Gender and Sexuality Studies Graduate Certificate

Graduate students intending to concentrate in gender and sexuality studies must be admitted to a USC graduate or professional program. While meeting the requirements for a departmental graduate degree, they may earn a certificate of competency in gender and sexuality studies. To earn the certificate, students must take SWMS 560  and other courses from the SWMS list of graduate level courses, 500 and above, to a total of at least 12 units. No more than four units of directed research may be taken and those units must be taken as SWMS 590 . Each academic department will determine the number of units completed, which may be applied to the student’s graduate degree in that department.

In addition to the completion of course requirements, students must include a focus on gender and sexuality as part of their major department master’s thesis, doctoral dissertation or law review note. Or they may take an oral examination on three research papers they have written within the areas of gender and sexuality studies and on relevant graduate work pertaining to the field of gender and sexuality studies. The oral exam will be administered by members of the Gender and Sexuality Studies faculty. A Gender and Sexuality Studies faculty member will be assigned as an adviser for each student. Gender and Sexuality Studies faculty will be responsible for judging the adequacy of the gender and sexuality studies analysis in the student’s thesis, dissertation or oral examination.