Majoring in Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies
In the Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies (GSIS) major and minor you gain an in-depth understanding of gender, sexuality and other social categories through an interdisciplinary framework. You cultivate intellectual depth and breadth through your coursework in the major or minor. You learn how to build your unique scholarly and activism-informed perspective. You are challenged to communicate clearly and constructively your ideas through a dynamic mix of traditional assignments and creative popularly oriented formats. You learn how to conceptualize, practice and evaluate social change theories, tactics and strategies through project-based work. The knowledge and capacities you cultivate in the major and minor prepare you for future endeavors, such as participating in a diverse and complex workforce, as well as graduate study in fields such as law school, social work, public policy and public health.
Global-local connections
Students have opportunities throughout their coursework to put theory into practice. From community-based learning with New London community partners to summer internships in the U.S. and abroad, GSIS students get hands-on experience working with GSIS practitioners. Study away provides another opportunity for students to experience and learn firsthand about gender issues in other nations and cultures. GSIS professors and students also sometimes travel together in the U.S. or abroad as part of their Connecticut College coursework or to participate in GSIS-related conferences.
After Connecticut College
Our graduates draw upon the knowledge and skills they learn in GSIS to passionately engage the world. The interdisciplinary and praxis focus of our department ensures that students graduate with experience in research and advocacy skills and in cross-cultural communication that is highly valued by employers and graduate schools. They are practitioners, advocates, intellectuals, teachers, artists and writers. Graduates may go directly into work in a range of fields from dance, human resources, publishing, and business or they may go on to do graduate work in law, public policy and teaching.
Learn more about Connections, Connecticut College's innovative new curriculum.
People You Might Work With
Danielle Egan
Dean of the Faculty
, Fuller-Maathai Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies
R. Danielle Egan, the Fuller-Maathai Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies at Connecticut College, is Dean of the Faculty and Chief Academic Officer. The highest-ranking officer after the president, the Dean of the Faculty is responsible for providing academic leadership for the College and its faculty.
Karen Buenavista Hanna
Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies
Karen Buenavista Hanna earned her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2018. An interdisciplinary queer feminist scholar and oral historian of transnational social movements, Hanna is interested in questions of movement building, decolonial praxis, and how we hold ourselves and each other accountable for harm without re-inscribing oppression in the work that we do for societal change. Greatly inspired by the writing of women of color feminists, Hanna’s personally grounded narratives illuminate the intersections of hetero-patriarchal racial capitalism, disability, migration, spirituality and the family in their emphasis of resistance, survival and connection.
Ashley Hanson
Research Support and Instruction Librarian, Adjunct Instructor of Gender Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies
Ryan Persadie
Visiting Instructor of Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies
Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Ryan is an interdisciplinary writer, and award-winning educator, and artist, specializing in the fields of transnational feminisms and sexualities, queer and trans of colour pedagogy, queer Caribbean diasporas, legacies of indenture, performance, and Afro-Asian intimacies. Currently, he is Visiting Assistant Professor in Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies at Connecticut College.
Julie Rivkin
Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of American Studies
, Professor of English, Acting Chair of the English Department
Julie Rivkin’s teaching and research concentrate primarily on American literature of the late 19th through 21st century, with a secondary focus on literary theory, especially gender and queer theory. She has long been active in the world of Henry James studies, with her book False Positions: The Representational Logics of Henry James Fiction (Stanford 1996) bringing together her theoretical and her textual interests. Co-editor of the widely adopted Literary Theory: An Anthology (Wiley Blackwell 1998, 2004, 2017) now in its third edition, she is committed to making literary theory accessible in the college classroom.
Ariella R. Rotramel
Vandana Shiva Associate Professor of Gender Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies
Ariella R. Rotramel joined the College in 2012 and is the Vandana Shiva Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies. They are an interdisciplinary scholar committed to bridging theoretical and practical engagements of identity and social justice issues. Ari served as as the Interim Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion August 2021-January 2022.
People You Might Work With
Danielle Egan, Dean of the Faculty
M.A., PsyaD, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis; Ph.D., Boston College, B.A., Goucher College
Affect; Sexuality studies; Gender and feminist theory
Karen Buenavista Hanna, Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies
B.A., Brown University; M.S., Mercy College, M.A., University of California at Santa Barbara; Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara
Social Movements; Filipinx Studies; Women of Color and Transnational Feminism
Ashley Hanson, Research Support and Instruction Librarian
Ryan Persadie, Visiting Instructor of Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies
PhD (ABD), University of Toronto; MA, University of Toronto, BEd, University of Toronto; BMus, University of Western Ontario
Vandana Shiva Associate Professor of Gender Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies,
Chair of the Department of Gender Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies
Social movements • Gender and women's history • Women and work • Ethnic studies • Queer and sexuality studies • Feminist praxis • Community-based learning • Digital Humanities