The University of Kentucky Gender and Women's Studies Program offers a Graduate Certificate in Gender and Women's Studies. Participants may take the certificate as a complement to a graduate disciplinary degree program or as a stand-alone curriculum. The aim of the Graduate Certificate Curriculum is to provide a coherent, graduate-level interdisciplinary grounding in Gender and Women's Studies scholarship and to create an intellectual community among faculty and graduate students who share a scholarly interest in Gender and Women's Studies.
Students who are currently matriculating for a graduate disciplinary degree are encouraged to apply for the Gender and Women's Studies Graduate Certificate Curriculum early in their course of graduate studies. Courses counting toward fulfillment of the Graduate Certificate Curriculum must be taken after admission to the curriculum.
Application Procedures
An application form is available in the Gender and Women's Studies office or online.
Application for the Certificate Curriculum must be made before completion of coursework for the certificate. Award of the Graduate Certificate in Gender and Women's Studies requires formal admission to the program. Once students have been accepted, they must locate a Gender and Women's Studies advisor and must submit a proposed course of study that has been approved by their Gender and Women's Studies advisor. Any of the Gender and Women's Studies Affiliated Faculty may serve as graduate advisor. The Director of Gender and Women's Studies can also help applicants locate a Gender and Women's Studies advisor. The Graduate Certificate Course of Study Form is available in the Gender and Women's Studies Office or online.
Gender and Women's Studies Graduate Certificate Course Requirements
Beginning Fall, 2001, completion of the Gender and Women's Studies Graduate Certificate Curriculum requires a minimum of 13 hours of course work, including:
* Two elective three-credit courses, at least one of which is taken outside the student's home disciplinary department as defined by undergraduate or graduate concentration, as appropriate (6 hours)
* WS 650, Feminist Theory, preferably taken after the student's two electives (3 hours)
* A three-credit cross-cultural course, approved by the Gender and Women's Studies Program for fulfillment of this requirement. Courses fulfilling this requirement will contain a substantial component on culture(s) outside the United States and western Europe (3 hours)
* WS 750, Readings in Gender and Women's Studies, a one-hour readings course designed to integrate readings across disciplines and provide an opportunity to share work in progress with other Gender and Women's Studies scholars finishing their certificate course work. WS 750 is designed as a capstone course and should be taken when all other work for the certificate has been completed (1 hour).
Students may select their elective courses and courses fulfilling the cross-cultural requirement from the list furnished by the Gender and Women's Studies Program every semester. Students who would like to petition the Graduate Committee to accept a course as fulfilling a requirement for the Certificate should use the Coursework Petition Form, available in the Gender and Women's Studies office or online.
Application and Admission Information
Under ordinary conditions, admission to the Gender and Women's Studies Graduate Certificate Curriculum requires the following, with all materials to be sent directly to the Chair of the Graduate Committee, Gender and Women's Studies Program:
* an undergraduate degree
* admission to the University of Kentucky Graduate School**
* a minimum GPA of 3.0 in all undergraduate work
* minimum GPA of 3.0 in any graduate work
* a scholarly writing sample
* a 500-word personal statement, explaining why the applicant wishes to pursue the Graduate Certificate in Gender and Women's Studies
* three letters of recommendation (applies only to students not matriculating in a UK graduate degree program)
* official transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate work
* completion of the certificate application form
**Applicants who are not currently matriculating for a graduate degree at the University of Kentucky must first secure admission to the Graduate School as post-baccalaureate students. For information on requirements for post-baccalaureate admission to the Graduate School, please contact the Graduate School directly or see the information online. Please send to the Graduate School all and only the materials they require for application and send to the Gender and Women's Studies Program all and only the materials we require for application (see above). Admission to the Graduate School must, in all cases, precede admission to the Gender and Women's Studies Graduate Certificate Curriculum. Please notice that some requirements for the Gender and Women's Studies Graduate Certificate Curriculum exceed minimum requirements of the Graduate School for Post- baccalaureate status. For this reason, as well as others, admission to the Graduate School does not guarantee admission to the Gender and Women's Studies Program Graduate Certificate Curriculum.