• GWS Major

    Learn about requirements to complete the major, how to declare as a GWS major, and information about the core curriculum.

  • GWS Minor

    Students in the College of Letters and Science may complete one or more minors of their choice, normally in a field both academically and administratively distinct from their major. Learn more about this program here.

  • LGBT Minor

    Interested students in any major can earn a minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Studies by completing four required core courses and two upper division elective courses approved for the minor program. For full details, visit the LGBT Minor Program page.

  • Undergraduate Courses

    Browse our current and archived course offerings.

  • Transfer Students

    Learn more about prerequisite courses, how to declare as a GWS major, summer session course offerings, and helpful resources for incoming transfer students.

  • Community-Engaged Scholarship

    GWS offers particular courses with a community-engagement focus. The hope and challenge of these courses is to go beyond standard educational models in which learning is bound by the classroom and confined to the University. This explicit effort to bridge the gap between the University – as a place of study – and community organizations – as agents of action, grows from the urgent need for a practice of praxis in which theory and action each inform each other.

  • Resources for Students

    Check out our FAQ Sheet – Learn about undergraduate academic opportunities – Join the GWS Undergraduate Student Association – Find out details on GWS Commencement activities – Browse Undergraduate Advising resources – see how to request a letter of reference.


The department offers an undergraduate major and minor and participates in the campus-wide Undergraduate Student Learning Initiative which assists students in understanding and achieving specific departmental and general learning goals. It also houses an undergraduate minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender studies, a program whose courses overlap productively with feminist studies.