Women’s Studies Graduate Certificate

The Appalachian State Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies allows students to seek training at the graduate level in women's studies and get formal recognition for completing this training successfully.

The importance of women's studies scholarship in a number of academic areas is well known, and interest in doing theses and dissertations that incorporate this scholarship continues to grow.

The Women's Studies Graduate Certificate Program is open to students currently enrolled in graduate degree programs at Appalachian. In addition, Women's Studies welcomes community members with bachelor's degrees (secondary school teachers, for example) who wish to obtain new training and the WS Graduate Certificate.

Certificate-only students must apply through the Graduate School. Information on this process and the associated fees can be found on the Graduate School website.

Why Get a WS Grad Certificate?

  • Be part of an intellectual community of interdisciplinary feminist scholars at ASU.
  • Learn the epistemological and pedagogical bases for studies that take gender, sexuality, and inequality as centrally constitutive analytic categories.
  • Be recognized for the graduate training in women's studies you've sought.
  • Gain valuable experience preparing to teach, designing an outreach project, and collaborating in an interdisciplinary environment.

Requirements

Students complete 12 semester hours of work selected from the list below. The two core graduate seminars foreground the epistemological and pedagogical bases for studies that take gender, sexuality, and inequality as centrally constitutive analytic categories, and offer students the opportunity to learn from one another in an interdisciplinary environment.

  • Feminist Perspectives on Pedagogy and Academe (WS 5600)
  • Feminist Theories (WS 5650)

Choose two of the following 3-credit courses:

  • AS 5530 Selected Topics (when the topic is gender)
  • ENG 5650 Gender Studies
  • ENG 5200 Issues in Teaching English (when taught by WS faculty)
  • FRE 5003 French Women Writers
  • GEOG 5130 Seminar in Cultural Geography (when topic is gender)
  • HIS 5206 Studies in American History (when topic is gender)
  • HIS 5106 Topics in European History (when topic is gender)
  • HIS 5531 Selected Topics in History (when topic is gender)
  • HPC 5130 Women's Issues in Counseling
  • IDS 5530 IDS Special Topics (when topic is gender)
  • SOC 5660 Women in the Justice System
  • SOC 5800 Sociology of the Family

As additional topics are designed, other courses on the topic of women and gender in various departments can be taken as electives when taught by a member of the WS faculty (see bottom of page for a list). Check our course listings each semester to see what's offered!

Eligibility

  • ASU graduate students pursuing, or planning to pursue, research with a focus on gender; or
  • A Certificate-only student must be a NC resident, hold a bachelor's degree, and be pursuing work related to women's issues or gender.

To Enroll

  • Those interested in the Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies are welcome to confer with the Director of the Women's Studies Program prior to submitting an application to the Graduate School. Download an application (Major Code 130A, Women's Studies)
  • Those seeking admission must write a brief essay outlining their interests and work goals, explaining how the WS Graduate Certificate will help them meet these goals.
  • Those seeking the women's studies certification can enroll year round. Eligibility for certification will be considered by a committee of the women's studies faculty.

Women's Studies Faculty also on the Graduate Faculty

  • Anthropology
    Dr. Pat Beaver
  • Art
    Marianne Stevens Suggs
  • Communications
    Dr. Monica Pombo
  • Curriculum and Instruction
    Dr. Alecia Youngblood-Jackson
  • English
    Dr. Elizabeth Carroll
    Dr. Cece Conway
    Dr. Jill Ehnenn
    Dr. Kristina Groover
    Dr. Rosemary Horowitz
    Dr. Kathryn Kirkpatrick
    Dr. Grace McEntee
    Dr. Elaine O'Quinn
    Dr. Colin Ramsey
    Dr. Georgia Rhoades
    Dr. Lynn Searfoss
    Dr. Susan Staub
    Dr. Jennifer Wilson
  • Foreign Languages and Literatures
    Dr. Victoria Cox
    Dr. Michael Lane
    Dr. Maria Patricia Napiorski
    Dr. Judith Rothschild
    Dr. Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand
  • Geography and Planning
    Dr. Kathleen Schroeder
  • History
    Dr. Ed Behrend-Martinez
    Dr. Sheila Phipps
    Dr. Neva Jean Specht
  • Interdisciplinary Studies
    Dr. Harriette C. Buchanan
    Dr. Martha McCaughey
    Dr. Maggie McFadden
    Dr. Derek Stanovsky
    Dr. Cynthia Wood
  • Leadership and Educational Studies
    Dr. Kelly Clark/Keefe
    Dr. Gayle Turner
  • Marketing
    Dr. Eva M. Hyatt
  • Math
    Dr. Sarah J. Greenwald
  • Philosophy and Religion
    Dr. Sandie Gravett
    Dr. Kim Q. Hall
  • Political Science
    Dr. Curtis Ryan
  • Psychology
    Dr. Mary Ballard
    Dr. Denise Martz
  • Sociology
    Dr. Jan Rienerth