The Department of History at Michigan State University has offered both major and minor graduate fields in Women’s and Gender History for over a decade. Over the last two decades we have developed breadth and depth in Women’s and Gender History and can provide our graduate students with an opportunity to explore related topics in almost every geographic and temporal context. Our faculty offers expertise in the history of sexuality, masculinities, intersection of science and gender, history of the family, race and ethnicity, women and work, political activism, urbanization, popular culture, and immigration. In addition, students benefit from involvement with MSU’s thriving Center for Gender in Global Context.
Graduate students learn basic content knowledge, current theoretical approaches, and sophisticated research skills. The core course for the major and minor field is History 860. Graduate students can repeat this course up to three times with different professors. In consultation with their advisor and the graduate director, graduate students can broaden their knowledge with other gender-oriented courses within the history department or elsewhere. It is strongly encouraged that graduate students who elect to do their major field in Women’s and Gender History also complete a minor field in a specific geographic area and time period. They will be required to develop the language, research, and teaching skills necessary for both areas. Students may also draw from departments across the university: Anthropology, Family and Child Ecology, Labor and Industrial Relations, American Studies, German, French, Italian and Classics, Spanish and Portuguese, Linguistics, the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, and the College of Law.
Faculty who work on women’s and gender history include Nwando Achebe, Emily Conroy-Krutz, Emine Evered, Kirsten Fermaglich, Lisa Fine, LaShawn D. Harris, Georgina Montgomery, Edward Murphy, Ethan Segal, Aminda Smith, Helen Zoe Veit, Naoko Wake, and Yulian Wu.