The Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies is a nine (9) credit interdisciplinary concentration open to students in all UH graduate and professional degree programs. The Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies adds interdisciplinary breadth to a student's course of study while increasing the depth and coherence of students' work on women and gender within their primary fields. Given the growing importance of women and gender issues in both scholarship and social policy, many students find this formal recognition of their work in Women's Studies to be a valuable credential in both academic and non-academic job markets. Students who have earned or are pursuing the Graduate Certificate also receive first consideration for Women's Studies graduate fellowships and assistantships.

Explanation of Certificate

The Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies is a 9-credit interdisciplinary concentration open to students in all UH graduate, professional degree, and post-baccalaureate programs.

Requirements for the Graduate Certificate include three (3) Women's Studies graduate courses (9 credit hours), including the required core course in Feminist Theory and Methodology (WOST 6301) and two (2) cross-listed courses, one of which must be from outside the student's home department.

Students may petition to substitute for one of the cross-listed courses one of the following options:

• Taking a graduate course that is not cross-listed but in which they can focus their individual work (e.g. research paper) on women, gender, or feminist theory. Such a course must be taught by an affiliated Women's Studies faculty member who will certify that the student's work in the course satisfies women's studies requirements.
• Taking an undergraduate course cross-listed in Women's Studies for graduate credit. Additional requirements will be determined by the instructor in accordance with university policy.

Individuals interested in the Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies can fill out the online application:

• Graduate Certificate Application

Submit the printed application to the Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies Office, Room 624 Agnes Arnold Hall or via e-mail. Applications are also available in our office. Contact the student advisors Maria Corsi and Tracy Butler at 713-743-3214 for more information, or e-mail us at WGSS@uh.edu.

Why Certificate

The Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies adds interdisciplinary breadth to a student's course of study while increasing the depth and coherence of students' work on women and gender within their primary fields.

Given the growing importance of women and gender issues in both scholarship and social policy, many students find this formal recognition of their work in Women's Studies to be a valuable credential in both academic and non-academic job markets.

Students who have earned or are pursuing the Graduate Certificate also receive first consideration for Women's Studies graduate fellowships and assistantships. There are also opportunities to take advantage of essay contests. The fellowships, contests and assistanships process begins spring semester and awards are made in May.

In addition graduate students are notified of Women's Studies events--speakers, panels, the Living Archive series, etc.

Course Listings

View a full list of regularly and currently offered courses.

Petitioning a Course for Approval

Courses that are not-crosslisted but deal with over 50% women or gender in topics, assignments, and readings may be petitioned for credit for the certificate. Adhere to the following process:

1. Print a “General Petition” from the Academic Forms website. 
2. Fill in sections A and B of the petition completely.
3. Have your professor sign section C.
4. Attach a course syllabus to the completed and signed petition and bring it to the Women’s Studies office, AH 624. 
5. WOST will complete the remaining steps and contact you when the process is finished.

NOTE: 4000 level courses may count for the WOST graduate certificate if the student completes extra work and completes a signed agreement with the professor beforehand.

Guest Teaching Opportunities

Each semester, students who have completed the Graduate Certificate may be selected to teach one class period of the undergraduate Introduction to Women's Studies course (WOST 2350). Guest lecturers receive a stipend.

Fellowships

View a listing of our fellowships.

Women's Studies Graduate Certificate Travel Grant

• Information and Application
• Please note that eligibility is limited to current students who have completed or are currently enrolled in at least one course towards the Certificate.
• Spring Deadline:February 19, 2010

Catalog

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) online catalog

Graduate Certificate Ceremony

The Women's Studies Program holds a commencement ceremony and luncheon each Spring for students who have completed the Graduate Certificate that year.

The Graduate Certificate Ceremony for 2008-2009 will be held May 7, 2010 from 11:30-1:00 in the Rockwell Pavilion on the second floor of M.D. Anderson Library.

Graduate Certificate Holders

2011

Margaret Fraser * Bilingual Education

earned her BA in International Studies from Texas A&M, interning abroad as a language instructor and later working as a foster caregiver in Houston. She is currently working as an autism therapist/assistant programmer in a local learning center for children with developmental disor-ders/disabilities. She is working toward her certification in early childhood bilingual curriculum instruction and plans to earn her MEd in bilingual special education.

Brittany Hancock * History

is a Ph. D. student at the University of Houston. She received her M.A in His-tory from California State University, Sacramento, and her B.A in the History of the Americas and Africa from the University of California Santa Cruz. She is writing her dissertation on The Neighborhood Union, an African-American clubwomen's movement in Atlanta during the early twentieth century.

