Education That Matters:  Make A Difference with WGSS!

Dept. of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, 423 Wimberly Hall, (608) 785-8357.  Or email Deb Hoskins

Senior Seminar, Fall 2009The Department of WGSS enacts the Wisconsin Idea:  that universities should produce knowledge and educate students in ways that serve real people.  We study and teach on the lives of women, men, and sexual or gender identity minorities.  We examine the ways that race, social class, age, and other socially constructed hierarchies connect to gender to impact people's real lives.  We study how social change works and what social justice might look like.  We use and teach students to use academic skills to make social change.  We maintain the connection between theory and practice, issues and advocacy, throughout our curricula and in all our programs.  WGSS Department

Our programs include:                                             

  • our brand-new major in Women's Studies, designed to prepare you well either for graduate school or work in a range of fields, emphasizing collaborative leadership and problem-solving from the workplace and community level to international arenas
  • our minor (opens in MS Word) in Women's Studies, emphasizing service-learning, internships, and involvement that puts learning into action
  • on-campus events for students, faculty, staff, and the La Crosse community
  • our student organizations, WSSA (wiss-ah), and Students for Choice, a member of NARAL's Pro-Choice Wisconsin
  • the Self-Sufficiency Program that prepares low-income parents for college
  • the Faculty Seminar on Teaching For Diversity (working with CATL's Inclusive Excellence)
  • WGSS is a partner of the American Association of University Women.  Benefits for students are many:  see here.
  • and this website, with links to a variety of resources for women faculty at UW-L

In the tradition of Women’s Studies and its sister disciplines, our courses approach problems and issues from interdisciplinary perspectives.  They enhance courses on women, gender, and sexuality issues crosslisted in the traditional disciplines, and provide students with numerous opportunities to integrate their learning across their baccalaureate degree.

News:                                                    top Activism Corner!
WGSS Celebration:  The Ideas Box!  We asked for your ideas to celebrate women and solve problems in exchange for a cool button!  Click on the link to see what you said! Activist Vid-o-the-Month!  Jay Smooth (runs the longest-running hip-hop radio show in the U.S., from NYC) on the Hyde Amendment's role in Health Care Reform, on behalf of the Center for Reproductive Rights.  He invites you to make and submit your own video in support! 
What courses are offered for Spring 2010?  Check here! Many statements in the New York State Senate debate on marriage equality were passionate and personal.  See those by Senator Hassell-Thompson and Senator Diane Savino for good examples. 
WGSS logo Previous Activist Vid-o-the-Month selections here
Arts Activism:  Andrea Gibson:  poetry on art
Activist Research!  Retaining Professional Women, by Jodi Vandenberg-Daves and Betsy Morgan
Two-Minute Activism:  *FreeRice!*Fund Free Mammograms! *Click for Survivors of Domestic Violence!