Women's & Gender Studies

About the program

Students of Women's and Gender Studies at Augustana develop critical skills and awareness of the experience, art, writing and theories of women in the academic curriculum. Within the program's interdisciplinary setting, students explore gender, power, sexuality and achievement by re-evaluating women's contributions to society.

The Major/Minor in Women's and Gender Studies includes both specialized courses and courses from the general education curriculum which have the new scholarship on women and/or use gender analysis as a significant component. Internship and graduate school information is available from the Coordinator.

Tired but happy volunteers gather for a snapshot after a coffeehouse fundraiser for a local domestic violence shelter. The fundraiser is one of the Women's & Gender Studies student and faculty activities.

Special opportunities

• Mary Wollstonecraft Award for Student Writing
• Vazquez-Valarezo Poetry Award
• Field trips to museum, exhibits, and conferences
• Meeting with scholars visiting on campus
• Women's History Month celebration every March
• Research projects with faculty
• A Women's and Gender Studies Center in Old Main 225 with a computer, resources, and space for conversation and discussion
• Sponsoring of community and college events
• Support shelters for battered women and to work to end violence in the family through annual Coffee House and educational programs.

Outside of the classroom

• WS 389 Internship in Women's & Gender Studies
  Looking for a way to enhance your Women's Studies experience at Augustana? Do an internship at a foundation, agency, community organization or firm that works on women's issues. Many of the things we take for granted every day, such as women's right to higher education, to suffrage, to health and safety, come from the efforts of people working together in the global women's movement.

What students say

Rachel Sternhagen '10, majoring in women's and gender studies
and political science:
"The fact that a school the size of Augustana has a women's and gender studies major is incredible. For this major, most people have to attend a larger school and sit in auditorium-sized classrooms. I am thankful I can get the major I want from professors who know my name. The faculty all have extensive knowledge about gender issues. It's easy in this type of study to confuse terms and concepts, but the faculty won't allow it, demanding excellence from majors, minors and everyone."