About pGSS

What is pGSS?

Utilizing interdisciplinary approaches to Gender and Sexuality Studies, we aim to question the existing system of knowledge and thereby to envisage a new horizon of scholarship.

One of the human conditions is that we cannot live unrelated to sexuality and gender. We are socially assigned to be "male" or "female" at birth, and throughout our life, we come to develop "gender" identities. As we encounter gender normative messages in our daily lives, we come to behave accordingly and come to take them for granted. Considering that modern society has been constructed on the basis of polarity of man and woman and heterosexism, we need to develop a perspective of gender/sexuality in order to understand people and society and their ways of thinking. Initially, the concept of "gender" was used to describe the culturally constructed notion of the difference between male and female and was distinct from biological "sex." But in recent years, this conceptualization itself came under scrutiny during the development of Sexuality Studies. This area of study is still a new one, and dynamic developments over the coming years are expected. Currently research on gender and sexuality has been increasing in many disciplines. Therefore, we expect the students majoring in Gender and Sexuality Studies to comprehend the basic concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality, and to understand the processes of structuring/restructuring of gender in the educational, occupational and domestic settings.

Also, we hope the students will gain the skills to identify gender messages pervading everyday events in various media, using a gender/sexuality perspective. We expect the students to challenge and address theoretical and fundamental issues such as inequality, class, power, and the conflict between "nature" and "culture."

Our Mission

Learning goals for students majoring in Gender and Sexuality Studies are as follows.

1. Students are expected to acquire a perspective on gender/sexuality. They should take as many specialized and core courses as possible in order to understand different conceptualizations of gender in the world today and face their own phobia.
2. Students should become sensitive to many forms of inequality besides gender/sexuality, such as social class, ethnicity, race, nationality, education and disabilities. We hope students will cultivate the skills to understand how differentiations can lead to discrimination, how discrimination can be structuralized and made "natural" and invisibility within society.
3. Students will learn to make use of their Liberal Arts education and interdisciplinary approachs. We hope that students will acquire the skills to challenge diverse and complex social issues by developing various approach and analytical methods.

Message from pGSS Coordinator

"A major that will release your inner potential."
Gender norms that dictate "women" must live like this and "men" must live like that overly restrain people to "nature." The act of learning allows us to question the things we accept as natural or obvious. I hope that you will consider majoring in Gender and Sexuality studies in order to release your inner potential.

pGSS Coordinator : Professor Tanaka Kazuko