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The MA PROGRAM STRUCTURE AND REQUIREMENTS

The MA in Women’s and Gender Studies requires completion of 48 credit hours. All core, and many elective courses, will be offered during the evening. The program requires five Core courses, five or six Elective courses organized around a focus tailored to the individual student’s needs, and a Capstone consisting of either a two-course Thesis Option, or a two-course Practical or Creative Project Option, or a one-course Portfolio option (see explanations below).

Cohorts will begin in the Fall Quarter of a given year with two required Core courses, WMS 400 Feminist Theories and WMS 415 Globalization, Transnationalism, and Gender. Course offerings are scheduled so that students will ordinarily complete the program in two years.

Five Core Women’s and Gender Studies Courses:

WMS 400 Feminist and Gender Theories (also undergraduate core)
WMS 415 Globalization, Transnationalism, and Gender
WMS 465 Contentions in Feminist and Gender Theorizing: New Directions
WMS 485 Women, Gender, Agency and Social Change
WMS 491 Scope and Methods in Women’s and Gender Studies

CORE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS (BELOW)

ELECTIVE FOCUS

In addition to the required Core Courses, students will complete an additional five or six Electives (depending upon the Capstone Option selected). Elective courses will be chosen by the student in conjunction with her/his advisor in order to tailor a coherent program of study to the individual student’s particular academic and/or professional objectives while ensuring that the student sustains a strong interdisciplinary focus at the graduate level. Elective courses may be offered by WMS or by other departments/programs at DePaul, provided that such courses meet the criteria for inclusion within the Women’s and Gender Studies curriculum.

MA CAPSTONE OPTIONS
All students must complete an MA Capstone, selecting one of the following options:

1.         Thesis Option – This Capstone Option requires that the student plan, execute, and defend a research-based writing project that is grounded in interdisciplinary scholarship, feminist and/or gender theories, and directed independent study and research. Students who select this option will complete, in addition to the Core Courses, a five-course Elective Focus (as described above), along with an additional two courses of Independent Study and Research. They will also be required to present and defend the Thesis to a committee of three faculty members, at least one of whom must be a full-time member of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program Faculty.

2.         Project Option – This Capstone Option requires that the student plan, execute, and defend a practical or creative project that is grounded in interdisciplinary scholarship, feminist and/or gender theories, and directed independent study and/or internship that results in a contribution to community service or the creative arts. For example, a student may write a curriculum designed to educate high school students on domestic violence prevention, or prepare a proposal or policy study for an NGO or community-based organization. Alternatively a student might prepare an artistic or creative project—for example, a performance piece or art installation that is research-based and reflects some aspect of the interdisciplinary focus of Women’s and Gender Studies. Students who select this option will complete, in addition to the Core Courses, a five-course Elective Focus (as described above), along with an additional two courses of Independent Study and Research. They will also be required to present and defend the Project to a committee of three faculty members, at least one of whom must be appointed to the Women’s and Gender Studies Program Faculty.

3.         Portfolio Option – This Capstone option requires that the student prepare and submit a portfolio of graduate level papers, projects, and/or creative expressions for review by the Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Committee. Students who select this option will complete, in addition to the Core Courses, a six-course Elective Focus (as described above), along with an additional one course of Independent Study and Research in which they prepare a written Critical Summary of the work submitted with the Portfolio in which they reflect upon the scope and meaning of their graduate scholarship. The Critical Summary will accompany a collection of seminar papers, practical or creative projects, and/or other research products that are the outcomes of Core and Elective Focus Courses, with one example chosen from each of the 11 courses completed by the student. Students will be required to present and defend the Portfolio to the Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Committee.

STRUCTURE OF TWO-YEAR MA PROGRAM

Year One
Fall:                 WMS 400 Feminist and Gender Theories
                        WMS Elective

Winter:            WMS 415 Globalization, Transnationalism, and Gender
                        Elective

Spring             WMS 485 Gender, Agency, and Social Change
                        Elective

Year Two
Fall                 WMS 491 Methods and Scholarship in Women’s and
                       Gender Studies
                       WMS 465 Contentions in Feminist and Gender Theorizing

Winter             Elective
                       Elective or Independent Study

Spring             8 credits Independent Study (Thesis Capstone Option or
                        Practical/Creative Project Capstone Option) or
                        Elective and 4 credits Independent Study (Portfolio
                        Capstone Option)

CORE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
The following courses are required of all students in the Program.

WMS 400    Feminist and Gender Theories
This course is designed to introduce students to the historical development and evolution of feminist and gender theories. This course examines how different theoretical perspectives address gender, racial, and sexual inequalities and the method(s) proposed for social change. Students will be required to critically engage these theories in terms of how they address the commonalities and differences among women, especially insofar as these are grounded in race, class, gender and sexual identifications and dissonances.

WMS 415 Globalization, Transnationalism, and Gender
Recent shifts in the overall WMS curriculum aimed at enhancing understandings of how gender is constructed within and across boundaries of an increasingly globalized world provide the foundation for this new course. It focuses on how gender roles, relationships, and identities are constructed, deployed, challenged, and resisted around the globe, paying particular attention to how systems and structures of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability, culture, religion, nation etc. are interconnected within broader global historical social and transnational contexts.

WMS 465 Contentions in Feminist and Gender Theorizing: New Directions
This course focuses on contemporary debates in Feminist and Gender theories. It addresses different aspects of feminist and gender theorizing and their interrelationships, focusing on exploration and critical examination of controversies and debates in the field. The course content engages students in examining philosophical, ideological, social, political, and cultural fault lines that offer opportunities to deepen and extend our understandings about discourses on women’s and gender studies – constructions and negotiations, in the late 20th century as well as in the early 21st century. The lens through which particular issues and ideas are viewed draws upon multiple perspectives, taking into consideration issues of culture and context, grounded in examining specificities of the local in relationship to global or transnational dynamics.

WMS 485 Women, Gender, Agency and Social Change
This course focuses on social movements and the intersectionalities of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability, culture, religion, nation etc., paying particular attention to how groups and individuals have, historically, challenged systems and structures of poverty, oppression, and injustice and exploring ways in which contemporary and future movements can build upon the historical foundation to further the agenda of social change that challenges injustices in multivariate forms.

WMS 491 Scope and Methods in Women’s and Gender Studies
The course focuses on critical exploration of the transforming effects that feminist methodologies and scholarship have had in the social sciences and humanities. This course emphasizes interdisciplinary research approaches, feminist publishing, and the interplay of research and activism, as it prepares students to undertake their own independent research projects.