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About Us

Since its inception as Women’s Studies in 1991, WGSS has become a space for intersectional, multidisciplinary, and transnational inquiry, urging students to critically examine power, privilege, inequality in all their forms. We offer a WGSS major, minor, and graduate certificate, as well as an LGBT Studies/Queer Studies minor.

Our program draws its vibrancy from the dynamic global energy of Houston, one of the most diverse cities in the world. We celebrate the brilliance of Houston’s diverse communities while challenging students to explore the ways that their intersectional identities—shaped by gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, dis/ability, citizenship and more—inform their realities and the lives of those around them. 

We challenge students to understand how categories of gender, sexuality, race, class, dis/ability, and citizenship have shaped not only their own lives but also the lives of people in their communities and around the world.

WGSS/FWS Studies Timeline

2025
10 Year Anniversary of the WGSS Major.

2019
Launch of Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality.

2015
WGSS major approved by the State.

2011
Women’s Archive is endowed and renamed the Carey C. Shuart Women’s Archive and Research Collection.

2010
Program is renamed the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program.

2009
Women’s Studies Program introduces a second minor in GLBT Studies.

1999
Postdoctoral Fellows Program inaugurated.

1996
FWS opens the Women’s Archive and Research Center.

1991
The UH Women’s Studies Program is initiated, and the Friends of Women’s Studies (then known as the “Community Outreach Board”) is established.