Gender and Women’s Studies Certificate

Overview 

Students who complete this certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies will gain a competitive advantage in applying to PhD programs since there are very few institutions that offer this concentration at the MA level in spite of the fact that it is a rapidly growing area in PhDs and the academic profession. This certificate will prepare graduate students from diverse disciplines and interdisciplinary programs to contribute to academic interest in Gender and Women's Studies in disciplines like Anthropology, Art, Economics, Geography, History, Political Science, Spanish, Sociology, Latin American Studies and Mexican American Studies.

This certificate will also prepare students interested in professional school, the non-profit sector, and pursuing careers in education, public health, law, medicine, journalism, international development, business, or the non-profit sector, to demonstrate their ability to navigate the philosophical worldviews of gender and sexuality. This is a particularly valuable skill given recent Title Nine and other legal initiatives related to sexual harassment and equality in the workplace.

Students will need to complete a total of four courses for the twelve credit hours necessary for the certificate.

Admission Requirements

To be admitted to the graduate certificate in gender and women studies, prospective candidates must meet all requirements for graduate admission to UT Rio Grande Valley.

  1. Bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution in the United States or a recognized international equivalent in a similar or related field.
  2. Undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0 in the last 60 semester credit hours.

Application for admission must be submitted prior to the published deadline. The application is available at www.utrgv.edu/gradapply.

Any graduate course containing 75% or more of gender and women’s studies content may be substituted for two of the above courses with the approval of the Coordinator.

Program Requirements

Required Courses - 6 Hours

CourseCourse Name
GWSP 6300Theory and Methodology in Gender and Women's Studies

Choose one from the following:

This degree plan includes courses that appear in more than one section of the degree plan. Such courses can only be used to fulfill one requirement on the degree plan and credit hours will only be applied once.

CourseCourse Name
GWSP 6305US Multicultural Feminisms
GWSP 6310Global Feminisms

Prescribed Electives – 6 Hours

This degree plan includes courses that appear in more than one section of the degree plan. Such courses can only be used to fulfill one requirement on the degree plan and credit hours will only be applied once.

Choose two from the following:

CourseCourse Name
ANTH 6309Anthropology of Sex and Gender
ENGL 6308Studies in Mexican American Literature
ENGL 6310Studies in Ethnic Literature
ENGL 6311Studies in Gender and Literature
GWSP 6305US Multicultural Feminisms
GWSP 6310Global Feminisms
HIST 5370Readings in Women's History
MASC 6330Chicana/Latina Feminist Epistermology
MASC 6355Studies in Gloria Anzaldua
MUSI 6372Studies in Music & Gender
SOCI 6354Family and Society
SOCI 6364Gender & Society
SOCW 6361Domestic Violence in Society
SPAN 6325Women Writers in HispanicLiteratures

Total Credit Hours: 12