What is Women's and Gender Studies?
Women's and Gender Studies emphasizes the importance of gender as a category of critical analysis in areas such as scholarly activity, education, social relationships, cultural expression, and politics. Students are encouraged to examine established theoretical frameworks, institutions, ideologies, history, identity, science, language and culture while exploring feminist alternatives.
In 1973, Acadia University became one of the first universities in Canada to offer a course in Women's Studies. The course, entitled Women in the Modern World, was the cornerstone of a program which in three decades has developed a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching and research in gender-related issues. Faculty members from the Arts, Pure and Applied Sciences, Education, Kinesiology, and Theatre contribute to the program on a rotational basis.
WGST Vision Statement
In the WGST program, people commit to lifelong learning journeys, make their ways alone and with others, ask critical questions about gender, sexuality, race, class, and ability, and act for change through feminism, social action, and other pathways of resistance.
WGST Mission Statement
With sustained resources, the WGST program will foster a vibrant, dynamic campus community that critically engages with issues of gender, sexuality, race, class and ability, drawing from established and innovative teaching methods and scholarship, and will collaborate with the wider community in pursuit of just and equitable ways of being.
