About

We are a multidisciplinary program within the College of Arts and Sciences offering a well-established undergraduate major and minor, graduate specialization and minor, and a minor in LGBTQ/Sexuality Studies.

From its inception, our program has been committed to promoting a diverse faculty and student body and to offering a curriculum that examines inequities and injustices that have worked against an inclusive and egalitarian society.

Central to our program is the study of women, in all their diversity and through a variety of disciplinary lenses. We study women's contributions as writers and scholars, artists and activists, public figures and private citizens, in the past and the present.

The program also studies gender more broadly, by analyzing the construction of feminine, masculine, and queer identities across time and cultures and by assessing the ways gender signifies relationships of power.

With course offerings from more than 15 academic disciplines, Women's & Gender Studies introduces students to exciting ideas, dynamic professors and classmates, and feminist thought and perspectives in small, collaborative communities of learning.

Women's and Gender Studies encourages learning experiences outside the classroom.

Each year our Annual WGS Lecture features a distinguished scholar who shares their expertise on women, gender, and sexuality and how they put this expertise into practice. In the past, we have also hosted such speakers as Kamilah Willingham, SJ Sindu, Deirdre Cooper Owens, Katherine Donato, Tomi-Ann Roberts, Lara Freidenfelds, Shireen Ghorbani, Janet Kourany, Lise Eliot, Obioma Nnaemeka, Darlene Clark Hine, and Lourdes Portillo as well as offered hands-on workshops in which participants learned, for example, how to conduct research on transgender issues.

We also participate in No Limits, an academic conference we sponsor with the Women's Studies programs at University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Nebraska at Kearney, which features student scholarly work and creative activity.

In the past our student groups have combined the social with the political by sponsoring fundraising drives for the Women's Center and Friendship Home, political rallies like "Take Back the Night" and "Shakespeare's Sister," a day-long celebration of women's voices.

Because we are committed to combining academic inquiry with community service, we encourage students to participate in a variety of internship programs with such organizations as the American Civil Liberties Union, Friendship Home, International Association for Feminist Economics, League of Women Voters, PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, UNL's Women's Center and LGBTQA+ Center, and Voices of Hope.