International Women's Day 2024
Happy International Women’s Day!
Celebrate feminist change-makers with us and learn how CLA scholars and alumni are investing in women and girls to accelerate progress—for everyone—by
- Creating support networks for women and families.
- Recognizing and stewarding women’s stories.
- Serving as role models and inspirations.
- Confronting the roots of inequality and pioneering creative alternatives.
Empowering women & girls
“Women in Economics is all about breaking the homogeneity. And whenever you have such a heterogeneous, diverse group of people together, that's when all the best ideas come out. Your viewpoints on life and perspectives are so different that it generates diverse ideas, great ideas. And that's what Women In Economics is all about.”
Anushka Raychaudhuri
“It’s great to have someone who can relate to those experiences and makes you feel like you're not alone.” Anushka Raychaudhuri reflects on her experiences in the Women in Economics Program, founded to encourage more women and nonbinary people in the field of economics.
This past summer, graduate student Tayler Nelson (sociology) was a qualitative research intern with Women’s World Banking, conducting research to “empower women through financial inclusion.”
Brittany L. Wright (BA’ 14, sociology) is a DJ, doula, and Program Manager in the Governor's Children's Cabinet, where she leads statewide coordination in infant/parental health, children’s mental health, youth justice, and more.
Holly Kirking Loomis (BA '02, global studies and economics) is a senior advisor in the Office of the Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights with the US Department of State.
Jayne Kinney (history) studies Mandan and Hidatsa women leaders and holds the Sara Evans Fellowship in Women’s History.
“I put the leadership of women today in context with the leadership of their grandmothers and great-grandmothers to show how these systems and networks not only existed in the past but how they set up these networks that continue.”
Jayne Kinney
Invest in #herstory
The Sara Evans Fellowship in Women's History supports outstanding University of Minnesota graduate students majoring in women’s history, helping to carry on the legacy of Professor Emerita Evans.
This Women’s History Month, help bring women’s history to life by making a gift in any amount to the Sara Evans Fellowship fund.
More CLA women who inspire us
“It was so empowering to see a Native woman at the front of the classroom, talking about our culture, history, and identity…When you see yourself reflected in your curriculum and in the instructor at the front of the classroom, everything changes.”
Peggy Flanagan
A member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, Flanagan is currently the country’s highest-ranking Native woman in an executive office. The ’02 graduate shares how she puts her education to work for the State of Minnesota
Read “Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan Uses Her CLA Degree “Every Single Day’”
School of Music alumna Libby Larsen (BA, ‘71; MA, ‘75; PhD, ‘78) is one of America’s most-performed living composers, with a catalogue of over 500 works spanning virtually every genre.
Read “Libby Larsen Elected to the American Academy of Arts & Letters”
Patricia Marroquin Norby (PhD ‘13, American studies) is Curator of Native American Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and a scholar of twentieth-century Native American and American paintings.
Jesse Ilhardt (BA '08, strategic communication) emphasized creative, play-based learning in a popular Wrigley Field TEDx talk.
Associate Professor Rachmi Diyah Larasati (GWSS) founded a center for cultural education in Indonesia, where children imagine new futures for themselves through the power of dance.
“A lot of [the GWSS department’s] research and public engagement center on liberation of thought and protection of differences.”
Diyah Larasati
Spotlight on gender, women’s & sexuality studies
CLA’s Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies promotes feminist scholarship, teaching, and programming that centers on the relationship between knowledge, power, and social justice. We push against established boundaries while providing a rich and rigorous education that asks students to view the world around them with a curious yet critical lens.
The department offers an undergraduate major and minor in GWSS, an undergraduate minor in GLBT studies, a doctoral degree in feminist studies, and a graduate minor in feminist and critical sexuality studies.
Learn with us
Registration is open for all students. Learn how to register as a non-degree student.
1000-level
3000-level
- CNRC 3205 / JWST 3205 / RELS 3205: Women, Gender, and the Hebrew Bible
- GWSS 3003: Gender and Global Politics
- GWSS 3208: Transgender Health
- GWSS 3302: Women and the Arts
- SOC 3251W / AAS 3251W / AFRO 3251W: Sociological Perspectives on Race, Class, and Gender
4000-level
Registration opens on
- Thursday, April 11, 2024: for students admitted to degree or certificate programs.
- Friday, May 3, 2024: for non-degree and visiting students. (Learn how to register as a non-degree student.)
