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Gender Studies

Program Overview

The Gender Studies Program at Gordon College explores how conceptions of gender shape our perceptions, interactions, and institutions in ways that redound to the benefit and detriment of various social groups. It teaches critical methods of inquiry and promotes habits of reflection that lead to transformative engagement with contemporary societies. It focuses special attention on the capacities of religious traditions—and of Christianity in particular—both to underwrite and to challenge our gendered orderings of the world.

To this end, we aim for our students to...

  • Be able to demonstrate familiarity with the major questions, figures, and methods that shape contemporary discussions of gender.
  • Be able to relate biblical themes to contemporary discussions about gender.
  • Understand how conceptions of gender shape our perceptions, interactions, and institutions.
  • Understand the ways that conceptions of gender affect various social groups to their benefit
    or detriment.
  • Be able to think about how a Christian voice can bring healing and reconciliation on both theoretical and practical levels in matters of gender.

Curriculum Map

The program is composed of three required courses (12 credits) and two or three electives (at least 8 credits).  A minimum of 20 credits is required for the minor or concentration. Aside from the fact that the research seminar is a senior-level capstone, there is no necessary sequencing of courses.

1)  Required courses

  • PHI240   Philosophy of Women
  • SOC333 Sociology of Gender
  • PHI473   Gender Today

2)  Electives

  • BCM318  Biblical Perspectives of Gender
  • POL320   Women in Politics
  • SOC330  Human Sexuality
  • SOC340  Women and World Development
  • Oregon Extension Women's Studies May Term

Students may choose no more than one of the following cognate courses.

  • BCM205  Corinthian Correspondence
  • PHI234    Aesthetics
  • PHI310    Language and Interpretation
  • PHI330    Contemporary Ethical Theories and Issues
  • LIN301     Sociolinguistics
  • ENG420  Literary Criticism

  • SOC232  Diversity in US Populations

Contact

Lauren Barthold
Associate Professor of Philosophy
p: 978.867.4501

Daniel Johnson
Associate Professor of Sociology
p: 978.867.4407