N. Elaine Craddock, PhD, Program Chair and Associate Professor of Religion
 Alison Kafer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies

The Feminist Studies program provides an interdisciplinary, critical exploration of how salient categories of difference--such as gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, age, religion and nation--are constituted, challenged, and altered across time and place. The program exposes students to the growing body of knowledge that falls under the broad rubric of feminism, including feminist theory and its critics, and it seeks to revise the findings of traditional disciplines to include this new knowledge and variety of feminist methodologies.

Students with an academic focus on feminist methodologies are well prepared to succeed in a variety of fields, including non-profit and social work, law, journalism, public policy, cultural studies, Feminist Studies and traditional disciplines.

The Feminist Studies major exists for those students whose academic and professional career interests would best be served by a multi-cultural, interdisciplinary approach. Students in Feminist Studies can double major in any discipline. Paired majors with Communication Studies, English, History, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology and Theatre are available.

Students who seek an interdisciplinary concentration on feminist methodologies, theories, practices, and questions also may select Feminist Studies as a minor. Students can combine a Feminist Studies minor with any major

The Feminist Studies major is a flexible 31-hour (ten-course) program, 19 semester hours (six courses) of which must be above the introductory level. All majors must take Introduction to Feminist Studies 04-103 as early as possible, Intellectual Histories of Feminism 04-203, and the Senior Seminar 04-934 as their capstone experience. For the remaining 21 semester hours (seven courses) students must complete one course in each of the five Areas of Concentration listed below (15 hours) plus two additional courses in one of these Areas of Concentration (six hours). By taking three courses in a single Area of Concentration, majors achieve more depth in the area of Feminist Studies that interests them most