Skip to content Where Legends Are Made

Women’s Studies

Overview

four students in a Hewson Hall study room

Women’s Studies, a program within the Department of Gender and Race Studies at The University of Alabama, was established over 45 years ago and is an interdisciplinary program working cooperatively with other departments to offer a liberal arts curriculum in which women’s experiences, achievements, contributions, and the forces shaping contemporary roles and lives are examined and interpreted.

The program is designed to provide knowledge of the roles and status of women in historical and contemporary society, to conduct and encourage research and writing by and about women, to offer skills and information for increasing employment opportunities for women, and to serve as a resource for the University community on topics and issues relating to women.

Minor Program

At the undergraduate level, the Department of Gender and Race Studies currently offers a minor program in Women’s Studies. The objectives of the minor are to foster an understanding of:

  • The roles of women (historically and today) in society, politics, and culture;
  • The contributions of women and other feminists to a more nuanced view of sex/gender;
  • The intersecting operations of sex, gender, sexuality, race, class, ability, nation, and other axes of identity;
  • The knowledge that sexism, homophobia, racism, classism, heterosexism, nationalism, colonialism, and other systems of oppression demand critical responses;
  • The necessity for inclusive areas of study committed to interdisciplinary and coalitional critical practices and strategies of analysis.

Faculty

As the flagship institution of the state of Alabama, The University of Alabama has a coterie of nationally and internationally recognized faculty whose scholarship and teaching interests in Women’s Studies reflect the level of intellectual productivity and engagement that makes UA one of the foremost research institutions in the nation. The work in Women’s Studies at the Department of Gender and Race Studies provides an important intellectual resource for research at The University of Alabama.