Gender and Sexuality Studies - Master of Arts (MA)

The University of Colorado Boulder Department of Women and Gender Studies’ Master of Arts in Gender and Sexuality Studies is a post-baccalaureate degree program that provides students an interdisciplinary education using a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches across the humanities and the social sciences to examine women, gender and sexuality in an international context. In this graduate program students choose to complete the program on a master’s thesis or a practicum plan of study.

Requirements

Program Requirements

Students must successfully complete 30 credit hours of academic coursework, at least 27 of which must be at the 5000 level or above. No more than 3 credits (one course) may be taken at the 4000 undergraduate level upon approval of the director of graduate studies. Up to 9 credit hours of graduate coursework may be transferred from another accredited institution, in alignment with the program requirements and upon approval by the director of graduate studies. Independent study credit hours shall not exceed 6 credit hours.

Students choose from a thesis option or a practicum option, which must be declared by the end of the second semester in the program. Either degree plan may be completed within four semesters.

Required Courses and Credits

Elective Coursework

Fifteen credit hours (typically five courses) are taken as electives. A minimum of 6 credit hours (two courses) of the electives must be taken within the Department of Women and Gender Studies. A maximum of 6 credit hours (two courses) may be taken as Independent Studies with faculty in Women and Gender Studies (following approval by the director of graduate studies).

Elective offerings include: 

• WGST 5200 Religion and Reproductive Politics in the United States 
• WGST 5400 Critical Inquiries in Transgender Studies
• WGST 6290 Special Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Future topics may include: Indigenous feminisms; transnational feminisms; gender, sex, race and power in geography; gender, race and dis/ability; Black queer diaspora studies, feminisms and carcerality.

Degree Plans

By the end of the second semester of graduate study in the program, students will select either the thesis option or the practicum option. Six credit hours must be taken as thesis hours or practicum hours depending on the student’s plan of study. 

Plan I: Thesis Option – The thesis option is a project of original research that culminates in a master’s level paper that is defended by the student to their faculty committee. The thesis must comply with the Graduate School’s technical specifications for theses.

Plan II: Practicum Option (i.e., non-thesis option with final examination requirement) – The practicum option requires students to complete 150 to 180 hours of paid or unpaid work at an agency, organization or project relevant to gender and sexuality studies, which culminates in a comprehensive oral examination administered by committee on the theoretical underpinnings of the practicum, and a paper detailing and analyzing the work achieved. This practicum provides students with the opportunity to integrate scholarly feminist analysis of gender and sexuality issues with a work setting that addresses those issues.

Transfer Credit

After completion of six credit hours with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, students may request the transfer of a maximum of nine graduate studies credits toward the elective credits if the transfer courses align with the requirements of the MA in gender and sexuality studies. Courses must have been taken at an accredited institution with a grade of B or better. Courses may not have been used toward a bachelor's degree or toward a completed graduate degree.

Plans of Study

Plan I: Thesis Option

Plan II: Practicum Option