WGS is an intellectually rigorous, interdisciplinary program with a skills-based curriculum that prepares you to transform yourself and your community. WGS examines the impact of gender on thought and everyday experience, and studies the intersections of gender with race, sexuality, class, ability, age, and other social categories. WGS enables you to explore the theory and the practice of social justice movements, activism, and advocacy.
The WGS house is open to the USM community, regardless of major. You are welcome to stop by to relax, do homework, or just hang out! We are located at 94 Bedford Street on the Portland campus and are open from 9:00AM to 4:30PM Monday through Friday. We have quiet study spaces available, comfy couches and gender-neutral bathrooms. Come by and introduce yourself anytime! We’d love to meet you.
Our mission: “The Women and Gender Studies Program at USM will use the transformative power of feminist education and scholarship, theory and action, to improve the lives of Maine people and the communities in which they live.”
Women and Gender Studies Program Learning Objectives
Students will identify and understand how patriarchal norms, practices, and systems intersect with oppressions including white supremacist, capitalist, heterosexist, and ableist ideologies.
Students will analyze the social, historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts of structural inequality through intersectional and transnational feminist lenses.
Students will critique socio-cultural representations of and knowledge about gender and sexuality.
Students will apply theoretical perspectives from anti-racist, decolonial, feminist, queer, and trans scholars and activists to critique and interpret experiences of gender and sexuality.
Students will apply cross-cultural knowledge and cultural humility to understand gender and sexuality in local, national, and global contexts.
Students will translate theory into practice through engagement with feminist practice outside of the classroom