Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies - Western University

Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSWS) is home to faculty and students from a range of academic backgrounds. We are united in our commitment to creating a more socially just and equitable world through interdisciplinary and intersectional research and teaching that is guided by feminist, anti-racist, and anti-colonial values.

Our teaching engages students in active learning and equips them with the critical thinking, research, and communication skills they need as socially engaged 21st century citizens to shape the future in academic and non-academic settings.

Our research challenges structures of domination, makes space for unheard voices, and creates innovative approaches to contemporary issues using critical methodologies from a range of disciplinary perspectives.

Our faculty members are active in six interdisciplinary research areas that inform our undergraduate and graduate (MA, PhD) programs:

• feminist, queer, and critical race theory
• health and embodiment
• representation and cultural production
• globalization, equity and social structures
• sexuality

GSWS is committed to inclusivity and equity in all aspects of departmental life and welcomes students of all genders and gender identities, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, classes, abilities, and other dimensions of diversity. Faculty, staff, and students strive to create an atmosphere that is cognizant and respectful of diversity in all of its forms.

Land Acknowledgment

African Ancestral Recognition

We recognize that African descendants’ legacies and contributions have enriched Southwestern Ontario, including the historic Black communities of the Hollow, Wilberforce Settlement, Dawn Settlement, McGregor’s Creek, Buxton Settlement, Old Sandwich Town, and Amherstburg.