Learn more about Women’s & Gender Studies!
Join us for an info session on courses, co-curricular opportunities, grad programs, career paths, & ways WGS can enhance a wide variety of career goals!
Wednesday, September 28
Stern Center, Room 205
4:00PM-5:00PM
Join the WGS program as we welcome our new faculty member, Dr. Cristina Dominguez! Students, staff, and faculty are invited to gather with us to welcome Dr. Dominguez on Wednesday, September 14 at 7 College Way from 12PM-1PM. Light snacks and drinks will be served. Come and go as you are able!
For more information about the differences between the major and minor, please visit the WGS Major and Minor page.
No! In fact, students from all across campus take WGS courses to fulfill their General Education Humanities requirement (and many of those students love their time in WGS so much that they go on to declare a major or minor!).
WGS counts courses from across the campus, with course offerings in almost every discipline. To view a current list of courses that WGS students will take this upcoming semester, please see the WGS Fall 2022 Course Brochure.
To view catalogue information and additional course information, please see the WGS Major Catalog & Course Information and the WGS Minor Catalog & Course Information.
Women’s and Gender Studies as an academic discipline is interdisciplinary. This means WGS draws from a range of other fields of study in developing knowledge (for example, Psychology, History, Biology, Sociology, Business, Communication, English… even Music!). You’ll find that WGS courses are offered across many different departments. WGS as an academic field thinks and acts across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
By the time our WGS students graduate, they have developed skills conventionally fostered through a Liberal Arts education such as critical thinking, problem solving, and oral and written communication. Additionally, WGS students learn to work effectively in teams, practice ethical judgment and decision making, and integrate ideas and information across contexts. WGS students are often called upon to help navigate challenging situations in the workplace because of their deep understanding of differences and their developed skills in empathic listening.
On Women’s (In)Equality Day, join local reproductive rights & justice educators, leaders, caregivers, activists, & allies for activities, demonstrations, & conversations that leverage the powers of Healing, Education, Liberation, and Love (H.E.L.L.) in the ongoing struggle for bodily autonomy and access to reproductive care.
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
9:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Arnold Hall – 96 Wentworth St
All are welcome!
In spring 2022, student, Marissa Haynes (she/her), launched a new podcast in conjunction with WGS. What IFF? is dedicated to sparking discussion about making change in our campus community and beyond by centering intersectional feminist thought and uplifting members of our community who are actively moving toward justice, and inspiring those of us who want to learn more. 
Today we’re revisiting What IFF?’s initial episode where Marissa interviews fellow CofC student, Denver Tanner (they/them). They discuss activism, trans rights and mental health, and so much more. Read a brief excerpt from the episode, and click over to What IFF? to listen to the entire interview!
Excerpt from What IFF?, episode 1 – Transvisibility with Denver Tanner:
MH: How do you feel like the classes that you’ve taken, or the work that you’ve done has prepared you for the life that you dream of?
DT: I think it definitely has . The College has provided me so many great opportunities. I’m actually this year, joining the gardening club, so we’re circling back to the learning how to grow your own food with that one. But academically, one of my favorite projects was my anarchy capstone with Dr. McGinnis for my political science end of the year project. I wrote a thesis paper called Be Gay, Do Crime: An Analysis of Queer Anarchy.
MH: Okay, wow, love that. Queer anarchy? Can you expand on that.
DT: Yes, definitely. So, queer anarchy is, in essence, studying how your identity as a gay person or a trans person, is an act of rebellion against the state. So, for example, in my research for this paper, I learned that the City of Charleston, back in the seventeenth century, used to outlaw dressing of an opposite sex, which obviously is transphobic inherently but even racist as it dates back to origins and not allowing people of a different socioeconomic class to dress as if they were wealthier.
MH: Wow! I love that, too, because what you’re talking about is that this innate just being and walking in life is activism, right? Like, walking and existing as a queer person. That in and of itself is activism. I wanted to ask you: What does it mean to be an activist? What does it take to be an activist?
