Mar 28, 2024  
Undergraduate Record 2017-2018 
    
Undergraduate Record 2017-2018 [ARCHIVED RECORD]

Course Descriptions


 

Women, Gender & Sexuality

  
  • WGS 3230 - Gender and the Olympic Games


    In ancient Greece, women risked death if they even attended the Olympic Games. As Pierre de Coubertin looked to revive the games in 1896, he thought women better suited to cheering on the male victors, than to competing themselves. This course will explore women’s early participation in the Olympic Games, the pressures upon Olympic sportswomen to be feminine, and the important intersections of race, class, and sexual orientation.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3306 - Sexuality, Gender, Class and Race in the Teen Film


    The focus of this class will be on viewings and analyses of films featuring images of teens produced between 1930 and the present, focusing on the following questions: what is adolescence (and how has it been defined in American film)? What is the range of experience that characterizes American adolescence across gender, race, and class lines? How does it make sense to think about the social influence of films on individuals and society?



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3310 - Sexuality, Gender and Media


    This course examines how television addresses women, how it represents women, and how women respond to the medium. It also examines the relationship between the female audience and television by focusing on both contemporary and historical issues. Areas for examination include: how women have responded to television as technology; how specific genres have targeted women; how female-focused specialty channels have addressed women; and how specific television series and genres have mediated and negotiated the changing social, cultural, political, and economic status of women from the 1950s to the present. The course is particularly interested in charting how television has dealt with the challenges posed by the women’s movement and feminism. Prerequisite: WGS or Media Studies major, 2nd major or minor.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3340 - Transnational Feminism


    This course places women, feminism, and activism in a transnational perspective, and offers students the opportunity to examine how issues considered critical to the field of gender studies are impacting women’s lives globally in contemporary national contexts. We will look closely at how violence, economic marginality, intersections of race and gender, and varied strategies for development are affecting women in specific geographical locations.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3350 - Gender in Comparative Perspective


    This course examines how different countries “do” gender, exploring the political, social and economic construction of sexual difference. Our focus will be on how power is gendered and its effects on women and men in the developing world. We begin with a theoretical discussion of patriarchy, gender and feminist methods. Continuing to draw upon these theoretical debates, the course then investigates a series of issues, including gender and state formation in the Middle East, women’s political participation in India and South Africa, feminist and women’s movements in Latin America and Uganda, and globalization in South East Asia.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3370 - Feminism in America,1910-Present


    This course will explore the history of feminism in America from the 1910s to the present day. We will examine the various philosophies and strategies of people who have allied themselves with the feminist movement as well as those who have opposed it. We will ask how activists imagined sexual equality and what reforms-political, legal, economic, cultural, or psychological-they proposed.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3409 - LGBTQ Issues in the Media


    This course will explore the complex cultural dynamics of LGBTQ media visibility, along with its social, political, and psychological implications for LGBTQ audiences. It explores four domains: (1) the question of LGBT media visibility (2) the complex processes of inclusion, normalization, and assimilation in popular culture (3) media industries and the LGBT market (4) the relationship between digital media, LGBT audiences, and everyday life.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3440 - Gender and Multiculturalism


    Introduces current multiculturalism and feminist scholarship, prompting students to make connections between ideas from a wide variety of disciplines, such as history, sociology, anthropology, literature, art history, area studies, and more. Students will be required to complete an in-depth research final project for the course.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3450 - Gender and Architecture


    As a visual art, architecture as an object projects a specific image; as a spatial art it affects individual and group interaction/engagement with the built environment. Through the lenses of gender and race we will examine human relationships to architecture - as designers, patrons, and users in the public and the private realm and across a broad range of temporal and geographic boundaries.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3492 - Women’s Photography and Aesthetics


    An introduction to feminist theory as refracted through film theory, engaging questions of the representation of women from the particular angle of the representation of women by women. How does the strategy of self representation effect our interpretation of the images? How does woman’s entry into the fine arts through photography in the 19th century echo in the practice and work of 20th century woman photographers?



