“Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies” will be introduced as a major in spring of 2019 due to growing interest in the program.

The major will be under the College of Arts and Humanities. It will have 124 credit hours in total, and classes will be held in the Carroll Building on the Statesboro campus.

Lisa Costello, associate professor of writing and linguistics and director of the major’s program, said its introduction is the result of increasing student and faculty interest in the program since the Georgia Southern-Armstrong consolidation.

“The program here has been growing in interest and expanding in terms of how many students we have in the minor, and also [the number of] affiliated faculties,” Costello said.

Costello added that faculty members within the sociology, business and science departments all have common interests in gender, teaching and research.

In addition, Costello said the major is already being made available to students, adding that students who registered during the summer were not recorded in the electronic system due to system glitches.

So far, around two students have declared the major on the Statesboro campus, while six to seven students have declared the major on the Armstrong campus.

“There are standard core courses like a theory and methods class in gender studies, the two introductory classes around global gender and [an] introduction to gender and sexuality,” Costello said. “It includes feminist theory but also masculinity studies and LGBTQ studies. You can really build the major around your interest or career desires.”

Costello concluded by saying that she would love to see new professors recruited to teach classes within the major.

For more information, contact Costello at lacostello@georgiasouthern.edu.

Bisola Oke, The George-Anne News Reporter, ganewsed@georgiasouthern.edu