Examine the cultural and historical production of sexual difference, the impact of feminist research, and the intersection of gender with race, sexuality, class and colonialism.
The Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) major and minor are rigorous inquiries into multiple forms of sexual difference as constructed by culture and history, and the ways these forms intersect with social forces like race, sexuality, class and colonialism.
Studying GWS challenges conventional cultural assumptions about women, sexuality and gender roles. It promotes the development of new ideas and research in feminist scholarship within an open, supportive environment.
Majors can either emphasize the theoretical focus of recent feminist interdisciplinary scholarship or pursue a joint major that links feminist research and theory to disciplines like art history, economics, English, French, history, media studies, politics, psychology, religious studies, theatre, or science, technology and society.
What You’ll Study
- Four core gender and women’s studies courses
- Two courses in feminist theory
- One course cross-listed with an ethnic studies program
- Senior thesis
Learning at Pomona
Queer Feminist Theories
yuankai alex gao ’28 explored their experience as a queer, Chinese and neurodivergent person in their final project for their Queer Feminist Theories course, weaving a tapestry examining the affective aspect of being with ecological concepts of biology.
The Healing Justice Movement
In Prof. Heidi Rhodes’ Healing Justice and Care Praxis course, Livia Mayfield ’28 critiqued ideas of care as a feminine virtue and as a regulated, finite resource. The class included workshops on acupuncture, tarot cards, cacao beans, meditation and more.
I chose GWS because it gave me a way to explore the questions I was already curious about while introducing me to so many new ones. I love that the field allows me to look at gender and sexuality through so many different lenses, while also connecting them to race, religion, history, culture and everyday life. More than anything, my classes have made me excited to keep asking questions, which is what made me fall in love with GWS in the first place.