GENDER & SEXUALITY STUDIES PROGRAM

First-Year Focus

Welcome, class of 2030!

What is Gender & Sexuality Studies?

In GSS, we ask questions about gender and sexuality in the U.S., transnationally, and in history, and answer them using research tools from across the humanities and social sciences, as well as from feminist, masculinity, LGBT and queer studies. Read more about our frameworks and topics of inquiry. 

Students majoring or minoring in Gender and Sexuality Studies have gone onto rewarding careers in law, medicine, education, journalism, business, advocacy work, and the arts. Many of our students have won prestigious Coro Fellowships in Public Affairs, secured teaching placements through the Teach for America program, or gone onto graduate school, law school, or medical school upon completing their B.A. at Northwestern. 

First-Year Advising in the Gender & Sexuality Studies Program

If you are interested in issues of gender and sexuality, want to know about our course offerings, or are interested in the GSS major or minor, the information below should be of use to you. If you want to know more, please feel free to get in touch with our Director of Undergraduate Studies, Eli Kean.

Good Classes for First-Years

Courses offered through the Gender & Sexuality Studies Program are open to all undergraduates at Northwestern (regardless of whether you've declared a major/minor or not), and we offer several introductory courses intended for first-years each year. Each of these courses will introduce you to key terms, issues, and approaches to the study of gender and sexuality in the humanities and social sciences.

All of our 200-level courses are well suited to first-year students and sophomores, and many fulfill one or more of the Weinberg College degree requirements. For example, GSS 230 Traditions in Feminist Thought fulfills a Historical Studies Foundational Discipline, and GSS 260 Critical Fat Studies fulfills an Ethical and Evaluative Thinking Foundational Discipline. Both of these courses also fulfill the U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity requirement.

Almost all of our 300-level seminar courses are also open to first-years, but we encourage first-year students to begin by taking one or more of our 200-level introductory courses.