Undergraduate Certificate in Queer Studies

Our Certificate in Queer Studies is relevant and beneficial for students in all areas of the humanities and social sciences, and for students planning to go into law, medicine, health, politics, business, or any other profession in which interpersonal skills are necessary and diverse communities are served.

• Courses

  For more information, consult the Undergraduate Certificates Catalog or contact us at wstudies@fiu.edu.

• Application

  Current degree-seeking students that haven't applied for graduation should send an email to wstudies@fiu.edu with their PID and expected graduation to begin the enrollment process. Students that have applied for graduation need to submit the Change of Program/Plan form to add a certificate. They can enter their information in the student section of the form and send it via email to wstudies@fiu.edu. All other certificate applicants should complete the Undergraduate Certificate Application form and submit it to the department for approval. Approved certificate applications will be forwarded to the Registrar for processing.

• About the Program

  Sexuality has historically been more assumed than studied; but the last two decades have seen the emergence of the comparative study of sexuality, sexual orientation and sexual expression as categories worthy of sustained academic analysis, alongside women’s studies and gender and feminist criticism. At the same time, colleges and universities across the United States, and indeed around the world, have seen a significant increase in student interest and activism around issues of particular concern to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer or Questioning individuals and communities (LGBTIQ).
  
  Since at least the 1980s, the word queer has been reclaimed from its history of derision and used by activists and organizers to empower individuals and communities in their struggle against violence and oppression based on sexual and gender expression. Queer is now recognized as a powerful critical term for understanding the wide range of sexual expressions, practices and identities. Queer doesn’t describe a single or unified sexual category, but conveys the countless ways of living as a sexual subject outside of historically recognized and socially privileged categories of sexual orientation and gender expression. The Undergraduate Certificate in Queer Studies at FIU endeavors to serve both the comparative study of human sexualities and the interests of LGBTIQ students.
  
  Although "LGBT Studies" is the designation given to many of the programs in the areas of non- normative gender and sexuality studies, we have chosen the name "Queer Studies" to reflect current developments across a wide range of academic disciplines, as well as in the culture at large. Put simply, Queer Studies has replaced LGBT Studies as the most appropriate name for a program committed to working on the cutting edge of scholarly research and teaching.

• Institutional and Community Commitment

  Given the growing recognition of the rights of LGBTIQ individuals, and the rejection of discrimination based upon sexuality, our certificate enables students to better understand the complexity of sexuality, the affects of legal and institutional discrimination, and the experiences of those who live non-normative sexual and gender lives. The Certificate in Queer Studies is also designed to fulfill the mission and vision of Florida International University, “as a an urban, multi-campus, public research university serving its students and the diverse population of South Florida.” Therefore, the Certificate places the study of sexual and gender minorities in a global context, and thus will be an important component in the university’s commitment to global leaning.
  
  Understanding sexuality and its many manifestations is crucial in navigating issues on a local, national and global scale. The Certificate in Queer Studies will give students at FIU an important advantage as humane and inclusive global citizens. The Certificate in Queer Studies fills a particularly acute need both at FIU and in Miami. The University of Florida at Gainesville offers an undergraduate Minor in Theories and Politics of Sexuality through their Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, but no such certificate or undergraduate program exists anywhere in South Florida. Among our benchmark universities, Temple University offers a Minor in LGBT Studies, Arizona State University offers a Certificate in LGBT Studies, and the University of Illinois at Chicago runs a Lesbian and Gay Studies Project that sponsors scholarship and course development in the area of LGBT studies. The University of California at Irvine, another benchmark university, offers a Minor in Queer Studies very similar to our own proposal, and concentrations in Queer Studies are available at Yale, Denison, Smith and Wesleyan. We would join these and other universities—such as the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Georgia, Duke University, the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland and the University of Wisconsin, among others—in offering a program in Queer or LGBT studies.
  
  In sum, the Certificate in Queer Studies enables FIU undergraduates an opportunity to enroll in a course of study that examines critically the relationship between queer sexual and gender identities, experiences, cultures and communities in a wide range of global socio-cultural and political contexts across time. The Certificate empowers students to learn through a rigorous study of the experiences of queer individuals and communities globally from historical, literary, sociological, theological, psychological and anthropological perspectives. Working across disciplinary fields, the program encourages students to investigate how non-normative or minority sexual and gender identities and expressions intersect with other categories, such as race, gender, class, nation, ethnicity and disability. We believe the Certificate in Queer Studies takes FIU “Worlds Ahead.”