The future before us requires a deep understanding of local, national, and global challenges; the full array of diverse voices and views that shape communities; and the capacity to couple research with a rich imagination. In the graduate certificate program in gender, women’s, and sexuality studies (GWSS), students learn to meet these challenges.
In GWSS graduate coursework, students investigate a host of these thorny challenges as well as inspiring solutions to them—with a focus on gender and sexuality in their intersections with race and ethnicity, citizenship and borders, ability and disability, religion and spirituality, and more.
GWSS faculty research and teach on gender and social justice through intersectional, interdisciplinary, and transnational frameworks, engaging such areas as the environment, culture and the arts, education, health and medicine, violence and conflict, im/migration, and the economy. With attention to individuals and social groups historically excluded from flourishing, graduates of the certificate program work toward justice, vitality, and the public good in concert with ongoing work in their home programs and departments. Many continue this work after graduation as part of the professoriate and/or in jobs directly engaging advocacy and social justice.
The graduate Certificate in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) requires 16 s.h. of coursework. All students must maintain a grade-point average of at least 3.00 in work for the certificate.
Certificate requirements include a 3 s.h. foundations course GWSS:5000 Foundations for Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies and a 1 s.h. capstone course GWSS:7400 Graduate Research Conference Presentation. In the capstone course, students revise an existing research-based project into a dynamic GWSS presentation, which they present at the annual Jakobsen Conference or, in some semesters, at a department-sponsored research celebration event.
Certificate students receive advising and research mentorship from the director of graduate studies, and also peer review as part of the scheduled capstone workshops.
The certificate program is open to University of Iowa graduate students working toward a degree; interested students should meet with the director of graduate studies (DGS) to discuss the program's parameters and how the certificate might best support and enhance their course of study.
Students may not use the same course to satisfy more than one certificate requirement.
The Certificate in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies requires the following coursework.
Course List
| Course # |
Title |
Hours |
| GWSS:5000 | Foundations for Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies | 3 |
| GWSS:7400 | Graduate Research Conference Presentation | 1 |
| 12 |
| Total Hours | 16 |
Electives
Certificate students complete four elective courses (12 s.h.). Students are strongly encouraged to include at least one course with a transnational focus; one course with a focus on U.S. diversity; and one interdisciplinary course on theories of gender, women, feminism, and/or sexuality (or a course squarely outside of their area of specialization). Where appropriate, up to two GWSS courses offered in a student’s home department may count toward the certificate as elective coursework; however, students are encouraged to take at least one GWSS course outside their home department for the purpose of interdisciplinary breadth. The director of graduate studies can advise and discuss coursework options and parameters with students.
