Currently Offered Courses - Fall 2021
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 HDFS 140 and 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.
Same as HIST 245 and MDVL 245. See HIST 245.
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.
Clothing is a medium for fashioning identities from commodities, and it is hardly surprising that political and social tensions are embodied in its fabrications. The politics of dress indicates inseparable links between cultures, aesthetics, and politics, as demonstrated in debates about Muslim practices of veiling, the role of clothing in colonialism’s "civilizing" mission, immigrant and "third world" sweatshop labor, fashion policing and subcultural style, and the fashion and modeling industries. Clearly manifest throughout these politics is the role of gender, race, nation, and sexuality, as relations of power and as critical factors for social life and creative imagination. This course requires weekly written reflections on the required readings; a written midterm; and a final project, which can be either a research paper or a creative project. The course also requires in-class participation (which will include pop quizzes, group discussion, and other exercises) and one individual or group presentation. The course thus provides students an opportunity to develop their critical skills in both oral and written form. Same as AAS 275.
Same as AAS 300 and LLS 305. See AAS 300.
This interdisciplinary course uses the lens of gender critique and pairs it with social activism to provide students analytical tools to engage with, reshape, and create digital cultures. Examines recent research and public policies related to the gendered, raced, and classes dimensions of digital cultures and inequality; the broad range of labor issues embedded in the growing income disparity related to digital cultures; the various ways that digital inequality has been defined by public policy, sociologists, and activists, and real examples of collective activism and social change related to emerging technologies. Same as INFO 345, MACS 345, and SOC 345.
Same as AAS 357, AIS 357, ENGL 357, and LLS 357. See LLS 357.
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.
Explores how Black women have been are currently portrayed in popular media, such as television, internet, movies, and popular mediums such as magazines, popular fiction, newspapers, and other cultural phenomenon. Examines what these portrayals reveal about Black women's role in society and how black women as consumer and participants respond to these stereotypes, and create alternative oppositional images.
Investigates the ways in which sexual identities change as national contexts change, as borders are imagined, valued, and crossed, and as definitions of race, gender, and religion shift. Interrogates how national and transnational identities (at home and abroad), modernites, histories, and colonial and global narratives are built on ideas of racialized sexualities, and as such, is particularly interested in the study of queer diaspora. Importantly, this course utilizes transnational feminist frameworks for re-thinking issues related to sexuality, immigration, nation-building, race and gender. Areas of inquiry include imperialism, immigration, war, tourism and globalization. Same as HIST 385. Prerequisite: GWS 100, GWS 201 or GWS 202 or consent of instructor.
Special topics not treated in regularly scheduled classes. Approved for letter and S/U grading. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours if topics vary. Prerequisite: One course in Gender and Women's Studies; consent of instructor.
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.
What are the issues and politics related to transgender and transsexual identities? Students will examine and critically evaluate historical and contemporary debates that contest normative male/female binaries and traditional categorizations of sexuality. The course moves beyond these initial inquiries into gender theory to consider the effects of institutional discourses produced through stage and civil society. Taught with particular attention given to questions of race, national formations, medical, and legal discourses. Areas of inquiry may include gender theory, transnational identities, gendered and racial performances, medical and psychological diagnoses, violence, the law, and the Prison Industrial Complex. Through these topics, students will be asked to consider important questions over political and legal representation, autonomy, the rights of citizenship, and the practice of everyday life. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One course in Gender and Women's Studies at the 200- or 300-level, or consent of instructor.
Examines representations of the relationship between sex, power, and subjectivity and how they have shaped feminism. Explores critical approaches to feminist analyses of women's oppression and debates about sexuality, including issues such as consent, rape and prostitution. Same as PS 413. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One course in Gender and Women's Studies at the 200- and 300-level 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.
Interdisciplinary study in diverse feminist theories and methods produced in and across various disciplines. Contemporary philosophical and theoretical developments in the study of gender to specific histories of class, race, ethnicity, nation and sexuality. Prerequisite: At least one graduate-level humanities course or consent of instructor.