Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS)
BA Major, Minor
As a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies major at Emory, you’ll explore complex social, cultural, and political structures within an intellectually rigorous, yet supportive environment.
Our interdisciplinary program addresses the roles of women, gender, and sexuality thorough the lens of history, sociology and psychology. You’ll hone your abilities to think critically and analytically, recognize and confront injustices, and use data to lead change and make a positive impact on your community.
Outcomes
Recent graduates work at the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, the American Political Science Association, the Social Science Research Council, Grady Memorial Hospital, Littler Mendelson Law Firm, and the Peace Corps.
Examples of Classes
Anthropology of Gender
All cultures identify and mark differences in gender, however, there is incredible diversity in the ways they do so. In this course, explore the ways people from different times and communities imagine, practice, experience, challenge, and impose ideas of gender and sexuality.
Gender Trouble
Discuss how sex, gender, and power intersect with issues of race, class, sexuality, and more. Drawing from feminist and queer scholarship, track historical perspectives on sex and gender to contemporary discussions regarding identities, the treatment of intersex bodies, and the design and development of new reproductive technologies.
Love-Sex-Desire
Through carefully selected readings, learn about the history of love, sex, and desire, to shed light on the socially-constructed nature of ideologies. Focus especially on such dyads as Madonna/whore; healthy/perverse; genital/non-genital; infantile/adult; love/hate; civilized/uncivilized.
Research in WGSS
Lives mean more than a few words on a register
Carly Moore 18C, WGSS and philosophy double major visited the National Archives to research cases of women admitted to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital between 1855–1941 with the diagnosis of hysteria.