About
Founded in 1976, Appalachian State University's Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies (GWS) program is the oldest program of its kind in the UNC system and the second-oldest in the state of North Carolina.
GWS is an academic field that interrogates the beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, and norms about gender, women, and sexuality and how they intersect with other axes like race, ability, nationality, and class. We train our students to be strong critical thinkers, adept researchers, and clear communicators with a deep understanding of problems focused on gender, women, and sexuality in national and transnational contexts and the analytical skills to offer creative solutions to them.
At Appalachian, GWS is a degree-granting program housed in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. At the undergraduate level, we offer a GWS B.A., a GWS minor, a Girls' Studies minor, and an LGBT Studies minor. At the graduate level, we offer a 12-hour graduate certificate and a 9-hour graduate minor in GWS.
GWS alums pursue a broad range of careers in law, advocacy, policy analysis, politics, social work, nonprofits, education, healthcare, and arts and cultural institutions.
For more information about our degree programs, contact the GWS Director, Emily Lutenski (lutenskies@appstate.edu).