Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Degree Type
Department Interdisciplinary
Academic Division The College
Offerings
The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program offers students both the opportunity to complete a multi-disciplinary minor in feminist and gender studies and a stimulating co-curricular environment in which to develop as intellectual and community leaders. Founded in 2001, the WGSS is a vibrant academic program that links the classroom with the world and offers the theoretical basis for activism and social change.

About the Program

An invigorating introductory course and disciplinary distribution requirements give students a sound theoretical orientation to defining and articulating concepts and practices in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Course offerings across the disciplines — psychology, English, Romance languages, political science, philosophy, sociology and anthropology — allow students to draw connections between their major fields of study and the evolving work of gender scholars. Students are encouraged to think broadly about the role of women, gender and sexuality across many dimensions of human life.

Many of our students come to W&L with an interest in women’s issues and feminism and want to pursue their interests via a combination of courses, co-curricular opportunities and activism on or off campus. Many others become interested in questions about gender and feminism during their time at W&L, either because they get interested in the topic through their academic coursework or because they are seeking to understand gender relations on campus. WGSS sponsors and hosts numerous events every year so students can interact with guest speakers, faculty and each other.

The WGSS capstone requirement allows students to pursue their particular interests with the kind of intensity that turns classroom competence into an abiding passion.

Our faculty encourage students to see their studies as relevant to their everyday lives and important for understanding and responding to social justice issues. Students do just that — in a math student’s investigation into why so few women study math in college, in a fraternity member’s paper analyzing how his fraternity brothers’ drinking habits shape male privilege, or in a missionary’s daughter’s attempt to better understand how a feminist might read the Bible.

Opportunities for Students

  • Advocates for an Alternative Atmosphere
  • Amnesty International
  • Facing Sexual Violence in Rockbridge County
  • Gender Action Group
  • Multicultural Student Association
  • Project Horizon
  • Student Association for International Learning
  • Sexual Health Awareness Group
  • SPEAK
  • Women in Technology and Science
  • Model United Nations

After W&L

Our students enter a wide variety of careers. Some pursue a Ph.D. in English, history or gender studies, while others attend medical school, law school or work in public policy, nonprofits or the business world. Alumni say that the WGSS program has helped them better understand and navigate the world around them and engage with it as citizens, activists and professionals.

Profiles

  • Cate Peabody ’19 is a research assistant for the W&L Gender Psychology Lab with Professor Megan Fulcher and is also a dancer and choreographer for the W&L Repertory Dance Company, where she choreographed and performed a dance set to a poem about gender inequality. She traveled to Ghana during Spring Term to make a documentary about human trafficking.
  • Hannah Denham ’20 co-directed a documentary on marriage, gender and generational change in Vietnam with a grant from the Endeavor Foundation. She advocates for social justice with Amnesty International, Gender Action Group and Student Association for Black Unity.
  • Morgan Maloney ’19 is president of the College Democrats and vice president of Amnesty International. She wrote an honors thesis in history on first ladies and politics in American history. She helped organize a walkout to commemorate the victims of Parkland and protest gun violence in the U.S., a fundraiser for reproductive rights and a celebration in honor of Women’s Week, complete with a bonfire, clothing swap to combat the human rights abuses associated with fast fashion, and a discussion of the meaning of sisterhood.

Sarah Horowitz

Program Head (Curricular Matters)
P: 540-458-8773
E: horowitzs@wlu.edu

Melina Bell

Program Head (Campus and Community Engagement)
P: 540-458-8899
E: bellm@wlu.edu

Peggy Herring

Administrative Assistant
P: 540-458-8798
E: herringp@wlu.edu

Sample Courses

At W&L, we believe education and experience go hand-in-hand. You'll be encouraged to dive in, explore and discover connections that will broaden your perspective.
POL 255

Gender and Politics

This course investigates the gendered terms under which women and men participate in political life. Attention is given to the causes of men's and women's different patterns of participation in politics, to processes that are likely to decrease the inequalities between men's and women's political power, and the processes by which society's gender expectations shape electoral and institutional politics. The different effects of gender on the practice of politics in different nations are compared, with a special emphasis placed on advanced industrial democracies.

ARTH 265

Women, Art & Empowerment

This seminar explores female artists from the late 18th century through the present whose depictions of women have directly challenged the value system in art history that has traditionally privileged white heterosexual male artists, audiences, collectors, historians, curators, etc. Lectures, discussions and research projects address multicultural perspectives and provide a sense of feminism's global import in a current and historical context.

HIST 219

Age of the Witch Hunts

This course introduces students to one of the most fascinating and disturbing events in the history of the Western world: the witch hunts in early-modern Europe and North America. Between 1450 and 1750, more than 100,000 individuals, from Russia to Salem, were prosecuted for the crime of witchcraft. Most were women and more than half were executed. In this course, we examine the political, religious, social and legal reasons behind the trials, asking why they occurred in Europe when they did and why they finally ended. We also explore, in brief, global witch hunts that still occur today in places like Africa and India, asking how they resemble yet differ from those of the early-modern world.

