Specializations:

While WID is not a degree-granting unit, a gender specialization may be combined with a student's major program of study.

The Graduate Specialization in Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change, administered by WID and sponsored by the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the College of Social Science, is an elective available for students enrolled in master's and doctoral degree programs at MSU. This specialization is the first of its kind to focus on local and global intersections of gender, social and environmental justice, and environmental change. Examples of emerging scholarship in this field include the intersection of gender, class, race, and ethnicity in: environmental politics of international issues such as biotechnology and globalization; grassroots environmental justice movements; use and management of natural resources; feminist environmental economics; and human-environment relations in history and literature.

In conjunction with the Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID), WID offers a Graduate Specialization in International Development, available as an elective for students who are enrolled in master's and doctoral degree programs at MSU. The specialization, administered by the College of Social Science, is designed to: provide an opportunity for graduate students to obtain a comprehensive and contemporary academic experience in the field of international development studies; sensitize graduate students with an interest in development studies to their professional obligations and responsibilities; and develop an intellectual environment that will foster the growth of research and teaching in the area of development studies. Students may design individualized programs with a focus on gender relations in the areas of health, work, rural development, environment and development, development administrations, nongovernmental organizations in development, and politics of development.

An Undergraduate Specialization in International Development, administered by CASID and WID, is also available as an elective to students who are enrolled in any bachelor's degree program at MSU. The specialization is designed for students who wish to increase their understanding of the processes of continuity and change in various regions of the world, particularly Africa, Asia, Eurasia, and Latin America. Multidisciplinary in theory and practice, the specialization is based on the methodologies, theories, and literatures of the social sciences and liberal arts and involves faculty from the social sciences, arts, languages, and applied professional fields.