Master of Arts in Women Studies

Thank you for your interest in The University of Alabama Women's Studies Master of Arts Program. The graduate program provides a growing number of students, who wish to perform research on gender and feminist issues, with the opportunity to pursue the master's degree in women's studies. The M.A. program emphasizes interdisciplinary and cross-cultural methodologies, as well as analytical and theoretical perspectives on women. Housed in the Department of Women's Studies, graduate students have the opportunity to work in an independent academic unit of women's studies scholars and faculty. As one of the few freestanding departments of women's studies in the U.S., the Alabama women's studies program is also one of the oldest, with core and participating faculty from numerous academic disciplines. The program is designed to accommodate students from a variety of humanities, social science and related backgrounds.

The University of Alabama Master of Arts in Women's Studies is a thirty (30) credit hour degree program which focuses on feminist research. The program emphasizes interdisciplinary and cross-cultural methodology, as well as analytical and theoretical perspectives on women. Students can specialize in feminist theory, the culture of southern women, women in the civil rights movement, or other areas of feminist and interdisciplinary research.

Potential students should have taken some undergraduate coursework in women's studies or the equivalent before taking graduate courses. Entrance requirements are those of the Graduate School. Please visit http://graduate.ua.edu for more information on entrance exam requirements and scores. The program of study requires 24 hours of course work (9 hours of core, and 15 hours of electives), 6 hours of thesis research, and the successful completion of a comprehensive examination and thesis. Program graduates have gone on to pursue careers in many professions; others have successfully pursued advanced degrees in such areas as law, public policy, and other specialties.

The University of Alabama Women's Studies Department is one of the few programs in the U.S. with a permanent number of graduate assistantships, which we award to qualified students on a competitive basis. Several universities have graduate programs in women's studies, but few have full-time assistantships in women's studies; our graduate assistants teach Introduction to Women's Studies or they perform research with a faculty member. For those interested in applying for an assistantship or financial aid, the application should be filed by February 15. Currently, assistantships pay $10,290.00 for the academic year, and they include a tuition scholarship for fall and spring sessions, doubling the value of the award. We are pleased to know of your interest; if you have any further questions about the M.A. program, please contact us

Requirements for Master's Degree in Women's Studies

The Master of Arts in Women’s Studies consists of the following requirements:

• a minimum of thirty semester hours, of which at least twenty-four will be classroom hours in courses at the 500-level or above, and six thesis hours;
• a two-part exam, consisting of an oral exam and thesis defense, described below; and,
• the thesis. In general, it will take a minimum of two full academic years to complete a Master of Arts degree with a thesis requirement. Students who enter the program without prior coursework in women’s studies or feminist theory may be required to take additional credit hours.

The Core Requirement: Nine credit hours (out of a minimum of 24) will be taken in three required courses – Feminist Theory; Research Methods; and Gender, Race, and Class. The remaining courses should be selected primarily from the Women’s Studies curriculum; a student may choose to take graduate-level electives outside the Department if the courses are in the student’s specialization and/or thesis field.

Students with assistantships are required to take WS 502/503: Teaching Women’s Studies in their first semester.

The M. A. Exam: All students will take an exam on the thesis topic at least one semester before the student intends to submit the completed thesis to the Graduate School . This exam will be an oral examination administered by the student’s thesis committee. In order to prepare for this exam, the student must complete and submit to the committee:

• a thesis proposal which contains a description of the research topic, a plan or outline, a description of the methodology, and the purpose of the thesis, and
• a working bibliography which should be as complete as possible at the time of the exam. This document should not exceed ten pages.

Before scheduling the exam, the student must confer with the Graduate Director, select a thesis committee, and meet with her committee chair who will review the thesis proposal, and possibly ask for a revision, before it is given to the rest of the committee.

The exam will consist of committee members’ questions on the thesis proposal (the topic’s feasibility, focus, purpose, viability and value; completeness of the bibliography; the plan of organization and outline). Additional questions may focus on the relationship between the proposed thesis topic and any of the core curriculum: feminist theory; research methodology; or gender, race, and class. For example, the candidate may be asked questions that have to do with the relationship between the thesis topic and women’s studies in general.