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3495 - Incarcerated Women


    This course centers on the increasing number of women and juvenile girls who are incarcerated in the United States, and the now more than one million women under some form of correctional supervision in America. We will also explore such areas as feminist approaches to women and crime, racialized representations of criminality, and the impact of gender, race, and class on the criminal justice system.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3500 - Topics in Women, Gender & Sexuality


    Topics in Women, Gender & Sexuality vary by semester.



    Credits: 1 to 4
  
  • WGS 3611 - Gender and Sexuality in the United States, 1600-1865


    This course explores the significance of gender and sexuality in the territory of the present-day U.S. during the period from the first European settlements to the Civil War.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3612 - Gender and Sexuality in the United States, 1865-Present


    This course explores the significance of gender and sexuality in the territory of the present-day U.S. during the period from the Civil War to the present.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3621 - Coming of Age in America: A History of Youth


    This course will explore the historical experience of young people and the meaning of youth from the colonial period to the late twentieth century. We will analyze how shifting social relations and cultural understandings changed what it meant to grow up. Topics to be explored include work, family, gender, sexuality, education, political involvement, and popular culture.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3625 - Cultures, Spaces, and Worldviews of International Aid


    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3680 - Eve’s Sinful Bite: Foodscapes in Women’s Writing Culture and Society


    This course explores how Italian women writers have represented food in their short stories, novels and autobiographies in dialogue with the culture and society from late nineteenth century to the present. These lectures will offer a close reading of the symbolic meaning of food in narrative and the way it intersects with Italian women¿s socio-cultural history, addressing issues of gender, identity and politics of the body.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3750 - Women, Childhood, Autobiography


    Cross-cultural readings in women’s childhood narratives. Emphasis on formal as well as thematic aspects.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3770 - Women Writers: Women on Women


    This course focuses on women writers from any era who address the topic of femininity: what it means or implies to be a woman.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3800 - Queer Theory


    Introduces students to some key & controversial theoretical texts that make up the emerging field of queer theory. The approach will be interdisciplinary, w/ an emphasis on literary, social, & aesthetic criticisms that may shift according the instructor’s areas of expertise. Active reading & informed discussion will be emphasized for the often unseen, or submerged, aspects of sexuality embedded in cultural texts, contexts, & litterateurs.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3810 - Feminist Theory


    This course provides an overview of the historical bases and contemporary developments in feminist theorizing and analyzes a range of theories on gender, including liberal, Marxist, radical, difference, and postmodernist ideas. We explore how feminist theories apply to contemporary debates on the body, sexuality, colonialism, globalization, transnationalism incorporating analyses of race, class, national difference and cross-cultural perspectives.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3814 - Gender, Sexuality, Identity in Premodern France


    This course will explore religious, social, scientific and legal views on gender, sexuality and identity that may extend from medieval through early modern Europe with an emphasis on the French tradition. Readings will include literary texts and cultural documents as well as current scholarship on questions of sexuality, gender, and identity politics



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3820 - Feminist Methodologies


    Interdisciplinary introduction to qualitative research design from a feminist perspective. Topics include memory, objectivity, confidentiality, ethics, power differentials, feminist epistemology, the status of evidence, and the limits of statistics. Appropriate for students interested in learning interview techniques, narrative analysis, fieldwork, archival work, and how to frame research questions.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 3993 - Independent Study


    Independent Study



    Credits: 1 to 4
  
  • WGS 4050 - Senior Seminar in Women, Gender and Sexuality: Embodiment


    This senior seminar explores ways that people inhabit “gender” and “sexuality” (as compounded with race and class relations), using the lens of philosophically distinct forms of embodiment: sensory, energetic, laboring, colonized, commodified, liberated, aestheticism, trans, agnostic, desiring, bio-intimate, and posthuman. Readings integrate theory with ethnography and include material on how the body has figured in social struggle. Prerequisite: WGS 2100; WGS major , WGS 2nd major, or WGS minor



