Women's Studies Program

The Women’s Studies program is an interdisciplinary field of study that places women and questions of gender at the centre of inquiry. Our field emphasizes the important role that gender plays in shaping both male and female experiences and how women’s lives continue to be left out of traditional approaches to knowledge. We stress the complex ways in which gender is fundamentally linked to class, race, ethnicity, nationality, age, and sexual orientation, and how these aspects shape and construct our sense of self, our roles in society and our institutions. The goal of the Women’s Studies Program is to encourage students to develop an understanding about the ways in which society thinks about gender by attaining the analytical, oral and writing skills needed to think about the interconnection and nuanced interactions of all these forces in society. Through our devotion to teaching, learning, research, scholarship and creativity, our aim is to engage students in a field that provides tools that can help them to shape their lives and the world around them.

You can earn an Honours BA Women’s Studies in combination with another Honours BA program (such as Global Studies, English, Communication Studies, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Psychology or History). The Honours BA, which normally takes four years to complete, consists of 20 full-credit courses, including at least seven credits in Women’s Studies. The minor in women’s studies requires the completion of three credits from the women’s studies courses: WS100, any two half-credit senior women’s studies courses, and a further one and a half credits from the core women’s studies courses. Students are advised to consult the Laurier Undergraduate Calendar (www.wlu.ca/calendars) or the Program of Women’s Studies Website to determine which courses are required for each program. For more information, contact the Women’s Studies Co-ordinator, Dr. Ute Lischke, at ulischke@wlu.ca.

Honours Combination BA and Minor: