Catalog of Courses for Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Special Topics in Women, Gender & Sexuality.
An introduction to gender studies, including the fields of women's studies, feminist studies, LGBT studies, & masculinity studies. Students will examine historical movements, theoretical issues, & contemporary debates, especially as they pertain to issues of inequality & to the intersection of gender with race, class, sexuality, & nationalism. Topics will vary according to the interdisciplinary expertise & research focus of the instructor.
This course is an interdisciplinary analysis of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) Studies. We will study historical events and political, literary and artistic figures and works; contemporary social and political issues; the meaning and development of sexual and gender identities; and different disciplinary definitions of meaning and knowledge.
Offers a study of race-racialization in relation to gender-sexuality. Consider how the concept of race shapes relationships between gendered selfhood & society, how it informs identity & experiences of the erotic, & how racialized gender & sexuality are created-maintained-monitored. With an interdisciplinary perspective, we will consider how race & power are reproduced & resisted through gender & sexuality, individually-national-international.
Addresses the role the media has played in creating images and understandings of "Blackness" in the United States, particularly where it converges with popular ideologies about gender.
Examines the roles of deaf women inside and outside of the signing Deaf community. Using an interdisciplinary approach, considers such topics as language and cultural barriers, violence against women, sexuality, race, class, education, and work. Investigates disparities between deaf and hearing women and the choices available to d/Deaf women, individually and collectively, in contemporary culture.
Examines different ways of integrating gender into environmental analysis and organizing around the world, with a focus on power and links to race/class/nation. Topics include women's leadership in environmental movements; ecofeminism vs. feminist environmentalism; gendering of ecological knowledge and restoration; the impact of gendered divisions of labor on ecology; environmental violence; unequal health impacts; intimacy and sustainability.
Special Topics in Women, Gender & Sexuality vary by semester.
The course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of women, gender & sexuality
Examines human sexuality from psychological, biological, behavioral, social, and historical perspectives. Topics include sexual research and theoretical perspectives, sexual anatomy and physiology, sexual health, intimacy, communication, patterns of sexual response and pleasure and sexual problems and therapies. Course will also include examination of the development of sexuality and the intersections of other identities, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexuality and the law, sexual assault, and other social issues in sexuality.
This course will examine the portrayal of sex and sexuality in a variety of shows on television streaming platforms through the lens of media studies and intersectional, feminist and queer theory. The analysis will address the ideologies, narratives, values and ethics the shows impart. Topics include: the interdisciplinary meaning and representation of sexual orientation, queerness, sexual health, sexual harm, and notions of joy and pleasure.
"What is understood as ""masculine"" has varied throughout time as well as across cultural contexts and distinct social groupings, it is equally true that most historical periods, cultures, groups, etc. believe their own understandings of masculinity to be universal. In this course, we will deconstruct this. From this class, you should be able to think critically about where men and masculinity have been, where they are going, and what this might mean more generally for gender relations and gender inequality."
Motherhood, mothering practices, and maternal identities have long been crucial elements of human existence that have not received the level of attention or support that their importance calls for. This course takes an interdisciplinary look (inc. anthropology, feminist theory, media studies, philosophy, psychology, sociology) at scholarly conceptualizations of "good" mothering and analyzes depictions of mothering practices.
This course will focus on issues in technology and reproduction from historical and cross-cultural perspectives. We will examine critical perspectives on science, power, gender, and inequality as they influence cultural constructions of reproductive processes such as pregnancy, childbirth, infertility, and debates about the enhancement and limitation of human fertility. Prerequisite: Course in WGS, ANTH, Bioethics preferred
Students will explore the psychological, social, and cultural issues affecting adolescent girls and apply this understanding through service with the Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP). As we delve into theory and research on adolescent development, effective mentoring practices, and leadership development, students will test their theoretical knowledge and its application by serving as a Big Sister to an area middle school girl. Prerequisite: Permission of Instructor
An opportunity to develop leadership skills through involvement in academic service learning focused on best practices in youth mentoring. Building on last semester's exploration of the psychological, social, and cultural issues facing adolescent girls, students will examine evidence-based strategies for promoting girls' positive development, and continue to apply this understanding through the Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP).
