Women’s studies is a rigorous, interdisciplinary field that focuses centrally on the roles, contributions, and experiences of women, past and present. Its goals include not only recognizing women of all backgrounds as whole and productive human beings, but also, through this, providing a more accurate and equitable account of human experience.
As a field or "interdiscipline," women’s studies has evolved knowledge, theory, methodology, pedagogy, and organizational models appropriate to that vision. Through a range of disciplinary approaches, it recognizes the connections between academy and community, theory and practice, mind and body, individual and society.
Although women’s studies developed out of the women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s, it has evolved into a comprehensive field of study and a vital part of university education nationwide.
Gender studies explores the social construction of gender in a variety of cultural contexts. Also inderdisciplinary, it aims to improve understanding of the situations of both women and men and to employ gender as as central category of analysis.
The Women’s and Gender Studies Minor
The UNE women’s and gender studies minor exposes students to the scholarly traditions of many fields of knowledge. Its interdisciplinary perspective invites students to synthesize their undergraduate education through the lens of gender and related issues.
The minor in women’s and gender studies is open to all students.
Contact
For more information on UNE’s women’s and gender studies minor, contact Jennifer Tuttle, Department of English and Language Studies, at 207 221-4433.
