Apply for the WGSS Graduate Research Presentation Award
The WGSS Graduate Research Presentation Award supports Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies students to attend a conference or workshop for the purpose of presenting their feminist research. This award supports travel taking place between July 1, 2026 and February 28, 2027. Applicants must be currently enrolled in or have completed the Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies. Applications due Nov 5.
WGSS at UMass Amherst
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!
Bridging Disciplines Through Feminist Studies and Scholarship
Our Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies is an independent, interdisciplinary 15-credit, five-course program that introduces graduate students to a wide range of theories, methodologies, debates and nuanced controversies shaping contemporary feminist scholarship. Courses engage the complex histories of feminisms, feminist movements and feminist theory, while supporting students in multidisciplinary critique, critical reflection and engaged political citizenship.
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.
