www.smu.edu/womgenstudies
Senior Lecturer Josephine Caldwell-Ryan, Director
Students in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program explore a wide variety of disciplines and life experiences through gender, which is the set of meanings that societies attach to being female or male. The program’s dual name acknowledges two approaches. One emphasizes the intellectual, artistic, political and social contributions of women. The other extends into to a broader range of issues, including the social and cultural meanings of masculinity and the relationships between gender, sexuality and sexual identity. Through participation in the program, SMU students are exposed to contemporary challenges to traditional academic disciplines and to scholarship that addresses matters of personal identity. Because it is interdisciplinary, a women and gender studies minor complements a variety of majors and minors, especially those in the humanities, social sciences and fine arts.
Students satisfy requirements for the minor through a combination of core courses and a wide array of courses offered by many departments in Dedman College and the Meadows School of the Arts. (Courses subject to approval are topics and problems courses that earn credit toward the minor only when offered under specific preapproved titles.)