Graduate Certificate Curriculum | Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Graduate Certificate Curriculum

The interdisciplinary PBC in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies requires 18 credit hours and adds expertise in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies to any graduate degree. All students take two required courses in theory (6 credit hours) plus 12 additional credit hours of WGSS-approved courses.

WGSS-approved courses are those with a WGSS number, offered by the WGSS program, and those with a WGSS marker, offered by other departments.  These courses have been through an approval process for WGSS student learning outcomes.

PBC students may take up to 3 credit hours of independent study, subject to approval of the Graduate School and the WGSS Director of Graduate Studies. A minimum of 3 credit hours for the PBC must be taken outside the student’s other degree-granting department.

Students submit an initial Plan of Study to the WGSS Director of Graduate Studies near the beginning of their certificate program and keep it updated by adding only courses that fulfill requirements for the certificate. When the student applies for graduation (first week of their last semester), they also meet with the DGS to assure all certificate requirements have been completed and complete the final plant of study. The DGS and Program Director approve the final Plan of Study for submission to the Graduate School.

Certificate Requirements

Required Core Courses (6 credit hours)

  • WGS 650: Feminist Theory: Intersections of Gender, Race and Class
  • WGS 651: Feminist Research Analysis

Representative Courses Approved for WGS Credit

Theory Courses

  • CST 659: Communication and Gendered Communities
  • ELC 678: Feminist Theories and Education
  • ELC 680: Transnational and Postcolonial Feminist Perspectives
  • ENG 531: Feminist Theory and Women Writers
  • ENG 688: Women’s Rhetoric and Feminist Pedagogy
  • HDF 624: Feminist Theory and Research Methodologies

Other WGS-approved courses (representative sample)

  • WGS 600: Independent Study
  • WGS 601: Women’s and Gender Studies Internship
  • WGS 602: Internship Seminar
  • CED 574a: Contemporary Topics in Counseling: Counseling Women
  • CST 659: Communication and Gendered Communities
  • ELC 609: Epistemology and Education
  • ELC 662: Power, Politics, and Schools
  • ELC 664: Foundations of Interpretive Inquiry
  • ELC 670: Leadership for Teaching and Learning
  • ELC 688: Contemporary Problems Seminar
  • ELC 700: Critical Perspectives in Education, Leadership, and Culture
  • ENG 531: Feminist Theory and Women Writers
  • ERM 604: Methods of Educational Research
  • HDF 624: Feminist Theory and Research Methodologies
  • HDF 673: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Families
  • HEA 662: Gender and Health
  • HEA 665: Violence and Public Health
  • HIS 530: History of Sexuality: Selected Topics
  • HIS 551: Gender and History: Selected Topics
  • KIN 532: Women in Sport and Physical Activity
  • KIN 630: Sport and Society: Social Inequalities
  • MLS 610: Culture and Ideas (when focus is on gender)
  • MLS 620: Human Nature and Society (when focus is on gender)
  • TED 555: Multicultural Education

If a student wishes to take a course for WGSS Certificate credit, but it does not already have a WGSS marker, their best course of action is to ask the professor to contact the WGSS Director of Graduate Studies and apply for a WGSS marker. If the course meets with WGSS approval, then it will also be available to other students. All substitutions for WGSS credit must be approved in advance by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Find all WGSS course offerings (undergrad and grad, no description) by going to UNCGenie Course Offerings Search: use the scroll-down menus to select the term; do not select subject (leave as “Not Applicable”); and scroll down to select WGSS for course category. Click the “course search” button. The resulting list is alphabetical by subject, then numeric from lower- to higher-numbered courses. PBC students, like MA students, may take 600- and 700-level courses as well as a limited number of 500-level courses.

Questions?  Please contact the WGSS Director of Graduate Studies.