Lower Level Coursework in Women's and Gender Studies

Restrictions: None

This course is designed to familiarize students with women's experiences as well as with the ways in which society shapes notions of gender. The course also provides ways to identify and analyze how a society's notions of gender shape the ways in which a society sees and organizes itself. Class members examine the construction of women's social roles and their personal experiences, discussing points of congruence and dissonance. In this interdisciplinary course, reading and discussion materials are drawn from fields such as religion, sociology, psychology, political science and literature, among others, so students may examine the views, status and contributions of women. Class sessions consist of a mix of lectures, guest speakers, films and discussion. Frequent writing and revision. Cross-listed with ENG 75/SOC 75.

Upper Level Coursework in Women's and Gender Studies

Restrictions: None

On December 24, 1968, astronauts aboard Apollo 8 took the first pictures of the earth from space and human beings saw an awe-inspiring image of the whole earth for the first time. There were no political boundaries visible from space, and this image contributed to a growing consciousness of the connectedness of humankind as well as to a growing sense of the ecological fragility of ""Spaceship Earth."" In this course, we will study the forces of globalization that are shaping our world and our consciousness. Our purpose will be to develop a fuller understanding of globalization and to analyze the different responses to this phenomenon. We will also strive for a better sense of how globalization affects each of us as individuals. In other words, we will think about how the global is local, how each of us is positioned within economic, political and cultural systems with a global reach. How are we being shaped by this globalizing world? How can we in turn contribute to shaping this world? The course format is discussion. Assignments include frequent short response papers; several longer essays; and a group research project to learn information technology skills. Texts include essays, poetry, photography, video, film, and a novel.

Restrictions: None

Science fiction has only recently been admitted to academia as a genre worth occupying intellectual space and energies. Similarly, the fact that we negotiate our world in gender-specific ways has only been acknowledged in the last couple of decades. In this course we investigate visual and literary texts, discussing why a particular text was created at a particular time, what relevance it may have to various historical contexts, and how it relates to us as men and women, and to the genre as a whole. We will be employing gender as one of the primary filters through which ideas of space and the future are sifted-- both by us in the classroom and by the creators of the movies and novels on our syllabus.

Restrictions: None

This course explores literature from the perspective of the cultural work it performs with regard to constructing or challenging gender identities. The course varies but may examine particular literary traditions (e.g., literature by women of color) or particular critical issues (e.g. (de)constructing masculinity in the writings of women). Crosslisted with ENG 77.

Restrictions: None

This course explores literature from the perspective of the cultural work it performs with regard to constructing or challenging racial and ethnic identities, including racialized national, communal and individual identities. The course varies but may examine particular literary traditions (e.g., African American Literature) or particular critical issues (e.g., challenges to the Eurocentric canon).

Restrictions: None

This course introduces students to ways of thinking sociologically about gender arrangements in society. It focuses on analysis of the dynamics of gender and power in specific cultural spheres such as media, language, science and technology, or family/kinship arrangements. Students learn conceptual frameworks that enable them to critically examine taken-for-granted beliefs about gender and to develop an awareness of its social construction.

Restrictions: None

This course critically examines ideas about cultural difference and images of otherness. Throughout, we will intercept the relationships between ""us"" and ""them."" We address this in two ways. On the one hand, we will consider the historical contexts and cultural significance of Western stereotypes of non-Western people and places, while on the other hand, we will explore the significance of these stereotypes for self-understandings and self-images in the West and beyond. Focusing on intersections of race and power, we will analyze popular conceptions and academic constructions of peoples (includeing African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos) and places (such as Africa, the Orient, and the Pacific). Our discussions of these representations will highlight some of the central metaphors and motifs for interpreting indigenous non-Western, and marginalized cultures (primitivism, nostalgia, exoticism). Representations of cultural difference also tell us important things aobut EuroAmerican culture, thus, we will scrutinize whiteness and its significance as well. In addition to our consideration of dominant images and negative stereotypes, weill will review efforts to reimagine cultural difference. We explore these issues and their implications in a series of interconnected cultural domains, including advertising, art, movies, museums, and scholarship. Theories and approaches drawn from anthropology, sociology, history, cultural studies, women's studies, and post-colonial studies inform class discussions and student projects.

Restrictions: None

Restrictions: None

This course is designed to familarize students with women's experiences as well as with the ways in which society shapes notions of gender. The course also provides ways to identify and analyze how a society's notions of gender shape the ways in which a society sees and organizes itself. Class members examine the construction of women's social roles and their personal experiences, discussing points of congruence and dissonance. In this interdisciplinary course, reading and discussion materials are drawn from fields such as religion, sociology, psychology, political science and literature, among others, so students may examine the views, status and contributions of women. Class sessions consist of a mixture of lectures, guest speakers, films and discussion. Frequent writing and revision.

