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Master of Arts
Simmons's Gender/Cultural Studies (GCS) program examines constructions of gender, race, class, and nation in the United States and in international contexts. Drawing from humanities and social sciences, this interdisciplinary program extends beyond women's studies theory and practice to include multicultural perspectives, as well as postcolonial theory, cultural studies, and race studies.
Recent Capstone Projects
Challenging Hollywood's Master Narrative: Deconstructing Film and Critical Pedagogy
Obscene by Whose Standards? The Proscription of Naked Lunch
Power and Desire in The Worn-out Dancing Shoes: A Reading of Shoes and the Fair Tale
Representations of Race (and Gender) in Women's Bodybuilding
Revolutionary Fallout, "Responsible" Motherhood, and Persistent Heteronormative Gender Identity: An Ethnographic Field Study in Contemporary Southern Pacific Nicaragua
The Current Portrayal of Men on Television: A Long, Hard Look at the Recent Phenomenon of a Televised Masculinity Crisis
Femme Like You Wouldn't Believe: Blogging Femme, Blogging Transgender
The innovative GCS program offers a supportive, stimulating environment with small classes, faculty mentors, and a flexible curriculum. With guidance from the program director, each student designs a personalized plan of study. In addition to three required GCS seminars, students choose electives from Africana studies, education, English, sociology, modern languages, history, economics, political science, and women's studies. Course topics range from issues of nation and identity, to material culture, film and literary criticism, pedagogy, economics, and queer theory. Each student completes a final capstone project that may take the form of an internship, a research project, or a thesis.
GCS students also may earn credit for participating in Graduate Consortium of Women's Studies seminars — interdisciplinary feminist theory courses that are team-taught by faculty from Simmons, MIT, Harvard, and several other Boston-area institutions.
Degree Options
The 32-credit GCS program leads to a Master of Arts in Gender/Cultural Studies. Although the program may be completed in one academic year, including summer study, most students choose to complete the program over three or four semesters, in order to explore their interests more thoroughly. Part-time students may take up to five years to complete the degree.
GCS students also may pursue dual degrees in:
Coursework
All students take the following three courses in interdisciplinary studies and cultural theory, design their own programs from advanced courses offered throughout the College, and finish with a capstone project that furthers their individual academic and professional interests.
GCS required courses
GCS 403 Seminar in Gender/Cultural Studies
GCS 430 Cultural Theory
Plus one of the following:
GCS 406 Feminism and Literature
GCS 410 Issues in International Studies
GCS 412 Theoretical Approaches to Cultural Narratives
GCS 415 Feminism and Economic Difference
