The Mission of the Women’s Studies Program at UHCL is to examine women’s diverse lives, their special contributions and roles, and the social constructions of gender from cross-cultural perspectives.
Beyond including women in the course content of traditional disciplines, Women’s Studies challenges and transforms existing epistemologies by treating gender as a central category of social analysis. The program fosters awareness of the diversity of social experience and contributes to a greater understanding of systems of inequality; it explores the interactions of gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, disability, religion, national origin, and sexuality, and it asks how these inform our knowledge of history and culture. Recognizing the existence of multiple feminisms, both within the United States and around the world, the program explores various theoretical approaches to the study of women, gender, and feminism.
A multi-disciplinary program administered by the School of Human Sciences and Humanities, Women’s Studies brings together a wide range of disciplines, including Anthropology, Art, Health/Fitness, History, Literature, Sociology, Social Work, and Psychology. By asking similar questions in different disciplines and by employing a wide range of methodological approaches, students achieve an understanding of the complexities of gender within our social architecture.
Since its establishment in 1975, the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Houston -Clear Lake has served as a forum for intellectual collaboration and exchange on issues of gender and sexual politics. Through lectures, exhibitions, research opportunities, and the many courses the Program offers, it continues to encourage open and lively discussion among faculty, and among graduate and undergraduate students in all areas of study.
:: posted by Deepa S. Reddy 06/05/03
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