Women's Studies
For more information contact:
Director of Graduate Studies
Women's Studies
Duke University
Box 90760
Durham, NC 27708-0760
(919) 684-3655
General Information
Degree offered: Certificate
Faculty working with students: 100 affiliated with Women's Studies
Students: 45 enrolled
Program Description
Women's Studies at Duke is a focal point within the University for the study of women, gender, and feminist theories. Women's Studies has, since its inception, been an interdisciplinary field--a structure tht allows graduate students to address complex issues beyond their traditional disciplinary and classroom boundaries and to explore problems in ways that connect theories and approaches of different disciplines. Women's Studies students: gain the opportunity to understand how social, historical, and psychological forces, organized by the central concept of gender, shape them as individuals; attain a fuller understanding of human behavior, culture, and society made possible by investigating women's lives; acquaint themselves with the experience of women of different economic classes, sexual orientations, and cultural and racial backgrounds; and transfer the critical and analytical skills they acquire in the study of gender and society to other classes, beyond the campus to other activities, and eventually to their professional careers.
Duke has a large and distinguished faculty in feminist scholarship, with particular strengths in literature, history, English, romance studies, cultural anthropology, and religion. Because Duke employs a full-time archivist in women's studies, graduate students have remarkable assistance in their research. Graduate students can earn a Certificate in Feminist Studies (requirements below), become members of the Graduate Scholars Colloquium, a scholarly society that deepens their knowledge of the field of Women's Studies, and provides a cohesive, supportive community, and are encouraged to teach introductory or special topics courses. Women's Studies offers graduate students opportunities for teaching and research assistantships, travel and research awards, and dissertation fellowships.
Professional students and doctoral candidates may join the Graduate Scholars Colloquium and our Graduate Scholars listserv. All affiliated students on this listserv receive newsletters, lecture notices, invitations to special events, conference, and job announcements. For additional information, visit the program website at: http://womenstudies.duke.edu.
Requirements for the Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies:
(Note: Audited courses do not count toward the certificate.)
- One required course: Women's Studies 220 - Foundations in Feminist Theory
- Two additional (200-level or above) graduate-level courses in or cross-listed with Women's Studies at Duke (tutorials do not fulfill this requirement).
- A fourth graduate-level course or tutorial (200-level or above) offered by Women's Studies or another academic unit focusing on women, gender, or an intersectional approach to the study of race and/or sexuality (courses must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies).
- Women, gender, sexuality, or feminism must be a significant aspect of the preliminary examination or dissertation project.
- A member of the Women's Studies Core, Secondary, or Graduate Faculty must be on the preliminary examination and dissertation committees. (A complete listing of our Graduate Faculty can be found on our website at http://womenstudies.duke.edu/people.