While the Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies Program does not offer an MA or PhD, the following programs may be of interest to students who wish to pursue graduate studies in Feminist Theory and Research.

If you are interested in TA-ing for the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Department, open positions can be found on Handshake. Hiring for the upcoming academic year takes place in April/May of the preceding year (ex: the applications for all 2024-25 TA-ships open in April 2024). Reader positions are posted a couple months before the start of the relevant quarter. Announcements about applications should be sent out by your Graduate Program Coordinator, but if you have any other GSW questions, please contact the AAS, AMS, and GSW Program Coordinator, Kayla Ware.

Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research

The Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program at UC Davis offers a Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory & Research with graduate programs in: Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Education, English, French, German, Geography, History, Native American Studies, Performance Studies, Psychology, Sociology, and Spanish.

The Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory & Research allows graduate students to receive a Ph.D. in the field of their choice while completing a special emphasis in feminist theory & scholarship.  The courses listed for the Designated Emphasis are open to all graduate students in good standing, but graduates in affiliated departments who complete the Designated Emphasis requirements will receive official credit on their transcripts for a Ph.D. with “Special Emphasis in Feminist Theory & Research.”

Cultural Studies Graduate Group

The Graduate Group in Cultural Studies at UC Davis offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of culture and society that highlights how sexuality, race, ability, citizenship, gender, nationality, class and language organize embodied identities, social relations and cultural objects.  Our program, one of the few advanced degrees in Cultural Studies in the United States, emphasizes the linked analyses of these factors in relation to local community formations, transnationalism, (post)(neo)colonialism, and globalization.  Drawing on faculty from a wide range of disciplines and intellectual interests, the program cuts across the humanities, social sciences, the law school, and agricultural and environmental studies. 

With the close guidance and supervision of a faculty committee, students in the program pursue interdisciplinary research in areas including studies of comparative and critical race, ecocriticism, fashion, queer theory, media and popular cultural representation, science and technology, Marxist theory, travel and tourism, food, physical and cognitive abilities, cultural geography, transnational culture and politics, globalization, religion, rhetoric, performance, and critical theory. Students also take courses in disciplinary areas including Anthropology, English, Comparative Literature, History, and Sociology among others. Many of our students are enrolled in designated emphases programs in Critical Theory and Feminist Theory and Research. Although both the Ph.D. and MA are offered, the majority of students are admitted to the Ph.D. program.