Welcome to Goshen College's
Women's Studies

Over 20 years ago, Anna Bowman (Associate Professor Emerita of Social Work and Director Emerita of Women's Studies) worked with other supportive faculty to develop a Women's Studies minor from a range of interdisciplinary courses related to women's issues. Since then, the women's studies minor has combined a commitment to feminist theory and practice with a Christian perspective. Women's Studies courses prepare students for any career that involves speaking for, researching, writing about or serving women or other groups disadvantaged by race or class. We invite you to review our mission, philosophy, and history statements, along with descriptions of our activities and courses.

Mission Statement

Within the community of faith and learning at Goshen College, the Women's Studies Program enables students from a variety of disciplines to examine women's experience in a gendered society. Women's  studies courses strive to foster the study and cultivation of feminist scholarship and practice in students' personal and professional preparation. In teaching feminist scholarship, our courses examine the roles and contributions of women across time and space in the arts, the sciences and the professions; they also develop the analytical, reflective and synthesis skills that characterize feminist scholarship. This interdisciplinary program draws on courses from a variety of disciplines and women's resources in the campus community to enhance a core of courses offered by the Women's Studies Program. Courses listed or cross-listed for the women's studies minor meet the following criteria:

• Critically examine cultural assumptions about gender as well as race and class.
• Explore the production of knowledge in disciplines that reflect on women’s lived experiences.
• Equip students to identify factors that constrain women’s lives.
• Examine feminist genres, research methods, structures, analytical tools, aesthetics, criticism, contemporary issues and pedagogy.

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