Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Degree

Bachelor of Science, Major, Minor

School/College

College of Arts & Sciences

A group of students sit on the grass outside having a conversation.

Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS) is an interdisciplinary program that challenges the cultural, intellectual, social, and political assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality systems.

Become a person for others

WGSS students will aim to Identify intersecting systems of power; including race, class, ethnicity, gender, sex, and sexuality. They will gain specialized knowledge and proficiency in course content, learning to apply theories, methods, and epistemologies to course materials and lived experience.

Embrace intersectionality

As an interdisciplinary program, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers a unique way to combine elements from other disciplines and bring them together poignantly. Research and scholarship that integrates diverse ideas are encouraged.

Qualify for a variety of fields

The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program will enhance your qualifications for almost any career. You'll develop new sensitivities and insights into the realities of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality in politics, arts, society, and the workplace. These issues will be studied on both the theoretical and experiential levels, adding an educational dimension that will prove useful to prospective employers in business, government, and other fields.

Benefit from Fairfield's location

The program brings in various speakers on all kinds of topics, often giving students the opportunity for interaction and discussion, and each year a "Person of the Year" is named at a signature event that highlights activism. Fairfield's convenient location– just an hour from New York City– gives students and faculty easy access to lectures, conferences, and organizations devoted to understanding and promoting issues relevant to studying women, gender, and sexuality.

The Lucy Katz Award

Since 1994, the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program has annually recognized a person on campus who has contributed to women's issues. Founding co-directors Dr. Johanna Garvey, Associate Professor of English, and Dr. Lucy Katz, Professor Emeritus, Business, believe such recognition will advance the understanding and promotion of women's issues both on and off campus.

A classroom scene featuring a group of girls seated at desks, participating in a collaborative learning environment.

Internship Opportunities

Internships are available in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies in a variety of fields related to non-profit work, social change, activism, the arts, media, and a host of other fields and professional contexts. Internships allow students to explore the relationship between the theoretical and the applied and to make meaningful contacts with the wider community beyond the Fairfield campus.

Email Dr. Shannon Kelley for more information.

Find Out More

Course Requirements

Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Major (BS)

30 credits

Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Minor

18 credits

Contact Us

Undergraduate Admission
admis@fairfield.edu
(203) 254-4100

Sabrina Dirienzo smiles in a red and white striped shirt.

Resources for Student Success

The University Career Center serves Fairfield University students with comprehensive career support services, programming, and resources.

Career Preparation at Fairfield

Fairfield supports the scholarly success and intellectual growth of our students by providing various resources on campus including the Science Center, Writing Center, DiMenna-Nyselius Library, and more.

Learn About Academic Support

Gender, Sex, and Sexuality Commons

In our commitment to being people for others, we find it necessary to claim a space in which we can create and foster an all-inclusive community for students of all genders, sexes, and sexualities. This is a space to engage in an ongoing dialogue about the gender and sexuality injustices that occur on campus and abroad. Such dialogue will contribute to mutual understanding and active service focused on these issues in addition to fostering growth in our community so that all students are distinguished as equals in academics, athletics, and social interactions.

The Reproductive Rights Talk and Action Group (RRTAG)

The Reproductive Rights Talk and Action Group seeks to create consistent dialogue on topics of global, intersectional reproductive rights by installing action projects and events around campus to increase awareness regarding reproductive rights and justice.
Contact: reproductiverights4fairfieldu@gmail.com

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Office-DMH 115

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary program that focuses on two levels of inquiry; the theoretical and the experiential. The program demonstrates how cultural assumptions about gender and sexuality influence the development of personal identity and public roles that consequently affect all social and political structures. The WGSS office provides a space for students to learn more about the program and acts as a meeting space for related groups and classes.

Office Hours

Tuesday: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Wednesday: Noon – 5 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Students for Social Justice (S4SJ)

S4SJ is a dynamic, student-led group that aims to: educate, advocate, and organize around issues of social justice, be a voice for the voiceless, and further enrich Fairfield's mission in the service of faith and the promotion of justice.

Faculty

Learn more about the women, gender, and sexuality studies faculty members.
College of Arts and Sciences in the News

See what our students and faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences have been up to.