race, class, sexuality, and nation. Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies scholarship, teaching, and activism develop new theoretical approaches and engage and transform the analytical tools of many fields of study.  

Transgender Studies and WGSS at UMass Amherst

Given the persistence of legacies of trans-exclusionary radical feminism, including its presence in the history of Women’s Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and in response to requests for clarification on this issue from trans communities at UMass and in the Pioneer Valley, we would like to take this opportunity to affirm the vital presence of trans students, faculty, TAs, and graduate students in our department. We categorically reject transphobia in our department, on our campus, and in our discipline. We are therefore committed politically and intellectually to furthering greater understanding, awareness and acceptance of trans perspectives and communities.