Department of Interdisciplinary Studies

Founded in 1976, Appalachian State University's Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies (GWS) program is the oldest of its kind in the UNC System and the second-oldest in North Carolina. We're housed in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and offer four undergraduate paths and two graduate options. See Programs of Study for degree details.

As a field of study, GWS interrogates beliefs, attitudes, assumptions and norms about gender, women and sexuality, and how they intersect with race, ability, nationality and class. We train students to be strong critical thinkers, adept researchers and clear communicators, equipped to understand and offer real solutions to problems of gender, women and sexuality in national and transnational contexts.

What Our Students Learn

In GWS, we emphasize the following learning goals and outcomes:

• Students will demonstrate nuanced, developed understandings of gender, women and/or sexuality.
  • Students will explain how gender, sex and sexuality are socially and/or culturally constructed in manners that confer power differentially.
  • Students will identify how the construction of gender, sex and sexuality is shaped by nation, class, ability, race, caste, religion and/or other categories of analysis.
  • Students will evaluate various theoretical frameworks for understanding women, gender and/or sexuality.
• Students will conduct thorough, meaningful research on issues related to gender, women, and/or sexuality.
  • Students will apply interdisciplinary methods to analyze social, cultural, and/or political problems centering women, gender and/or sexuality.
  • Students will design ethical and theoretically fluent research projects on women, gender and/or sexuality.
  • Students will evaluate the reliability of sources that shed light on questions about gender, women and/or sexuality.
• Students will communicate effectively about issues related to gender, women and/or sexuality.
  • Students will generate defensible arguments about gender, women and/or sexuality.
  • Students will compose written texts with an understanding of disciplinary conventions.
  • Students will produce accurate, clear, and correct academic prose.
• Students will apply academic study to public life.
  • Students will synthesize the academic study of women, gender and/or sexuality with community concerns.
  • Students will articulate the purpose of their training in GWS to nonspecialists.
  • Students will relate their studies in GWS to their future educational, professional or personal goals.

We take pride in engaged teaching, individualized mentoring and alumni who carry this training into careers across law, policy and beyond. See Career Development to learn more about professional development opportunities.

Contact

For more information, contact GWS Director Dr. Emily Lutenski at lutenskies@appstate.edu.