This seminar is designed to support the YWLP (Young Women Leaders Program) group facilitators as leaders of YWLP mentoring groups. The content of instruction and discussion will focus on facilitation skills, small group development, and other topics relating to group dynamics, with particular attention to issues related to promoting leadership among adolescent girls and college women. There is an emphasis placed on multicultural issues.
What is the relationship between body image and identity? How does one affect, constrain, and inform the other? The development of body image is a complex process influenced by messages we receive from family, friends, peers, health care practitioners, teachers, and mass media to name a few. Messages are also constructed and interpreted differently depending on one's gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ableism.
FLSC is an engaged scholarship course paired with a year-long internship at the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women's Center. The course is designed to help students understand the dynamics of social justice issues impacting race, ethnicity, gender identities, economically disadvantaged populations and the intersections of these identities. The course also works toward increasing students capacity to empathize and understand how change takes place.
FLSC Part II provides a structured classroom environment in which students learn about gender equity and social justice issues. Students actively reflect upon their internship experience, discuss and learn about themselves, the workplace, and service organizations. Students will also delve into gender equity issues by examining other topics that Women's Center internship teams address.
Introduction to dynamics of gender-based violence, the political and cultural structures that perpetuate it, and avenues for achieving social justice. Students will think critically about the (largely) domestic impact of this violence, and develop a practical understanding of how it intersects with other forms of oppression, by applying theory to real-world problems through experiential learning projects in the community and at the University.
This course is open to undergraduate students who wish to reduce gender-based violence through peer education and engagement. This course will introduce students to various theories on the causes of gender-based violence as well as evidence-based intervention strategies, including public health approaches to violence prevention, and effective program planning.
Explores major debates, key ideas, and historical developments in women, gender, & sexuality theory. Students will gain familiarity with queer, trans, and feminist theory, including Black, Native, socialist, crip, and other approaches. Will consider the different methods that gender & sexuality scholars have used to explain the social world, and why such explanations are vital to WGS. Course emphasizes reading, discussion,and critical writing.
This course is an interdisciplinary analysis of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) Studies. We will study historical events and political, literary and artistic figures and works; contemporary social and political issues; the meaning and development of sexual and gender identities; and different disciplinary definitions of meaning and knowledge.
Course focuses on 20th century history of LGBTQ activism, but will include formation of heterosexual and homosexual identities and historical constructions of sexual practices prior to the 1900s. From 20th c. the course will focus on the Homophile Movement, Gay Liberation, and ACT UP, among other activist movements. Although primary emphasis will be placed on historical activism, contemporary movements regarding LGBTQ-rights will be included.
What is 'work'? Are women seen as 'workers'? Are there women who do not 'work'? What is the history of paid, less paid, and unpaid work? This course focuses on new trends in the relationship between gender, class and work; and will reveal emerging possibilities in knowledge and practice through changes or reversal in the gender order and its impact on work and its relationship with capital.
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.
This course asks that we consider the role of place refracted through the lenses of gender and race in the construction of identity. Using the work of feminist geographers, we will explore both imaginary and physical landscapes from those of novels and visual art to those of work, home, and the physical body as we map contemporary geographies of desire. Prerequisite: Previous 2000 level humanities or social science course required.
The phrase, "The first Pride was a riot" has long been repeated in LGBTQ+ circles. But what does this phrase mean, and what histories does it draw upon? What are the political histories of sexual and gender minorities in the United States beyond and before "Pride?" What are the current political stakes of Pride¿s history as protest movement? What queer political futures are on the horizon? This course explores such questions.
A focus on a bloodless, non-violent revolution that is shaking the foundation of the Islamic Middle East and North Africa, a revolution with women writers at the forefront. An examination of the rhetoric and poetics of sex segregation, voice, visibility, and mobility in a spectrum of genres that includes folklore, novel, short story, poetry, biography, autobiography, and essay. Prerequisite: Previous 2000 level course in the humanities or social sciences.
