About Us

The School of Gender, Race and Nations (SGRN) is comprised of four units: Black Studies, Chicanx/Latinx Studies, Indigenous Nations Studies, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. This collaboration is interdisciplinary at its core. The overarching areas evident in the school's name feature the rich constellation of interlocking and challenging factors key to understanding our society and making changes for a more socially just future. Our goal is to create a space for excellence in studies and research of culture, race, ethnicity, sovereignty, nation, migration, class, gender and sexuality.

The School of Gender, Race and Nations offers a graduate certificate. Those who enroll in the GRN certificate program include those from existing graduate programs and professionals seeking additional grounding in such studies.

Graduate Certificate

“The proposal to establish a School of Gender, Race, and Nation is visionary, creative and has the potential to develop leaders who understand the importance of viewing higher education from a global perspective. The integration of epistemologies or ways of knowing from a wide variety of perspectives, including Indigenous Nation Studies, will add strength to teaching and research opportunities for faculty and students....[T]his new school ...will put Portland State University in the forefront of strong academic programs from a world view of gender, race, and Nation building.”

John W. Tippeconnic, III
Professor and Director, American Indian Studies, Arizona State University

What People are Saying

“The creation of a School of Gender, Race and Nations would position PSU to provide intellectual leadership on some of the most intransigent issues that continue to plague us in the 21st Century--growing inequalities, as well as life-constraining racism, sexism and homophobia. [The faculty] should be lauded for envisioning such a bold and rich intellectual initiative.”

Mary E. Hawkesworth
Professor, Political Science & WGS, Rutgers University

“The proposal to establish a School of Gender, Race and Nation is a brilliant response to the challenges facing Higher Education today.”

Mary Margaret Fonow
Director of the School of Transformation, Arizona State University