Raven Jones * Educational Psychology

is a Ph.D. candi-date at the University of Houston. She holds an MLS from Rice University and a BA in English Rhetoric from Texas A&M University. Her thesis examines the use of classical literature in character education, and she argues that both our classroom atmosphere and the selection of reading materials should be guided by the primary concern for creating a live circuit between readers and books. Her scholarly interests include school reform, urban public policy, and teacher instruction.

Amanda Kennedy * Communications

is a Public Relations graduate student at University of Houston. She has a BA in Communication from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, with a minor in feminist studies. Her master’s thesis will explore feminist and postmodern aspects of public relations agency organizational cultures. She hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in public relations and to continue her research in feminism and postmodernism within public relations.

Kristen N. McAlear * Hispanic Studies

is a Ph.D. can-didate at the University of Houston. She holds an MA in Hispanic Studies from Auburn University and a BA in Spanish from Auburn University. Her current re-search focuses on feminist perspectives, subjectivity and representation in 20th and 21st century Latin American and U.S. Hispanic poetry. She also holds an interest in general feminist theory and pedagogy in film and other cultural representations.

Phuong Nguyen * History

received a B.A. in History from the University of Houston in 2008. She is now a part-time student, working on her MA with Dr. Sarah Fishman. Specifically, she studies Mothers and Midwives in 19th century France and how they dealt with unwanted pregnancies and children. She believes Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies aids her research of the history of reproductive control and family life.

Maria E. Perez * Hispanic Studies

is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Houston. She holds an M.A. in Spanish Literature and Linguistics from UH. She also attended the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, working with Latin American Literature. Her interests are exile and immigration literature of Spain and Latin America, with a concentration on the Caribbean diaspora experience. Her dissertation examines how Cuban women writers have approached this experience, grounding her work on feminist the-ory. She is also interested in film studies, and gender representation in Cuban films before and after the Revolution.

Natalie Stigall * English

graduated from University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana with a B.A. in both creative writing and literature and a minor in art his-tory. In May she will graduate from University of Houston with an M.A. in English and American literature and a Women's Studies Graduate Certificate. She will begin work on her PhD in English and American literature at UH in the fall. Her interests include popular culture and girls' studies.

2010

Yolanda Godsey * Hispanic Studies

is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Houston.  She holds an MA in Latin American Literature from Texas A&M University- Kingsville and a BA in Spanish from Texas A&M- Corpus Christi. Her MA thesis explored components of subjectivity of the mystical and literary figure, Teresa Urrea. At UH she continues her study of the feminine subject, under the direction of Dr. Nicolás Kanellos, in the works of contemporary Latina playwrights of the U. S. Hispanic Theater.  She attributes her added perspective of feminist epistemologies, crucial in the analysis of Latina playwright works, to both her professors the Women’s Studies Program. Yolanda has worked as TA and lecturer in the Department of Hispanic Studies, was a graduate fellow with the Mexican American Studies Program, and in Spring 2010 team taught a World Cultures class with Dr. M.T. Hernández.

Melissa Pinon * English

received a B.A. in English Literary Studies, with a minor in Women's Studies, from the University of Houston. She will graduate May 2010 with an M.A. degree in English Literary Studies, with a particular interest in Transnational literature and Women's Studies.  She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in a Transnational Literary Studies program at a later date, and hopes to eventually become a university faculty member and Women's Studies instructor.

2009

Ira Lee Berlet * History

entered the Ph.D. program in History at UH in the Fall of 2007 after 12 years in public education.  Most of that time he taught high school history, but he also spent a year as the Assistant Director of Social Studies for the Texas Education Agency. He completed his undergraduate work at Texas A&M University graduating with a BA in History and a minor in Political Science.  In 2005 he finished an MA in American History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  His MA thesis was on 19th century Boston intellectuals and their paradoxical views of freedom, race, and anti-slavery activism.  His advisor is Dr. Steven Deyle, and his dissertation focuses on abolitionism, the domestic slave trade, and gender, with particular attention on masculinity.

Anna Burke-Herrera * History

is a graduate of Texas A&M- Corpus Christi. She is currently working on her Master's Degree in Public History at the University of Houston, specializing in early 20th century American film under the guidance of Dr. Martin Melosi. For the last 2 years, she has also sung as a soloist and choral member in the Moore's School of Music University Choruses. She graduates in Fall 2009 and plans to move to San Antonio with her husband to pursue a curatorship at the Witte Museum.

Holle Canatella * History

is a Ph.D. candidate in medieval European history. She holds an MA in history from UH and a BA in history from Texas A&M University. Her dissertation is titled "Scripsit amica manus : Male-Female Spiritual Friendship in England and France, ca. 1050-1200." In 2009 she was awarded a University Commission on Women Scholarship and the Maud Paddock Smith Graduate Scholarship from the Women's Studies Program.

