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

garnet iconography with lightbulb, speech bubbles, people, and concentric circles

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

garnet iconography with desktop computer, open book, and circuit pathways

To recognize patterns of historical inequity and pathways to social change

garnet iconography with books, academic building, and globe

To integrate theoretical concepts, empirical research, and lived experience

garnet iconography with gear icons, magnifying glass, and brain

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

garnet iconography with people, speech bubble, presentation slide, and stack of papers

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

garnet iconography with speech bubbles, crowd of people, and concentric circles

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

Students and their professor engage in a small group discussion during a Gender, Power, and Politics class in Pettengill Hall.

A student gestures while participating in a small group discussion during a Gender, Power, and Politics class in Pettengill Hall.

A professor instructs her students during a Gender, Power, and Politics course in Pettengill Hall.

A student smiles while engaging in a small group discussion during a Gender, Power, and Politics course in Pettengill Hall.

A professor walks around the classroom and engages with their students during a Gender, Power, and Politics course in Pettengill Hall.

A professor motions towards their student during an informal discussion hosted by the Bates Feminist Collective in Pettengill Hall.

A professor speaks at a podium while holding up a pamphlet during a lunchtime conversation celebrating thirty years of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bates.

A professor speaks at a podium during the end of year Lavender Celebration for LGBTQ+ seniors and their allies.

A SPARQ+ student mentor facilitates a discussion on Remembrance versus Resilience in commons.

A student smiles while engaging in a small group discussion during a Gender, Power, and Politics class in Pettengill Hall.

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.