Women’s Studies Minors

Academic Minor in Gender and Health

Academic Minor in Gender, Race, and Nation

Academic Minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Sexuality Studies

Watch the four minute video about Women's Studies @ U-M 

There are many students to whom various topics in Women’s Studies are central, yet they may be pursuing different vocational paths. Knowledge of these particular Women’s Studies topics will be helpful in a variety of professions. A minor will enable students to gain an academically certified familiarity with issues of either gender and health; gender, race, and nation; or LGBTQ and Sexuality Studies.

The Women’s Studies Department offers three academic minors:

  • Academic Minor in Gender and Health
  • Academic Minor in Gender, Race, and Nation (formerly Gender, Race & Ethnicity)
  • Academic Minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Sexuality Studies (LGBTQS)

You may also want to review LSA policies on academic minors. If you are not an LSA student, please be sure to check with your College or School regarding policies.

PLEASE NOTE. Students may not use more than one course to meet both the requirements of an academic minor and the requirements of a concentration. 

Advising and Questions
Advising appointments can be make online. Please click here to make an appointment.

Please see here for list of courses that meet minor and concentration requirements for:

Academic Minor in Gender and Health

This minor allows students to develop a minor concentration through courses that focus on gender and health across a variety of disciplinary perspectives. At the same time, this minor is designed to focus students’ studies of gender and health from a feminist perspective. The minor provides an opportunity for students to develop their skills in critical analysis as they explore how the social category of gender and conceptualizations of health, health care and health policy intersect. 
Coursework on a range of topics allows students to engage critically with the biomedical model of health in order to broaden and deepen their understanding of what constitutes health. Topics explored in this minor include, for example, the relationship between health and inequality, the gendered impacts of violence on men and women, childbirth in society, mental health, and the global AIDS epidemic. In all courses students will be challenged to consider the implications of a critical gender analysis of health for health care delivery, the health care professions, health policy domestically and transnationally, and the meaning of health itself.

Requirements for the Academic Minor in Gender and Health

Five courses totaling at least 15 credits.

  1. Required foundational course: WS 220 Perspectives in Women’s Health (3 credits)
  2. 12 credits (usually four courses) that focus on gender and health.
    No more than one course (3 credits) can be at the 200-level.
    At least one course (3 credits) must be at the 400 level.
    At least one course at the 300- or 400-level must be a seminar.
    At least one course must be from a transnational, global, or historical perspective.

Please see here for list of courses that meet minor and concentration requirements for spring 2013 and fall term 2013.

Please see here for a list of master courses that meet minor and concentration requirements.

You will find a worksheet for the Gender and Health Minor here.

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Academic Minor in Gender, Race, and Nation 

Formerly called Gender, Race and Ethnicity, this minor introduces students to a range of feminist scholarship on the intersection of gender with race and ethnicity and with nation. Courses examine race and ethnicity in contexts that are local, transnational, or both. They analyze the ways in which gender, race, and nation are constituted with and against each other, and how these constructions operate in discourses, institutions, politics, societies, and individual lives past and present. The minor can be tailored toward an international or domestic emphasis, but topics are likely to include the changing boundaries of race, gender, and nation; differential relations among nations; histories of imperialism, colonialism, and globalization; and postcolonial resistance and theory.

Requirements for the Academic Minor in Gender, Race, and Nation

Five courses totaling at least 16 credits.

  1. Required foundational course: WS 240 Introduction to Women’s Studies
  2. One course in Feminist Theory: WS 330 Feminist Thought, or WS 422 Feminist Political Theory.
  3. Three electives (9 credits) in the gender, race, and nation area of the WS curriculum. No more than one course (3 credits) can be at the 200-level and at least one course (3 credits) must be at the 400 level.

Please see here for list of courses that meet minor and concentration requirements for spring 2013 and fall term 2013.

Please see here for a list of master courses that meet minor and concentration requirements.

You will find a worksheet for the Gender, Race and Nation Minor here.

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Academic Minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Sexuality Studies

The academic minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Transgender and Sexuality Studies offers an interdisciplinary approach to sexuality that includes topics such as religious beliefs, legal codes, medical constructions, and social movements, and recognizes them as historically variable and culturally specific. With the contributions of empirical research, feminist scholarship, and queer theory, the minor acquaints students with the history of sexuality and understanding the formation of sexual identities and sexuality.

Requirements for the Academic Minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Sexuality Studies

Five courses totaling at least 15 credits, to be chosen from the following categories as stated:

  1. Required foundational course: WS 245 Intro to LGBTQ Studies or WS 295 Sexuality in Western Culture.
  2. Four electives (12 credits) that focus on LGBTQS issues. No more than one course (3 credits) can be at the 200-level and at least one course (3 credits) must be at the 400 level.

    Please see here for list of courses that meet minor and concentration requirements for spring 2013 and fall term 2013. Please see here for a list of master courses  that meet minor and concentration requirements.

You will find a worksheet for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Sexuality Studies Minor here.

The Lesbian-Gay-Queer Research Initiative (LGQRI) at the U-M Institute for Research on Women and Gender may be of interest, as may be the Spectrum Center.

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Student Group: the F-Word

The F-Word is an organization dedicated to creating a feminist movement at the University of Michigan that applies to all races and social backgrounds. Our organization does not subscribe to a particular ideology but instead focuses on having open dialogues about issues of gender, race, class and sexuality. If you are interested in social justice, human rights, or women’s issues come check us out! Run us an email to be on the email list and receive more information, or come to a meeting! Our email address is the-fword@umich.edu.

Questions
If you have questions about any of this please e-mail wsp.advising@umich.edu.

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