Appalachian State University's Graduate Certificate (12 hours) and Graduate Minor (9 hours) in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies are designed for students who seek training at the graduate level in gender, women's, and/or sexuality studies and formal recognition for completing this training successfully. Both programs of study take an interdisciplinary approach to questions of power, knowledge and social justice. They are generally pursued in addition to a master's degree in another area to provide evidence of additional specialization.
Whether a student chooses a career in education, policy, health care, counseling, social work, government, law, journalism, human resources or advocacy, the graduate certificate or minor offers a space for critical reflection on how feminist theorizing might transform scholarship.
Both the graduate certificate and minor enhance a student's main graduate program of study and provides a competitive edge for those wanting to continue graduate work in the gender, women, and sexuality field at the PhD level or pursue a career that addresses issues pertaining to women, gender diversity, sexuality or social justice more broadly. The 9-hour minor is ideal for students whose main graduate program of study offers fewer elective hours.