Offers a study of race-racialization in relation to gender-sexuality. Consider how the concept of race shapes relationships between gendered selfhood & society, how it informs identity & experiences of the erotic, & how racialized gender & sexuality are created-maintained-monitored. With an interdisciplinary perspective, we will consider how race & power are reproduced & resisted through gender & sexuality, individually-national-international.
This course traces the history of American female athletes from the late 1800s through the early 21st century. We will use gender as a means of understanding the evolution of the female athlete, and will also trace the manner by which issues of class and race inform sportswomen's journeys over time, particularly with regard to issues of femininity and homophobia.
This course will examine how film has portrayed women's sports and female athletes. We will explore how well the film industry has documented the history of women's sports, issues important to female athletes such as race, sexuality, equality and issues of femininity, and we will look to see how well these productions stack up against films portraying male athletes and men's sports.
This course will examine female athletes from a global perspective, comparing and contrasting their experiences, and placing them in historical perspective. Among the topics considered will be the Olympic Games, Chinese sports schools, the post-apartheid athletic landscape of South Africa, and Iranian women athlete's struggle against clothing restrictions.
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.
Explore the intersection of gender and race in sport, specifically examining the African-American female experience in sport. This course will ask students to consider whether sport was (and continues to be) the great equalizer for both African-American sportsmen and sportswomen, and to evaluate their portrayals (or lack thereof) in both the white and black media.
This course is an interdisciplinary analysis of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) Studies. We will study historical events and political, literary and artistic figures and works; contemporary social and political issues; the meaning and development of sexual and gender identities; and different disciplinary definitions of meaning and knowledge.
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?
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.
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.
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.
From message boards to dating apps, sex and sexuality have been on the internet since its founding. At the same time, attempts to curb certain kinds of eroticism have long followed sexual content online. This course explores the ways that sexuality, eroticism, and desire have taken shape online, the ways it has been promoted and restricted, and the ways that marginalized groups have used the internet to take sexuality "into their own hands."
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.
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.
This course develops fundamental skills for critical thinking, researching, writing, and communicating in WGS. Students will learn methods for finding and analyzing sources, approaches to framing arguments, and skills for effective written and oral communication. Seminars are offered on a variety of topics. This class fulfills the Second Writing Requirement and Enhanced Writing Requirement.
While serving as a mentor to a middle school girl in the Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP), a mentoring program that pairs area girls with college women for a year, students will participate in a weekly group that focuses on developing leadership projects using engaging dynamic media programs, such as digital storytelling. In addition, students will reflect upon and evaluate their own leadership styles throughout the course.
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subjects of women, gender and sexualities.
The history of white supremacy & the heteropatriarchy includes denying sexual pleasure of marginalized communities. A major benefit of pleasure is empowerment, which threatens power structures & leads to restrictive practices & laws. This course focuses on queer activists & feminists of color who examine pleasure, systemic oppression, & the connection of inner desires & needs -physical, mental, & emotional -as a part of enacting social change.
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.
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.
Cross-cultural readings in women's childhood narratives. Emphasis on formal as well as thematic aspects.
This course focuses on women writers from any era who address the topic of femininity: what it means or implies to be a woman.
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.
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.
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
Provides a comprehensive introduction to the foundational concepts and theories underpinning social change with a focus on gender, equality/equity, and feminist issues. Students will explore the dynamic intersections of gender identity, social norms, power structures, and activism through interdisciplinary lenses including sociology, psychology, history, and critical theory.
This course explores the diverse narratives and strategies of individuals and groups at the forefront of social justice movements. Through a critical examination of selected readings, students will engage with a variety of ideologies and approaches aimed at creating systemic change. While these activists may share common goals, their pathways to achieving these objectives differ significantly, reflecting a rich tapestry of thought and action.
