LGBTQ Studies Certificate

The LGBTQ Studies certificate is intended to prepare students for the diverse world of the 21st century by concentrating on the study of queer sexualities, gender identities, and gender expressions as well as the critique of heteronormativity: concerns that are frequently left out of or briefly covered in traditional fields of study. The certificate is available to students majoring in any field who wish to complement their work with a concentration in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer studies.

The Certificate is designed to teach students to think informatively and critically about the lives and contributions of LGBTQ people, to respect the dignity of LGBTQ people, and to understand and interact with a culture that contributes to the diversity of our world. Additionally, students will explore various historic and cultural approaches to sexuality and gender as well as challenge cultural assumptions that privilege heterosexual and cisgender identities. The interdisciplinary approach of this certificate will allow students to study the broad spectrum of diversity through seeing how sexual orientation and gender expression play out in the lives of people from various races, ethnicities, religions, classes, and cultures.

12 credits are required for the LGBTQ Studies Certificate. To complete the LGBTQ Studies Certificate, students must earn a minimum grade point average of 2.00 in all courses applied to their LGBTQ Studies Certificate.

Questions? Email us!
Dr. Kathryn Klein, LGBTQ Studies Certificate Coordinator, kleink@uwosh.edu OR
Dr. Ula Klein, Director of Women’s & Gender Studies, kleinu@uwosh.edu

 

Required Courses: 3 cr.

  • WG STDS 205 Intro to LGBTQ Studies (offered yearly)

 

Electives: 9 cr.

Students will be required to take 3 electives (9 credits).  At least 2 courses must be consistent content.  3 courses may also count for the student’s major or minor.

 

Consistent Content Electives (2 or 3 courses)

A minimum of 2 electives must be chosen from this group of courses:

  • POL SCI 346 Queer Politics and Policy (offered on a two-year cycle)
  • WG STDS 306 Trans and Non-binary Lives (offered on a two-year cycle)
  • WG STDS/SJ 366 Service Learning Field Study * (offered every semester)
    • Internship with appropriate agency, such as the LGBTQ+ Resource Center or Fair Wisconsin OR appropriate concentration, such as LGBTQ relationships with CARE/MENCARE, LGBTQ Domestic Violence at Harbour House in Appleton, or LGBTQ youth with Goodwill Industry’s LGBT Partnership.
  • WG STDS 391/ENG 391 Queer, Trans, and Non-Binary Literature
  • WG STDS 392 Queer Theory and Queer Lives
  • WG STDS 393 Queer Memoir (offered on a two-year cycle)
  • WG STDS 395 Special Topics in the Humanities
    • May apply with relevant topic (for example: Queer Lives Through Memoir or Bi/Pan/Polysexual Lives)
  • WG STDS 397 Special Topics in Social Sciences
    • May apply with relevant topic (for example: Two Spirit Lives)
  • WG STDS 398 Special Topics in Environment, Health and Natural Sciences
    • May apply with relevant topic (for example: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Past)
  • WG STDS/SJ 446 Independent Reading * (with appropriate content) (offered every semester)

*Because WG STDS/SJ 366 and 446 can be taken with varying content, these courses would be added to the certificate through a course modification.

Significant Content Electives (1 or none)

The following are electives with significant content.  Only one elective may be chosen from this group of electives:

  • ANTHRO 344 Kinship, Gender, and Sexuality (offered on a two-year cycle)
  • ANTHRO 349 Archaeology of Gender
  • SOC 325 Social Movements and Collective Behaviors (offered on a two-year cycle)
  • WG STDS/PHIL 335 The Philosophy of Sex
  • WG STDS/SOC 339 Sociology of the Family
  • WG STDS/ES 365 Gender & Nature
  • WG STDS 403 Feminist Thought and Practice

 

Other Electives

Each semester we will generate a list of other courses that would be appropriate for the certificate when taught by certain professors and when the course work (required papers) can be focused on LGBTQ issues. These courses would be added to the certificate through a course modification.

 

Student Learning Outcomes

Students graduating with an LGBTQ Studies Certificate should demonstrate knowledge of the following concepts and issues:

  1. The socio-cultural and historical construction of gender and sexual identities.
  2. Intersectionality of gender and sexuality with race/ethnicity, religion, class, and nationality.
  3. How education and activism can challenge bigotry, inequality, and systems of oppression based on gender and sexuality.
  4. Major issues pertaining to the lives of LGBTQ people, historically and in contemporary societies, e.g. representations of LGBTQ individuals; violence; relationships between LGBTQ individuals/communities and institutions such as the medical and mental health professions, the law, religion, the media, education, and the military; family, and the LGBTQ Community and work.
  5. The creation of queer culture, including literature, art, theatre, film, and the impact of queer culture on the dominant culture.

Women's and Gender Studies

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Sage Hall, Room 3003 or 3464
835 High Ave, Oshkosh, WI 54901

Contact Information

Ula Lukszo Klein | Director
Phone: (920) 424-0892
Email: kleinu@uwosh.edu