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4100 - Readings in Sexuality Studies


    Explores key topics that have shaped the field of sexuality studies, with a focus on queer studies. Such topics include the history of sexuality, scientific racism and critical race theory, cyborgs, biopower, nationalism, colonialism, sexuality and law, the relationship of sexuality to race and class, and bodily aesthetics. Interdisciplinary readings may include fiction, theory, ethnography, law, philosophy, film, music, science, and economics. Prerequisites: 2000 level course in humanities or social sciences.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4101 - Issues in Women’s Autobiographies


    This course focuses on women’s autobiographical texts and the diverse ways authors explore issues surrounding identity, power, and resistance in their narratives. We will read compelling accounts of imprisonment, reservation life, political detention, and more, while closely examining women’s participation in ongoing struggles for social justice.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4107 - Feminism and the Public Sphere


    The idea of the public sphere is central to contemporary politics. It is the “space” where citizens exchange ideas and form opinions, and from which these citizens can shape government. It is also a space largely dominated by media in contemporary industrialized societies. Concerns about the impact of the media on politics are often concerns about the health of the public sphere.     



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4110 - Gender Non-Conformity in Media Culture


    As one of the primary cultural drivers of common sense, shared values, and political ideology, media are certainly influential storytellers. This course creates space for considering media’s role in articulating and fashioning the limits and possibilities of gender identity. We will pay particular attention to representations of gender non-conformity in popular culture such as female masculinity, male femininity, and transgender subjectivity.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4140 - Beyond the Gap: Gender and Political Behavior


    This course will consider the theoretical place of gender in American politics. We will also take up a number of topics, including the unavoidable gender gap, the role of masculinity and femininity in conditioning our perceptions of issues and political candidates, the ways gender, politics, and society have interacted historically, and the ways race and gender (and class) interact in conditioning political behavior. Prerequisite: At least one course either on gender or on political behavior.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4200 - Sex and Gender Go to the Movies


    This course will examine the ways in which different mass media help to define our cultural ideas about gender differences and the ways in which feminist scholars have responded to these definitions by criticizing existing media images and by creating some alternatives of their own. The course will examine the notion that the mass media might influence our development as gendered individuals and consider different forms of feminist theory.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4240 - Rights, Identity and Gender


    Investigates the conflict over culture and women’s rights and examines a number of proposed solutions.  Issues addressed include the claims of minority communities in liberal states, marriage practices in Africa and the U.S., domestic violence in India, and female genital mutilation.  Cross-listed with PLCP 4120.  Prerequisite: One course in PLCP or permission of the instructor.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4300 - Risky Business


    This course will bring economic notions of risk to thinking about risk in relation to gender, race, class, nation and globalization. Students will be introduced to notions of risk that have traveled with finance and insurance globally. They will also interrogate concepts associated with risk or mediated through risk and insurance. Material in class will range from financial analyses and ethnographic materials to fiction and film.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4340 - Feminist Theory in International Relations


    Examines leading feminist contributions to, and gendered critiques of, theories of international relations including (but not limited to) war, peace and security; international political economy; and international institutions and organizations.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4350 - Comparative Gender Stratification


    Examines gender stratification - the relative level of equality of men and women in a given group - in comparative and cross-historical perspective. Several theories are presented to explain the variations, from gender-egalitarian to highly patriarchal groups. (IR) Prerequisites: WGS or SOC course



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4360 - Body Politics and the Body Politic


    This seminar places feminist and non-feminist debates about body politics beauty standards, racialization and color politics, transgender movements, body modification, work discipline, commodification, torture, cyborgs, and new corporeal technologies–in the context of a wider universe of political and philosophical writing on embodiment. Students will be introduced to culturally and historically diverse bodies. Prerequisite: 4th year WGS majors, WGS 2nd majors and WGS minors or instructor permission



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4420 - Women and Education


    Course will examine the roles women have played and continue to play as students, scholars, and leaders in American educational institutions. 