DT: What a great question! Because if you asked me that a couple weeks ago I would have said, “Oh, I don’t know. I’m not an activist.” But now that I sit here and have this dialogue with you and think about my college experiences and what motivates me every day. I realize: to be an activist, you really just have to care about something. You have to have an identity with something and a passion. And I think activism is much simpler than we perceive it to be, and it really can be a part of your everyday life, just like Women’s and Gender Studies.
One of our very favorite things to do is highlight students and their accomplishments! Be sure to check WGS’ Instagram and blog, WGS Connect throughout the semester for more “spotlights.“
Below you can read more about Patrick Meyer, who received funding through the WGS Student Opportunities Fund to pursue a summer undergraduate research opportunity with Duke University in 2021!
Patrick Meyer (He/They)
Psychology/WGS ’22
Q. Tell us about the opportunity you had last summer.
I was a 2021 summer research assistant in the Identity and Diversity Lab at Duke University. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the experience was entirely virtual. My primary project over the summer involved developing a theoretical framework to deconstruct harmful masculine norms while fostering authentic identity development in boys and men. This project will hopefully result in a published article in a prominent psychology or gender studies journal!
Q. How did the project influence your understandings of what you had been learning through your coursework in WGS?
This experience deepened so much of the knowledge base I was already cultivating in my WGS classes. Throughout the summer I was able to learn about how systems and individuals uphold and police gender norms, and how this can be particularly distressing for individuals who may not conform to these rigid norms. Sacrificing authenticity for the comfort of conformity demonstrates how patriarchal structures actually end up harming men as well! With the intersectional lens the WGS program has provided me, I also examined how gendered pressure interacts with other axes of power and inequity.
Q. What was the best aspect of this experience?
The most beneficial aspect of this experience was that I was able to foster a connection between my major discipline, psychology, and WGS. The interdisciplinary nature of WGS is one of the things that drew me to the minor and this project showed me how feminist activism and gender equity movements are enhanced by the presence of individuals from diverse backgrounds. In order to deconstruct harmful masculinity norms, it will require the work of educators, mental health professionals, policymakers, and more!
Q. How did the ability to engage in this opportunity influence your next steps and future career goals?
This opportunity allowed me to gain substantial research experience that solidified and expanded my interests in psychology and WGS. I am currently in the process of applying to doctoral programs in counseling psychology, and I am confident that this summer experience will shape so much of my approach to research and practice! The dual-level approach of our framework, deconstructing norms while fostering authenticity, really resonated with me and I hope to become a social change agent that promotes wellness among individuals and across systems.
WGS is excited to share the 2021-2022 recipients of the WGS Student Opportunities Fund. See what our amazing students have been up to thanks to this funding initiative!
In Spring of 2019, WGS launched the WGS Student Opportunities Fund so that students may apply for funding to support engagement in study abroad, internships, community-based learning projects, and research/scholarly activities. Funding for these opportunities is made possible because of our generous sponsors in the community and on campus.
2021-2022 Recipients:
Marissa Haynes (she/her)
Attended the 2022 Sociologists for Women in Society winter meetings as the social action committee intern.
Patrick Meyer (they/he)
Presented at the 2022 annual conference of the Society for Personality & Social Psychology, poster title: Breaking Down, Pushing Out: An Organizing Framework for Promoting Authenticity and Mitigating Harm Among Boys & Men.
Ahmira Lucas (she/her), Del Lamere (they/them), Jeronimo Ortega (he/el), & Keke Humphrey (she/her)
Organized body positivity event, Every Body Deserves Lovin’ Yoga Class and self-care discussion with Inner Work Instigator, Kennae Miller in April 2022.
Congratulations to our WGS majors who earned academic honors for the Spring 2022 semester!
Statement from the College of Charleston’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program Faculty Executive Committee and the Women’s Health Research Team on the June 24, 2022 SCOTUS Decision
The Faculty Executive Committee of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Women’s Health Research Team at the College of Charleston strongly oppose and are outraged by the SCOTUS decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Jun 24, 2022, which effectively overturns Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1993). This disastrous decision removes constitutionally protected freedoms, a first in our country’s history.
