Fall 2013 WGST Classes

Introduces students to the field of Women & Gender Studies. Examines gender issues in the United States from interdisciplinary, multicultural, and feminist perspectives. Covers such topics as sexuality, beauty ideals, women’s health, violence against women, work, the economy, peace and war, and the environment. Meets MAPS requirement for social science: general. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity.

Examines contemporary experiences of people around the world as they negotiate dominant and subversive understandings of gendered identities. Focuses on the ways in which the material and discursive circumstances of people’s lives shape their opportunities for resistance and creative construction. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity.

Explores diverse cultural forms such as film, popular fiction and non-fiction, music videos, public art, websites, blogs and zines which are shaped by, and in turn shape popular understandings of gender at the intersections of race, class, ability, religion, nation, and imperialism. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity.

Introduces the contributions of women to literature and the performing arts from a historical and cross-cultural perspective. Emphasizes the cultural contexts in which artworks are created, as well as representations of gender and sexuality. Stresses issues of structure, content, and style, along with the acquisition of basic techniques of literary and arts criticism. Prereq., WMST 2000

Studies the history of social activism in the United States by women of color, with an emphasis on modes of social activism, issues that have organized specific communities of color, issues that have crossed ethnic/racial boundaries, and the interaction of women from different ethnic/racial groups, including women of color and white women. Recommended prereq., WMST 2000 or 2600.

Examines the positionality of women in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and power relations in a global context. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: contemporary societies.

Provides an overview and critical examination of women as political actors within the United States. Students will examine the gendered components of citizenship, election, political office, and public policy. Furthermore, students will explore the ways in which gender intersects with class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other identities in U.S. politics.

Drawing from US, queer of color and transnational perspectives, this course explores key concepts and tensions in queer theory. How does queerness complicate existing understandings of sexual behavior and gendered bodies, particularly as they are shaped by race, ability, culture and nation? In what ways does queer theory shift our understandings of the relationship between everyday lives and broader institutional forces like government, media, medicine or family? Central to our investigation is how queerness – as a lived experience and a politics – engages with contemporary debates around sexual freedom, globalization, socioeconomic justice, and violence. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours for different topics. Prereq., WMST
2000 or 2600.

Are women inherently non-violent by nature? Is aggression an essentially masculine trait? Can men suffer gendered violence? Are violent women being “masculine”? Are Third world societies more violent and misogynist than those of the First world? Is colonial occupation a queer issue? In this interdisciplinary course we will address such questions by examining feminist debates on rape, “Slutwalking”, “honor killing”, suicide bombing, female terrorism, and war. Rather than considering women only as objects of violence, we will also think about women as agents of violence, as well as men as objects of gendered violence. Apart from a range of critical scholarship, novels may include J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers; films may include Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Kimberly Peirce’s Boys Don’t Cry, and Kabir Khan’s New York.
May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours for different topics. Prereq., WMST 2000 or 2600. Restricted to sophomores/juniors/seniors.

Content varies by semester and reflects relevant issues in global feminist scholarship. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Prereq., WMST 2000 or 2600. Restricted to sophomores/juniors/seniors.

Provides field experience in local and national government and non-governmental agencies focusing on women and gender-related issues. Supervision by approved field instructors. Students must relate their academic experience to their field work experience though a portfolio and a final paper. Prereq., 6 hours of course work in Women and Gender Studies and 30 cumulative credit hours. Please contact the Women & Gender Studies Program for enrollment information.

Enriches the academic experience of majors and minors within the Women and Gender Studies program. This course usually will combine readings from books with lectures and discussions, community outreach and in-house publications spanning the interdisciplinary focus of the program. May be repeated up to 4 total credit hours. Restricted to WMST majors or minors.
Contact WGST Office to enroll.

Studies the commercial trade of sexual labor in the global economy, examining theories and assumptions about sexual-economic exchanges and gendered and racialized relations of power in the sex trade. Emphasizes prostitution. Recommended prereq., WMST 2600 or 3100. Restricted to juniors and seniors.

Addresses the problems and challenges women face around the world and the ways in which women have mobilized to address them. Explores political activism at the local, national, regional, and global levels. Focuses on different forms of activism, including strategies aimed at working with and within governmental institutions, as well as outside and against them. Recommended prereq., WMST 2000 or WMST 2600.

May be repeated up to 7 total credit hours. Please contact the Women & Gender Studies Program for enrollment information.

For qualified WMST majors working on the research phase of departmental honors. Prereq., junior/senior standing and 3.30 overall GPA.
Please contact the Women & Gender Studies Program for enrollment information.

Qualified Women and Gender Studies majors may write an honors thesis, an in-depth research paper, on a topic of choice. Thesis hours available to majors only after successfully completing the research phase.
Please contact the Women & Gender Studies Program for enrollment information.

Explores feminist methodology across a range of disciplines. Themes include experience and interpretation, the social position of the researcher, language and argument structure, knowledge and power, bias and objectivity, and the ethics and politics of research. Meets the requirements for the WGST certificate. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.

Offers interdisciplinary feminist perspectives on different special topics such as gender and war, gender and globalization, women’s social movements, gender and citizenship, gender and collective memory, and cultural representations of gender and sexuality. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Meets the requirements for the WGST certificate. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.