Women's and Gender Studies (Ph.D. in Sociology)

The Women’s & Gender Studies program presents students with new ways of thinking about how race, class, and sexuality shape our world and our experiences within it.

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60 Hours of Coursework for PhD

Qualifying exams in two areas, chosen from fifteen specialties

2:1 Student-to-Faculty ratio

intensive research opportunities

Our Doctoral Program in Women's and Gender Studies

Areas of expertise include: inequalities of race, age, and sexuality; bodies and technology, women’s activism, popular culture

Why Study WGS Here?

In addition to providing students an interdisciplinary environment, we support the research of scholar-activists, who connect with communities in need and provide research that can help them to shape policies and solve problems.

What You'll Study

Our curriculum includes coursework on race and migration, on sexuality and queer theory, on advanced feminist theory, on feminist methods of research, on bodies and technology, and more.

Careers of Program Graduates

Recent graduates have coordinated university diversity programs, run university women’s centers, taken postdoctoral research positions at large universities, and serve as faculty members in departments of sociology.

Professional Development & Research Support/Opportunities

“Broadening Participation in STEM: Intersectional and Institutional Influences on Underrepresented Minorities' College and Career Pathways in Longitudinal Perspective” (funded by National Science Foundation) Dr. Sarah Ovink and doctoral students Megan Nanney and Hans Momplaisir, and doctoral graduate Dr. Yun Ling Li (UMass Lowell).
“Gender, Labor, and Vulnerability in the Bakken Oil Fields” (funded by AAUW) Dr. Christine Labuski

Faculty Research Interests

Dr. Sharon Johnson

- 19th Century Bourgeois Women

- Rape in Journalism

- Legal and Scientific Discourses

Dr. Neal King

- Masculinity

- Gender Violence in Motion Pictures

- Age as Intersecting Inequality

Dr. Christine Labuski

- Critical Body Studies

- Science Studies

- Transgender

Dr. Suchitra Samanta

- Hinduism

- South Asia

- Culture

Dr. Bonnie Zare

- South Asia

- Girls’ empowerment

- Language debates

Women's and Gender Studies Research Highlights

King, Neal and Toni Calasanti. 2013. “Men’s aging amidst intersecting relations of inequality.” Sociology Compass 7:699-710.

Labuski, Christine and Colton Keo-Meier. The (Mis)Measure of Trans. Transgender Studies Quarterly,2(1): 13-33.

Labuski, Christine. 2013. Vulnerable Vulvas: Female Genital Integrity in Health and Dis-ease. Feminist Studies.

Samanta, S. "Seeing Kali's City as "Insiders": Religious Diversity, Gender, Class, and Culture as "Textured" Learning for American Students." Practicing Anthropology, Journal of the Society for Applied Anthropology, vol.35 (3): 23-27. (2013)

"The Whole inside the Hole: Recent Telugu Dalit Women’s Revolutionary Life Writing." In New Feminisms in South Asian Film, Literature, and Social Media: Disrupting the Discourse. Ed. Alka Kurian and Sonora Jha. Routledge (October, 2017)

Learn More

Related Programs

Sociology (Ph.D.) Africana Studies (Ph.D. in Sociology)

Students interested in applying to the Sociology (Ph.D.) degree should contact the program director, Neal King, by email at nmking@vt.edu or by phone at 540-231-8174.

Visit our office at 560 McBryde Hall, 225 Stanger Street, Blacksburg, VA 24061

Domestic Application

*Fall: August 1

International Application

*Fall: April 1

*Deadline for admission with full consideration for funding: January 15

Visit Request Info Apply

Neal King

Director of Graduate Studies
642 McBryde Hall
540-231-8174
nmking@vt.edu

Tish Glosh

Graduate Coordinator
560 McBryde Hall
540-231-8972
glosht@vt.edu

Department of Sociology
560 McBryde Hall (0137)
225 Stanger Street
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Phone: 540-231-8971