Currently Offered Courses - Fall 2025

GWS 100 - Intro Gender & Women's Studies

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.

GWS 201 - Race, Gender & Power

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.

GWS 202 - Sexualities

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.

GWS 204 - Gender in Gaming

Same as ENGL 277, GSD 204, and MACS 204. See GSD 204.

GWS 215 - US Citizenship Comparatively

Same as AAS 215, AIS 295, AFRO 215, and LLS 215. See AAS 215.

GWS 218 - Intro to Social Issues Theatre

Same as THEA 218. See THEA 218.

GWS 250 - Gender and Representation

Focusing primarily on gender, race, sexuality, and their intersections, this introductory course analyzes the politics of representation drawn from popular culture, painting, television and film, literature, music, religion, and new media.

GWS 270 - Sexuality and Literature

Same as GER 270 and CWL 272. See CWL 272.

GWS 272 - Women and Politics

Same as PS 272. See PS 272.

GWS 295 - Beginning Topics GWS

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.

GWS 305 - Theories of Race, Gender, and Sexuality

Same as AAS 300 and LLS 305. See AAS 300.

GWS 320 - Gender & Latina/o Migration

Same as LLS 320 and SOC 321. See LLS 320.

GWS 333 - Memoir & Autobiography

Explores the phenomenon of autobiography in the contemporary world. Students will read theories of autobiography, and ask questions about how writing about the self is gendered, and how representations of the self fare in the outside world. An important aspect of the course will be examinations of how changing media such as film, television talk shows and the Internet shape these representations. Students will be assigned to read and make a presentation on one of the supplementary texts of autobiographies chosen from authors in the First and Third worlds. Same as ENGL 333.

GWS 340 - Gender, Relationshps & Society

Same as HDFS 340 and SOC 322. See HDFS 340.

GWS 356 - Sex & Gender in Popular Media

Same as MACS 356. See MACS 356.

GWS 370 - Queer Theory

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.

GWS 382 - Black Women & Popular Culture

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.

GWS 383 - Hist of Blk Women's Activism

Same as AFRO 383 and HIST 383. See AFRO 383.

GWS 395 - Intermediate Topics GWS

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.

GWS 409 - Women's Health

Same as HK 409. See HK 409.

GWS 417 - Leading Post-Perform Dialog

Same as THEA 417. See THEA 417.

GWS 418 - Devising Social Issues Theatre

Same as THEA 418. See THEA 418.

GWS 432 - Gender Communication

Same as CMN 432. See CMN 432.

GWS 442 - Body, Culture & Society

Same as HK 442. See HK 442.

GWS 465 - Race, Sex, and Deviance

Same as AAS 465, AFRO 465, and LLS 465. See LLS 465.

GWS 478 - Sex, Power and Politics

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.

GWS 490 - Individual Study

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.

GWS 495 - Advanced Topics GWS

3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Approved for letter and S/U grading. May be repeated in the same term to a maximum of 9 undergraduate hours or 12 graduate hours; may be repeated in separate terms to a maximum of 12 undergraduate or 12 graduate hours.

GWS 498 - Senior Seminar

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.

GWS 550 - Feminist Theories & Methods

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.

GWS 575 - Transnational Feminisms

Study of the terms, methodologies and theoretical interventions of transnational feminist studies. Transnational is a term that calls attention to circuits of political, economic, and social phenomena across the boundaries of nation-states. Emerging as a response to the shortcomings of overarching, economic theorizations of globalization as well as Western versions of "global feminism," transnational feminist studies is an interdisciplinary critical field that draws from the vocabularies of postcolonial studies, poststructuralism, Third World feminisms, race and ethnic studies feminism in self-reflexive and context-specific ways. Examines recent reconceptualizations of relations between woman and nation; gender and globalization; feminist theory and practice.

GWS 580 - Queer Theories & Methods

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.

GWS 590 - Topics in GWS

May be repeated. Prerequisite: Graduate standing and previous coursework in women's or gender studies, or consent of instructor.