About Our Program
What are the different meanings and mappings, in different contexts, of categories such as race, ethnicity, class, religion, culture, and nationalism with sex and gender? What are the practices of identity and claim-staking that come out of and constitute these categories? At Fresno State’s Women’s Studies Program, we explore the meanings, practices, and discursive effects of ethnic, sexual, gender, class, and other identities, both in the U.S. and in other national spaces. Through our courses, our students explore the constructions, negotiations, and contestations of various identity practices and their intersections in everyday life, activism, and scholarship. This exploration involves discussing, reading, and examining cultural artifacts, social movements, and theorizations around the categories of race, class, sex, sexuality, gender, and nation, which will hopefully lead our student to a re-thinking of these categories through their grounding in particular localities, practices, truths, and histories. The Women’s Studies Program at Fresno State is one of the most vibrant programs in the country, and we offer a comprehensive program of study that empowers students to make a difference in the world.