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4500 - Topics in Women, Gender & Sexuality


    Topics in Women, Gender & Sexuality vary by semester.



    Credits: 1 to 4
  
  • WGS 4610 - LGBTQ Communities: Race, Class, Gender


    This course examines the historical and continuing role of LGBTQ communities in U.S. society. Topics covered will include changes that have taken place over time, LGBTQ-rights as a social movement, and homelessness as an LGBTQ-rights issue. Particular emphasis will be placed on power relations in LGBTQ communities, including the role of racism, classism, and sexism.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4650 - Gender, Poetry & Mindfulness


    The course integrates mindfulness training with interpretation of art, literature, and writing. Course material is global in scope, incorporating diverse works from Urdu poetry to Japanese haikus, including texts and mindfulness exercises from Tibet. Students will practice mindfulness to enhance their understanding of writers’ and artists’ personal, historical, cultural, and gender perspectives.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4655 - Early Modern Theater: The Drama of Marriage


    Course will investigate marriage as represented on the early modern European stage.  Italian, Spanish, French and English plays comprise our subject matter. We’ll consider the legal, social, and cultural history of matrimony to background our study of the stageworks; we will analyze scripts and performances to learn how dramatic and theatrical convention intersected w/ marital institution and negotiations, onstage and off. Taught in English.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4700 - Men and Masculinities


    Typically, men are dealt with in a way that casually presents them as representative of humanity. This course addresses the various ways that men are also ‘gendered,’ and can be the subject of inquiries of gender, sexuality, inequality, and privilege in their own right. Prerequisite: Students need to have completed a WGS course.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4750 - Global History of Black Girlhood


    This course will allow students to explore the new scholarship on black girlhood. Scholars working on the history of black girls in the US, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa have created a vibrant new field of black girl studies.  Combining insights from black feminism and the history of childhood, these scholars have centered black girls¿ experience as a means of reframing our understanding of citizenship, labor, and creativity.



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4800 - Gender-Based Violence


    This course begins by investigating how scholars from a wide array of disciplines define gender-based violence (GBV), its prevalence, causes, and consequences. Next, we focus on several areas where gender -based violence is pervasive, such as universities, poor neighborhoods, during war, and in the global economy. The final section of the course examines responses to GBV by health care providers, feminists, and governments. Prerequisite: 3rd or 4th year student



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4840 - Gender Politics in Africa


    Comprehensive introduction to gender politics in Africa, including gender transformations under imperial rule, gender and national struggles, gender and culture claims, women’s movements and the gendering of the post-colonial state. Prerequisites: One social science course in WGS or comparative politics course; Instructor’s Permission



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4998 - Women, Gender & Sexuality Senior Thesis I


    Majors in Women, Gender and Sexuality (WGS) are encouraged to become Distinguished Majors. Students complete a two-semester written thesis (approximately 40-60 pages in length) in their fourth year under the supervision of a WGS faculty member. The thesis allows students to pursue their own interests in depth and have the intellectual satisfaction of defining and completing a sustained project. Please see your WGS advisor for more information. Prerequisites: WGS Major, WGS 2nd Major



    Credits: 3
  
  • WGS 4999 - Women, Gender & Sexuality Senior Thesis II


    Majors in Women, Gender and Sexuality (WGS) are encouraged to become Distinguished Majors. Students complete a two-semester written thesis (approximately 40-60 pages in length) in their fourth year under the supervision of a WGS faculty member. The thesis allows students to pursue their own interests in depth and have the intellectual satisfaction of defining and completing a sustained project. Please see your WGS advisor for more information. Prerequisite: WGS Major, 2nd Major



    Credits: 3
 

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