Psychology of Gender and Sexuality

This program will examine the categories of gender and sexuality within and beyond the psychological discipline and aims to familiarize students with major theoretical perspectives on gender including social constructionism, feminism, queer theory, and decolonization. The program will draw from psychological empirical research on gender and sexuality across history and culture and emphasizes the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, ability, and immigration in people's experiences and identities. We will explore how gender and gendered practices have been studied in relation to macro-social processes, such as patriarchy and capitalism, but also how they form meanings in the physical and psychological lives of individuals. We will look at how gender and sexuality are embedded in contested relations of power in diverse communities and how feminist psychologists have explored the possibilities for change in and beyond academia.

Program themes will include: history and frameworks of the psychology of gender and sexuality, gender deconstructed, feminist methodology and ethics, psychological well-being, body politics, sexuality and desire, reproductive justice, gender and labor, structural and direct violence, healing, and solidarity and agency.  

This program will be taught in a hybrid format. To successfully participate in this program, students will need a computer (including a microphone and preferably including a camera) and internet access. Weekly lectures and seminars will be conducted in-person and workshops will be conducted via Zoom. Students will have the opportunity to conduct a collaborative research project exploring a central theme from the program and present their work in the format of their choice (podcast, zine, research paper, annotated collection, etc).

This program incorporates  Greener Foundations . Greener Foundations is Evergreen’s in-person 2-quarter introductory student success course, which provides all first-year students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive at Evergreen. First-year students who register for 14 credits in this program will be placed into Greener Foundations for an additional 2 credits, totaling 16 credits. Once first-year students have been placed into Greener Foundations, they will receive an email confirming their registration status.