Women, Gender, and Sexuality Graduate Certificate
Interested in exploring critical questions about how gender and sexuality shape society and human experience? This transformative field of study prepares graduates to become insightful leaders and changemakers in their communities and workplaces, complementing any primary field of study with interdisciplinary perspectives that can be used to shape scholarship, research, or advocacy.
Program Overview
The Women, Gender, and Sexuality graduate certificate equips students with interdisciplinary perspectives for research, advocacy, and non-profit careers.
With in-person courses spanning more than eight disciplines, including history, social sciences, philosophy, psychology, literature, and the arts, graduate students can expand their worldviews and deepen their scholarly expertise, research methodologies, and critical insights.
This program is a great fit for students looking to understand how the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, and ability might inform their primary field of study.
Why Study Women, Gender, and Sexuality?
From presenting at conferences to attending university-sponsored lectures featuring renowned speakers, the Women, Gender, and Sexuality graduate certificate offers unique opportunities for students to engage in scholarly discussions with leading voices and build professional connections, while also customizing their coursework to their individual interests.
Unique Scholarship and Research Opportunities
Students have the opportunity to present at conferences such as the WGS South Conference and the National Women’s Studies Association conference.
Engage with Renowned Advocates and Scholars
The Women, Gender, and Sexuality program invites speakers from around the world to discuss topics ranging from gender-based violence to feminist knowledge production.
Tailor Your Graduate Experience
With course offerings in fields such as sociology, Africana studies, anthropology, history, English, French, and German, students can tailor their coursework to match their unique research interests and chosen fields of study.
What Can You Do with a Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality After Graduation?
A graduate certificate in women, gender, and sexuality opens doors into both academic and professional opportunities.
Students can benefit from the certificate as they seek to obtain positions as university instructors, researchers, or work in higher education and community programs. In industry, this certificate prepares students for careers in non-profits, women’s advocacy groups, and even government, where an understanding of gender and sexuality can help students take a service-oriented approach to their work.
This certificate is a great fit for students who want to help address urgent needs in their communities or spark meaningful conversations in academia and beyond.
Featured Courses
PSYC 434 Psychology of Gender
This course covers biological, psychological, and social factors in gender. It also discusses the importance of gender roles, and stereotypes for behavior and experience.
PHIL 464 Feminist Philosophy of Science
Philosophical exploration of the relationship among scientific methodologies, scientific knowledge, and social understandings of sex and gender. Topics may include feminist empiricism, situated knowledge, conceptions of objectivity, scientific understandings of sex and sex differences, evolutionary psychology, scientific conceptions of sexuality, and their intersections with race and disability. The course will consider the role that social biases about gender and sexuality play in hypothesis formation, data interpretation, and theory evaluation in areas of science such as biology, psychology, and medicine.
ENGL 422 Women Writers in Britain
In this course, students will take a primary emphasis on the literary consciousness and works of women writers in Britain. Authors covered may include Marie de France, Margery Kempe, Aemilia Lanyer, Elizabeth Cary, Aphra Behn, Frances Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Doris Lessing.
MUCO 412 Gender, Performance Art, and the Avant Garde
This course explores interdisciplinary 20th-century phenomena of performance and performativity, engaging with sexuality, feminisms, social constructions of gender, and identifications and presentations of the body. This course will also consider the ways in which performative expressions employ and encompass aspects of music, voice, and sound, drama, spoken word, film, visual arts, movement, and dance.
Looking For More Options?
The College of Arts and Sciences offers students the broadest range of academic programs and opportunities for research and creative activities at the University of Tennessee, powered by faculty expertise across every discipline.
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