For Prospective Students
Hello! Welcome to the website for the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. We are very excited to see you here and we hope that you will spend some time navigating these pages to learn more about the major.
UMW Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGST) is an interdisciplinary major that develops critical skills highly valued by employers and graduate schools. Our majors acquire critical thinking, research, problem solving, leadership, and written and oral communication skills and gain an understanding of diverse and global perspectives. Nearly fifty faculty from eleven disciplines are affiliated with WGST: this gives our students the opportunity to pursue research and study in a variety of disciplines. Since two of our requirements can be met through one-on-one instructional opportunity, our majors are able to work closely with faculty. They also enjoy the flexibility of choosing their specific focus/classes according to their area of interest within the major. Finally, the department is active in inviting community partners for events that serve as mentoring and networking opportunities for our students.
Our graduates are prepared for 21st century workplaces in arts and literature, business, community development, education, government, health and medical professions, human resources, law and media. UMW’s location between Richmond and Washington DC offers our students opportunities to intern in a variety of settings. Our recent graduates have gone on to work for corporations, government, media and non-profits; into teaching and graduate school and to volunteer in Peace Corps.
Want to know a bit more about us? Contact our chair, Professor Surupa Gupta, e-mail: sgupta@umw.edu; phone: (540)654-2279.
You can learn more about the requirements for the major here. Do spend some time looking at the fascinating senior capstone projects our students have worked on. Our faculty come from a variety of disciplines. This means that you will find an advisor and a mentor to work with, whatever your interests are. You might want to explore gender and sexuality themes in any of the following disciplines: literature, theatre, politics, history, art, music, geography, sociology, anthropology or business and you will find a faculty member who will be happy to guide your explorations. Please e-mail the Program Director, Professor Surupa Gupta if you have any questions.