Graduate Studies

About

Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies critically interrogates gender and sexuality as categories of  inequality, difference, and identification. Gender (the social and historical meanings of distinctions across sexes) and sexuality (the domain of sexual practices, identities, discourses, and institutions) are studied as they intersect with class, race, nationality, religion, ability, and other zones of human and nonhuman experience. The introduction of these perspectives into all fields of knowledge necessitates new research paradigms, organizing concepts and analytics, and critique.

Combined PhD and Certificate

Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies offers both a Graduate Certificate and a Combined PhD.  The Graduate Certificate may only be pursued by students already enrolled in another PhD program at Yale University.  As its name implies, the Combined PhD may only be pursued in conjunction with a PhD in another department or program at Yale.  Applicants who hope to pursue a Combined Degree with one of WGSS’s partner programs (currently African American Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, English, and Sociology) may apply directly to the Combined Degree.  Interested students who are admitted to and enroll in any other GSAS Ph.D. programs may apply to do an ad hoc combined degree with WGSS during their first year at Yale.  Please see our Combined PhD FAQs for more detailed information about both the Graduate Certificate and the Combined PhD  Our Combined PhD is offered with African American Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, English, and Sociology.   

While the requirements of the Combined PhD are more extensive than those of the Certificate, both entail graduate-level coursework, teaching and pedagogic experience, and capacity to pursue independent research. 

Director of Graduate Studies

Dara Strolovitch (dara.strolovitch@yale.edu
WLH Rm 310