The purpose of the exam is to investigate how thoroughly the student is prepared in feminist research methodology in general and the thesis topic in particular; whether she is qualified to undertake a thesis; and if she has done ample preliminary research.

The Thesis: The thesis for the Master of Arts degree should demonstrate that the writer has a capacity for feminist research; an ability to draw logical conclusions; skill in organizing materials; and facility in the use of language. Before students enroll for their final semester, in addition to Department requirements, they must submit to the Graduate School an Application for Advanced Degree and an Application for Graduation.

The student also must visit the Graduate School and pick up A Manual for Students Preparing Theses and Dissertations and a schedule of thesis and graduation deadlines.

The thesis in Women’s Studies consists of a long research paper on a topic of the student’s choosing, in consultation with the Graduate Director and her committee, and with their approval.

The thesis should run between approximately fifty (50) to one hundred (100) pages in length. A paper that is too short, or one that runs beyond one hundred pages, may indicate a project that has been improperly designed or organized. A short paper, for instance, may indicate a lack of substance or insufficient research; a long paper, a lack of focus. The student will consult regularly with her thesis committee, particularly the chair (every week or two), and submit drafts to the chair and committee well before the Graduate School deadline. (The chair should receive a complete draft of the thesis at least one month before the Graduate School deadline.) The Graduate School requires that the committee have 2 weeks to read the thesis before the exam.

Choosing a Thesis Committee: The thesis committee consists of three members—a chair and two members. One member of the committee must come from outside the Department (or from among those faculty who hold joint appointments in Women’s Studies and another department).

Committee members must be asked by the student to serve, and once three members have consented, the Graduate Director must be informed. (Even if the Graduate Director is not a member of the committee, she must be regularly consulted and informed of the student’s progress toward completion.)

The thesis committee must be formed by the first week of the semester in which the student takes her oral exam.

Thesis Defense: The student must also present the thesis formally at a Thesis Defense. At that time, before signing a thesis approval, the committee may ask for corrections and revisions; or the committee may pass or fail the thesis. The Defense must occur at least ten working days before the thesis is due in the Graduate School, allowing time for final revisions. The Defense must be scheduled well in advance with the Graduate Director.

Deadlines *
The following dates are firm deadlines for students intending to graduate in the semesters indicated.

For students intending to graduate in May
Fall semester, week one: form thesis committee
September 15: draft of proposal to chair
October 1: revised proposal to committee
October 15: exam

For students intending to graduate in August
Spring semester, week one: form thesis committee
February 15: draft of proposal to chair
March 1: revised proposal to committee
March 15: exam

For students intending to graduate in December
Summer semester, week one: form thesis committee
June 15: draft of proposal to chair
July 1: revised proposal to committee
July 15: exam

* If these dates fall on a weekend, the deadline will be the Friday before for those planning on taking the exam or finishing the thesis in the summer.

Many faculty do not teach in the summer and may be out of town; therefore, one must form a committee that is expected to serve in any summer session well in advance of that time.

Graduate School Deadlines
The Graduate School has additional deadlines—(1) applying for candidacy, (2) applying for graduation, and (3) filing the thesis title card—in addition to submitting the thesis. These deadlines vary each semester; to find out the deadlines for the semester of your graduation, pick up a list of Graduate School Deadlines in 102 Rose. Most forms can now be filed on The Graduate School web site.

Courses

Core Courses
WS 530: Feminist Theory: Women in Contemporary Society (3)
WS 532: Issues and Problems in Women's Studies Research (3)
WS 570: Gender, Race, and Class: Cross-Cultural Approaches (3)
WS 599: Thesis Research (6)

Elective Courses
WS 500/501: Independent Study in Women's Studies
WS 502/503: Seminar in Teaching Women's Studies
WS 510: Special Topics (i.e., Women and Utopia, Feminisms on Film etc.)
WS 520: Women and Work
WS 521: Women's Studies Practicum
WS 525: Feminist Theory: Major Texts
WS 540/541: Seminar in Women's Studies
WS 550: Women in America
WS 560: Women and Public Policy
WS 590: Women and Law
WS 592: Women in the Labor Force
WS 594: Sex Discrimination
AMS 525: Women in the Civil Rights
EH 635: Seminar in Feminist Literary Criticism
HY 500: Women in the Americas
SOC 529: Language and Social Analysis

Suggested Readings

Because Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary assortment of texts, ideas, and practices, it is not possible to assemble a comprehensive list of central Women’s Studies texts appropriate to everyone. The following list represents a core set of readings that graduate students in Women’s Studies should be familiar with, both in terms of the content of these readings and their importance in the field of Women’s Studies and within the history of feminist movement and debate.  

Entering students should be familiar with the following texts:  

*Classics, New and Old:  

Gloria Anzaldúa. Borderlands. 1987.  
Sandra Bartky. “Toward a Phenomenology of Feminist Consciousness.” 1975.  
Baumgardner, Jennifer, and Amy Richards. Manifesta: young women, feminism, and the future. 2000.   Simone de Beauvoir. The Second Sex. 1949. Trans. 1953.
Kate Bornstein. Gender Outlaw. 1994.
Susan Brownmiller. Against Our Will. 1975.
Patricia Hill Collins. Black Feminist Thought. 1990.
Mary Daly. Beyond God the Father. 1973. (or Pure Lust. 1984).
Angela Davis. Women, Race, and Class. 1983.
Susan Faludi. Backlash. 1991.
Barbara Findlen, ed. Listen up: voices from the next feminist generation. 2001.
Shulamith Firestone. The Dialectic of Sex. 1970.
Betty Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. 1963.
Marilyn Frye. The Politics of Reality. 1983. (includes “Oppression.”)
Carol Gilligan. In a Different Voice. 1982.
Sarah Lucia Hoagland. Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Value. 1988.
bell hooks. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. 1984 and Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism. 1981.
Teresa de Lauretis. Feminist Studies, Critical Studies. 1986.
Audre Lorde. Sister/Outsider. 1984.
Kate Millett. Sexual Politics. 1970.
Toril Moi. Sexual/Textual Politics. 1991.
Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa. This Bridge Called My Back. 1983.
Robin Morgan, ed. Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement . 1970. (& Robin Morgan, ed. Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women’s Movement Anthology . 1994.)
Adrienne Rich. Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Select Prose (1979-1985). 1986. (includes “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.”)
Rayna R. Reiter, ed. Toward An Anthropology of Women. 1975. (includes Gayle Rubin’s “The Traffic of Women.”)
Michelle Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, eds. Women, Culture, and Society. 1974. (includes Sherry Ortner’s “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?”)
Paula Rothenberg. Race, Class and Gender in the U.S. 1992.
Gloria Steinem. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. 1983.
Rebecca Walker, ed. To be real: telling the truth and changing the face of feminism. 1995.
Naomi Wolf. The Beauty Myth. 1991.
Virginia Woolf. A Room of One’s Own. 1929.
Mary Wollstonecraft. Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 1792.

Collections/Overviews/Resources:

The New Our Bodies, Ourselves For the New Century: A Book by and for Women . Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. 1998.
The Black Women’s Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves . 1990.
Alice S. Rossi. The Feminist Papers. 1973.
Rosemary Putnam Tong. Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction. 2nd ed. 1998.
Robin R. Warhol and Diane Price Herndl. Feminisms. New ed. 1997.

*A Women’s Studies reader (a textbook for an introductory Women’s Studies class) will provide a comprehensive, systematic, and quality selection of key texts, often pared down to the most relevant sections. In some cases, knowledge of these selected excerpts will suffice, especially when getting started on the background reading. This may be an efficient alternative for some of you because buying the originals could be costly, and reading them may require years of study.

Some excellent WS readers include:
Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology
Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings
Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology
Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives
Feminist Frontiers  

(These are just a few examples of the anthologies currently available.)

Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies

Program Description

In addition to the Master of Arts degree, the Department of Women’s Studies will now offer a Graduate Certificate to students who seek to develop interdisciplinary expertise in the study of women and gender. The certificate answers a need for many graduate students whose departments require them to minor in a secondary specialty. This program of concentration is aimed at enhancing any master’s or doctoral program through the mapping of an individual plan of study and research. The certificate provides students with a core knowledge of the field of women’s studies, and it allows students to research and develop an additional expertise in an individualized program of study.

Increasingly, scholarship on women and gender has come to occupy a significant place in the disciplines and professional associations. Accordingly, a growing number of students are selecting women’s studies as a graduate minor (or cognate as it is termed in some disciplines). Students who develop an expertise in this desirable area of specialization become more attractive candidates in the professional job market.