Montse Feu * Hispanic Studies

is a Ph. D. student finishing her coursework in the Hispanic Studies Department. As a research assistant at the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project Montse has been reading, indexing and analyzing the writings by Spanish exiles published in periodicals in New York during the Spanish Civil War and after.  These writings are also the subject of her dissertation research.  Many of the newspapers and magazines issued by the expatriates served an international exilic community and have never before been accessible or otherwise studied.  The Women’s Studies Program has provided Montse with further perspectives and concepts essential in questioning gendered leftist exile discourse. Her research interests include feminism, Hispanic literature in the United States, working class literature, and 19th and 20th century Spain. She has been accepted to Geoff Eley’s seminar on fascism at the Cornell University School of Criticism and Theory this summer. 

Hulya Ozcan Dogan * Anthropology

received her Bachelor’s degree in Turkey majoring in Turkish Language and Literature. In 2004 she came to the United States to pursue an academic career and started her Master’s in Sociology at UH. After a year she switched to studying Cultural Anthropology. She will receive her Master’s Degree in Anthropology this spring. Her research focuses on dress, agency and the body.  Hulya also teaches Turkish as a second language at a local charter school. She is married to Dr. Can Dogan, who is a faculty member at University of Houston-Downtown.

Melissa I. Maldonado Torres * Social Work

holds a B.A., double major in Theology and Literature, from Houston Baptist University.  She graduates this semester with a Master’s of Social Work.  While attending junior high in the Rio Grande Valley, she learned about the global pandemic of AIDS and has been involved in the fight against HIV ever since.  She plans to continue working in this field while incorporating the issues of human trafficking for sexual exploitation since women and children are the communities victimized the most by both issues on a global scale. Her work has involved outreach, education, involvement with the 81st legislative session of Texas, counseling, and advocacy. Melissa credits her parents with her passion for justice. She thanks her mom who is the epitome of independence, strength and grace and her dad who taught her that God has an undying love for all.

2008

Jarah Blum * Educational Psychology

Clarissa Hinojosa * History

Elizabeth K. Miller * Psychology Post-Baccalaureate

holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Houston. She is a co-author on studies published in Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology and the Journal of Clinical Psychology. From 2006 to 2010 she was involved in the field of tobacco research in the Department of Behavioral Science at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and in Bethesda, Maryland at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She is a member of Psi Chi; the National Honor Society in Psychology. She now lives in San Francisco and works in the Human and Animal Protections Office at San Francisco State University. She plans to pursue a Master’s degree in Gerontology.

Shaleen Miller * Anthropology

Norma Mouton * Hispanic Studies

Erin Sandler * English

Luziris Pineda Turi * Hispanic Studies

is a 3rd year Spanish Ph.D. student working on her dissertation on Meixcan & Mexican-American women writers in the U.S. during the beginning of the 20th century. She specializes in U.S. Hispanic Literature and has been a proud UofH cougar since 1998 receiving her B.A. and M.A. here. She has worked for the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Program as a Research Assistant and has also taught Spanish for several semesters. Among her academic achievments she participated with a full scholarship at the Cornell School of Criticism and Theory the summer of 2007, was awarded a research grant from the Center for Puerto Rican Studies and was awared the Institute of Hispanic Culture scholarship twice. Her resarch interests include gender studies, race, class, feminism and sexuality in literature. She is currently the SGSO Vice President.

Trinidad Gonzales * History

Carolina Villarroel * Hispanic Studies

2007

Elizabeth Cummins-Munoz * Modern and Classical Languages

Jaqueline Davis Gilmore * Post-Baccalaureate

will be pursuing doctoral studies in Social Psychology specializing in the interpersonal dynamics and concepts of African-American women. She holds a B.A. from Prairie View A&M University in Speech Communication and an M.A. in Speech Communication Interpersonal Behavior from Texas Southern University. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and a contributing business writer for The Houston Insider Newspaper. Currently, she is working on two books: Communication And Business Skills, For Women Only, and Women's Issues, It Is What It Is. She is the Founder and President of Jolan & JD Communications, which focuses on assisting all women with public speaking, soft skills, leadership, anger management, and conflict resolution skills personally, socially, and professionally. She is a Board Certified Anger Therapist. She is married to Reverend Dr. Robert M. Gilmore, Sr.

Ann Kapp * History

is a Latin Americanist Ph.D. student studying 19th century Mexican peasants and how the multiple changes in government following Independence impacted their lives. She holds an M.A. from Texas State University - San Marcos, where she studied women in the antebellum south. She is continuing her graduate studies in order to be a full-time professor at a small liberal arts university. She is married to her husband Roger, they have no kids, four cats, and currently reside in Pearland.

