Prospectus

The Women & Gender Studies Program is an interdisciplinary minor and certificate program designed to provide students with a gender-focused curriculum that fully incorporates the concept of gender and is responsive to the issues, experiences, research, and discourse of multiple gender identities in Guam, within Micronesia, and throughout the global community.

The Women & Gender Studies program covers a wide range of contemporary topics dealing with the processes, trends, and explanations of family, women, and gender in our diverse society. The focus of the program is to aid undergraduate students in their understanding and development of major theories, issues, and research from an interdisciplinary perspective. The program is designed to provide students with the tools and abilities to assess, discuss, research, analyze, and write about change throughout the region; generating pathways to research careers.

Students will graduate with the skills needed to pursue careers in:

• Advocacy
• Business
• Community Development
• Counseling
• Education
• Government
• International Aide
• Journalism
• Media Literacy
• Research Associations
• Social Services
• National Leadership

Additionally, the Women & Gender Studies program provides training and a strong foundation for students wishing to pursue graduate degrees in Women & Gender Studies and other related disciplines.

One of the major strengths of the program is the Regional Research Center. The Women & Gender Regional Research Center supports the efforts of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math); BUILD EXITO (research, mentoring, and career development); and the Micronesian Studies Graduate Program. The Women & Gender Studies program is for students who are interested in gender and regional research in the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of Pacific Islanders and indigenous women, whose contributions influence and contribute to the advancement of women throughout the region. Emphasis is on undergraduate student research.

The program has five main objectives:

1. To offer an interdisciplinary program that will broaden understanding of the significance of gender in the lives, identities, activities, opportunities, and concerns of multiple gender identities in Guam, in other areas of Micronesia, and across cultures.
2. To provide degree students with a women- and gender-focused curriculum that will enhance their major field or study by highlighting issues, experiences, research, and discourse relevant to women locally, throughout Micronesia, and in a global context.
3. To offer non-degree seeking students the opportunity to gain knowledge of women- and gender-centered teaching and research that is responsive to the needs and interests of multiple gender identities in the multicultural community of Guam and culturally diverse Micronesian region within a comparative framework.
4. To provide professionals, as well as non-professional community-based individuals, with a series of gender-oriented courses and workshops that will empower and enrich their own lives and sense of identity as well as that of their families and communities.
5. To further establish the Regional Research Center that will investigate the needs and issues critical to people in Guam and throughout the Pacific Islands, which will serve to increase gender parity locally and internationally.

Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the Women & Gender Studies minor or certificate, students will demonstrate the ability to:

1. Understand and critique the significance of gender in the lives, identities, activities, opportunities, and concerns of multiple gender identities locally, regionally, and transnationally.
2. Analyze how gendered identities intersect with social media, the state, religion, the economy, ethnicity, race, class, and sexual orientation and how systems of inequality and oppression operate and are sustained.
3. Examine theoretical and practical connections between gender studies and students’ major field of study by highlighting issues, experiences, research, and discourses relevant to Guam, Micronesia, and the global community.
4. Engage in research mindful of the needs and issues critical to cultural diversity in Guam, Micronesia, and the Pacific Islands, which will increase regional scholar-based partnerships, interpersonal skills, and leadership roles for students.

Student Advisement