Sociology of Gender

This concentration explores the social and cultural construction of gender as a fundamental basis of social relations and institutions and the micro and macro narratives we tell about those interpersonal relations and institutions. The guiding methodological and theoretical focus conjoins feminist perspectives and other sociological understandings of gender and social inequality, revisiting key areas of investigation such as sexuality, immigration, globalization, education, health and welfare, the State, marriage, family, paid and unpaid work, as well as the history of the discipline itself. Faculty in this area investigate how gender relations shape and are shaped by organizations, social movements, processes of urbanization, public and social policy, diverse cultures, and global political-economic systems. The focus is on how dominant ideologies, institutions, and practices create, reproduce, and/or challenge gendered constructions of everyday life. Our intellectual mission is to consider the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, social class, age, disability, and sexuality in a transnational and historical context.

A. Sociology/Anthropology Professors

Sociology/Anthropology Courses

SOA G280 Sexuality and the State
SOC G202 Feminist Theory
SOC G212 Feminist Methodologies (Kaufman)
SOC G242 Family Violence (Kelleher)
SOC G248 Race, Class, and Gender
SOC G256 Contemporary Issues in Sociology: Ethnic, Racial and Religious Identity
SOC G262 Children in America: Sociological and Policy Perspective
SOC G272 Gender and Globalization (Zippel)
SOC G275 Gender, Sexuality and Culture
SOC G367 Gender and Social Policy (Zippel)

Courses in Other Departments

CAP G203 Understanding Culture and Diversity
CAP G222 Human Secuality
CJ G210 Gender, Crime and Justice
ENG G215 Topics in 20th Century American Literature: Identity, Theory, and the Harlem Renaissance
ENG G284 Topiics in 18th Century Lit: The Women of Letters in the Long 18th Century
ENG G286 Topics in Victorian Lit: Sexual, Social and Economic Bodies
HST G235 Third World Women
HST G304 Research Seminar: Gender and Society in a Modern World
POL G332 Gender and Politics

Graduate Consortium of Women's Studies

Students can take all courses offered as part of the GCWS
Some examples of courses taught by NU faculty are:

Faculty outside Sociology and Anthropology who serve on Committees and/or advise for the Gender Concentration in Sociology

Affiliated Centers and Interdisciplinary Programs

Women's Studies Program (Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies)
The Women's Studies Program provides women and men at Northeastern with an opportunity to examine the diversity of human experience through the perspectives of women. Students have the opportunity to work closely with faculty, learning by actively participating in gender research. Students examine gender roles in the United States and around the world; how they developed and why they are changing; as well as how ideas about gender shape the arts, humanities, and social and natural sciences.

The Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies at MIT brings together feminist scholars and teachers at Boston-area institutions (Boston College, Brandeis University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Simmons College, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts, Boston) devoted to graduate teaching and research in women's studies and to advancing interdisciplinary women's studies scholarship.

For Completed Dissertations in the Sociology of Gender click here.