Sep 07, 2025  
Butler University Bulletin 2025-2026 
    
Butler University Bulletin 2025-2026

Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies


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(Formerly Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies)

Administration
Sholeh Shahrokhi, PhD, Program Director

Assistant Professor
Teigha VanHester, PhD

Program Website
www.butler.edu/arts-sciences/race-gender-studies/

Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies provides an interdisciplinary setting in which students can examine the intersecting nature of race, gender, and sexuality in society, discourse, and resistance both locally and transnationally.

In required courses, students analyze critical theories of race, gender and sexuality from a variety of academic fields, and they explore the theoretical and historical basis of such study. Upper-division electives are chosen from at least three disciplines, allowing students to engage in in-depth, critical analysis without narrowing their focus to a single field. Internships, service-learning, and study abroad opportunities provide students with the option to apply theoretical knowledge to work and/or community-based learning opportunities.

Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is an excellent complement to all majors at Butler University, regardless of whether the student plans to attend graduate school or seek employment immediately after graduation. For students interested in graduate school, Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies provides a strong foundation in women and gender studies, ethnic studies, and critical theory, as well as for advanced work in any academic discipline that lends itself to critique the power of socially constructed categories for oppression. For students interested in entering the workforce, Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies provides the skills necessary to develop the professional identity necessary to ethically navigate a diverse, nuanced world., Employers seek out individuals with an RGSS skillset in a variety of professions and occupations, including community organizing, public administration, human/social services, politics, , psychology, the arts, law, medicine, social work, education, and media journalism.

Degree Programs

  • Major in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (BA)
  • Minor in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies

Programs

    MajorMinor

    Courses

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