1000-level
- AMST 1401: Comparative Genders and Sexualities
- GWSS 1001: Gender, Power, and Everyday Life
- GWSS 1006: Skin, Sex, and Genes
- GWSS 1007: Introduction to GLBT Studies
2000-level
3000-level
- AMST 3814: Women, Rage, and Politics
- ENGL 3045: Cinematic Seductions: Sex, Gender, Desire
- GWSS 3002W: Gender, Race, and Class in the U.S.
- GWSS 3102V: Honors: Feminist Thought and Theory
- GWSS 3102W: Feminist Thought and Theory
- GWSS 3212 / CHIC 3212 / GWSS 3410: Chicana Feminism: La Chicana in Contemporary Society
- GLBT 3309 / ENGL 3331: LGBTQ Literature: Then and Now
- GWSS 3218: Politics of Reproduction
- GWSS 3303W / AAS 3303W / ENGL 3303W / GWSS 4303W: Writing Differences: Literature by U.S. Women of Color
- GWSS 3306: Pop Culture Women
- GWSS 3404 / GLBT 3404: Transnational Sexualities
- GWSS 3501 / GLBT 3301: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Social Movements in the United States
- GWSS 3626W / RELS 3626V / RELS 3626W: Witches, Seers and Saints: Women, Gender and Religion in the US
- HIST 3349: U.S. Women's Legal History
- HIST 3435 / AFRO 3205: History of South Africa from 1910: Anti-Racism, Youth Politics, Pandemics & Gender (Based Violence)
- POL 3733: From Suffragettes to Senators: Gender, Politics & Policy in the U.S.
- PORT 3501W: Global Portuguese: 1300-1900
- SOC 3251W / AAS 3251W / AFRO 3251W: Sociological Perspectives on Race, Class, and Gender
- SOC 3681 / GLOS 3681 / GWSS 3681 / RELS 3716: Gender and the Family in the Islamic World
4000-level
- COMM 4621W: Rhetoric of Feminism
- GWSS 4002: Politics of Engagement and Social Justice
- GWSS 4107: Feminist Methods
- GWSS 4403 / GLBT 4403 / GWSS 5503: Queering Theory
- PSY 4501: Psychology of Women and Gender
5000-level
- SCAN 5634: Scandinavian Women Writers
- SOC 4113: Sociology of Violence: Bedrooms, Backyards, and Bars
8000-level
Comparative History of Women, Gender & Sexuality Workshop
This workshop hosted by the history department provides a forum for discussing articles, works in progress, and dissertation and grant proposals on the history of women and gender regardless of geography or discipline. For more information, email the workshop coordinators at wchwgs1@umn.edu.
UMN resources
- Women’s Center
- Resources for Women Students
- Career Resources for Women Students
- Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy
Upcoming events
Exploring bodily autonomy through theatre
The theatre program’s 2023–24 season features a series of projects that center on questions about bodily autonomy. Pride & Prejudice and Fucking A, both presented by the BA performance program are in conversation with the BA Studio Series production of Roe, which offers insight into the complex women behind the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. In Medea, presented by our third-year BFA actors, and Anne Boleyn, the annual BFA main stage production that features graduating seniors, we follow the titular characters as they are condemned for defying the patriarchal norms of their times.
These productions invite our students and audiences to consider how the issue of bodily autonomy manifests across time and space, impacting people of many racial, gender, and class identities and backgrounds.
Roe — A deeply personal play explores all sides of Roe v. Wade
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April 12 – 21, Nolte Xperimental Theater
Anne Boleyn — Not your dry and dusty history lesson
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April 25 – 28, Dowling Studio, Guthrie Theater
Other CLA events
First Books Reading: Hear from debut authors—and MFA alums—Antonia Angress, Victoria Blanco, and Kathryn Savage
- Fri, Mar 29 | 7 - 8 PM, Pillsbury Hall
- First Books event details
The Rights of Nature vs. Human Rights?
- April 11, 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Humphrey School
- CLA co-sponsors: Human Rights Program, American Indian Studies, and RIDGS
- The Rights of Nature event details
UMN events of note
Complex Conflict, Women’s Rights, & the Promise of the Women, Peace & Security Agenda
- March 12, 12:15 – 1:15 PM, Mondale Hall
- Complex Conflict event details
Centering Care in International Law
- March 27, 12:15 – 1:15 PM, Mondale Hall
- Centering Care in event details
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in CLA
The core values of the College of Liberal Arts include
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freedom of thought and expression.
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respect, diversity, and social justice.
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excellence in all we do.
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efficiency and adaptability in the achievement of our mission.
