Mission

The Women's and Gender Studies program at the University of Northern Iowa is committed to serving the diverse members of the program, the University and the community by:

  • Developing and coordinating an interdisciplinary curriculum in Women's and Gender Studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels
  • Offering public programming in Women's and Gender Studies
  • Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and supporting critical research in Women’s and Gender Studies

The program relies on close collaboration between academic departments, enabling students and faculty to utilize the perspectives and methodologies of Women's and Gender Studies across traditional disciplines. It embraces a pluralism of theoretical approaches, with an emphasis on feminist theories and pedagogy that foreground the intersections between sex, gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, ethnicity, age, physical and mental ability, and nationality. The program fosters challenging academic inquiry, global awareness, social equality and civic engagement.

Women's & Gender Studies
General Program Goals and Outcomes
Goal 1.0: Increase visibility of program on campus and in the community

Outcome 1.1: Increase and enhance publicity related to the WGS program and its initiatives

Outcome 1.2: Administer the Agathon Fellowship

Outcome 1.3 Maintain a viable and engaged Community Advisory Board

Outcome 1.4: Maintain a viable and engaged WGS Steering Committee

Outcome 1.5: Encourage WGS faculty and student participation in panels and sessions at the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) conferences

Teaching Goals and Outcomes
Goal 2.0: Develop, enhance, and coordinate interdisciplinary curriculum in Women's and Gender Studies

Outcome 2.1: Focus more deliberately on recruitment and retention

Outcome 2.2: Maintain a vigorous and appealing Minor in Women’s and Gender Studies

Outcome 2.3:  Explore the establishment of a major in Women’s and Gender Studies

Outcome 2.4: Maintain a vigorous and appealing M.A. program and Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies

Goal 3.0: Foster interdisciplinary collaboration and quality teaching in Women's and Gender Studies

Outcome 3.1 Coordinate faculty development in the area of teaching Women's and Gender Studies

Outcome 3.2 Improve library resources in area of Women's and Gender Studies

Goal 4.0: Students in this program will know and use feminist perspectives and theories, understand and apply methods of Women's and Gender Studies across disciplines, and demonstrate and articulate links between academic inquiry and civic engagement

Undergraduate

Outcome 4.1: Enable undergraduate students to comprehend intersectional identity, global awareness, and social inequality

Outcome 4.2: Enable undergraduate students to recognize and demonstrate links between academic inquiry and civic engagement

Graduate

Outcome 4.3: Enable graduate students to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate intersectional identity, global awareness, and social inequality

Outcome 4.4:  Enable graduate students to comprehend, apply, and evaluate feminist theories and methods appropriate to the study of women and gender

Outcome 4.5: Enable students to possess the capability to produce orally and in written form according to the standards appropriate at the graduate level

Outcome 4.6:  Enable students to demonstrate and articulate links between academic inquiry and civic engagement

Research Goals and Outcomes
Goal 5.0: Support critical research by University faculty in Women's and Gender Studies

Outcome 5.1: Support and strengthen collaboration among faculty in the Women's and Gender Studies Program as it pertains to their scholarship

Outcome 5.2: Introduce faculty not involved in Women's and Gender Studies to the benefits of integrating women's and gender studies issues and feminist theory into their scholarship/creative activity

Outcome 6.3: Provide support for those seeking external funding for research related to Women’s and Gender Studies

Programming Goals and Outcomes
Goal 6.0: Offer co-curricular public programming that addresses women's and gender issues

Outcome 6.1:  Continue effective programming

Outcome 6.2: Explore a variety of new programming sensitive to women’s and gender studies issues and topics

Outcome 6.3: Increase collaborative programming with organizations in the community and across the state of Iowa

Outcome 6.4: Seek creative ways to fund programming