Bachelor of Arts - Women's and Gender Studies

William Paterson University

This interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary academic program engages students with community, civic issues, and citizenship. Students develop conceptual, analytical, and critical thinking skills and opportunities for experiential learning for the study of gendered lives and experiences. They engage in feminist analyses that focuses on the centrality of gender relations, emergence and reproduction of sexism and patriarchy, production of feminist knowledge and theories, women's movements, and feminist methods of doing research. Students use an intersectional framework for the analysis of gender, race, class and sexuality (concepts), racism, sexism, homophobia/heterosexism (processes), and the organization of these processes in social institutions. They learn a social justice approach to issues of systemic oppression, resistance, change, and activism locally and globally, gaining professional skills through in-class activities and civic engagement.