1. Women's and Gender Studies
  2. Women’s Studies Certificate Program
  3. Curriculum and Certificate Information

Curriculum and Certificate Information

The Women’s Studies Certificate Program is an optional course of study for students already enrolled at The Graduate Center, CUNY. It is designed to complement existing graduate programs and to accept as electives those courses that the student uses to fulfill degree requirements elsewhere in The Graduate Center. The certificate is awarded when the certificate requirements are completed. All students are welcome to register for elective courses in Women’s and Gender Studies, regardless of their intention to pursue the Certificate.

Students enrolled at The Graduate Center interested in earning a Women’s Studies Certificate should complete this registration form.


Course Requirements:

To earn the Certificate, students must take one prerequisite course, two required courses, and a minimum of two electives.

Required Courses:

Five Courses are now required to earn a certificate of completion:

  • One required prerequisite: Feminist Texts and Theories (3 credits)
  • Two required core classes: Global Feminisms (3 credits) and Topics in Women’s and Gender Studies (3 credits)
  • Two electives: Two additional courses that are cross-listed with WSCP

Note: WSCP course requirements were revised in 2008. For those students who have completed the older versions of the prerequisites courses—including Feminist Texts and Contexts, Contemporary Feminist Theories, and the required course Workshop (Research Methodologies)—those courses WILL COUNT towards your certificate.

WSCP has lowered the course requirements from six courses to five courses. Specific changes include:

  • Feminists Texts and Contexts has been combined with Contemporary Feminist Theories to make one course: Feminist Texts and Theories
  • Transnational Feminisms has been changed to Global Feminisms
  • The Workshop (Research Methodologies) has changed to Topics in Women’s and Gender Studies.

Students will receive a Certificate of Completion upon finishing all the required coursework. Students will receive the actual Certificate in Women’s Studies upon graduation from their doctoral program.

Prerequisite Course:

Feminist Texts and Theories (3 credits): This course provides a broad overview of the issues and methods of Women’s Studies. The instructors will use an interdisciplinary approach to consider some of the themes, questions, methodologies and findings of women’s studies scholarship. The course will introduce students to a selection of feminist texts, taken from both literary and social science sources, and also to classic and contemporary theoretical works. In addition, students will explore the ways in which the field of Women’s Studies has raised new questions and brought new perspectives to those areas where the humanities and social and behavioral sciences intersect, with material which is interdisciplinary in nature and frequently poses a challenge to conventional disciplinary boundaries.