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About Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies

About Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies provides an opportunity to explore gender and sexuality and their intersection with race, ethnicity, class, and other elements of diversity. The program is interdisciplinary, which makes for a rich variety of course offerings across many fields.

The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program was initiated in 1979, when it began to offer one of the first certificate programs at the University. Since that time, it has grown into the intellectual center for scholarship and teaching on women, gender and sexuality at Ohio University. It now offers the second-largest undergraduate certificate program in Arts and Sciences and the ninth largest in the University.

In addition to more than 70 courses focusing on women, gender and sexuality that are offered in WGSS and allied departments, the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program offers the following programs:

  • Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in WGSS
  • Certificate in WGSS (undergraduate and graduate levels)
  • Certificate in LGBTQ studies (undergraduate level)

The WGSS core faculty currently includes both full time instructional faculty and tenure-track faculty who are jointly appointed with other departments on campus, including English, Geography, Classics and Religious Studies, and Media Arts and Studies. We also have more than 50 affiliated faculty in 20 additional departments and schools across the University.

In addition to serving our majors and certificate students, WGSS courses meet BRICKS General Education requirements and also contribute to a number of other programs across the University. These include popular certificate programs (including Diversity Studies, Global Health, and Wealth and Poverty), undergraduate majors (including International Studies/Global Studies, Criminal Justice, Human Services, Journalism, and GEOG-Globalization and Development), and graduate programs (including Global Health, Community Dance, Latin American Studies, Asian Studies, and International Development Studies).

Our unit’s goals are fostering social justice, empowerment and critical thinking through intersectional research and teaching on systems of gender and sexuality and their effects. Having functioned as an interdisciplinary unit for more than 40 years, we are a model for effective and sustainable interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship at OHIO. 

WGSS Mission Statement

The Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Ohio University examines gender and sexuality and their intersection with race, ethnicity, nationality, class, disability, and other elements of diversity. The WGSS curriculum introduces students to a wide range of theoretical and practical perspectives on the influence and meaning of gender in the human experience across time and cultures. The program promotes interdisciplinary teaching and research about gender and sexuality across myriad social and cultural contexts; it builds ties among scholars, providing a locus of feminist and queer scholarship and activism on campus, in the community, and beyond.

Ask an Advisor

To speak with an advisor in more detail about individual coursework, programs of study, or career options open to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies students, please contact our Undergraduate Chair Dr. Patty Stokes or our Graduate Chair Dr. Nicole Reynolds.

Wondering what you can do with a WGSS degree or certificate? See Careers & Internships.

History of WGSS

  • The Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program had its origins in 1979, when the first Women’s Studies classes began to be offered at Ohio University. In 1980, Women’s Studies became one of the first undergraduate certificate programs available at OHIO. This came about through student and faculty organizing and activism to bring scholarship and teaching on women to Ohio University.

    A bachelor's degree in Women's Studies was established two decades later, in 2004. With the establishment of this major, the program identified two existing strengths—sexuality and gender and development—and built its curriculum around those areas of focus.

    In 2009 the program changed its name to Women’s and Gender Studies, and in 2014 it underwent another name change to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The names of the major and certificate also changed at that time. These name changes reflected developments in the discipline’s scholarship and a recognition of the critical role of women's struggles in understanding gender and sexuality as systems shaping both human experience and social structures.

    In 2014 a new undergraduate certificate in LGBTQ Studies was added to the program. In 2025 the program took a new step as the Margaret Boyd Scholars Program moved into the WGSS. The program is an undergraduate scholars community that provides mentorship and a space for faculty, staff, students, and graduates to interact in mutual support that empowers students to engage with women and other marginalized genders to become leaders and citizens at OHIO and beyond. This program includes coursework and co-curricular activities for 80 Boyd scholars.

    WGSS at Ohio University has grown from a program that initially offered students a handful of classes to choose from to a program that now allows students to choose from over 70 classes in over a dozen disciplines, including 17 WGSS-prefix classes offered directly through our program. Today the program delivers WGSS 1000 to an average of 500 students each year, and serves around 30 graduate certificate students, 90 undergraduate certificate students, and 25 majors.

    At this time, the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Ohio University is a vibrant community of scholars from across the university exploring gender as it informs both traditional approaches to disciplinary knowledge and everyday life in a range of historical and cultural contexts. Read more about WGSS Faculty. Carrying forward the vision articulated in the 1970s, Ohio University’s WGSS program continues to promote interdisciplinary teaching and research while serving as a hub of feminist scholarship and activism on the campus, in the community, and beyond.