PhD in Feminist Studies

The highly selective PhD program is composed of faculty and graduate students producing thoughtful and innovative scholarship. We admit three-to-four new students each year ensuring a strong and successful match between students’ academic interests and goals with the intellectual strengths of our faculty.

Admission Criteria

Our program is a stand-alone PhD program; we admit only students pursuing their doctoral degrees. Applicants who have an MA and have completed graduate coursework at other institutions may be able to transfer some credits in consultation with their faculty advisor and the director of graduate studies.

Students submitting an application must have:

• A bachelor’s degree from an accredited US college or comparable foreign institution
• An undergraduate major, minor or substantial coursework in women’s, feminist, GLBTQ, or gender studies
• The Feminist Studies PhD application does not require GRE scores. You may include GRE scores in your application materials, but they are not a deciding factor in admissions. The Graduate School requires that international students and students whose first language is not English provide proof of English language proficiency via TOEFL, MELAB, or IELTS, regardless of US Citizenship status. For more information, please view the Graduate School’s English language requirements. However, English language test scores are not a deciding factor in admissions.

Applications will be due December 1st, 2023. Visit the How to Apply page for more details.

Program Requirements

Our program requires 20-22 credits within the major, 12 credits outside of the major, and 24 thesis credits. Course requirements:

• GWSS 8108: Genealogies of Feminist Theory
• GWSS 8109: Feminist Knowledge Production
• GWSS 8107: Feminist Pedagogies
• GWSS 8996: Feminist Studies Colloquium (taken over 4 semesters)
• GWSS 8997: Dissertation Seminar
• GWSS Graduate Seminars (6 credits)
• Research Methods & Tools Courses (6 credits)
• GWSS 8888: Doctoral Thesis Credits (24 credits)
• Outside Coursework (12 credits)