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Take a Course in Gender and International Security this Spring 

  • GIWPS

Georgetown University offers a variety of graduate courses that teach students to critically engage with the most pressing issues of our time using a gender lens. In Spring 2025, many of such classes will be offered across the university—including several new classes.

Gender, Peace and Security Certificate Spring 2026 Courses

These graduate classes count towards the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) Graduate Certificate in Gender, Peace and Security.

Gender, International Security and Development (MSFS 5600 CRN: 39105 / GOVT 5669; CRN: 38311)

Professor: S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana

Time: Mondays 2:00 – 4:30pm

This class contextualizes gender issues and asks the question: how would we think about international peace, security, development approaches, and design intervention strategies if gender was treated as a central consideration in international affairs and peacebuilding programming? To answer this question, the class will explore both conceptual considerations related to gender and its practical application. This is a required course for the Gender, Peace and Security certificate.

Gender and Security Toolkit (SEST-6699 CRN: 46208 /  MSFS 7610 CRN:46771)

Professor: Aapta Garg

Time: Time: Wednesdays, 3:30 – 6:00pm

This advanced seminar will teach you concrete skills for ensuring gender is considered in peacebuilding, security, and development fields. The course will explore critical skills—from gender mainstreaming and gender analysis to gender-sensitive budgeting, research, monitoring & evaluation, and advocacy. The course will enable students to capably serve as gender focal points and learn how practitioners have successfully advanced gender in their diplomacy, development, and defense work. This is a required course for the certificate.

Technology, Security, and Identity (MSFS 6650-01 CRN: 48728 / GOVT 5622 CRN: 48901)

Professor: S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana

Time: Mondays 5:00 – 7:30pm

Digital transformation is having a wide range of broader societal impacts. The rise of AI, social media, and big data introduce new risks and complexities, including digital discrimination, online harassment, and the manipulation of vulnerable communities. These all pose significant threats to peace, democracy, and security, particularly for marginalized groups based on gender, race, and identity. This course examines technology’s intersection with societal frameworks, norms, and power structures. Students will explore how technological solutions interact with and reshape the societal challenges of our time, ranging from algorithmic biases to the global digital divide. By understanding the multifaceted ways technology intersects with societal norms, students will learn to craft gender and identity-sensitive, technology-based strategies for promoting equity, democracy, human rights, and ecological responsibility.

Power, Culture and Gender (MSFS 6660 CRN: 50395)

Professor: S. Ayse Orellana

Time: Wednesdays, 5:00 – 7:30pm

Gender equality and empowerment are key to effective foreign policy and global stability. Research consistently shows that societies are more peaceful, prosperous, and resilient when power is shared equitably across gender lines. Understanding how power is rooted in the gender and cultural dynamics of societies is therefore essential for anyone seeking to engage in international affairs, development, or policymaking.

By the end of the course, students will develop a critical understanding of how power, gender, and culture interact across diverse global contexts; analyze the drivers and dynamics of gender backlash and identify pathways for resistance and transformation; and gain tools to design culturally grounded and gender-responsive policies, programs, and advocacy strategies.

This course is designed for students pursuing careers in international affairs, development, humanitarian action, and peacebuilding, providing analytical frameworks and practical skills to address power and gender dynamics in complex and changing global environments.

Diversity & Inclusion in CR/Dev (MSFS 7620 CRN: 40737 / SEST 6541 CRN: 46431 / GOVT 7620 CRN: 46938)

Professor: Carla Koppell and Karine Lapize

Time: Thursday, 5:00 – 7:30pm

Untapped power: Leveraging diversity and inclusion in conflict resolution and development. A substantial body of research underlines the need to attend to diversity and inclusion in diplomacy, development and conflict resolution. Numerous international resolutions, national laws and plans, and declarations of commitment are in place calling for attention to and equal treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, women, youth, members of the LGBT community, people with disabilities, as well as socio-economically marginalized groups. Yet, realization of the commitments sorely lags behind the rhetoric. This seminar will review how diversity and inclusion are important to peace and prosperity, and discuss progress advancing the agenda and barriers to advancement. The class will also provide analytical and practical tools for advancing diversity and inclusion in the practice of diplomacy, conflict resolution and international development.

Other Gender Related Courses

Gender in Early Modern World 

  • Amy Leonard
  • Tuesdays, 11:00am – 1:30pm
  • HIST 6407, CRN: 49834

Feminist Theory and Methods 

  • Nefertiti Takla
  • Thursdays, 3:30-6:00pm
  • HIST 6611, CRN: 49837

Religion and Gender 

  • Julia Belser
  • Tuesdays, 12:30-3:00pm
  • THEO 8040, CRN: 49613

Politics of Human Rights in Latin America

  • Michael Reed-Hurtado
  • Friday, 12:30-3:00pm
  • LASP 6304, CRN: 38570 / GOVT 5425, CRN: 39076

International Human Rights Law

  • Scott Gilmore
  • Thursdays, 4:00-7:00pm  
  • LAWG 814, CRN: 49227 / LAWJ 814, CRN: 49228

Social Protection: Theory and Practice 6043

  • Laura Rawlings & Ana-Maria Arrigada
  • Thursdays, 2:00-4:30pm
  • GHDP 6043, CRN: 31786

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