The senior research seminar is the capstone course for the interdisciplinary major in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The course allows students to utilize research skills, concepts, methods, and materials generated from their coursework in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The object of the class is to have students working—as a group and on their own—for the entire semester on conducting original research in order to produce a 15-20 page interdisciplinary research paper on a topic of their choice as formulated and developed in seminar activities and discussions. Along with the research paper, students will also present their research in a 15-minute oral presentation to the seminar. Students are also strongly encouraged to participate in the campus-wide URECA Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creativity symposium on April 25, 2018. In considering what to work on, you will want to draw on materials from other Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies classes that have interested you intellectually, aesthetically, and/or politically. Students are expected to consider this research project in relation to specific career interests and life goals. For example, the research and presentation might help prepare you for a job interview or the paper you write might serve as a writing sample when applying to graduate programs in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies or other fields and professional schools. Our class meetings will be dedicated to intensive research and writing workshop activities, and so the format of the class may feel different from other classes you have taken at Stony Brook. Although there is not as much reading as in a typical WGSS class, the workload is as heavy, if not more so, than other classes. The key is to keep up with the weekly assignments and to engage constructively with the workshop activities and your fellow students/collaborators and their projects. Consider this an opportunity to clarify for yourself and others why you majored in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. What are the issues and questions that enliven you as a scholar and concern you as a person, and how do you propose to address these issues and concerns?
Lisa Diedrich 