PhD in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University

Students can earn a dual-title master's degree (M.A./ M.S.) or a dual-title Ph.D. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS). All dual-title degrees must be paired and completed simultaneously with a graduate degree in one of our partner programs. These departmental partners are: Art Education, Communication Arts and Sciences, Comparative Literature, Curriculum and Instruction, English, French and Francophone Studies, Geography, History, Mass Communications, Media Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Rural Sociology. For students outside of these fourteen degree programs, we offer a graduate minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Our dual-title master's and Ph.D. degrees provide students with conceptual, methodological and pedagogical training in the field of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Our graduate program embraces intersectional and transnational feminist approaches to knowledge production, pedagogy, and community engagement. Faculty and graduate students in WGSS use interdisciplinary frameworks to research questions that span the arts, humanities, and the social sciences. Because this degree is combined with a master's or Ph.D. from one of our partner departments, students are well-prepared to produce cutting-edge, interdisciplinary scholarship; to teach across both disciplines; and to excel in a career in either field.

Upon completion of the dual-title graduate degree in WGSS, students are expected to:

1. Demonstrate deep conceptual and historical understanding of intersectional feminist theory and methods.
2. Apply current feminist literature from their partner discipline to their own research agenda.
3. Comprehend the conceptual and practical dimensions of feminist pedagogy.
4. Formulate and execute an independent research project that significantly furthers knowledge and theory within interdisciplinary feminist scholarship.
5. Communicate effectively conceptual and methodological arguments in both written and oral formats to interdisciplinary audiences.
6. Exhibit a commitment to professional standards and ethics in teaching, research, and service.