About Women's Studies
Welcome to Women's Studies at UPEI!
Women's Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island explores scholarship and theories about gender and other social identities. Through core and cross-listed courses students examine identity as a category of analysis, investigate the construction of social differences, and explore the impact that these considerations have on knowledge production.
Women's Studies recognizes that questions of social identity make a difference to the lives of both women and men: it researches how taking identities into account changes what we know and can know about social formations; it explores the importance of "differences" between women, investigating how other identity markers such as race, sexuality, class, and abilities make a difference to what we mean when we talk about "women" or "men"; and it creates new scholarship that acknowledges the difference that considerations of identity make to power and privilege, and to how we know and can act in the world.
Women's Studies is a self-reflexive project — that is, in addition to generating new knowledge that takes social identities into consideration, it also always asks questions about the construction of those categories of identity themselves. Thus, in Women's Studies, identity is more than a description or variable to take into consideration; it is an area of constant question and contestation -- and a central focus of the discipline.
The academic discipline of Women's Studies involves the critical examination of existing theories and research and the expansion of knowledge through generating new questions across a wide variety of disciplines and issues.
Women's Studies gives students expertise and flexibility in a number of different fields, and provides them with critical-thinking skills and the kind of background and training more and more relevant to today's world. Pursuing a program of study in Women's Studies strengthens individual intellectual and personal development, and is valuable preparation for a variety of career fields after graduation, including (although not limited to!) law, administration, non-profit organizations, NGOs, social work, education, health professions, life sciences, academia, government service, business, counselling, journalism, leisure and recreation, and library science, among others. Students in Women's Studies learn a number of practical skills, including working iwith a variety of different types of people, respect for diversity and knowledge of other peoples, and handling and negotiating with groups in all types of situations.
Students can complete a Major or a Minor in Women's Studies. Requirements for each of these can be found in the UPEI calendar. For more information, contact the Co-ordinator of Women's Studies, Ann Braithwaite via e-mail or in person in Main 402.
Be sure to check the Notices column on the side of this page often for information on upcoming Women's Studies and Women's Studies Society events (discussions, public talks, films, etc.), so you don't miss out on our range of exciting activities! We're making plans for the upcoming academic year already! And there's a Women's Studies at UPEI Facebook group, too...
Want to know more about Women's Studies in the rest of Canada? Check out the home page of the Canadian Women's Studies Association/l'association canadienne des études sur les femmes for more information.
And feel free to send me an email or drop by my office anytime with questions... or just to chat!
Ann Braithwaite, Ph.D.
Site updated: October 13, 2009>>>top
Women's Studies
