Best Universities for Masters certificate program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Students shall declare their intention to acquire a graduate certificate in the study of gender and sexuality either when they accept their offers to come to their departments at Princeton; at the end of their first year as graduate students; or at the start of the semester in which they intend to take their Ph.D. qualifying exams.

The history of the field’s formation, guide the intellectual training offered through the Certificate in Feminist Studies at Duke. The aim is to gain familiarity with contemporary Gender Studies, particularly its theoretical resources, as well as reflect upon the formation of this field. The Certificate, and the offerings of the Graduate Scholars Colloquium and other events, prepares students for interdisciplinary writing, research, and teaching beyond the parameters of their departmental or disciplinary focus.

Students in the Interdisciplinary Cluster Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies complete two foundational classes (typically one in feminist theory and the other in sexuality studies) designed to provide students with broad theoretical and methodological training in the wider field. These courses should be chosen from the core curriculum offered by permanent GSS faculty. The DGS can advise incoming or current students about which courses belong to the current “core” and answer questions about classes that best suit the individual student’s needs.

The Gender and Sexuality Studies Program encourages students to examine the complex ways that gender and sexuality are produced culturally, politically, and epistemologically in conjunction with categories of race and ethnicity, nationality, class, religion, and ability. Interdisciplinary in its framing and approach, the GNSS program extends the Pembroke Center commitment to critical scholarship on the struggles faced by people across national and transnational contexts whose sex, gender identity or sexual orientation make them vulnerable to violence in various forms. Students in the concentration explore how what counts as knowledge gender and sexuality is mobilized within and beyond the classroom. Scholarship in ethnic and race studies indigenous and native studies and transnational and postcolonial studies informs the questions students address.

The certificate in the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality is a graduate certificate. This certificate is not a freestanding degree program; in addition to fulfilling the certificate requirements outlined below, candidates will be required to complete successfully the degree program to which they have been admitted in order to receive this certificate. Upon completion, the certificate is awarded at the same time as the conferral of the student’s Rice degree, along with a formal notation on their academic transcript.

The UCLA Gender Studies offers a Concentration Certificate in Gender Studies to allow graduate students enrolled in UCLA departments, programs and professional schools to acquire expertise and a credential in Gender Studies. The requirements for the Gender Studies Concentration are in addition to requirements in the primary department or school, and should be completed before advancing to candidacy. Upon completion of the requirements, a Certificate is issued by the Gender Studies. A minimum of two Gender Studies core courses (8 units) selected from: GS 201 GS 202 GS 203 GS 204.

Graduate certificates enable students who are already pursuing a doctoral, terminal masters, or professional degree at the University of Michigan to supplement their disciplinary training with concentrated inquiry in a specific field. Even as the studies of women, gender, and sexuality have been integrated into other disciplines, the Graduate Certificates in Women’s Studies and LGBTQ Studies provide students with rigorous interdisciplinary training, connecting their disciplinary gender and sexuality research to conversations taking place within a broader intellectual community.

The certificate is awarded under the auspices of the Graduate School of Arts Sciences (GRS). Certificate requirements for BU law students can be found here. GRS AN 720 Women in the Muslim World. GRS EN 676 Gender in Literature and Film.

Students who wish to pursue Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the graduate level at Northeastern will have an opportunity to engage these issues in depth from feminist and interdisciplinary perspectives by choosing to pursue a graduate certificate in WGSS or taking courses at Northeastern or at the Graduate Consortium for Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality. Designed for students already enrolled in a graduate degree program at Northeastern University, the graduate program in WGSS currently offers a certificate that can be combined with either a master’s or a doctoral degree in another discipline.

The program provides students with an opportunity to think and learn gender in a systematic and integrated manner from a variety of methodological approaches. The certificate is designed to provide an interdisciplinary course of study on women and gender to enrich a student disciplinary or professional training. Transcripts are required from all colleges and universities attended, whether or not credit was earned, the program was completed, or the credit appears as transfer credit on another transcript. Official transcripts are required only of applicants who are offered admission.