Welcome to Critical Gender Studies

Critical Gender Studies is an undergraduate program specializing in the study of gender and sexuality. We came to life as a program in Women’s Studies, but at the urging of faculty and students, reconstituted ourselves in 1998 by pairing gender studies and sexuality studies in one course of study. Our students learn to think in creative and productive ways, gaining analytic strengths and conceptual agility by frequently crossing the boundaries of established disciplines.

As a small, enthusiastic program, we take pride in our ability to get to know our students well, and in fostering a lively community of students and faculty who share a commitment to innovative scholarship and creative thinking.

Academic Programs

Undergraduate Program

Critical Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary program offering students the opportunity to study gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationalism as intersecting categories of analysis and experience. Our curriculum is designed to move students beyond popularized accounts of gender to consider its complex constructions over time and in a variety of cultural, scholarly, and global arenas.

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Graduate Specialization

UCSD has long been a vibrant site for the study of gender and sexuality, with many graduate students and faculty already engaged in gender-related projects. The specialization has been put in place to provide a central program through which graduate students may develop their work among peers who take up questions of gender as linked to race, sexuality and other social formations.

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