Women's and Gender Studies (MA)

Graduate Program in Women's & Gender Studies

www.uni.edu/csbs/womenstudies/graduate-major
225 Sabin Hall
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0509

Head: Dr. Catherine MacGillivray, Interim Director
Phone: (319) 273-2730
E-mail: catherine.macgillivray@uni.edu

Graduate Coordinator: Dr. Jennifer Waldron
Phone: (319) 273-7102
E-mail: jennifer.waldron@uni.edu

Read the UNI Catalog description:

Students interested in this program must submit a completed Application for Admission to Graduate Study. Graduate information and application for graduate admission can be found at www.grad.uni.edu/admission.

Admission to the program is competitive. Detailed information on admission requirements and procedures may be obtained from the Women's and Gender Studies office.

The Graduate Record Examination (General Test) is not required for admission to the program.

The Women’s and Gender Studies curriculum is designed to meet the needs of students who strive for analytic clarity and rigor in gender-focused research. Students may employ the skills in reflective and critical analysis as well as the broad base of knowledge that they obtain in the program to

1. prepare for a Ph.D. program with a disciplinary or interdisciplinary focus on gender or,
2. enhance leadership skills for a career in the public or private sector or,
3. satisfy strong intellectual interests and curiosity while pursuing advanced education in the liberal arts.

Through core courses and selected electives, students enrolled in the Master of Arts in Women's and Gender Studies will accomplish several objectives: examine theories concerning the social and historical constructions of gender; explore how gender defines relationships among women, among men, and between men and women; recognize that women's lives have been under-represented in traditional disciplines and investigate previously neglected materials in order to identify women's as well as men's roles in cultural or social endeavors; study, compare, and evaluate an array of disciplinary perspectives on gender, including, but not limited to, cross-cultural, economic, sociological, historical, and literary perspectives; identify intersections of gender with race, class, age, sexual identity, and ethnicity, both locally and globally, both in the present and in the past; and employ new methodological and critical approaches to materials customarily treated in other ways, revising the content and assumptions of particular disciplines to address gender and related issues more effectively.

Only graduate courses (course numbers 5000 or above) will apply to a graduate degree, even if the undergraduate course number (4999 or less) is listed. No exceptions will be made.

The M.A. in Women's and Gender Studies is a thesis-only program requiring a minimum of 34 semester hours of study; 15 hours of 200/6000-level course work, including 6 hours of xxx 6299/xxx:299, is required. Additional non-program hours may be required, if courses on a student’s program of study have prerequisites which instructors choose not to waive.

Successful completion of a written comprehensive examination is required.

With the approval of the thesis advisor, the student individually designs an elective sequence, selecting courses from the humanities, fine arts, social and natural sciences that best contribute to the student’s thesis project.

A Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies is also available.

For more information contact the Women's and Gender Studies office, Sabin 225, 319-273-7102, or www.uni.edu/womenstudies.