Undergraduate program

The degree in Women’s and Gender Studies at Columbia College, taught in cooperation with Barnard College’s Women’s Studies Department, provides students with a culturally and historically situated, theoretically diverse understanding of feminist scholarship and its contributions to the disciplines. The program is intended to introduce students to the long arc of feminist discourse about the cultural and historical representation of nature, power, and the social construction of difference. It encourages them to engage the debates regarding the ethical and political issues of equality and justice that emerge in such discussions. And it links the questions of gender and sexuality to those of racial, ethnic, and other kinds of hierarchical difference. Through sequentially organized courses in women’s and gender studies, as well as required discipline-based courses in the humanities, social sciences and history, the degree provides a thoroughly interdisciplinary framework, methodological training and substantive guidance in specialized areas of research. Small classes and mentored thesis writing give students an education that is both comprehensive and tailored to individual needs. The major degree culminates in a two-semester thesis-writing class, in which students undertake original research and produce advanced scholarship. Graduates leave the program well-prepared for future scholarly work in women’s and gender studies, but the degree also prepares students for careers and future training in law, public policy, social work, community organizing, journalism, medicine, and all those professions in which there is a need for critical and creative interdisciplinary thought.

For more information, please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Eleanor Johnson, at ebj2117@columbia.edu. To apply for the degree in Women's and Gender Studies, please visit the Columbia University Office of Undergraduate Admissions.