Gender and Sexuality Studies Concentration
The Gender and Sexuality Studies (GSS) concentration embraces the importance of gender as a fundamental category of analysis across disciplines. The concentration explores how gender and sexuality are intertwined with structures of power and inequality, and considers masculinity and femininity, sexuality, and transgender issues in relation to other analytical frameworks such as race, class, age, and sexual orientation. Becoming familiar with the history, theoretical foundations, methods, and core debates of the discipline, students concentrating in GSS should graduate with a solid grasp of what defines Gender and Sexuality Studies as a vibrant, evolving field of interdisciplinary research and analysis.Requirements + Courses
GSS is committed to the study of issues specific to women and the LGBT community, with added emphasis on understanding disciplinary models of knowledge.
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RequirementsGSS is a concentration, not a primary program of study. In consultation with GSS faculty and program advisers, students may declare a concentration in GSS at the time of their Moderation into their primary program or thereafter at a separate Moderation. Moderation, midway, and Senior Project boards should include at least one GSS faculty member.
Students must fulfill the Moderation requirements of both the primary program and the GSS concentration, which requires a total of five courses cross-listed with GSS, two of which must be completed, or in progress, at the time of Moderation. The Senior Project should focus on an issue related to gender and sexuality studies. -
CoursesThe program offers courses that examine the lives and experiences of women and LGBTQ+ people in a variety of historical, cultural, and political contexts; courses that engage questions of sexual difference, sexual roles, sexual socialization, and sexual bias; and courses that explore various intersections between feminism, gender theory, queer theory, transgender studies, postcolonialism, indigeneity, Black studies, and social justice activism.
Recent courses include Contemporary Queer Theory; Perspectives in LGBT Studies; Sociology of Gender; Gender and Deviance; Women’s Rights, Human Rights; Gay Rights, Human Rights; Feminist Ethics; Woman as Cyborg; LGBTQ in Rural and Urban America; Women Writing the Caribbean; Representing the Unspeakable; Nature, Sex, and Power; Victorian Bodies; Gender and Sexuality in Judaism; Reading Arab Women Writers in Translation; Gender and Politics in National Security; Women and the Economy; and Women’s Bodies / Women’s Voices.
Our Faculty
Coordinator: Robert Weston
Gender Equity at Bard
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The Office of Title IX is dedicated to preventing, responding to, and remedying occurrences of gender-based misconduct throughout Bard College and its affiliated programs. To increase awareness and cultivate a safe and proactive community, the Office of Title IX provides educational and preventative programming for employees and students. -
More than 150 student clubs and organizations are active at Bard. Among these are groups specific to women, the LGBTQ community, and allies, including the Queer Student Association, Women of Color United, QPOC (Queer People of Color), Trans Life Collective, and the Transfem Brunch Club, among others.
NEWSROOM
Ella Walko ’26 Recognized for Voter Registration, Education, and Turnout Efforts
Bard College and the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) honored Ella Walko ’26 as part of the fourth annual ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll. Walko is one of 232 students who mobilized their fellow students to make their voices heard in a historic election cycle. At Bard, she is majoring in politics with a concentration in gender and sexuality studies and is actively involved with Election@Bard.
Ella Walko ’26 Recognized for Voter Registration, Education, and Turnout Efforts
Walko ’26 Is One of 232 College Students Nationwide Recognized for Their Nonpartisan Voter Registration and Turnout Successes in 2024
Bard College and the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) honored Ella Walko ’26 as part of the fourth annual ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll. The 2025 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll recognizes college students at participating campuses who have gone above and beyond to advance nonpartisan student voter registration, education and turnout efforts in their communities. Ella Walko ’26 is one of 232 students who mobilized their fellow students to make their voices heard in a historic election cycle. At Bard, Walko is majoring in politics with a concentration in gender and sexuality studies. She is actively involved with Election@Bard, a student-led initiative that helps students register to vote, provides information about candidates, hosts forums in which candidates and students can meet, and protects the rights of students to vote and have their votes counted.“The Bard Center for Civic Engagement chose to honor Ella on the All-In Student Honor Roll because she exemplifies all of the best qualities of a Bard student,” said Sarah deVeer ’17, Bard CCE Outreach Coordinator Special Events Administrator. “Ella is a dynamic and consistently hardworking leader, who has risen to meet the needs of her generation through her work on the Election@Bard team. Ella is one of the most communicative, intentional, and collaborative forces of a student that I have had the pleasure of working with. We look forward to seeing where Ella's post-Bard journey takes her.”
“I am honored to receive this award, but what is even more gratifying is working alongside my peers and team members to build an informed, engaged, and civically active community,” said Walko. “I’m so proud of our efforts this past year and all we’ve been able to accomplish!”
“Whether they hosted nonpartisan voter registration drives or early voting celebrations, the students honored today made sure their peers did not sleep in on Election Day,” said Jen Domagal-Goldman, Executive Director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “With 100,000 local elections happening across the country in 2025, ALL IN students continue to ensure that everyone on their campuses has the information they need to cast their ballot. The 232 Student Voting Honor Roll honorees lead by example, making nonpartisan voter participation a lifelong habit for themselves and their peers.”
