Gender & Politics Preliminary Exam Field
The goal of this field is to train Ph.D. candidates in the core theoretical and methodological issues of gender and politics, as a field of study that cuts across all of the subfields of political science, with a particular focus on issues in comparative research. Reflecting the development of the study of gender in political science, students will focus on empirical theory-building issues as they relate to larger normative questions and applications in problem-driven and multi-method research. Given the interdisciplinary connections of this area, students will be asked to do some coursework in women's studies and will have the opportunity to take classes in other social science disciplines. This field is geared toward both academic and applied professions, with an eye toward training graduates to work in the growing field of women's policy at the national and international levels in government-based and nongovernmental organizations.
Students will also learn firsthand about the RNGS women's policy office project, housed in the department and codirected by Amy Mazur, who works on comparative gender and policy issues in western post-industrial democracies more broadly speaking. This project is a 10-year-long study of women's movements, women's policy agencies, and state feminism in 17 post-industrial democracies conducted by the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State. Gender and criminal justice issues, also a focal point of the department's curriculum and research foci, can be folded into the student's program. Faith Lutze and Leana Bouffard both work in this area.
Course Work
Required Classes
- Pol S 537: Concepts and Methods in Comparative Politics: Gender and Politics
- W St 481: Theoretical Issues in Women's Studies
OR Am St 504: Contemporary Feminist Theories and Practices - Independent Readings Class in Gender and Politics
Select 2 from the following list with approval by graduate committee:
- Crm J 580: Women in Criminal Justice
- Soc 555: Sex Roles in Society
- Soc 590: Race, Class, and Gender
- Anth 502: Gender and Kinship
- W ST 481 (if not taken as a core class)
- Am St 504 (if not take as a core class)
- Pol S 537: Concepts and Methods in Comparative Politics: Bridging the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide
- Other 500-level social science course with a major focus on gender
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