Erin Makulski Sandler * English

holds a B.A. in linguistics from Rice University. She will graduate this semester with an M.A. in 18th century British literature and then plans to return this fall to pursue a Ph.D.. She would like to thank her family for being so supportive of her return to school to pursue graduate studies, and in particular her husband, Daniel.

Amanda Martínez * Mass Communications

holds a B.A. in Multinational Organization Studies from St. Mary’s University, with a concentration in Spanish and a minor in English Communication Arts. She realized her strong passion for studying underrepresented groups of people, including women and minorities, and decided to pursue a graduate certificate in women's studies. She is currently working on her M.A. thesis : "Examining televised advertisement influences on eating habits, eating disorder risk, and body image identity: A narrative analysis among ethnically diverse college women." Upon graduation with an M.A. in Mass Communication, Amanda will begin doctoral studies at Texas A&M University in the Communication Department with the goal of becoming a professor and researcher.

Ana-María Medina * Spanish

is a Ph.D. in Peninsular Literature, recipient of the UH Teaching Excellence Award (2007) and the Hispanic Studies departmental Teaching Excellence Award (2009). She was president and vice-president of the Spanish Graduate Student Association and LACASA during her time as a Ph.D. candidate and has been granted various departmental grants and awards. She holds an M.A. in Peninsular Literature from Saint Louis University and a B.A. in Hispanic Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She has published in various mediums including scholarly journals and collections, magazines and has presented at national conferences . She is a member of the Sigma Delta Kappa Spanish and the Phi Beta Delta Honor Societies and a regional representative for the Delegate Assembly of the MLA. She dedicates this certificate to the women that have made her who she is: her sister, Angela-Jo Medina; her mother, Jo Ann Medina; and her wonderful grandmother, Angelina Touza-Medina.

Sylvia Morin * Spanish

April Patrick * English

completed her M.A. this spring, with her thesis entitled “ ‘[S]he that lives must mourn’: Elegiac Performances in the Legacy of Victorian Women Poets”. After receiving her B.A. in English from Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, April began her M.A. at the University of Texas in San Antonio before transferring to the University of Houston. She will pursue a Ph.D. at Texas Christian University in the fall, where she will continue to focus on Victorian women's literature.

John Pluecker * Spanish

received his Masters Degree in Spring 2007 in the Modern and Classical Languages Department with a focus on Literature in Spanish.  He completed his undergraduate work at Yale University in two interdisciplinary majors: Women's and Gender Studies and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration. 

Alberto Rodriguez * History

is a second year Ph.D. student studying American History from 1860s to 1975. He specializes in Black/Brown relations on the South Texas Borderlands and the West, with an emphasis on gender and identity formation. As he puts it, he wants to understand how Blacks and ethnic Mexicans got along or did not. Alberto’s research interests include Chican@, Latina/o, African American, BlacXican history, race/ethnicity, Gender, and Queer Theory. His dissertation will use theories of hybridity and transculturation to analyze relations between Blacks and Mexican/Mexican Americans on the border in order to conceptually Blacken the Borderlands and move South Texas into our understanding of the West. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in History from the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, Texas.

K. Denea Stewart * English

2006

Susan Bogar * English

Cecilia Bonnor * English

Tiphanie Yanique Galiber * Creative Writing

Tiphanie Yanique's upcoming short story collection is called "How to Escape from a Leper Colony." Stories from the collection have won a Pushcart Prize, the Boston Review Prize in Fiction, the Kore Press Fiction Award and have been featured in Best African American Fiction for 2009.  Describing Tiphanie's writing Danzy Senna says it "drew me in with its odd, dreamy locale and fresh language" and called it "haunting and nuanced work".Tiphanie's stories have also been published globally, including in Callaloo, Transition Magazine, American Short Fiction, the London Magazine and Fiddlehead. Tayari Jones calls her "One of my favorite emerging writers." Tiphanie Yanique is an Associate Editor with Post No Ills and Assistant Professor in Creative Writing and Caribbean Literature at Drew University.  Her collection will be published on March 2, 2010. Visit her website here.

Erin Graham * History

Lauran Kerr * History

is a fourth year, All But Dissertation, doctoral candidate in the department of history where she studies twentieth-century history with a focus on women and race/ethnicity. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees at Sam Houston State University. Her dissertation examines African American female physicians in the urban South.

M. Angela Kirby-Calder * History

Kimberly Magill * Creative Writing

Amy O'Neal * History

Lisa Tait * English

Millie Thompson * Anthropology

David Vance * English

Maria Teresa Vera-Rojas * Spanish

2005

Carmen Yvonne Carroll * Philosophy

LaGuana Gray * History

If you would like to update your information, please email us at WGSS@uh.edu.