Gender Studies
 

Graduate

Certificate Application

The Gender Studies Program (GSP) offers a B.A. degree, a minor, and a Graduate Certificate. After electing to concentrate in Gender Studies, the student will work with GSP faculty to develop a program designed to meet the student’s individual needs.

Students who are not Gender Studies certificate candidates may take any of the program’s core courses. In addition, they may further their knowledge of gender relations by taking Gender Studies cross-listed courses offered by some twenty different USC departments. Through these classes, students explore the social and biological basis of culture, the structure and development of language and custom, and specialized topics focusing on women and history, world literature, culture, and society.

To become a Gender Studies major or to earn a Gender Studies certificate, e-mail Jeanne Weiss or call (213) 740-2792.

Requirements for the Graduate Certificate

To apply for the graduate certificate, the student must first be admitted to the Graduate or Professional School in a major discipline. Students in some graduate and professional programs may fulfill requirements for an outside field through coursework in the Gender Studies Program.

         

  1. SWMS 560, Feminist Theory. No courses can be substituted for this class
  2. Two or three other courses from the list of graduate level courses, 500-level and above (totaling 12 units)which are offered through Gender Studies or are cross-listed with Gender Studies. No more than four units of directed research may be taken, and those units must be taken as SWMS 590. Students are encouraged to take at least one other course, in addition to SWMS 560, from outside their home department.
  3. A written gender analysis as a part of the student’s master’s thesis, doctoral dissertation, or law review note. The student may substitute for this requirement an oral examination on three research papers written within the area of women’s or men’s studies and on relevant graduate work pertaining to feminist scholarship. Gender Studies faculty will administer the oral exam.