The Institute of Women's Studies offers the Minor program in Women's Studies to undergraduate students majoring in political science and psychology. The minor is also open to all students from across the university. Through integrating the field of women’s studies, the program aims to promote an essential and important scholarly area of enquiry into the process of knowledge production in different academic fields. The minor program aims to enhance students’ conceptual ability and research capacity to analyze and explain the varieties of power relations in society, in ways that will contribute to their theoretical and research capabilities, and in relation to gender and other issues in Palestinian society.
The first women’s studies course was offered in 1994 as part of the projected minor in Women’s Studies. Since then, the Institute has developed a curriculum for eleven interdisciplinary courses. All are open to any student at Birzeit University, and there are no prerequisites. Courses include: Introduction to Women’s Studies, Women in Arab Society (cross-listed with the Sociology Department), History of Feminism, Women in Media, and relevant special topics, among others. The introductory course has been one of the Faculty of Art’s most popular courses and counts towards the fulfillment of general requirements for students in the Faculty of Arts. Cross-listing courses with other departments has been an important part of the program, as it encourages other departments to integrate gender as a category of analysis.
To learn more about the BA Minor Program in Women’s Studies
