The graduate certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies is designed to help graduate students develop substantive methodological and theoretical expertise in the interdisciplinary field of Gender and Sexuality Studies. This training is intended to supplement their work in their primary department and to support students whose graduate work engages gender and sexuality studies.
The GSS graduate certificate program is open to students currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Princeton University. Students who are interested in pursuing the GSS graduate certificate are encouraged to meet with the GSS Director to discuss their plans before registering. We encourage students to sign up as soon as possible, preferably in their first or second year, and no later than their fourth year.
Students pursuing the GSS graduate certificate must complete at least two graduate-level courses offered by or cross-listed with GSS, or approved by the Program Director as a course that meaningfully engages gender and sexuality studies. The following are guiding principles for course selection:
- If a department requires degree students to take a certain number of core courses, these cannot be taken to meet the course requirement towards the Certificate in GSS.
- Beyond “core courses,” if a department requires a designated number of electives, students can use those electives to meet the course requirement for the Certificate in GSS.
All students pursuing the GSS graduate certificate are also required to attend the GSS Work-In-Progress series for at least four semesters. The GSS Work-In-Progress series helps students develop fluency in GSS theory and methods; it also fosters scholarly community among GSS faculty and graduate students. Attendance is monitored to ensure that students have met this requirement.
Students pursuing the GSS graduate certificate must also participate in the student-led graduate colloquium for at least four semesters, which meets several times per semester. They must also present a dissertation chapter or conference paper based on their dissertation research at that colloquium, and serve at least once as a commentator on another graduate student’s Work-In-Progress.
Finally, students pursuing the GSS graduate certificate must complete a Ph.D. dissertation that substantively integrates questions, concerns, and/or methodologies central to gender and sexuality studies, as certified by the Program Director. To help ensure that this requirement is met, at least one member of the student’s dissertation committee, either a reader or an examiner, must be an affiliated member of the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Students seeking additional help should email Shital Asarpota at [email protected] for more information.
All students seeking this certificate must be currently accepted/enrolled at Princeton University as part of a degree-granting department.
If you are interested in enrollment, please fill out the Graduate Application.
Contacts for the Working and Reading Groups
Students interested in Gender, Sexuality, and Disability Studies Graduate Working Group or the Reading Group should contact the graduate student organizers.