PhD - Doctor of Philosophy in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is the multidisciplinary study of gender and women's lives and experiences. Course work explores women's realities in such areas as the political and social sciences, health, psychology, history, literature, and the arts. Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies programs grew out of the women's movement, involving understandings of discrimination in society and a need to celebrate different women's strengths, contributions, and forms of resistance. Our program focuses on women of color feminisms, transnational feminisms, and queer feminist studies, offering Ph.D. student’s critical foundations in both theory and practice. We offer our students both the intellectual and applied skills to serve as activist-scholars and global citizens, prepared to engage matters of social justice within public, private, and academic spheres. We offer the first, and only, Ph.D. program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in Oregon. The Ph.D. in WGSS at OSU is the first, and only, Ph.D. in WGSS in Oregon. Oregon State University is a leading research university located in Corvallis, a vibrant college town in the heart of Western Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Corvallis consistently ranks among the best cities to live in the U.S. Our nationally and internationally recognized core faculty is committed to transformative scholarship, pedagogy and activism. PhD students in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies will take 27–28 credits of core requirements, as well as 36 dissertation credits, and 12 credits of electives in a concentration specific to their area of focus, for a total of 75–76 required credits. No more than two "slash" courses will be accepted toward the degree. We are currently accepting applications for our first cohort of students for the new Ph.D. in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Oregon State University. Ph.D. students in WGSS may select a graduate concentration in one of four areas, or create their own concentration: Health and Gender Justice Feminist Leadership Social Justice Theory and Practice Gender, Rhetoric, and Representation