Skip to content

Founded in 1993, the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (GCWS), previously called the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies, is a pioneering effort by faculty at nine degree-granting institutions in the Boston area.

GCWS pursues its mission through an ongoing series of team-taught graduate seminars, interdisciplinary faculty development workshops, and other opportunities for scholarly and administrative collaboration. GCWS programs help to build intellectual community and offer a model for institutional change. As of July 1, 2005, the GCWS moved from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Participating Institutions:

  • Boston College
  • Boston University
  • Brandeis University
  • Harvard University
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Northeastern University
  • Simmons College
  • Tufts University
  • University of Massachusetts, Boston

In keeping with the collaborative tradition of women’s studies, the Consortium offers interdisciplinary, team-taught seminars to students matriculated in graduate programs (and some advanced undergraduates) at our member schools. GCWS faculty explicitly integrate gender analyses with issues of class, race, culture, ethnicity, and sexualities, and the practical and public-policy implications of feminist theory and scholarship are considered. Courses are designed not only to examine existing feminist scholarship, but also to open paths to the creation of new knowledge. Graduate courses also provide crucial intellectual support for students pursuing feminist work within the framework of traditional disciplines. There is no additional fee for GCWS courses. Students are granted credit for participation by their home institutions.

Faculty and graduate students at Northeastern University have the opportunity to take advantage of the interdisciplinary team-taught courses offered each semester for reciprocal credit to member institutions. Additionally, each academic year, a year-long dissertation writing workshop is offered. Students must apply and be accepted to a course at the GCWS before enrolling through Northeastern.

To learn more about the GCWS and to see what it has to offer, visit the official website.

Current Course Offerings