Our opposition is grounded in decades of empirical data and research that we have conducted in Social Science, History, Public Health, and other disciplines, as well as our lived experiences.
The premise is simple: People with uteruses do not have the basic freedom and fundamental human right to their bodily autonomy. What’s more, in what will soon be in a majority of states, if they (or we) attempt to exercise these entitlements, we will be criminalized.
Criminalization has never eradicated abortion. Abortion is and has been practiced in every known human society. It is an ordinary part of the reproductive lives of people who can get pregnant. The World Health Organization includes comprehensive abortion care on its list of essential healthcare services. It is a common medical procedure that will not go away even under the most draconian measures.
What confronts us now is what abortions under criminality will be like, what will happen to the people who need them, and who will be most affected by laws like this.
In the few hours after SCOTUS released their decision 13 states enacted their “trigger laws” and at least 13 more are maneuvering to make abortions illegal, including South Carolina. The cascade of restrictions is ballooning, including criminal prosecution of those who seek abortions, those who provide them, and even those who offer referrals. These laws effectively codify state-sanctioned forced pregnancies.
Poorer people, immigrants, and people of color already have decreased access to abortion. Many can’t take time off from work or don’t have access to childcare to be able to travel across state lines for abortions. Some will have to carry on with essentially forced pregnancies. This will perpetuate poverty for families across generations.
What anti-abortion advocates do not seem to realize is that abortion restrictions also increase the chances that all pregnancy loss – even unintended – will be surveilled, suspected, and potentially prosecuted. This is not a hypothetical situation as it is already happening, and has been for some time, in states such as Tennessee. There is no way to establish medically if someone had a miscarriage or induced an abortion with pills. People who miscarry will be interrogated and potentially prosecuted. People with very much wanted pregnancies who face health complications will be denied medically necessary procedures. People will die from pregnancies they are forced to carry.
We at the College and in higher education broadly will lose students facing unwanted pregnancies because of this decision. Women will lose educational and career opportunities; this too will perpetuate the cycle of poverty. Women will be less likely to leave abusive partners if they have to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. It is no coincidence that the economic, leadership, political and educational status of women in the U.S. has increased commensurate with the ability for them (us) to control our reproductive lives.
Forcing people to stay pregnant will result in harm and deaths. In South Carolina, maternal mortality rates are 26.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. For women of color, that rate is 42.3 per 100,000 live births compared to 18.0 per 100,000 live births for white women (SCDHEC). That means pregnancy is risky, and also not all infants survive. South Carolina’s infant mortality rates are far higher than the national average: 6.5 per 1,000 live births in South Carolina compared to 5.58 deaths per 1,000 nationwide.
The most vulnerable will become more vulnerable. But that’s the point, right?
We grieve with our community for what has been lost and for the tragedies that will come in the wake of this decision. We know that the inability to control one’s own reproductive decisions will impact many of our students and colleagues. This is why we unequivocally united in our opposition to this decision, and to the cascade of laws that will follow. We also are united in our continuing struggle for the fundamental human right to bodily autonomy.
We invite you to join us in our resistance to this unchecked and ideologically myopic power that seeks to eradicate our freedoms. We will not go back!
What do we do?
We can write our legislators to demand state-level protections for abortion, including comprehensive health care services.
We can circulate information about organizations that support individuals needing abortions (and donate, if you can):
We can urge companies we support to move to abortion-friendly states or cover abortion-related expenses for employees who live in states where it is/will be restricted.
We can boycott companies and organizations that fund anti-choice/abortion politicians and movements.
We can get educated about the deeper context of these attacks on reproductive freedom as jeopardizing the very core of freedom for people with uteruses:
We can urge our leaders at the College of Charleston to follow the many other institutions that have declared their commitment to ensuring that all students will have access to reproductive healthcare. We can insist that current practices of CofC’s Student Health Services to offer no cost options for birth control become permanently resourced.
We can share information about abortion access, legal rights, and self-managed abortions.
At What IFF?, we are dedicated to sparking discussion about making change in our campus community and beyond by centering intersectional feminist thought and uplifting members of our community who are actively moving toward justice, and inspiring those of us who want to learn more.