Program in the Study of Women and Gender

The Program in the Study of Women and Gender emphasizes original research, a variety of theoretical approaches, curricular innovation, and collaboration with departments. The program asks, in a concrete way, about women’s and men’s economic, political, social, and cultural roles, and, in a theoretical vein, about how to interpret patterns of relations between the sexes. It seeks to introduce new scholarship—primarily from the humanities and social sciences, but also from the biological sciences—that challenges present and past understandings of womanhood and manhood.

For a number of years, the program has been developing courses that introduce undergraduates to the newest and most sophisticated work on the experiences of women and on relations between the sexes. Princeton faculty offer courses in many fields that address gender issues including English, languages and literatures, comparative literature, history, history of science, African-American studies, art and archaeology, Latin American studies, Near Eastern studies, anthropology, classics, biology, sociology, politics, theater and dance, psychology, and religion. Many of these courses are part of the departmental offerings; others are interdisciplinary core courses developed by the program and co-taught by faculty members from different disciplines. The introductory course, for example, has been team-taught in the past by combinations of a political scientist, art historian, anthropologist, classicist, sociologist, historian, and literary critic; its topics and materials have ranged from the sexual division of labor among Peruvian villagers and African bush tribespeople, to representations of women in 19th- and 20th-century American literature, to the role of quilting as a distinct female artistic tradition, to the implications of the “mommy track” for high-level female executives. In the core seminar the subject shifts: past and future topics include women and cinematic theory, the 19th-century origins of debates about women’s place, mothers and daughters, and feminism and psychoanalysis.

The program has been especially successful at establishing a rich and vibrant intellectual community, composed of graduate students, undergraduates, and faculty. Lectures, symposia, discussions, and films take place constantly, bringing students and faculty together in a shared dialogue about feminism, scholarship, and women’s and men’s experience. The presence of such an involved and active group of scholars and students — including a number of senior scholars of international stature — has given the Princeton Program in the Study of Women and Gender a national reputation as a leading center for teaching and research.