Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bates

Visit the full Gender and Sexuality Studies site

The Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies helps students to better understand the relationship between knowledge and power.

Our program emphasizes individual and collective empowerment, helping students recognize the creativity, solidarity, and care that sustain and deepen resilience. Born out of student activism and student demand, the courses within the major draw on histories of anti-racist, decolonial, feminist, queer, and trans work to examine shifting dynamics of privilege, exclusion, and marginalization. By studying gender and sexuality in these ways, students refute simple assertions about identity in favor of richly detailed accounts of the specific conditions through which particular social positions are maintained and transgressed. The program also cultivates action, practice, and reciprocal engagement with the many communities of which we are part.

Contact Us

Matt Von Vogt, Academic Administrative Assistant
4 Andrews Rd
Pettengill Hall
Phone: 207-786-8296 mvonvogt@bates.edu

What You Will Learn

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To understand how gender and sexuality shape and are shaped by other aspects of social life

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To recognize patterns of historical inequity and pathways to social change

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To integrate theoretical concepts, empirical research, and lived experience

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To develop capacities for connection and engagement, including reflection on your own distinctive positionality

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To hone skills in listening, speaking, and writing, including the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively and ethically

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To cultivate action, practice, and reciprocal engagement with the many communities of which we are part

Life After Bates

Our alumni have impacted the world as video game designers and as immigration attorneys, as teachers and as surgeons, as corporate executives and as choreographers, and in innumerable other ways.

94%

of 2020-2024 Bates graduates are employed and/or attending graduate school — settled into their next opportunity within 6 months of graduation.

Selected Places of Employment/Service

IBM
UPS Global Business Services
Ropes & Gray LLP
Gerson Lehrman Group
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Fulbright
International Republican Institute
Bloomsbury Publishing plc
Chelsea Green Publishing
JSI Research & Training Institute Inc.

Selected Graduate Schools

Tufts University School of Medicine
University of Maine
University of Colorado
Miami University
Antioch University
Boston University
Columbia University
University of Pennsylvania
American University
George Washington University

Moments from inside Seulgie Lim’s course GSS 155/PLTC 155 in Pettengill G65 captured on March 16th, 2026.

Professor of Politics Steve Engel leads an informal discussion, “Just in Time,” this afternoon in a Pettengill classroom on the Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings and process. . The conversation was hosted by the Bates Feminist Collective. . An Affiliated Scholar of the American Bar Foundation in Chicago, Engel’s research and teaching focus on American political development, constitutional law, and social movements, particularly LGBTQ socio-political and legal mobilization. Co-chairs of the Feminist Collective (FemCo): Lizzie Ottenstein ’20 of NYC, interdisciplinary major (gray sweater and green scarf with long hair down); Politics major Gwendolyn Whidden ’19 of New York City (wearing all black with hair pulled up in bun); Politics major Annie Canning ’20 of Mt. Vernon, N.Y., (wearing black sweater and black and white pants with hair in ponytail)

The second in a series of lunchtime conversations celebrating thirty years of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bates. Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Noelle Chaddock, presents a talk, “Antagonizing White Feminism: Intersectionality’s Critique of Women’s Studies and the Academy Inbox” in Commons 223. x ________________________________ Visiting Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality StudiesMelinda Plastas, chair gender and sexuality studies

DO NO USE IN MARKETING – Elysia has requested not to have her image used in Bates promotional materials. SPARQ+ Mentor Elysia Garza ’22 of Houston, Texas (she/her/hers), facilitates the discussion. With her is Program Coordinator Ombudsperson for the Office of Intercultural Education Natalie Bornstein. The Office of Intercultural Education and the Program in Gender & Sexuality Studies invites the full Bates community to join us in recognizing Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience, next Monday, November 18th. Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience is observed annually to commemorate those who have been lost to transphobic violence. There will be an Out2Lunch discussion hosted by the OIE’s SPARQ! Peer Mentors focusing on the history of the day, the current landscape of resources for trans people at Bates and in the Lewiston-Auburn community, laws and current events impacting trans communities locally and nationally, and the importance of both remembrance and resilience. The discussion will feature panelists, Assistant Professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies, Ian Khara Ellasante and Outright L/A Program Director, Chai Johnson. The Out2Lunch discussion will take place at noon in Commons 221. At 5pm in the Office of Intercultural Education, a vigil will be held for those who were lost to transphobic violence in 2019. Following the vigil, there will be a celebration of trans resilience. We hope you will be able to join us for all or part of Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resilience!

Lavender Celebration End of year celebration for LGBTQ+ seniors and their allies. End of year celebration for LGBTQ+ seniors and their allies. We will have dinner, a photo booth, graduation regalia for graduating LGBTQ+ seniors and a discussion with Professors Charles Nero and Melinda Plastas. Registration is required, please register HERE If you have any questions, please contact Dri Huber at ahuber@bates.edu For More Information Dri Huber (Office of Intercultural Education)

SPARQ+ Mentor Elysia Garza ’22 of Houston, Texas (she/her/hers), facilitates the discussion. With her is Program Coordinator Ombudsperson for the Office of Intercultural Education Natalie Bornstein. The Office of Intercultural Education and the Program in Gender & Sexuality Studies invites the full Bates community to join us in recognizing Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience, next Monday, November 18th. Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience is observed annually to commemorate those who have been lost to transphobic violence. There will be an Out2Lunch discussion hosted by the OIE’s SPARQ! Peer Mentors focusing on the history of the day, the current landscape of resources for trans people at Bates and in the Lewiston-Auburn community, laws and current events impacting trans communities locally and nationally, and the importance of both remembrance and resilience. The discussion will feature panelists, Assistant Professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies, Ian Khara Ellasante and Outright L/A Program Director, Chai Johnson. The Out2Lunch discussion will take place at noon in Commons 221. At 5pm in the Office of Intercultural Education, a vigil will be held for those who were lost to transphobic violence in 2019. Following the vigil, there will be a celebration of trans resilience. We hope you will be able to join us for all or part of Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resilience!

Moments from inside Seulgie Lim’s course GSS 155/PLTC 155 in Pettengill G65 captured on March 16th, 2026.

Why Study Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bates?

As a GSS major at Bates, you’ll be part of a vibrant, close-knit community in which you’ll have the opportunity to follow your own specific academic interests with the support and encouragement of engaged faculty and peers. All majors complete a thesis of their own design, working closely with a faculty advisor and with feedback from the entire faculty program committee. GSS enrolls and graduates a disproportionate number of first-generation and low-income students, and maintaining support for these students is a priority of the department.

Featured Courses

Meet the Faculty

Our faculty is a multiple-award winning group of teacher-scholars with international reputations and specific fields of expertise ranging across the natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.