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College of Arts and Sciences
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Home Undergraduate Major
  Requirements For the
Major in  Women's and   Gender Studies 
 
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The major in Women's and Gender Studies leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree. No more than three credits offered for the major may be taken Pass/No Credit or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. All other courses for the major must be passed with a letter grade of C or higher. No transferred course with a grade lower than C may be applied toward major requirements. No more than three 100-level courses (9 credits) may be applied toward major requirements. At least 18 credits must be in courses numbered 300 or higher.  At least 12 credits must be WST courses (or cross-listed equivalent) taken at Stony Brook.
 

Completion of the major requires 36 credits.
 
A. Core Courses
  1. WST 102 or WST 103 Introduction to Women’s & Gender Studies
  2. WST 291 Introduction to Feminist Theory; OR WST/PHI 284 Introduction to Feminist Theory (III); However, a student with a major or minor in WST cannot receive credit for both courses.
  3. WST 301 Histories of Feminism
  4. WST 305 Feminist Theories in Context
  5. WST 408 Senior Seminar for Women's and Gender Studies Majors
B. Focused Studies
One course in each of the following categories (see Notes 1 & 2): 

  1.  Women’s & Gender Studies in a Global Context (e.g., WST 395 Topics in Global Feminism; or approved  substitute course)

  2.  Gender, Race, & Ethnicity (WST 398 Topics in Gender, Race, & Ethnicity; or approved substitute course)

  3.  Gender & Sexuality (e.g. WST 399 Topics in Gender & Sexuality; or approved substitute course)

C. Electives 

Twelve credits from WST courses.

Click here to view a list of approved WGSS-related electives for the current semseter.

Notes:
1) The following courses are approved to replace WST 395, 398, or 399:
 
Approved Replacements for WST 395
AAS 307 Women in US-Asian Relations
HIS 431 Women in Modern Japan
JPN 332 Japanese Literature in the Feminine Domain
SOC 391 Gender in Africa
SOC 394 Gender &  International Development
WST 334 Women, Work & Family in Modern Europe
WST 360 Women in Premodern Europe
WST/AFS 350 Black Women & Social Change
WST/AFH/EGL 382 Black Women’s Literature of the Diaspora
WST/HIS 345 Women & Gender in Chinese History
 
Approved Replacements for WST 398
HIS 300 Race, Gender, Rights in U.S. Legal
HIS 396 Women of Color in American History
WST/EGL 372 Black Women Writers
WST/HUI 237 Images of Italian-American Women
WST 391/HUI 390/EGL369 Italian-Amer & Afri-Amer Women’s Literature
 
Approved Replacements for WST 399
ANT 295 Sex & Human Nature
CCS 325 Making Bodies Fit
EGL 390 Queer Studies: Race, Gender, & Sexuality in Literature
HIS 394 AIDS & Social History
POL 391 Sexualities & Politics
SOC 391 Sociology of Sexuality
WST 111 Intro to Queer Studies in the Humanities
WST 112 Intro to Queer Studies in the Social Sciences
WST 394 Special Topic: “Psychology of Reproduction”
WST 394 Special Topic: “Women, Science, Fiction, & Reproduction”
WST/AFS 381 AIDS, Race, Gender in the Black Community
WST/EGL 390 Queer Studies: Theorizing Race, Gender, & Sexuality
WST/HIS 374 Historical Perspectives on Gender Orientation
WST/SOC 340 Sociology of Human Reproduction

2)  At least two WST topics courses (taught by WST-affiliated instructors) must be used to satisfy Requirement B.

3)  Any course listed as -or cross-listed with- WST may count as an Elective (Requirement C).  Other courses may count as qualifying electives if at least half the course content addresses issues concerning women, gender, and/or sexuality.  The Undergraduate Program Director can review a course syllabus to determine if the course qualifies as an acceptable Elective.  Availability of Elective courses depends on individual departments.

4)  No more than 6 credits from any combination of WST 447 (Directed Readings) and WST 487 (Independent Project) and may be counted towards a WST Major

5)  No more than 3 credits of WST 475 (Undergraduate Teaching Practicum I) may be counted towards a WST Major or Minor

6)  No more than 6 credits of WST 488 (Internship) may be counted towards a WST Major

7)  No more than 3 credits of WST 488 (Internship) may be counted towards a WST Minor

D. Upper-Division Writing Requirement

Students must present to the director of undergraduate studies a minimum of ten typewritten pages of formal writing, prepared for an upper-division course listed above as acceptable for the major requirements. This written work must have been judged by the course instructor to be satisfactory for the upper-division writing requirement in the field of Women's and Gender Studies. Normally this requirement is met through the work in  WST 408.

Students should consult with the department advisor to ensure that their plan for completing the Upper Division Writing Requirement is consistent with  university graduation requirements for General Education.  Students completing the Stony Brook Curriculum (SBC) must successfully complete a course that satisfies the "Write Effectively within One's Discipline" (WRTD) learning objective in order to graduate.  The Upper Division Writing Requirement is consistent in most cases with the SBC learning outcomes for WRTD .

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