Undergraduate

The Department of Women’s Studies at UCI is an academic unit that offers scholars and the community access to cutting-edge academic services and resources. We are the only academic unit in the world with a programmatic focus on feminist transnational studies.
Please read About Feminist Transnational Studies at UCI and About our
Teaching & Research, and contact us for more information.
The Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies offers a minor in Queer Studies, providing
students with an opportunity to study sexuality as a complex historical and cultural formation,
rather than merely a feature of intimacy or an outcome of universal and unchanging
biological forces. UCI’s minor was established in 2005, and is one of a growing number of
similar degrees being offered at universities and colleges internationally. Queer Studies
scholarship addresses a number of central questions: What constitutes the history of
sexuality? How is gender related to sexuality? How are cultural norms of sexuality linked to
assumptions about the proper desires and capacities of bodies? How is sexuality linked to
processes of racialization? By what means and to what ends is sexuality policed?

Queer Studies is a relatively new field, emerging in the 1990s. It draws upon concepts and
methods from anthropology, history, geography, psychology, sociology, literature,
philosophy, political theory, biology, art, and art history, religious studies, science and
technology studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Queer Studies focuses on the
study of how norms are produced and come to be taken for granted, and, conversely how
they are destabilized either through their own internal contradictions or through the
interventions of activists seeking social justice. Thus the field shares intellectual affinities
with the interdisciplinary fields of women's studies, gender studies, ethnic studies, critical
legal studies, and cultural studies.
Current requirements are listed in the UCI catalog.
Current requirements are listed in the UCI catalog.
Current requirements are listed in the UCI catalog.
Contact the Humanities
Undergraduate Dean’s office (143 HIB; 949-824-5132) to declare the major in Gender &
Sexuality Studies.
Information about changing your major is available from the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Humanities Undergraduate Dean’s office.
Minors are officially declared when you complete your Application for Graduation. Before then,
you can let us know that you are working on a minor, and, if you want, join our email listserv to
keep up-to-date on news and events in Gender & Sexuality Studies. To let us know you are
interested in the minor, contact us or sign up on the Gender and Sexuality Studies student mailing list or the Queer Studies minor mailing list.
Download the tentative schedule of classes for the current academic year, available on our Resources page.
Visit the People page for contact information.
You can add, drop, or change a grading option for one of your classes, through WebReg during the first two weeks of classes.  After that, changes are to be made through Enrollment Exception Request in StudentAccess. Campus-wide policies and procedures are listed here.
Visit the Humanities Undergraduate Counseling office (143 HIB; 949-824-5132) for the necessary forms; some are also available online through their website here. You may want to discuss your options with an advisor in the Humanities Undergraduate Counseling office, or talk to the Women’s Studies Undergraduate Director for more information.
Please see our webpage, What can I do with a Gender & Sexuality Studies degree?

Students of Gender & Sexuality Studies at UCI learn to think in flexible and rigorous ways. Our courses integrate many aspects of learning, allowing students to apply what they learn in school to the world around them. For example, they learn to decode signs and ideological messages in popular culture, they come to appreciate the value of using intellectual tools to interpret elements of everyday life, and they gain an ability to understand how knowledge production is linked to power. These insights are beneficial in many dimensions of life before and after graduation. Graduates of Gender & Sexuality Studies bring unique skills and knowledge to the professions of law, academia, science, medicine, social work, philanthropy, business, diplomacy, counseling, and government service, all of which
increasingly require expertise on issues concerning women and gender.

Visit the UCI Career Center for career
counseling, information about job opportunities, a career library, and workshops on resume
preparation, job search, and interview techniques.
Yes, there is the Dean’s Undergraduate Award in Gender & Sexuality Studies: for a
meritorious student in Gender & Sexuality Studies. It is usually awarded in Spring of each year.
UCI’s Career Center has a lot of information about applying for graduate school; visit them in
100 Student Services I or at www.career.uci.edu. Additional information is available at href=http://www.gradschooltips.com/ target=_blank>www.gradschooltips.com. You can
also make an appointment with the Gender & Sexuality Studies Undergraduate Director.
Instructors need at least 3 WEEKS notice before they write your letter, but more time is better. Please send multiple reminders as the deadline approaches.

You should use the letter Writing Service through the UCI Career Center

List of the items to be sent electronically as well as in hard copy to the instructor, and please include ALL the information requested.
1)Personal statement for graduate school & scholarships/fellowships.
2)A resume/c.v. Provide complete information, abbreviations should be spelled out.
3)A copy of your transcript. An unofficial one is okay.
4)List of courses you took with the instructor. Some instructors require you to have taken at least two courses with them. Provide the quarter and your grade for the course.
5)If you wrote research papers for the instructor's classes, provide her with the titles of the papers. Write a note about the topic(s) in the classes that interested you the most, and remind her of particular contributions and perspectives you brought to the class discussion.
6)Your test score(s) for graduate school applicants.
7)If you are applying for a very specialized kind of grad school, you can give the instructor a one page hard copy of info on the grad program/fellowship/scholarship from their catalog or web site. For those seeking employment, please provide a brief job description.
8)List of graduate schools where you will apply and their deadlines.
9)Please e-mail a list with complete addresses of the schools or places of employment where you want letters to be sent.
10)Put a note on the front of the package with the deadline for mailing your letter.
11)If there are FORMS that need to be sent with the letter, fill them out carefully:
a) Double check the form and provide your SIGNATURE (a requirement of every form).
b) Check the box that states “I hereby waive my right of access to this recommendation” or some such similar statement.
c) Also, type / print ALL the instructor's information on the form as well (leave the evaluations section blank for the instructor to fill out).
Below is a selection of some programs you might want to check out:

American University, Washington, D.C.: Program on Gender Analysis in Economics.

Central European University of Budapest: Gender Studies Department.

Claremont Graduate University: Applied Women's Studies.

DePaul University: Master of Arts in Women's & Gender Studies.

Georgia State University: Master of Arts in Women's Studies Gender Studies Department.

Institute of Transpersonal Psychology: Women's Spirituality Master's Program.

Memorial University of Newfoundland: Master's Degree in Women's Studies.

Minnesota State University: Department of Women's Studies.

Ohio State University: Department of Women's Studies.

San Diego State University: Master of Arts in Women's Studies.

San Francisco State University: MA Program in Women and Gender Studies.

The State University of New Jersey Rutgers : Ph.D. in Women's and Gender Studies.

Suffolk University: Master of Arts in Women's Health.

The University of Albany: Women's Studies.

The University of Arizona: Master of Arts in Women's Studies.

The University of California, Los Angeles: Women's Studies Graduate Program.

The University of Colorado, Denver - School of Public Affairs: GMPA & MCJ Programs on Domestic Violence.

The University of Melbourne: Gender Studies Postgraduate Program.

The University of Minnesota: Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies.

The University of South Florida: Master of Arts in Women's Studies .