PHIL 242

Social Inequality & Fair Opportunity

An exploration of the different range of opportunities available to various social groups, including racial, ethnic and sexual minorities, women and the poor. Topics include how to define fair equality of opportunity; the social mechanisms that play a role in expanding and limiting opportunity; legal and group-initiated strategies aimed at effecting fair equality of opportunity and the theoretical foundations of these strategies; as well as an analysis of the concepts of equality, merit and citizenship, and their value to individuals and society.

WGGS 246

Philosophy of Sex

This course explores questions related to contemporary conceptions of sexuality and its proper role in our lives. Questions addressed include: What is the purpose of sex? Are sexual practices subject to normative evaluation on grounds of morality, aesthetics and/or capacity to promote a flourishing human life? We consider the relation between sex and both intimacy and pleasure, viewed from the perspective of heterosexual women and men, and gay men and lesbians. What are our sexual practices and attitudes toward sex? What should they be like?

SOAN 261

Campus Sex in the Digital Age

This class explores how the cell phone has impacted hooking up and dating at college, with particular attention to Washington and Lee University as a case study. We discuss the development of campus sexual culture in America and the influence of digital technology on student sociality. Students use open-source digital research tools to analyze data they collect on the mobile apps they use to socialize with each other on campus. As a digital humanities project, students work in groups to post their analyses on the class WordPress site.

Meet the Faculty

At W&L, students enjoy small classes and close relationships with professors who educate and nurture.
Melina Bell Professor of Philosophy and Law
P: 540-458-8899 E: bellm@wlu.edu
Bell teaches courses on social inequality and fair opportunity, the philosophy of sex, philosophy of law, and John Stuart Mill. She also teaches at the law school and is the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Head of Campus.
Jenefer M. Davies Associate Professor of Dance and Theater
P: 540-458-8281 E: daviesj@wlu.edu
Davies teaches courses on contemporary European dance, dance composition, movement for actors and aerial dance techniques. Her research focuses on modern dance composition and the feminine aesthetic.
Megan Fulcher Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
Dr. Fulcher teaches courses on child development, the development of gender roles, and socioemotional development. Her research focuses on children’s gender role development, toy play and their visions of their future selves.
Genelle Gertz Professor of English and Chair, English Department
Gertz teaches courses on Milton, the Tudors and the Bible. She is currently working on methods of social network analysis as they apply to our understanding of the rise and fall of women mystics in English literary history.
Sascha L. Goluboff Department Head, Sociology and Anthropology; Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Goluboff teaches courses such as Food, Culture, and Society, and Gender and Sexuality. Her research focuses on the anthropology of emotion in a variety of geographic and historic contexts.
Sarah Horowitz Associate Professor of History
Horowitz teaches courses on modern European history and specializes in French history and the history of gender in Europe. She is writing a book on the politics of gender and sexuality in the Steinheil Affair of 1908-1909.
Wan-Chuan Kao Associate Professor of English
Professor Kao’s teaching and research interests include medieval literature, especially Chaucer; whiteness studies; critical theory; race and ethnicity; gender and sexuality; queer studies; hotel theory; affect; and cute studies.
Robin LeBlanc Professor of Politics
LeBlanc is a political anthropologist focused on the civic engagement of non-elites in rich democracies. She teaches classes on global politics, urban politics, gender and politics, and political theory.
Ellen Mayock Ernest Williams II Professor of Spanish
At Washington and Lee, Mayock has taught courses in Spanish, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research focuses on gender and its intersections in literature and film, feminist theories and practice, and representations of conflict and violence. Mayock also writes poetry and creative nonfiction.
Deborah A. Miranda Thomas H. Broadus Professor of English
Miranda primarily teaches courses on creative writing (poetry and memoir) and contemporary American literature by authors from the margins of U.S. culture. Her research pertains to Native American and Chicana/o poetry and fiction, women’s literature and LGBTQ literature.
Dominica Radulescu Edwin A. Morris Professor of Comparative Literature
Radulescu teaches upper-level French and Francophone literature, theater, and the representations of women, gender, and sexuality in literature. She researches feminist theater and is an award-winning novelist/playwright.
Website
Katharine L. Shester Associate Professor of Economics
Shester teaches courses on urban economics, women in the economy and U.S. economic history. Her research interests include American economic history, urban and labor economics, demography and education.
Taylor Walle Assistant Professor of English
Walle is a W&L alumna who teaches courses on Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and other topics in British literature. Her research interests include orality and literacy in the 18th century, women’s writing, and women’s and gender studies.
Lesley Wheeler Henry S. Fox Professor of English
Wheeler teaches courses in poetry, creative writing and speculative fiction. Her research interests include 20th- and 21st-century poetry in English, especially as it involves sound, gender, politics and world-building.
Julie Woodzicka Abigail Grigsby Urquhart Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
Woodzicka’s courses include Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination, Social Psychology, Psychology of Humor, and Research Design and Analysis. She studies the effects of disparagement humor (specifically sexist and racist humor) and subtle strategies to confront discrimination.