History
Over 30 Years of Integrating Learning with Social Change
The Gender Studies Program was founded in 1988 by several faculty members associated with five departments in the College of Arts and Letters. In 1989, two of those faculty members successfully applied for a Lilly Foundation grant to support the program’s initial development.
More than thirty years later, our Program is thriving in terms of student and faculty engagement as well as curriculum development and programming initiatives. Moreover, Gender Studies has expanded beyond the College of Arts and Letters through the involvement of students and faculty in Notre Dame’s Law School, Mendoza College of Business, the College of Science, and the College of Engineering.
Study and Praxis
Originally the Gender Studies Program offered only an undergraduate Gender Studies Concentration. We introduced a Supplementary Major in 1998 and a Primary Major in 2013. Our Graduate Minor in Gender Studies was established in 2008. Today more than 80 students are enrolled across all of these degree programs. Our courses are taught by faculty associated with 22 areas of study across campus.
In addition to their classroom work, our students are involved in a variety of activities that help them to put their gender studies education to work for social change, including: