Women's History Courses

Contact

E-mail

914.395.2371

Sarah Lawrence College’s women’s history program immerses students in a combination of historical studies, feminist theory, and gender studies. The program also draws extensively upon resources in the social sciences and literature and on a legacy of continuing activism both within and outside the College community.

Students in the program find internship opportunities with groups such as the New York Historical Society, The Tenement Museum, and the Association for Union Democracy. Students also actively promote causes and agendas, including women’s equality and reproductive freedom; prison reform; lesbian, gay, and transgender issues; and HIV/AIDS education. Close interaction with faculty members helps students find direction, chart individual paths to the degree, and research and produce original theses.

MA Women’s History 2021-2022 Courses

Thesis Seminar in Women’s and Gender History

Graduate Seminar—Fall and Spring

This yearlong course is designed for students who are writing MA theses in women’s and gender history. We will discuss the historiographical dimensions of thesis work; assess various research methods, interpretive models, and theories of history; and grapple with practical questions about writing and documentation. Readings include historical scholarship, theoretical works, and research guides. At critical junctures, students will also read and evaluate one another’s work.

Faculty

Diversity and Equity in Education: Issues of Gender, Race, and Class

Graduate Seminar—Fall

​The education system is a central institution in the socialization of young people and the maintenance of the modern nation-state. Schools support meritocratic models of society by providing opportunities for social mobility. Paradoxically, schools also reproduce gender, racial, and class inequality. In this course, we will examine the roles that schools play in the transmission of culture, formation of identity, and reproduction of social structures. Paying special attention to gender and its intersection with other social categories, we will look at practices and policies that shape students' performance as they strive for competence, achievement, and acceptance. We will also analyze the larger political and economic contexts that shape both schools and the communities in which they are situated.

Faculty