Support the ProgramWomen's Studies Program at Miami University
About Us
Why Take Women's Studies?
The interdisciplinary area of Women's Studies provides a rich and flexible liberal arts education, which enhances students' understanding of women's history, experiences, and modes of expression. Acknowledging the special challenges women face because they are women, students begin to understand how cultural institutions, ideologies, and practices tend to disadvantage women, and how gender intersects with race, class, sexuality, and (dis)ability in the generation and perpetuation of these multiple sites of oppression. Working with faculty who are especially knowledgeable about gender issues, students gain the ability to think through the personal, academic, and policy questions they confront regularly as they live in a culture shaped by the forces about which they are learning.
Women's Studies graduates gain knowledge, self-awareness, and breadth of perspective, which are valuable in their own right and which public service organizations, private industry, government, and graduate schools need. And the employment picture is bright: comparisons of Women's Studies graduates with female college graduates nationwide show an edge for Women's Studies in both traditional and non-traditional career fields.
Masters and doctoral students who earn a Graduate Concentration in Women's Studies may also gain an advantage in a highly competitive job market. In the worlds of business, public service, government, education, and fine arts, job candidates with knowledge of how gender and cultural difference function in their area of expertise may stand out in a crowded field. Perhaps even more important may be the intellecutally stimulating experience of thinking across and outside the disciplinary parameters of a specialized area of study. Sharing these inquiries with students from other fields creates a rich supplement to a discipline-centered degree program.
Student Awards
The WMS Program sponsors an essay contest each year in the late spring to recognize outstanding student work in the area of Women's Studies. Prizes are awarded to the best essay written by a graduating senior in the Program and for the best paper by any other graduate. The program also supports womanist/feminist work done outside of the classroom. Funds are made available through the Women's Studies Memorial Award to support work done in the spirit of previous Women's Studies affiliates who have died, in order that their contributions to women's well being might be perpetuated.
Mission
The Women's Studies Program at Miami University is a dynamic, interdisciplinary program that investigates how our lives are affected by gender, race, class, age, sexuality, religion, (dis)ability, gender identity, and nationality. Women's Studies emphasizes the importance of understanding gender as a part of wider social and political structures of power, knowledge, experience, culture, embodiedness, intimacies, and labor. Women's Studies courses are organized around contemporary feminist research and theory, and focus intersectionally on women, gender, and sexuality as subjects of inquiry. Our coursework also focuses on how theory and practice come together. Students may choose from courses spanning departments, disciplines, divisions and ideologies. The Women's Studies program provides a context in which women's work and women's issues are explored in-depth, celebrating women's creativity, women's lives, and women's work. In Women's Studies, students find an active and supportive community, close interaction with faculty, opportunities to take on leadership roles, and an academic program that allows them to cross the traditional disciplinary boundaries. With nine core faculty members and over 40 affiliates, the Women's Studies program at Miami University integrates expertise in virtually every field of human endeavor.
In addition, the program responds to specific University goals for student learning by:
- promoting critical and creative thinking
- facilitating engaged learning
- providing opportunities for undergraduate research
- emphasizing strong written and oral communication skills
- fostering leadership skills and opportunities
The program with its major, minor, graduate certificate and Miami Plan courses and sequences, is integral to Miami's commitment to community diversity, transnational perspectives, and academic excellence.