ABOUT US

Women’s Studies at CSU looks at how social categories—like race, class, gender ethnicity, sexual identities, queerness, age, ability, citizenship, empire, nation, and national origin—shape our experiences with power, privilege, and difference.

What We Do

We examine the positions of women and the organization of gendered relations in culture and society from both intellectual and activist perspectives. Guided by the wide spectrum of feminist and gendered perspectives, our program aims to heighten awareness and understanding about the range of human experience, potential, and accomplishment in order to advance the goals of social justice.

Women's study faculty talking with potential students

“Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods in order to place women’s lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppression; and the relationships between power and gender as they intersect with other identities and social locations such as race, sexual orientation, socio-economic class, and disability.”

- Shaw & Lee, 2009

Women's studies students smiling for the camera

What We Value

  • ADVOCATING: For feminist and gender-based scholarly and creative work across the university, as well as regionally, nationally, and internationally.
  • COLLABORATING: Around scholarly and creative work among faculty, staff, students, and community members that address new ways to change gender inequities and includes the multiple realities that we live.
  • ENCOURAGING: Civic-minded and socially aware students who strive to enhance the world at large through a gender and feminist lens.
  • FOSTERING: Learning opportunities with local and global communities that support women’s and gender research and activism in order to effect meaningful change in public policy and social life.
  • MENTORING: On curriculum, scholarship, and teaching from a feminist perspective and gender studies for faculty, staff, community members, and advanced graduate students.

What We Emphasize

Our emphasis on teaching, research and outreach aims to produce and disseminate knowledge about women and gender that is:

Historically-informed

Grounded at every level of life experience, including interpersonal, household, workplace, and state arenas

Focused on marginalized and privileged populations

Dedicated  to social change

Guided by the wide spectrum of feminist and gendered perspectives, our program aims to heighten awareness and understanding of the range of human experience, potential, and accomplishment in order to advance the goals of social justice.