This course explores contemporary conceptions of socioeconomic class identity, with particular emphasis on the United States context. The course examines theories and practices of representing class. Writing assignments are designed to help students think critically and creatively about the complex phenomena of class structures and class-based identity categories, and about the effects of these structures and categories on everyday life and self-presentation. We will read and discuss texts from a variety of genres: fiction, non-fiction, and theory. Also, we will trace historical changes in American definitions and perceptions of class. Frequent writing and revision.

Restrictions: None

This course explores contemporary conceptions of sexual identity with particular emphasis on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer identities. The course examines theories and practices of representing sexuality, including conventions for talking about or censoring talk about sex. Writing assignments are designed to help students think critically and creatively about the complex phenomenon of human sexuality. Frequent writing and revision. Crosslisted with ENG 086.

Restrictions: None

This coruse will explore contemporary debates in the United States over marriage. We will critically engage with two particular streams of political and social dialogue concerning marriage: policies promoting marriage among welfare recipients as a means of combating poverty, and laws and policies concerning the legalization of gay marriage. Each of these topics on its own provides a rich and controversial political debate over the relationship between individuals, political dialogue, and the larger social structure. When explored alongside each other these political debates make clear the role of the state in legitimizing and reproducing particular forms of family, and the ways that people in different social locations-- or embodying particular social identities-- are situated differently in relation to social power. This course will draw on a broad range of disciplinary perspectives including ethnography, history, sociology, women's studies, and American studies. Students will engage in course work that challenges them to critically explore their own identities in relation to family and the state, as well as the larger political issues being considered.

Restrictions: None

This course is an introduction to Latino/a literature and film especially to their cultural influences and effects. Readings are studied in context with the history of relations between Latin American/Caribbean countries and the United States, with Anglo-American representations of Hispanics, and with contemporary cultural issues such as bilingualism. Crosslisted with ENG 164.

Restrictions: None

Students in this course will focus on two genres of life writing: autobiography (primarily based on verifiable information) and memoir (primarily based on the author's memories). The course will address remembering and capturing the past; vividly describing people and places; incorporating dialogue, emotion, historical context, and humor; and other components of effective life writing. The class will also examine the ethics of life writing. Over the course of the semester, students will explore the strategies discussed in class by writing and revising their own memoirs.

Restrictions: None

This course is designed to familiarize students with the different ways theorists have studied and defended language and discourse. Theories constructed by philosophers, psychologists, linguists and social theorists are examined, and students become involved in critical analysis of the epistemological assumptions of these theories. Cross-listed as ENG 174.

Restrictions: None

Restrictions: None

This course is an introduction to literature by writers from nations that were formerly European colonies. Influential texts by European writers about the colonial situation are also studied. The course introduces students to the critical framework and primary debates within the field of postcolonial literature. There are two versions of this course: one centering on the literature of Africa, the other on Asia. Crosslisted with ENG 165.

Restrictions: None

Reading fiction and theoretical writings by French men and women, students explore the differences between Anglo-American and French feminist thought and writing, the differing contexts from which they emerge and the ways each text engages the various concerns, debates, practices and theoretical approaches that shape their worlds and our own. In attending to the ways in which gender and sexuality are tied to other culture-specific issues (to questions of race, class, hierarchy and power), students reflect upon the ways that French women's writings undo or restructure traditional categories of thought, and thereby the relations of hierarchy and power they depend upon. Readings include categories of thought, and thereby the relations of Maupassant, Avital Ronel, Drucillad Cornell, Helene Cixous, George Sand, John Stuart Mill, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Andre Gide, Marilyn Frye, Freud, Luce Irigaray, Elizabeth Spellman, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin, Judith Buler and Marguerite Duras.

Restrictions: None

This coruse covers a wide variety of films spanning the 20th century. Emphasis is put on films from the Weimar period, the New German Cinema, and contemporary German Cinema, i.e. 1919-1933, the 1970s, and the 1980s-1990s. Alongside questions regarding the aesthetics of the films, we will also investigate formations of subjectivity, nationality, gender, sexuality, history, and oppression.

Restrictions: None

This course is a study of postcolonial Francophone literature written by women, African feminism in relation with French feminism, and criticism and interpretation. The main goal of the course is to explore the ways in which novels by African women reflect social and historical changes in the ways those women define themselves and are defined by others. Through a combination of lectures, group discussions, research and presentations, students define the nature of the voice that claims to be a subject rather than an object; they also are confronted with challenges that face women in the Postcolonial African societies such as gender roles, traditions and modernism, search of the self, and ethnic conflicts in relation with political structures. Possible authors include Mariama Ba, Aminata Sow Fall, Angele Rawiri, Calixthe Beyala, Myriam Wagner Vieyra, Regine Yaou, Robert Cornevin, Richard Bjorson, Maryse Conde and Simone de Beauvoir.

Restrictions: None

This course is designed to have students perform an intersive critical analysis on one particular moment of cultural history or on the relationship between two such moments. Students investigate the relationship between changes in cultural forms and practices and changes in social, political and economic practices. Specific subjects may include ""The Birth of Mass Cultural,"" ""The 1950's: Television Takes on the American Home,"" ""The Salem Witch Trials."" May be repeated once for credit when the topic varies.

Restrictions: None

A survey course covering both women's experiences and the shifting definitions of gender in Western and Central Europe and the colonies from 1400 to 1945. Topics include peasant women, the witch hunts, aristocratic women, socialists and feminists. Crosslisted with HIST 99.

Restrictions: None

Women took part in the French Revolution in widespread popular rioting in the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the endemic lesser revolutions that wracked Europe and her colonies repeatedly until 1848. This course focuses on three questions: What were they fighting for? How did they understand their womanhood? How did both their male colleagues and enemies discuss political and sometimes violent participation?

Restrictions: None

An examination of the lives of women and men in European peasant society, from the 14th through 19th centuries, using primary sources as much as possible, and focusing on relations of power both with the village and beyond the villagers' control: landlords, merchants, political change and definitions of gender that became increasingly inappropriate to rural life.

Restrictions: None

Selected readings in fiction, poetry and non-fiction written for young adults, with emphasis on contemporary novels. Discussions explore the relationship of the adolescent characters to adults and peers, the rites of passage in each story, and the contrasting narrative viewpoints from which these stories are told. Some attention to teaching this literature to junior high and high school students.

Restrictions: None

This course explores how selected short stories and novels represent the adolescent experience in the United States: how the adolescent protagonist is positioned in relation to other groups and the larger culture, the attitude of the implied author toward adolescence, and experiences that comprise ""growing."" Writing assignments include critical responses and an original short story.

Restrictions: None

The primary objective of this course is to introduce student to the emerging field of liberation theologies as this discipline is related to contemporary religious, social and political issues. The course gives primary attention to theologians in Latin America and North America. Students explore the relation between theological reflection, social context and the social-political location of theologians. Through a combination of lectures, discussion, readings and research, students are encouraged to both clarify their own personal stances as well as understand perspectives and contexts radically different from their own. Students are encouraged to examine how their own experience influences the way each approaches theological issues.

Restrictions: None

The primary objective of this honors seminar is to engage students with contemporary debates about traditional Christian teaching, doctrine and theology, particularly as these are engaged and challenged by the emerging fields of feminist theology and Latin American liberation theology. We will explore the questions of how and why traditional Christian teaching emerged in the history of the Church, what are the primary features of the doctrines that developed, how they have been used to understand and assess the teachings and practices of Christian churches, and whether these formulations are still adequate and relevant in today's context.

Restrictions: None

Restrictions: None

This course will provide students a chance to study leadership and qualities of leadership as they pertain to a diverse array of women leaders. We will focus on three specific facets to develop an astute understanding and analysis of women's leadership: leadership theories, historical examples of women's leadership, and a contemporary perspective on what women's leadership roles look like today and the challenges women face in realizing these roles. In all of our work, we will pay close attention to issues of race, class, and privilege, and the different ways these social realities impact the ability of women to lead effectively within society along with the creative ways women respond to them. No pre-requisites required.

Restrictions: None

Examination of the role that women play in American politics, the changes in that role over time, and the obstacles yet confronting women who aspire to political careers. Analysis of selected contemporary issues of special importance to women in politics.

Restrictions: None

The primary purpose of this course is to engage students with the emerging debates about the roles of gender and sexuality in Christian theology and ethics using the issue of homosexuality and Christianity. It moves to discuss the claim that the central ethical and theological issues facing the church today are homophobia and heterosexism, rather than homosexuality. A distinguishing factor of the course is that the majority of the authors of the books and articles self-identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual theologians and ethicists, voices not typically heard in church debates on these issues. The course also examines topics such as reclaiming the erotic in relationships, common points and tensions between lesbians and gay men, perspectives of queer people of color, and the relationship of gay issues to ecology.

