Alumni/ae
Hundreds of students have graduated from Penn with a major in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies since the program's inception (then known as the Women's Studies Program) in 1973. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the program, our graduates have gone on to excel in a wide variety of fields.
See our Alumni spotlight below for profiles of recent graduates of our undergraduate major and graduate certificate program. If you are an alum who is interested in being featured, please contact GSWS Associate Director Gwendolyn Beetham at gbeetham@sas.upenn.edu. You can also visit our Instagram page for information about GSWS events and opportunities for alumni networking.
Alumni Spotlight
Ava L.J. Kim
2022 Ph.D. Graduate
Dissertation Advisor(s): David L. Eng
"Trans / Nation: Gender and Democracy in an Age of Transition"
Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, University of California, Davis
Barrie Levine
Ph.D. Graduate
Lecturer, School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania
GSWS was an incredibly special community with both warmth and academic rigor. The coursework enabled me to forge my own path, allowing me to approach studies in sociology, psychology, English, and biology through a gendered lens. The guidance I received from my thesis advisor, Demie Kurz, guided my choices in graduate school and she provided career mentorship long after graduation. GSWS became a small family within the a larger Upenn, one that I feel so lucky to have been a part of. I felt prepared to take on graduate school in social work, fieldwork with diverse populations, and a career working with families and major philanthropists.