Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Degree: Honours Bachelor of Arts
Program Options: Major, Minor

Transnational relations of race, gender, and sexuality affect every aspect of society. Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at UTM provides a rich and complex understanding of a range of historically and socially informed experiences as they relate to race, gender, class, indigeneity, nationality, ability, religion, ethnicity, and sexuality. The program prepares students to critically understand and intervene into local, national, and global issues and questions related to societies and cultures and their impact on women, queer, and trans subjects, as well as racialized minority groups and individuals, while learning how to change and navigate the world around them with confidence and success. A major or minor in WGSS prepares students for careers in a range of academic and professional areas including policy, law, health, social justice, social service, government, technology, education, media, and culture.

Sample Courses

Below are examples of courses you can enrol in during your studies. To plan your academic journey, please visit the Academic Calendar.

WGS101H5 • Introduction to Women and Gender Studies

WGS102H5 • Reading and Writing in Women and Gender Studies

WGS200Y5 • Theories in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
WGS202H5 • Fundamentals of Research in Women and Gender Studies
WGS205H5 • Introduction to Feminism and Popular Culture
WGS299Y5 • Research Opportunity Program

WGS340H5 • Black Feminisms: Diasporic Conversations on Theory and Practice
WGS347H5 • Indigenous Feminisms and Decolonization
WGS365H5 • Gender, Justice and the Law
WGS372H5 • Theories of Sexuality

WGS434H5 • Special Topics in Women & Gender Studies
WGS435Y5 • Women and Gender Studies Practicum
WGS455H5 • Queer Theory
WGS497Y5 • Independent Reading

Visit our Programs page for more information on Historical Studies undergraduate programs at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Program Learning Outcomes

Apprehend the intellectual history and epistemology of the field and acquire a thorough knowledge of foundational Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies concepts, grounded in historical and philosophical thought and praxis;
Identify, cultivate, and employ informed knowledge embedded in lived experience;
Articulate how Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies is a distinctive field with synergetic relationships to other disciplines in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences;
Critically engage with, analyse, and contextualise diverse and multidisciplinary textual and non-textual materials and artifacts from varied perspectives to formulate persuasive arguments and analyses in written and verbal engagement;
Demonstrate contextual understanding of feminist theories;
Conduct intersectional analyses attentive to the ways different axes of knowledge and power interlock across temporal, cultural, and sociopolitical contexts;
Develop self-reflexivity in relation to the politics and ethics of knowledge production;
Identify their positionalities within local, national, and transnational communities;
Recognize the importance of praxis and the practical application of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies theories to social justice in their communities and the globalizing world;
Cultivate an informed curiosity and responsibility to continuously re-envision feminist-based knowledge.

Career Information

The skills and experience you acquire while studying a Historical Studies program at UTM will be beneficial in any career you might enter. Graduates of a Historical Studies program bring a unique set of valuable skills to many diverse career areas. Visit the Careers page for more information on career areas for graduates of our Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program.