Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

Director: Jillian Crocker, Sociology

Steering Committee: Amanda Frisken (AS), Rachel Kalish (SY), Ashlee Lien (PY), Elizabeth Schmermund (EL), Stephanie Schneider (SOE), Chelsea Shields-Más (HP), Jessica Williams (EL)

Affiliated Faculty: Annessa Babic (AS), Laura Chipley (AS), Carolyn Cocca (PEL), Marty Cooper (PY), Jillian Crocker (SY), Jacqueline Emery (EL), Amanda Frisken (AS), Keisha Goode (PH), Christopher Hobson (EL), Rachel Kalish (SY), Melissa Kiner (PY), Danielle Lee (EL), Ashlee Lien (PY), Martha Livingston (PH), Diana Papademas (SY), Nicholas Powers (EL), Carol Quirke (AS), Bianca Rivera (PH), Elizabeth Schmermund (EL), Stephanie Schneider (SOE), Chelsea Shields-Mas (HP), Nicole Sieben (SOE), Samara Smith (AS), Sarah Smith (PH), Ela Tokay (HP), Jessica Williams (EL), Shameika Williams (PH), Hyewon Yi (VA), Gilda Zwerman (SY)

The Women’s,Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program offers a major and minor as well as independent studies and internships. It also supports the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Center.

Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the creation, reconstruction, and perpetuation of asymmetrical sex and gender systems, as well as their connections to other systems of power and inequality. It explores the ways in which gender intersects with individual and collective identities, health and well-being, social and cultural arrangements, economic and political systems, and our ways of knowing and understanding the world.

Courses in WGSS examine how ideologies of sex, gender, and sexuality have influenced and been influenced by culture and society; literature and the arts; law and public policy; and health, science, and technology. WGSS closes gaps in traditional higher education resulting from the exclusion of women and other marginalized groups from many areas of study.

The WGSS program empowers students through a feminist critique of social, cultural, and institutional structures that enables them to think more critically about their own lives, and that inspires them to work as active agents for social justice. The knowledge and skills attained in WGSS courses are valuable in a wide range of fields including, but not limited to: Community & Non-Profit Advocacy, Leadership, & Management; Social Services, Social Work, & Public Policy; Communications; Human Resources; and Education, Health, & Legal Professions.

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Center

wgsscenter@oldwestbury.edu

Woodlands 1, Rooms 108-110

The WGSS Center is an inclusive and intersectional feminist community space and resource center for members of the SUNY Old Westbury community. It has three main goals:

To educate and empower people of all genders around issues of gender and sexuality, health and well-being, and achievement;
To raise awareness of and to reduce inequities, discrimination, and violence based on gender and sexuality; and
To champion diversity, to advocate for equity, to build community, and to promote social justice.

The WGSS Center collaborates with campus and community partners to promote individual and community health, well-being, and development, and to raise awareness of intersectional inequalities.

Co-curricular opportunities through the WGSS Center encourage students to connect with and learn from each other and from faculty and staff. The WGSS Center sponsors presentations, small/informal discussions, workshops on advocacy and activism, and other opportuntiies and activities designed to foster personal and intellectual development. The Center provides student-centered spaces for community-building and collaboration and maintains a small lending library and resources on a range of issues related to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. It offers a limited number of student internships in addition to opportunities for service learning, volunteering, research, and work study.