Certificate Curriculum

• Current New School graduate students: Please complete the enrollment form and make an appointment with one of the GSS co-directors — Chiara Bottici or Lisa Rubin — to discuss your planned course of study.
  
  
• External applicants: Please apply here.

Elective Courses
Each year before fall and spring registration, a list of Gender and Sexuality Studies electives that count toward the certificate is added to this page. See the Current Courses section for lists of current and past courses that count for elective credits.

For graduate students already enrolled in other New School graduate programs:

• Up to two electives may come from your home department or program.
• At least one elective must come from another department or college at The New School.

For students enrolled directly in the certificate program:

• Electives must come from at least two departments at The New School.

Certificate Completion
During or after the semester in which you complete your certificate course requirements, you should make an appointment with a GSS co-director. You must bring with you a completed exit form and an unofficial transcript to demonstrate your successful completion of the course sequence.

Following the successful completion of all requirements, the GSS co-director will confirm your qualifications in scholarship in gender and sexuality studies. Your graduate certificate will appear on your final transcript and your degree from The New School.

Please consult the New School Course Catalog for a full list of current courses. Fall 2020 courses that count for the Gender and Sexuality Studies Graduate Certificate are listed below; view an archive of past courses.

Trans Theory as Gender Theory, GLIB 5150 
McKenzie Wark, Professor of Culture and Media

Trans people have a unique relation to gender in that they have experienced being two (or more) genders, whereas most cis people have only ever been one. So what if we took the accounts and theories about gender created by trans people as central to thinking about the concept of gender in general, rather than as a subtopic of feminist or queer theory? We build on pioneering work in trans studies (Susan Stryker, Sandy Stone, Leslie Feinberg) as well as recent contributions (Paul Preciado, C. Riley Snorton) as a way of constructing alternative pathways into the research on gender and sexuality of more standard accounts (Eve Sedgwick, Judith Butler). It may turn out that some aspects of transgender experience and thought do not fit neatly in accepted conceptual frameworks. Besides examining theoretical texts, we look at examples of trans literature, art, and media that may transcend existing theoretical categories and call for novel concepts.

Design and Gender and the Gender of Design, PGHT 5727
Sarah Lichtman, Assistant Professor of Design History

How does gender affect design? Does it? This course, using what art historian Griselda Pollock has labeled “feminist interventions,” addresses these and other questions as it examines the relationship between gender and design. Through a focus on interiors, fashion, products, environments, textiles, furniture, and architecture, the course reexamines the role of women in design and challenges assumptions about culture and creativity. It places design within a broader feminist framework by addressing such issues as creative partnerships, the gendered nature of objects, anonymity and recognition, patronage, and production and consumption. It also highlights the lives and careers of women designers, some known and others not so well known, while always placing their work within the broader context of race, ethnicity, and class. Readings come from both primary and secondary sources situated within a variety of frameworks, including Marxism, capitalism, modernism, and postmodernism.

Gender, Politics, and History, GHIS 5233
Elaine Abelson, Associate Professor of History

This seminar explores various aspects of women's history and the history of gender in the United States over the past two centuries. The course stresses the themes of difference among women and between women and men as a means of examining the social construction of gender and the logic of feminist analysis and activity. Students discuss the major themes of gender history, build critical and analytical skills, and develop an appreciation of current and ongoing theoretical debates. The course analyzes such key conceptual and methodological frameworks as gender, class, sexuality, power, and race. Thematically organized, readings include both primary and secondary material. Students complete two papers and participate in student-led discussions. Cross-listed with Lang; open to juniors and seniors only.

Fashion, Identity, and the Body, APFS 5019

Fashion is a phenomenon that has always defined the body and the way it is understood in society. Sizing, pattern making, and representation of bodies in fashion media are only few of the fashion industry’s practices that have informed the creation of our identities. While the perception of our bodies is affected by the construction of beauty ideals and the discipline of bodies, "dressed bodies" are also tools affecting the ways in which the social world and power relations are organized and structured. In this course, we explore these cultural relationships from different theoretical perspectives, from gender and queer studies to postcolonial and affect theory. We examine the way bodies are constructed in fashion, studying different representations and ideals of beauty, design practices, and forms of discrimination and empowerment of bodies in image making during the 20th and 21st centuries. We also look at different fashion media, exploring the way ideals of body (normative and non-normative) and body practices (dieting and plastic surgery, for example) are culturally constructed, specifically investigating how fashion images have informed ideals of beauty, gender, race, and size in our society.