Introduction to dynamics of gender-based violence, the political and cultural structures that perpetuate it, and avenues for achieving social justice. Students will think critically about the (largely) domestic impact of this violence, and develop a practical understanding of how it intersects with other forms of oppression, by applying theory to real-world problems through experiential learning projects in the community and at the University.
This course examines the politics of gender and sexuality in various Muslim societies since the 19th century. It covers a range of topics and themes, including historical, theological, political, and anthropological accounts of gender and sexuality discourses; various feminist movements; and sexuality, marriage, family, masculinity and LGBTQ issues.
Independent Study
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.
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.
This interdisciplinary course introduces students to trans studies via Latin American and Latinx Studies. Through cultural and literary texts, performance art, visual culture, and activisms that highlight the imbrications of race, class, sex, gender, and nation, we examine travesti and trans of color critique; travesti activism and sexual politics; trans archival formations; and sex work as knowledge, history, and world-making practices.
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.
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.
This course investigates what and who feminist disability politics encompass. We will explore disability and ableism through their relations to interlocking structures of domination. We will link disability to anti-blackness, capitalism, empire and conquest, carcerality and policing, and cisheteropatriarchy. A major focus includes theories and practices of resistance. Students can develop creative projects alongside scholarly writing.
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
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
Course will examine the roles women have played and continue to play as students, scholars, and leaders in American educational institutions.
This course emphasizes violence against minority groups. Particular attention will be paid to violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, although the class will also focus on forms of abuse against other historically-marginalized groups. Topics covered will include racist and sexist violence, sexualized abuse, including rape and sexual assault, domestic violence, and the politics of hate crime.
Topics in Women, Gender & Sexuality vary by semester.
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject of studies of women and 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.
This course critically examines key ideas, issues, and debates in contemporary Black feminist thought. With a particular focus on Black feminist understandings of intersectionality and womanism, the course examines how Black feminist thinkers interrogate specific concepts including Black womanhood, sexual mythologies and vulnerabilities, class distinctions, colorism, leadership, crime and punishment, and popular culture.
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.
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.
"What is understood as ""masculine"" has varied throughout time as well as across cultural contexts and distinct social groupings, it is equally true that most historical periods, cultures, groups, etc. believe their own understandings of masculinity to be universal. In this course, we will deconstruct this. From this class, you should be able to think critically about where men and masculinity have been, where they are going, and what this might mean more generally for gender relations and gender inequality."
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.
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.
This course critically examines key ideas, issues, and debates in contemporary Black feminist thought. With a particular focus on Black feminist understandings of intersectionality and womanism, the course examines how Black feminist thinkers interrogate specific concepts including Black womanhood, sexual mythologies and vulnerabilities, class distinctions, colorism, leadership, crime and punishment, and popular culture.
Women, Gender & Sexuality majors are encouraged to become Distinguished Majors. Students complete a two-semester written thesis (approx 40-60 pages in length) in their 4th year under the supervision of a WGS faculty member. The thesis allows students to pursue their own interests in depth & have the intellectual satisfaction of defining & completing a sustained project. Please see your WGS advisor for more info. Prereq: WGS Major, WGS 2nd Major
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
A focus on a bloodless, non-violent revolution that is shaking the foundation of the Islamic Middle East and North Africa, a revolution with women writers at the forefront. An examination of the rhetoric and poetics of sex segregation, voice, visibility, and mobility in a spectrum of genres that includes folklore, novel, short story, poetry, biography, autobiography, and essay. This course section is for graduate students only. Prerequisites: Instructor Consent Required
To offer graduate level topics courses.
Graduate level independent study.
This course is a graduate-only advanced introduction (inevitably partial and selective) to key concepts, thinkers, and texts in the fields of feminist and queer theory. The goal is to develop a foundation for your own research and teaching on gender and sexuality. Together, we will explore books and articles that have traveled across disciplines to shape debate in a variety of fields.
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of women, gender & sexuality.
WGS cross listed grad classes