A recent survey from CIRCLE found that 48% of under-35 youth who did not vote in 2024 heard little or nothing at all about how to vote, compared to the 15% of under-35 youth who cast their ballots. By integrating nonpartisan voter registration and education into campus life, colleges and universities can have a measurable impact in encouraging students to become active and engaged citizens.
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student civic engagement. With the support of the ALL IN staff, campuses that join the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge complete a set of action items to institutionalize nonpartisan civic learning, voter participation and ongoing engagement in our democracy on their campus. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge engages more than 1,000 institutions enrolling over 10 million students in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Campuses can join ALL IN here.
Post Date: 04-10-2025
Pavlina Tcherneva Discusses Budget Deficit and Government Financing
Bard Professor of Economics and President of the Levy Economics Institute Pavlina Tcherneva joined WAMC’s Roundtable to discuss the debt ceiling, how the US government spends, and repercussions from potential disruptions to the payments system.Pavlina Tcherneva Discusses Budget Deficit and Government Financing
On Marketplace, Tcherneva noted that while small businesses make up a small share of total employment their behavior is a “bellwether for overall trends in the economy”—and small business hiring slowed down in February’s Job Openings and Labor Market Survey.
Post Date: 04-08-2025
Pocketbook Issues Such as Raising Minimum Wages, Paid Leave, and Protecting Public Education Could Sway the American Electorate, New Levy Economics Institute Report Says
The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College has published a policy brief outlining economic policies that improve the lives of working-class families and could sway the American electorate. That “Vision Thing”: Formulating a Winning Policy Agenda, Levy Public Policy Brief No. 158, coauthored by Levy Economics Institute President Pavlina R. Tcherneva and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray, analyzes the shifting allegiances of American voters over the decades.Pocketbook Issues Such as Raising Minimum Wages, Paid Leave, and Protecting Public Education Could Sway the American Electorate, New Levy Economics Institute Report Says
Long-Term Voting Trends Show Democrats Losing Working Class Support Due to Absence of Clear Vision for Popular Progressive Economic Policies
The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College has published a policy brief outlining economic policies that improve the lives of working-class families and could sway the American electorate. That “Vision Thing”: Formulating a Winning Policy Agenda, Levy Public Policy Brief No. 158, coauthored by Levy Economics Institute President Pavlina R. Tcherneva and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray, analyzes the shifting allegiances of American voters over the decades as the Democratic Party lost the support of its traditional base—blue-collar and rural counties—and came to be seen as the party of the educated elite, socially liberal, and relatively economically secure.
“Trump was the beneficiary of a long-term retreat of working-class voters from the Democratic Party. But becoming the party of the economically secure in a world of runaway inequality, rising precarity, and widespread frustration with many aspects of the economy does not and will not win elections. Still, as we show in this report, Americans are far more progressive than either party gives them credit for. Whatever path forward Democrats choose, winning back the working class would be a long process without a big and bold vision,” says Tcherneva.
For the first time since 1960, Democrats earned a greater margin of support among the richest third of American voters in 2024 than they did among the poorest or middle third. Meanwhile, Trump gained more vote share in counties rated as distressed—and gained less in prosperous counties—despite those counties benefiting significantly and performing better economically under President Biden’s policies that boosted government assistance. In spite of the Democratic focus on inequality, the party fails to reach the financially disadvantaged (who are the true swing voters) with their message, the report asserts.
“Democrats had neither delivered on nor even highlighted the changes that many voters wanted: policies that would provide economic benefits. They were tired of inflation that reduced purchasing power, wages that remained too low (even in supposedly good labor markets) to support their families, and many other issues related to economic precarity, including the costs of healthcare, prescription drugs, childcare and—for a significant portion—college,” write Tcherneva and Wray.
Assessing ballot measures and polling data, the Levy report identifies worker-friendly policies that would improve the wellbeing of the American working class and win elections. “Americans seem to apply two litmus tests to any proposed policy: (1) how will it impact American jobs and (2) how will it impact American paychecks,” they find. “If tariffs are expected to protect jobs, voters are behind them. If they hurt their paychecks, even conservative-leaning voters are strongly against them.”
Ballot measures indicate voters are more progressive than either party recognizes. Winning policies include: raising minimum wages, lowering taxes on earned income and social security (or eliminating them altogether for tips), making healthcare and education more affordable, protecting funding for public schools, increasing Pell grants, reducing the costs of higher education, and implementing paid sick and family leaves. Importantly, whenever asked, Americans strongly support federal programs of direct employment and on-the-job training—in the form of a federal job guarantee or national service for youths in jobs that support the community and the environment. They also care about rebuilding public infrastructure and investing in arts and culture.
Moreover, voters want policies that protect them from price increases, corporate greed, predatory interest rates, and hidden fees. They support more progressivity in the tax system and fewer tax loopholes for billionaires. They are tired of the dominance of billionaires in lobbying by special interests and campaign finance.
“Employment security, economic mobility, community rehabilitation, and environmental sustainability are winning messages. But they are especially powerful when anchored in concrete policies that directly deliver what they promise—good jobs, good pay, decent benefits, affordable health, education, food, and a peace of mind that Americans can care for loved ones without the threat of unemployment or price shocks or the loss of essential benefits,” the report concludes.
Post Date: 03-10-2025