Why Women's Studies?

• Through their engagement with interdisciplinary coursework and faculty from 18 different departments in five colleges, our students learn to ask cutting-edge questions and to conduct high quality research.
  
• Students who have completed the dual-title degree or the graduate minor will have a competitive edge as more academic and professional positions require knowledge of feminist theory, women, and gender.
  
• Women's Studies students are a part of a supportive community for discourse that connects personal and larger cultural and political issues.
  
• The Women's Studies Department gives graduate students unique opportunities for teaching and mentoring in a program that is committed to critical and engaged pedagogy. Graduate teaching assistantships are available in addition to opportunities to co-teach upper-level and cross-listed courses with faculty recognized for outstanding teaching.
  

One faculty member from Women's Studies should be included on the master's committee. In addition, students should select a thesis topic that reflects their inquiry in women's studies. In the case of dual-title programs in which a master's thesis is not required, students need to take three additional credits of Women's Studies course work and complete a master's paper on a topic approved by the student's committee

Admission requirements
for Master's Dual Degree

The Women's Studies Department at Penn State offers both a graduate minor, for students in any discipline, and dual-title Master's or Doctoral degrees in Women's Studies and one of the disciplines listed to the right.

In order to be admitted to doctoral candidacy in the dual-title degree program, students must meet the Ph.D. candidacy requirements specified by the
co-operating department. (Click on links, to the right, to view program descriptions and requirements in each discipline.)

In addition, the student will be required to present a portfolio of work in Women's Studies, including a statement of the student's interdisciplinary research interests, a program plan, and samples of writing that indicate the student's work in Women's Studies.

Art Education

Curriculum and Instruction

English

French

Geography

History

Philosophy

Rural Sociology

Political Science

Psychology