The University of Michigan Women’s and Gender Studies Department offers three joint interdisciplinary PhD options and two graduate certificate program options. It offers no stand alone PhD program.
The certificate programs are open only to current graduate students already enrolled in a terminal masters or doctoral degree program at the University of Michigan. There is no terminal Women’s and Gender Studies Master’s degree.
PhD Programs
The available joint PhD programs are:
- Women’s and Gender Studies and English (est. 1994)
- Please note: the joint program with English is not accepting applications for 2024. It will reopen in Fall 2025.
- Women’s and Gender Studies and History (est. 1999)
- Women’s and Gender Studies and Psychology (est. 1994)
By choosing one of our joint PhD degrees, students benefit from:
- Opportunities for interdisciplinary research and mentoring with a diverse faculty
- An active cohort of students involved in both Women’s and Gender Studies and another discipline
- A community dedicated to excellence
- The resources of a major research university
The joint degree is unique in that it combines grounding in one of three disciplines, training in feminist theories and methodologies, and interdisciplinary coursework in Women’s and Gender Studies. Students fulfill requirements and pass a preliminary examination in two units. In some cases, the dissertation project will be centrally located in the discipline and informed by feminist theory and/or methodology; in other cases, the project will be a truly interdisciplinary endeavor at the intersection of the discipline and Women’s and Gender Studies.
All joint PhD students are fully funded via a combination of fellowships and teaching or research assistantships for five or six years. Upon completion of the dual PhD degree, students will be qualified to seek positions in both their discipline and Women’s and Gender Studies programs.
Graduate Certificates
The available Graduate Certificate programs are:
- Women's and Gender Studies (est. 1982)
- LGBTQ Studies (est. 2006)
Graduate certificates enable students who are pursuing a doctoral, terminal masters, or professional degree to supplement their disciplinary training with concentrated inquiry in a specific field. Long before doctoral programs in Women’s and Gender Studies became available, Women’s and Gender Studies at U-M offered a graduate certificate to allow students to focus on women and/or gender issues in their home discipline, whether sociology, nursing, mathematics, French literature, or the law.
Even as the study of women and gender has been integrated into the disciplines, the Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies provides students with rigorous interdisciplinary training, connecting their disciplinary gender research to conversations taking place within a broader intellectual community. In 2006, Women’s and Gender Studies began offering a graduate certificate in LGBTQ Studies in an effort to build connections among students and faculty, foster interdisciplinary research, and provide support to students in the traditional disciplines and professional schools.
