Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

College of Social Sciences
722 Saunders Hall
2424 Maile Way
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel: (808) 956-7464
Fax: (808) 956-9616
Web: wgss.manoa.hawaii.edu

Faculty

*S. Teves, PhD (Chair)—indigeneity, oral history, queer/performance theory
*M. Koikari, PhD (Graduate Chair)—sociology, Asia-Pacific studies
*K. Ferguson, PhD —feminist theory and methods, political theory
*M. Das Gupta, PhD—feminist theory and methods, immigration, race relations in U.S.
*I. S. Heijin Lee, PhD—pop culture, digital/media, feminisms, beauty
*A. Saraswati, PhD—feminist media and new media studies, race, globalization, and cultural studies of emotion
L. Vallin, PhD (Undergraduate Advisor)—sex education, sexual bodies, queer theory

Cooperating Graduate Faculty

J. Brunson—anthropology
E. Colwill—American Studies
J. Eagle—American studies
C. Franklin—English
V. Gonzalez—American Studies
N. Goodyear-Kaʻopua—political science
A. Kimura, PhD—environmental justice, feminist political ecology
A. Reilly—FDM

Affiliate Faculty

T. Albertini—philosophy
M. Alohalani-Brown—religion
B. Andaya—Asian Studies
C. Bacchilega—English
C. Beaule—languages & literature of Europe and the Americas
C. Browne—social work
J. Brunson—anthropology
N. Chandra—English
E. Colwill—American studies
N. Cooper—anthropology
V. Dalmiya—philosophy
L. Despain—English
J. Eagle—American studies
P. Flowers—political science
C. Franklin—English
K. Freitas—School of Hawaiian Knowledge
M. Ghosh—librarian
M. Godinet—social work
J. Goldberg-Hiller—political science
N. Goodyear-Kaʻopua—political science
J. Grove—political science
N. Grove—political science
J. Guo—social work
K. Heyer—political science
D. Higginbotham—English
R. Hsu—English
K. Irwin—sociology
M. Karides—geography and environment
Y. H.-Kim—East Asian Languages and Literatures
A. Kimura—sociology
V. Lanzona—history
H. Manshel—English
D. Maxwell—social work and public health
B. McDougall—American studies
N. Mokuau—social work
J. H. Osorio—political science
L. Perillo—theatre and dance
C. Petersen—William S. Richardson School of Law
K. Phillips—English
S. Rai—Study Abroad Program
A. Reilly—fashion, design and merchandising
K. Reynolds—Japanese
L. Santiago—Indo-Pacific languages and literatures
J. K. Saplan—music
D. Seid—English
N. Silva—political science
N. Stalker—history
M. Stark—anthropology
C. Stephenson—political science
R. Stotzer—social work
T. K. Tengan—ethnic studies, anthropology
K. Tomita—CSDC
M. Yoshihara—American studies
A. Yap—UHM National Student Exchange
M. Yue—East Asian languages and literatures

* Graduate Faculty

The Academic Program

The Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers an interdisciplinary transnational feminist approach to the study of women and gender issues. The purpose of the department is to provide a rigorous and integrated academic experience for students interested in feminist research and teaching, giving them a coherent program of study in contemporary scholarship with special emphasis on Asia-Pacific and Hawaiʻi. With a faculty trained in a variety of fields, the program investigates gender as it intersects with race, class, sexuality, and other vectors of power in shaping the study of history, psychology, anthropology, economics, sociology, political science, philosophy, literature, language, art, drama, education, law, medicine, and biology.

Women and men from all colleges at UH Mānoa take women’s studies courses because of their intellectual rigor, political insight, and interdisciplinary ties to other fields of study. Many courses are cross-listed with other departments. Women’s studies is a uniquely powerful avenue of self-understanding as well as a means of connecting research on women and gender to other academic fields of inquiry. Those who understand the workings of gender in personal lives and social orders can better pursue a variety of careers and life goals. Women’s studies offers a unique opportunity to study racial, economic, ethnic, sexual, regional, and global matters of interest among women in Hawaiʻi and around the world, past, present, and future.