The certificate is tangible evidence of proficiency in an area of women’s studies—such as feminist theory; gender, race, and class; or film and feminism—and in the interdisciplinary method of women’s studies. Upon completion of the certificate program, which is described below, Women’s Studies will provide students with a letter and certificate. These will provide tangible evidence of a background in women’s studies, feminist theory, and interdisciplinary research methods.

Admissions:

Students must submit a letter of intent and a proposed plan of study to the Director of Graduate Studies. The letter of intent and plan of study will be reviewed by the Chair and the Director of Graduate Studies.

Requirements for Masters Students Receiving a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies:

• A total of 9 hours of graduate course work, of which 6 must be women’s studies core courses
• Required core courses: WS 530 Women in Contemporary Society and WS 532 Issues and Problems in Women’s Studies Research (3 credit hours) or WS 570 Gender Race and Class (3 credit hours)
• Three hours electives in women’s studies or in a related field approved by the Director of Graduate Studies

Requirements for Ph.D. Students:

• A total of 12 hours of graduate course work, of which 9 mustbe women’s studies core courses
• Required core courses: WS 530 Women in Contemporary Society (3 credit hours); WS 532 Issues and Problems in Women’s Studies Research (3 credit hours); and WS 570 Gender Race and Class (3 credit hours)
• Three hours electives in women’s studies or in a related field approved by the Director of Graduate Studies
• Ph.D. students will be required to complete a research project in addition to the 12 credit hours. Examples of the research projects are the application of theoretical concepts and perspectives learned in coursework to their dissertation, expounding on a chapter of their dissertation

M.A. Graduates and Their Topics

Elliot Adams, Writing Woman, Writing Madness: Madness and Autobiography in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Jennifer Butterworth, A Reading of the Cuban Telenovela Destino Prohibido as a Feminist Intervention in Popular Culture

Ethan Brooks-Livingston. Beyond Intersectionality: Trans-Situating Difference Through Queer Theory

Ashley Cox, The Pervasiveness, Nature, and Power of Women's Representation in Video Games: A Content Analysis and Theoretical Assessment of Social Effects

Shara Crookston. Who Is in the Know? A Feminist Response to 60 Years of Seventeen Magazine's All-American Girl

Jennifer Elizabeth Allred, Toward a Theory and Practice of Feminist Photography

Monica Alzate-Buitrago, Free Motherhood in Colombia: Between the Catholic Church and the Law (Outstanding Thesis Award, College of Arts & Sciences, 1993)

Rebecca Baggett, Considering Interracial Sisterhood: The Relationship between Black and White Women in Toni Morrison 's Beloved

Meta Harris Braxton, Perceptions of Feminism by African-American Women Theorists

Samantha Elliott Briggs, Sista' Scholars Working as Outsiders Within: African American Women Scientists at Majority Institutions

Karma R. Chavez, Re-Visioning the Queer Impulses of Queer Theory

Nicole E. Coffin, Something Wicked This Way Comes: The Defense of Marriage Act

Amanda Crabb,  Language and Implementation of Sexual Harassment Policies

Nicole Ervin, Feminization of the American University

Jennifer Irene Crook, Delivering Neonates or Birthing Babies?: A Case for Woman Centered Birth

Martha Crownover, Fine: Women's Speech in an Appalachian Family

Erin Duffey, The World of Women: Le Desert Mauve of Nicole Brossard

Lana Estess,  Rereading "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm:" Discovering New Realms of Power and Pleasure

Sari Faizah, Theorizing "Third World" Feminism for Indonesian Women

Kriss Ferluga, The Personal Is Ethnographic: Some Examples of Women 's Influence on Cultural Anthropology

Kelly Finley, Empower Me! Deflower Me? Re-Theorizing Female Virginity in the Late Twentieth Century

Dorothy Dugger Franklin, Sifting the Midden: Voice of a Black Belt White Child

Sara Gilibert, Lesbians under the Umbrella of Sodomy Statutes

Dale Gray, From Case History to (the) Polymorphic Body: Rewriting "Dora"

Brandy Harris, Revisiting the Beauty Myth: A Look at Print Media Representations from an African American Female Perspective

