Interdisciplinary introduction to the study of gender, women, and sexuality. Addresses issues such as social experience, representation and popular culture, femininities and masculinities, family structure, education, employment, economics, literature and the arts, religion, history, and technology. Explores interrelationships of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, ability, and age from a transnational perspective. Same as SOC 130.
Presents multiple windows into perceptions and perspectives upon gender, sexuality, power, identity and culture, and their multiple intersections. The concept of race in its many manifestations is used to examine relationships of self to society, state institutions and cultures. By paying greater attention to race and power, nuanced understandings of the way the gender systems are maintained, patrolled and formed will be examined. Topics may include: film, media, technology, culture, religion, identities, sexualities. Same as SOC 201.
Surveys sexualities from multiple perspectives, standpoints, disciplines, and theories. How have different cultures, different people, and different viewpoints understood, shaped, and interpreted sex, sexualities and genders? Course places the concept of sexuality at its core to examine citizenship, education, reproduction, science, tourism, urban/rural space, and politics. Topics may include: gender, race, identities, power, transformation, reproduction. Same as SOC 202.
Investigates queer lives in relation to dominant ideas about "deviance" and "equal rights." Drawing on case studies, the course investigates questions related to nation, race, economy, bodies, drugs, health, identities, agency and action as they intersect with contemporary queer politics. Students will learn conceptual and qualitative methods to investigate issues related to queer lives. Same as SOC 255.
From anti-lynching campaigns to Black Lives Matter, Wages for Housework to domestic worker organizing, ACT UP to queer migration politics, this course examines the history of feminist, queer, and anti-racist movements. We will pay particular attention to women of color theorists and activists, and the ways in which they develop interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches to activism and advocacy. Same as AAS 282 and LLS 282.
Approved for letter and S/U grading. May be repeated in the same term to a maximum of 9 hours; may be repeated in separate terms to a maximum of 12 hours.
Examines the complex relationship between culture, gender roles, and gender-based human rights and violations. Addresses topics such as the evolution of the human rights framework, strategies and ethical dilemmas of human rights work, and transnational feminist activism. Students will discuss case studies of rights violations and local change-making strategies and will construct a human rights campaign on a gender-based issue. Prerequisite: GWS 100, GWS 201, or GWS 202 are highly recommended.
Aspects of popular culture, including television, magazines, newspapers, social networking sites, and internet sources to name a few, are ways that health information is disseminated. Students will examine how we define health and understand disease as related to popular culture. Discusses how people resist or reinforce these messages about health, well being, fitness, and diet. Also discusses how understandings of race, sexuality and class affect the ways that we think about sickness, health and constructions of gender.
Traces the development of queer theory as a mode for understanding queer studies methodologies and the changing intellectual landscape of key issues in the field. As part of the course, students will review key concepts and theoretical schools of thought, navigating important debates guiding the field. Theories will engage questions of the social and cultural through topics including race, gender, nation, family, history, identity formation, sexology, the state, and capital. Same as SOC 320. Prerequisite: GWS 100, GWS 201, GWS 202, or consent of instructor.
Same as CWL 376, EURO 376, and SCAN 376. See SCAN 376.
Discusses how femininity and gender formation are related through fairy tales. As children grow they are taught the difference between male and female roles. One of the main ways this instruction takes place is through the pleasurable media of fairy tales in books, poems, and more recently, films. Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Beauty and the Best, and the Little Mermaid, among others, will be examined to understand how sexual identity is constructed differently in different cultures, and how issues such as rape and incest are addressed within the narratives. The readings explore the ways that fairy tales work to express psychological reactions to maturation while conditioning both characters and readers to adopt specific social roles in adulthood. Same as ENGL 378.
Explores a wide variety of sources to understand how notions of sexuality have emerged and been contested at key moments in U.S. history. Our guiding questions include: How have "official" or governing discourses of sexuality (in law, medicine, religions, science) been formulated? In turn, how have "ordinary" people understood and practiced their sexuality? How has the meaning of particular sexual practices changed over time? How have ideas about race, gender, and/or class been embedded within the discourse of sexuality at different moments in U.S. history? What methods of reading and interpretation are most useful for the historical study of sexuality? Also emphasizes skills such as critically analyzing primary sources within their historical context; interpreting different types of primary sources; locating, understanding, and evaluating scholarly secondary sources; and presenting historical arguments, based on both primary and secondary sources. Same as HIST 387.
Same as AAS 495, ENGL 495, FAA 495, and THEA 468. See FAA 495.
Explores how hip hop has shaped the culture, aesthetics, experiences, and perspectives of an emergent generation of artists, scholars, and writers with several aims: 1) To challenge systemic social inequalities. 2) To articulate new visions of justice that depend on the power young people possess. To better understand how and why the relationship between hip hop and feminism is coherent, meaningful, and compelling, students will become familiar with artists working within and beyond various elements of hip hop (rap, graffiti, emceeing, dee-jaying, etc.), social critics concerned with documenting hip hop's cultural practices, and critical educator (broadly defined). 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours.
Examination of theories and theologies of liberation, from Latin American liberation theologies and Islamic feminisms and anticolonial movements to Third World liberation struggles, the Gay Liberation Front, and the Black Freedom movement. Uses an expansive feminist lens to discuss these histories, theories, and theologies in relation to issues of violence/nonviolence; religion/secularity; art and aesthetics; gender, sex, and sexuality; and power. Same as AAS 464, ANTH 464, and REL 464. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: GWS 100 or GWS 250 and GWS 350 or GWS 370; or consent of instructor.
Supervised reading and research in Gender and Women's Studies chosen by the student with instructor approval. 2 to 4 undergraduate hours. 2 to 4 graduate hours. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours. Prerequisite: Two courses in Gender and Women's Studies at the 200-400 levels; or junior standing; or consent of instructor.
Considers the relationship between theory and research in Women's Studies. Reviews and examines the key issues of feminist scholarship. Provides students with the methodological knowledge and opportunity to carry out a research project. 3 undergraduate hours. No graduate credit. Prerequisite: Senior standing and enrollment as a major in Gender and Women's Studies, or consent of instructor.
Same as CGGE 581 and SOCW 581. See CGGE 581.
Interdisciplinary study in queer theories and methods produced in and across various disciplines. Contemporary philosophical and theoretical developments in queer studies specific to histories of class, race, ethnicity, nation and sexuality. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
May be repeated. Prerequisite: Graduate standing and previous coursework in women's or gender studies, or consent of instructor.