Undergraduate Study

Bachelor’s Degree

Women, gender, and sexuality studies offers two tracks for majors: either a student-designed special concentration within the field of women’s studies, or a general focus on the broad field of women’s studies. Students work in close consultation with faculty to design and develop the academic experience that best fits their interests, goals, and needs. The aim of both tracks is to promote a coherent program of study in contemporary interdisciplinary scholarship in feminist and gender studies. A key purpose of the major is to provide an integrated academic experience for students interested in transnational feminist scholarship and gender issues, while offering flexibility and freedom in planning the degree.

Student Learning Outcomes

Demonstrated ability to engage in critical and interdisciplinary thinking, analysis, and problem solving through effective written and oral communication.
Evidence of ability to integrate key concepts in Women’s Studies, including the social construction of gender; intersectionalities among gender, sexuality, race, class, and other vectors of power and identify; social stratification; and how these issues manifest in a Pacific-Asia context in written and oral work.
Demonstrated ability to connect the classroom with “real world” feminist issues through active engagement in citizenship and civic participation.

Advising

Students who plan to pursue a women, gender, and sexuality studies major should meet with the women’s studies undergraduate program advisor (Kathy Ferguson) for help in choosing classes, defining their area of interest, creating and developing proposals, and finding the faculty advisor most suited to their areas of interest.

Although students are strongly encouraged to seek department academic advising promptly when considering a major in women’s studies, a summary of undergraduate program information is also available at wgss.manoa.hawaii.edu.

Undergraduate Certificates

Please see “Programs” section below for more information about our undergraduate certificate programs.

Graduate Study

Women, gender, and sexuality studies offers a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (AdWGSS Certificate). This certificate program provides a rigorous, integrated, and relevant educational experience for students whose education and career objectives will be enhanced through creative and scholarly transnational feminist analysis of women’s lives and visions. The program guides students to examine the factors that affect the status of women across cultures and through time, analyze theories and assumptions about women in various disciplines, contribute to the reformulation of social knowledge, explore institutionalizing social change that highlights and supports the achievements of women locally and internationally, and understand the usefulness of gender as an analytical tool in many fields.

Graduate studies leading to the AdWGSS Certificate are focused in four broad areas under the general rubric of gender studies.

Feminist methods of inquiry and theoretical analyses. Students will explore sex/gender as an analytical category, asking what this category means, what purposes are served by the prevailing binary notions of gender, and how gender is constituted in past, current, and future biological, sociopolitical, cultural, and economic contexts.
Feminist knowledge. Students will learn about the pervasive impact of gender relations on thoughts, actions, and prevailing constructions of reality. They also will become acquainted with an array of feminist theories and arguments about issues including coalition practices, nationalism and imperialism, and social policy.
Sex/gender and sociopolitical categories of power and privilege. Students will examine the interaction of sex/ gender with race/ethnicity, class, sexuality, and other vectors of power and privilege as relevant to nearly all domains of human experience. They will have opportunities to explore the dynamics of these interactions with emphasis on the evolving multicultural milieu of Hawaiʻi and the Asia/Pacific region.

Recipients of the AdWGSS Certificate must be classified graduate students, and normally will be pursuing graduate degrees in other academic departments. The AdWGSS Certificate will help students learn to apply feminist methodologies, analysis and problem-solving to their other academic fields, and to integrate the rigors of the scholarship on gender into their chosen professions as a means of enhancing their professional lives and opportunities for advancement.

The department website lists research interests and publications of the members of the women’s studies graduate faculty, and describes admissions and program requirements (see womenstudies.hawaii.edu). The following sections summarize the admissions and program requirements, but the program website should be consulted for complete details.

Admissions

Students are admitted to the AdWGSS Certificate program in the fall and spring semesters. Applicants to the AdWGSS Certificate program must be classified graduate students at UH Mānoa. Candidates are required to submit their current and complete transcripts, three letters of recommendation, and the names of and full contact information for three additional references. Applicants also must submit a 4-5 page essay outlining their personal and professional goals as they relate to the AdWGSS Certificate program, and identifying potential research and/or community involvement projects they may wish to pursue as part of their AdWGSS Certificate work.

Programs

Bachelor’s

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, BA

Undergraduate Certificate

Graduate Certificate

Advanced Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Graduate Certificate