Academics

In Gender & Women's Studies, we offer undergraduate students a vibrant and rigorous course of study that cultivates a critical understanding of the role that gender plays in the construction of identities and the social and political organization of culture.

Whether you're pursuing a BA or a minor, you'll explore the connections between and among the many meanings that gender—as well as race, sexuality, class and disability—has in our lives, our scholarship, our communities and our politics.

As a community, we believe that feminism and its political and scholarly traditions are necessary and vital to everyone's work at the University of Denver and in the communities beyond our campus.

Gender & Women's Studies Program

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Coursework

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    History

    History is essential to understanding the varied and changing ways that societies have defined gender, as well as allocated roles, powers, expectations and resources based on their understanding of gender.

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    Institutions and Power

    Institutions and power looks at how gender identity is constructed by social institutions such as education, the church, the family, public policy, law and the media.

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    Intersectionality 

    Intersectionality recognizes that gender cannot be studied or understood in isolation from other structures, such as social status, ethnic allegiance, religious conviction or access to forms of cultural capital.

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    Identity and Rhetoric

    Identity and rhetoric recognizes that gender definitions and roles need to be understood in relation to the "linguistic turn" associated with political theorists as well as deconstructive thinkers. This portion of the curriculum explores linguistic structures (formed by the symbiosis of social and cultural constructions) and representation.

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Major or Minor in Gender & Women's Studies

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Global Masters Scholars BA and MS Joint Degree

The Global Masters Scholars BA and MS joint degree, offered in collaboration with Lund University through the University of Denver Global Master's Scholars, offers you a unique opportunity to study abroad and complete your undergraduate and master's degrees in five years. Students spend their first three years studying gender and women's studies at the University of Denver, then study abroad in Sweden at Lund University for their fourth year, and complete their fifth year in Lund University's social studies of gender master's program.

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