Women's and Gender Studies Program

The Program in Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) educates MIT undergraduates on the importance of gender equity, and promotes a broad understanding of gender and its complex intersection with sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, ability, religious affiliation, and other categories of identity. Courses offer new perspectives in a variety of subjects relating to historical and contemporary questions of gender and sexuality as manifested in the US and across the globe. WGS faculty come from multiple units across the Institute, including Anthropology; Architecture; Comparative Media Studies/Writing; Global Languages; History; Linguistics and Philosophy; Literature; Political Science; Science, Technology and Society; and Urban Studies and Planning.

Undergraduates can choose a concentration or a minor in WGS and can petition for an interdisciplinary major in WGS or complete the joint major in Humanities and Engineering or Science (21E/21S). The curriculum includes a core subject, WGS.101 Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies for the minor and major, a higher level theory subject, (either WGS.301[J] Feminist Thought or WGS.310[J] Gender: Historical Perspectives), and a selection of additional WGS subjects. Special independent study topics and Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) projects can be arranged.

Graduate students may receive graduate credit in designated WGS subjects, and may also enroll in courses offered through the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality.

For more information, contact the program administrator, Stacey Lantz, 617-253-2642.