Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies

(Formerly Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies)

With this major, Butler University lives up to its groundbreaking abolitionist and coeducational beginnings. —Professor Ann Savage
RGSS Major & Minor
Class photo in front of Clowes Hall

Well prepared to work in a diverse and multicultural world.

Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary program housing both a major and a minor in Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (RGSS) founded on the premise that gender, sexuality, class, race, and other markers of difference are historical and intersecting constructs affecting all persons. The program offers students a unique opportunity to question and challenge the power structures that perpetuate privilege and inequality, providing a formalized setting for students to interrogate identity and agency locally and globally, and across time and space.

Majoring in Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (RGSS) prepares students for professions in public administration, health and human services, the arts, law, medicine, social work, journalism, and non-governmental social justice organizations, as well as graduate work in a number of programs.

Our Faculty

Professors of Art, Anthropology, Communications, English, Journalism, History, Media Arts, Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Sociology, Spanish, and more teach classes in the program.

RGSS Faculty & Staff
the capitol building

Where You Can Go

Students with GWSS expertise are sought after to work in a diverse and rapidly changing world in a variety of professions and occupations, such as public administration, the arts, public health, and media, while also providing students with a foundation for a variety of graduate work.

Jack Halberstam

Sponsored Speakers

Each year, the program brings speakers to campus to enlighten, inform, and captivate. In recent years such speakers have included peace activist Cindy Sheehan; Judith Halberstam, Director of The Center for Feminist Research at University of Southern California; professor and author Erica Meiners; and film director and producer Denis Mueller.

Butler Black Student Union

Student Organizations

Students can become involved on campus through organizations such as Alliance, Demia, the Black Student Union, TRANSform, and Butler Latinos Unidos, exploring the diverse world in which we live.

Contact Us

Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Jordan Hall, Room 212
4600 Sunset Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46208

317-940-8336

Interim Director

Sholeh Shahrokhi

Administrative Specialist

Jill Korblick