Academic Department

Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies (GSWS)

School for Interdisciplinary Studies

The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies program takes an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to examining how gender and sexuality influence human experiences across disciplines and intersect with race, class, ability, ethnicity, and other dimensions of identity.

: gsws@montclair.edu
: 973-655-7755
: Schmitt Hall, Room 222

What is Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies?

Gender and sexuality are forces within which we all move as human beings, and they shift and intersect across categories of race, class, ability, ethnic identity, and more. The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies program at Montclair State University is thus a rich interdisciplinary program that engages students in rigorous intellectual study and invites them to develop a notion of citizenship that holds social justice at its core. Wherever the future takes them beyond campus walls—law, medicine, finance, the arts, and more—our students are trained to approach their work with an attunement to the complex and often fluid dynamics of gender and sexuality, a historical grounding in the fight towards civil rights across the world, and a visionary commitment to equal status and fair treatment across identity categories.

Our Mission Statement

The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at Montclair State University offers students training in critical thinking, writing, data analysis and an education in the newest theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding intersecting identities such as gender, sexuality, class, race, religion, ethnicity and other factors. Our courses examine the connections between gender, sexuality and the diverse economic, political, historical and cultural institutions and relationships that shape people’s lives.

Programs

The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at Montclair State offers students a strong education in the newest theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding and examining how gender, sexuality and related factors contribute to the diverse economic, political and cultural institutions and relationships that shape people’s lives. GSWS challenges students to employ a new analytical lens to investigate current issues in business, policy analysis, education, the arts and other important arenas.

Workplace dynamics, gender equity, diversity issues and processes of globalization—core topics in our GSWS courses—are important in a range of career fields. Graduates with degrees in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies find meaningful careers in private enterprise as well as governmental bureaus, non-profit organizations, and community agencies that demand insight into the interconnected complexities of contemporary life along with an expertise in women’s issues and gender relations. Corporations want employees who can think critically, develop innovative approaches to problems and set new standards of leadership performance. GSWS graduates are just such people. Additionally, the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies program offers a foundation for graduate work in professional degree programs such as teaching, counseling, social work, legal studies, public health, business administration and advocacy.