Jessica Linn Harris, Moving Beyond "God the Father": Toward a More Inclusive Faith

Holly Jaap, White Southern Women for Racial Equality: Claiming the Heritage and Living the Legacy

Christina Janvier, You've come a Long Way Baby ... Or, Have You? the Girl Power Movement and Alabama Textbooks

Laurie K. Jordan, There 's a Feminist in My Kitchen!: Reclaiming Cooking As a Feminist Act

Anne Lacsamana, "The Ladies Will Kick It, the Rhyme It Is Wicked": Constructing a Theoretical Continuum Between Black Feminist Theory and Women 's Rap Music

Jean Lafky, Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Dieting Could Kill You: Cultural Expectations of Thinness in Women

Liliana Losi, Feminism, Post-Structuralism, and Politics: The Case of Gayatri Spivak

Marjorie Louis, Constructing a Theory of Difference: An Analysis of the Issues of Race and Class in Feminist Theology

Susanne Luhmann, Identity and Difference: A Crisis in Feminism

Charity M. Lusteck , Weathering the Storm: The
Intersection of Accelerated Aging, Uterine Fibroids, and Hysterectomy

Grey McCallister de Reyes, Breaking Down the Clubhouse Doors: Female Political Candidates and Their Campaigns for Senate Office

Rachel McWhorter, Changing Conceptions: A Feminist Disability Studies Analysis of Pregnancy

Anna Mitchell,  Women's Motivations to Participate in Elective Politics:  A Qualitative Study of Alabama State Legislative Candidates

Karla Linn Momberger, Curse of the Zombie Nation: Racism, A.I.D.s, Haiti and Horror

Nicole K. Nieto, Gender and Ethnicity: Hispanic Women As Activists 

Lisa Battaglia Owen, Reading the Female Body: Buddhism, Feminism, and The Cultural Construction of Gender

Juli Parker, From Compulsory Heterosexuality to Gender Fluidity: Can "Heterosexual" Feminists Enter?

Katherine Patterson, Interrogating a Feminist Trace of the Patriarchal Artistic Canon

Antonella Piselli, Rethinking the Categories of Sex and Gender

Carla Pomeroy, From "A Room of One's Own" to a College of One's Own: A Case for Women 's Colleges Today

Margaret Purcell, Femak Corporate Managers: Exempt Employees

Bree Roberts, Feminists and G-Strings: Finding the Female Gaze in the Heterosexual Male Strip Clubs

Beth Robinson. Working Women Unite”: Women Textile Workers in the Deep South, 1900-1940

Amy Rogers, With a Lady on His Arm: An Exploration of The Femak in Tattoo Art

Laura Savage, Faith Gives Birth to Feminism: Biblical Rhetoric and the Shaping of Nineteenth- Century American Feminist Thought

Elisabetta Scala, Deconstruction and Subjectivity in Cixous, Irigaray, and Kristeva

Ana Self Schuber, Identity and Cultural Memory: The Rok of Tekvision in the American Femak Image

Blakley Scott, The Emergence of Fetal Rights and the Politics of Femak Autonomy

Etta Morgan Sharp, Biassed Justice and the Death Penalty

Kathleen Sokol, Pseudo-Citizenship: Women and the Constitution, 1870s and 1990s

Patricia Spears-Taff, Exploring the Impact of Coco Chanel within Fashion & Feminism

Sharon Stanley, Disrupting Identity: An Examination of Identity Politics and Cultural Anger in Asian American Feminism

Frances Strong, The Clandestine Traffic of Lola V. Stein

Jada Tidwell, Organizing Women: Issues and Approaches

Rebecca White, Women 's Voices in Women 's Studies Classrooms: Pedagogy and Students 'Experiences

Stephanie Wical, Genre Trouble: John Waters 'Films and Poststructuralist Theory

Shannon Wiley, Subverting the Word: Feminists in the Christian Church

Yi Yi Wu, Gender and Globalization: A Case Study of Chinese Women in Foreign Direct Investments

Reiko Yamagishi, Working Mothers and the Japanese Sex/Gender System

Parichart Yenjai, The Expansion of Educational Opportunities for Rural Thai Women

Nicole Youngman, Feminist Theology, Science Fantasy and the Pagan/Christian Culture Clash