Gender, Sexuality, Theology, and Ministry Certificate

Program Code: D-GTM-C
Degree Designation: Certificate
Department: Divinity School
Website: divinity.duke.edu/academics/certificates/gender

Program Summary

The certificate in gender, sexuality, theology, and ministry (GSTM) can be earned within the MDiv (residential and hybrid), MTS, and ThD degrees and enables students to make the study of gender, sexuality, theology, and ministry a core component of their theological education. It fosters a collaborative environment for teaching, research, service learning, and dialogue.

The GSTM program creates a network, community of discourse, and intellectual space—at Duke Divinity School and beyond—where questions of gender and sexuality are privileged in the academic study and practices of theology, ministry, and lived religion. The program examines intersections of gender with race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality, and asks what these questions mean for the church and for the common work.

Students in the certificate program take elective courses in the Divinity School or Department of Religious Studies and in Duke’s Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies that use gender and sexuality as primary lenses. They also design and execute independent research or contextual learning project and present their work in a senior colloquium.

The work of the GTSM program also extends beyond the certificate into developing new courses that use the study of gender and sexuality as a primary analytical lens, fostering scholarship and academic dialogue across fields and positions, bringing guest lecturers to the Divinity School, sponsoring training in pastoral responses to domestic violence, and encouraging the community to engage with students’ work at the senior colloquia.

Academic Requirements

Fulfill all of the following requirements

• THD, MTS, MDVR, and MDVH Requirements

  • Courses (complete 3 courses)

    • GSF courses: Take at least 1 course that matches the following: GSF 500 and above or SXL 500 and above

    • Divinity GSTM Electives (complete any) - see list below

  • Contextual Learning or Research Project Proposal 

  • Contextual Learning or Research Project Completion 

  • Participation in colloquium

• MACP Requirements

  • Courses (complete 2 courses)

    • GSF courses: Take at least 1 course that matches the following: GSF 500 and above or SXL 500 and above

    • Divinity GSTM Electives (complete any) - see list below

  • Participation in colloquium

  • Assignment Related to GSTM 

  • Vocational Integration Summary

• Divinity GSTM Electives

  • Always count

    • CHURMIN 762 (The Love of God and Neighbor)

    • NEWTEST 973 (Divine Embodiment: Biblical Portrayals and Beyond)

    • OLDTEST 973 (Divine Embodiment: Biblical Portrayals and Beyond)

    • PARISH 802 (Prophetic Ministry: Shaping Communities of Justice)

    • PARISH 815 (Women in Ministry)

    • PREACHNG 774 (Women Preaching)

    • PREACHNG 781 (The Overshadowed Preacher: Body and Spirit in Sermon Performance)

    • XTIANETH 805 (Sex, Gender, and Discipleship)

    • XTIANETH 817 (Womanist Bioethics)

    • XTIANTHE 842 (Womanist Theological Ethics)

    • XTIANTHE 856 (Theology through Visual Art and the Theology of Art)

    • XTIANTHE 857 (Love and Desire)

  • May be approved - speak with director  

    • XTIANETH 810 (Soren Kierkegaard)

    • OLDTEST 808 (The Bible & Domestic Violence)

    • NEWTEST 816 (Exegesis of the Infancy Narratives (English))

    • OLDTEST 769 (Prophecy in the Body)

    • PASTCARE 807 (Marriage and Family)

    • OLDTEST 820 (Queering the Old Testament)

    • PARISH 800 (Women and Spiritual Memoir)

    • NEWTEST 811 (Race and Gender in Paul)

    • OLDTEST 806 (Biblical Bodies)

    • HISTREL 889 (Religion, Restrictions, and Violence)

    • AMXTIAN 812 (Women and Power in Modern American Churches)

    • XTIANETH 800 (War in the Christian Tradition)

  • Other pre-approved courses may also count

Guidance for Coursework and Co-Curricular Requirements for MDiv (Residential and Hybrid), MTS, and ThD Students

• Completion of three courses in gender studies: a graduate-level course in the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies or an approved alternative; and two courses within the Divinity School or Duke University Department of Religion with a clear focus on gender studies;

• Completion of a contextual learning or research project in the area of gender, sexuality, theology, and ministry. The project may be conducted in one of four ways:

  • within a course (but not within any of the three courses that fulfill the previous requirement)

  • within a directed study

  • as an independent community service project

  • within the context of a field education placement (Note: The field education office is not responsible for facilitating or evaluating this project in any way); and

• Participation in a colloquium by students to discuss their contextual learning projects and/or to share the results of their research. Affiliated faculty members will be responsible for directing the colloquy.

Guidance for Coursework and Co-Curricular Requirements for MA Students

• Completion of two courses in gender studies within the Divinity School or the Duke University Department of Religion (hybrid or residential), or an approved alternative, with a clear focus on gender studies;

• Completion of one assignment related to Gender, Sexuality, Theology, and Ministry for a non-GSTM course, with permission from the instructor;

• If feasible, students will participate in a colloquium to discuss their contextual learning projects and/or to share the results of their research; and

• Completion of a 500-word summary of how coursework integrates with current vocation, with specific reference to the GSTM certificate.