Bringing Theory to Life
The Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is home to a leading Ph.D. program, a vibrant undergraduate curriculum, and accomplished scholars who work across disciplines
Message to our Emory students, colleagues, and friends within and beyond the Emory University campus
As the leadership of WGSS, we are absolutely appalled at the events that took place on the morning of April 25, 2024 on Emory's campus. Many of us, as Emory faculty, have expressed their outrage at the administrative response to a nonviolent student-led action, and we imagine that many among you feel the same way. Those of us who were at the protests saw first-hand the violence leveled at our students, colleagues, and in some cases, family, We also support all students and activists from Emory and beyond the campus who were there to support and engage in a peaceful protest. We believe that there was absolutely no reason to call the Atlanta Police Department or the Georgia State Police to campus.
We have been taking steps to check in on our students: from checking in by email or remaining at the jail much of yesterday to find out information about the health and safety of those who were arrested. In addition, we are working with other faculty across the campus to coordinate a response that refuses the attempts of Emory’s Administration to meet open and peaceful academic freedom with violence, repression, and brutality.
We hope you are all ok, and we stand with you in rejecting this institutional approval of cruelty and brutality.
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The Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at Emory University is proud to support a generous and pluralistic understanding of the academic field of women’s studies in its teaching, research, and public scholarship.
Our vision is to bridge the worlds of theory and social justice that exist both inside and outside the classroom. We are dedicated to training our undergraduate and graduate students to apply these theories to their own scholarship and to prepare them for meaningful and successful careers.
Our department foregrounds interdisciplinary analyses of sex, gender, and sexuality through feminist, queer, and trans studies. Faculty in WGSS have expertise in law, neuroscience, anthropology, political science, history, philosophy, ethics, literary theory, psychoanalysis, critical studies of race, postcolonial theory, globalization, immigration, and science and technology studies.
We are the first WGSS PhD-granting degree program and are consistently ranked as one of the very best WGSS graduate programs in the United States. Learn more about our graduate program.
In our undergraduate program, we emphasize learning through an interdisciplinary lens focused on critical thinking and analysis, writing and research, imagination, and creative expression. Our majors pursue a variety of post-graduate pathways in multiple fields. Learn more about our undergraduate program.