The Women's Studies Program, with over 30 core and affiliated faculty members in over eleven disciplines, serves as a mode of interdisciplinary work and scholarly collaboration at UCSB. Women's studies doctoral emphasis students are required to complete successfully four seminars that will enhance their understanding of feminist pedagogy, feminist theory, and topics relevant to the study of women, gender, and/or sexuality. Using an interdepartmental set of conversations and intellectual questions, women's studies support a multifaceted undergraduate curriculum at UCSB. Graduate emphasis students are encouraged to apply to teach women's studies courses as teaching assistants and associates as part of their women's studies training.

Applicants must first be admitted to, or currently enrolled in, a UCSB Ph.D. program participating in the women's studies graduate emphasis: anthropology; English; French and Italian; Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies; history; history of art and architecture; religious studies; or sociology. Candidates complete four graduate courses and select a member of the women's studies faculty or affiliated faculty to serve on their Ph.D. exam and dissertation committees. Applications to the women's studies doctoral emphasis may be submitted at any stage of Ph.D. work and will be considered throughout the academic year.

Students pursuing the emphasis in women's studies will successfully complete four graduate courses. Only one may be taken in the student's home department.

The courses are the following:

Women's Studies 270, Issues in Feminist Epistemology and Pedagogy: A one-quarter seminar that offers an interdisciplinary exploration of feminist theories of knowledge production and teaching practices. Readings present past and present critical debates and provide theoretical approaches through which to analyze interdisciplinary epistemological and pedagogical issues.

Women's Studies 280, Research Seminar: A cross-disciplinary seminar in which fundamental questions in contemporary feminist research practice are considered in light of the students' own graduate projects.

Feminist Theories. A one-quarter seminar in feminist theory offered by any department, including women's studies.

Topical Seminar. A one-quarter graduate seminar, outside the student's home department, that addresses topics relevant to the study of women, gender, and/or sexuality.