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Certificate in Girls' Studies

The undergraduate Certificate in Girls' Studies enables students to utilize gender and age to examine girls lives and gilrhood from historical, psychological, anthropological, political, religious and rhetorical perspectives.

The Certificate in Girls' Studies is designed to complement any major, minor, or concentration in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Biological Sciences. The Certificate will increase educational opportunities of students pursuing graduate work and/or professional careers in education, law, social service, medicine, mental health, child advocacy organizations, and businesses that address the needs of girls in the U.S. and abroad.

The aims of the Girls' Studies Curriculum are:

* to examine age and “generation” as forces within past and present cultures and societies;

* to cultivate new insights into topics and methods of inquiry that view girls as a unique category distinct from “women” and “children;”

* to encourage critical thinking through cross-cultural comparisons of girls across lines of race, class, ethnicity, religion, sexualities, and societies;

* to examine the continuities and changes between girls‚ social realities and girlhood as a cultural construction of gendered ideals;

* to examine how girls accommodate, negotiate, and/or resist prevailing ideals of "girlhood;"

* to question changing definitions of "girlhood" and the shifting boundaries between girlhood and womanhood over time and place, and

* to discover ways to empower girls and to diminish the threats they face in their everyday lives.

Requirements for the Certificate

The Certificate in Girls' Studies may be earned in conjunction with a BA or BS degrees and as a free-standing credential available to nonmatriculated students. Students are required to complete 9-credit hours in three different disciplines chosen from the courses listed below.

Required:

HIS 300D: Girlhood in America (3)

Electives:

ANTH 300: Anthropology of Childhood (special topics) (3)

CJC 390: New Dimensions for Criminal Justice Topic: Applied Correctional Interventions for Delinquent Girls (3)

ENG 441: Girls in Print Culture (3)

HIS 300A: Girls in the Past & Present: Continuities and Changes (3)

PSY 490: Directed Individual Research (3)

EDU 497: Individual Study (3)

A&S 490F and A&S 490L: FUEL courses (Link to FUEL website)

With approval from the Director of Women's & Gender Studies, students pursuing the certificate may also enroll in directed readings courses in order to examine specific subject areas (e.g., eating disorders) not covered in other courses.