Restrictions: None

Students will consider a variety of issues pertaining to American literary and cultural history to 1900. Topics may focus on a particular period or era (colonialism or the Civil War), issues (literature, history, and nationalism), or genre (the novel, the periodical, etc).

Restrictions: None

The purpose of this course is to continue developing critical thinking skills and gain critical understanding of works in feminist ethics. Emphasis is placed on an understanding of the positions discussed as well as the surrounding issues that may be brought up in the course of discussion. Crosslisted with PHIL 153.

Restrictions: None

Studies traditional and contemporary theories and research on the psychology of sex and gender. Explores the relationship of theories and research to social and relational behavior and to educational, economic, institutional therapeutic assumptions and practices. Crosslisted with PSY 137.

Restrictions: None

This course explores the relationship between gender and socio-cultural definitions of mental health and illness, and examines the history of the treatment of women within the major settings of the mental health system: psychiatry, psychoanalysis and asylum. The first major goal is to understand the social relations of power within which psychiatry emerged, and within which women became defined as ""hysterical,"" ""irrational,"" or ""mad."" A second goal is to chart the relationship between women's social roles and the experience and treatment of mental illness, making use of autobiographical and fictional accounts by women, films, and other materials. Crosslisted with SOC 137.

Restrictions: None

This theory-intensive course will draw on a broad range of disciplinary perspectives to consider questions concerning how to document, understand, and interpret the life experiences of human beings, primarily in the contemporary United States. We will focus in particular on the documentation of women's lives. Documentary film, popular culture, documentary writing ethnography, feminism, psychology, anthropology, sociology, literature, and memoir will be considered in exploring how to represent the ways that such axes of difference such as race, gender ethnicity, sexuality, class, age, and disability shape individual and group identities. Course material will focus on the ways that society organizes categories of identity and treats people differently based on such categories, as well as how such aspects of identity shape individual conceptions of self.

Restrictions: None

This course is a critical, in-depth examination of contemporary feminist theories of subjectivity. The central concern is for students to gain an understanding of the relationships between sexual difference, subjectivity and social relations of power. Students explore theories that address the psychic and subjectivity roots of relations of gender, power, and domination, as well as the socio-historical dimensions of gender subjectivity. Material and the approach used in the course are interdisciplinary, drawing on sociology, literary criticism, film studies philosophy and psychoanalysis. Counts toward SOC and ANSO theory-intensive requirements.

Restrictions: None

This course introduces the themes and theories central to feminist anthropology. It illustrates the emergence and implications of feminist perspectives for cultural anthropology by examining the distinct ways anthropologists have approached the entanglements of gender, culture and power. It begins by considering the marginalized history of women as both anthropologists and subjects anthro-political analyses. Against this background, it devotes attention to specific problems and strategies, including body, sexuality, the state, kinship relations and economic production. Throughout readings, class discussions, and student projects, course members seek not only to work through the awkward relationship between feminism and anthropology, but also to address the varieties between feminism and anthropology, but also to address the varieties of women's experiences and identities cross-culturally. Counts toward SOC and ANSO theory-intensive requirements. Crosslisted with SCSA 101.

Restrictions: None

A growing number of feminist scholars have challenged the traditional approaches to the study of world politics. According to these scholars, not only do men and women impact international relations in different ways, but issues and events in world politics also have divergent effects on men and women. Moreover, most of these scholars argue that gender, conceived of as socially constructed notions of masculinity and femininity, fundamentally shape world politics. Students examine a variety of topics, including national security and war, human rights, economic development and the participation of women in world politics, through a ""gender perspective,"" and consider the ways in which this perspective is useful in broadeningh our understanding of world politics.

This course examines gender and violence, including the social construction of the problem, interdisciplinary theoretical explanations, and the social and cultural contexts. This course also explores how media, politics, and popular discourse impact policy for intervention and prevention, and individual understandings of gender and violence. Crosslisted with SCSS 177.

Restrictions: None

Restrictions: None

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This course focuses on the background, development, and practice of experiential learning approaches with girls and young women. Developmental, academic, spiritual, and emotional aspects of learning are critical to successful life outcomes for girls, especially for those from abusive, impoverished, and other high-risk situations. Learn how to make a difference in your life and/or the girls with whom you share a relationship. Crosslisted with EDUC 199.

Restrictions: None

Restrictions: None

Opportunity for practical application of theoretical and research issues in applied work situations, with faculty supervision and evaluation. Prereq: Nine credit hours of completed work in women's studies, written consent of women's studies faculty advisor, and minimum WS grade point average of 3.0.

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Directed independent study. Prereq: Nine credit hours of completed work in women's studies and written consent of instructor.

Restrictions: None