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College Catalog 2013-2014 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Courses
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Theatre and Dance |
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THDA 90 - Practicum in Forensics
(1 Credits)
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THDA 105 - Theatre and Performance in the Twin Cities
The goal of this course is to introduce first-year students to live performance in the exciting arts scene of the Twin Cities. Students in this class learn approaches to studying theatre and performance events and texts, and begin to practice the vocabularies of scholarship in the field of theatre and performance studies. We attend performances at professional theatres, and at Macalester College. In this process of studied spectatorship, students learn how to critically attend, discuss, and write about theatre and performance events, learning the vocabularies of the field. Offered yearly. (4 Credits)
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THDA 110 - Introduction to Theatre Studies
This course is an initiation for the drama student to learn about the worlds of theatre and performance: an initiation that focuses on the critical tools necessary to begin exploring and identifying practices of thinking, reading, and researching the theater, performance, and the worlds that the critical arts address. The project is to carefully consider the questions: What is theatre? How does it work? Where has it been located? What are the claims of its genres? What might theatre accomplish? The course interrogates the aesthetic and cultural operations of theatre and the dramatic arts in order to identify vocabularies for interpreting the EVENT of the theatre. At its core, the course addresses the question: what does it require to read and interpret the arts of the theatre, theatrical contexts, and its performances? Using scripts, recorded events, criticism, and theory, the course addresses the rich relationship between the HISTORY and the THEORY of theatre and performance practices. Offered yearly. (4 Credits)
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THDA 115 - Cultures of Dance
This course will introduce you to dance forms from around the world. We will investigate a variety of forms and their cultural contexts through attendance at concerts, films, class discussions, readings, group research projects and movement activities. We will examine how dance functions in the lives of individuals and societies through various lenses including feminist, ethnographic, and africanist perspectives. We will move. (4 Credits)
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THDA 120 - Acting I
An introduction to the fundamental techniques of realistic acting. Through improvisation, physical and vocal exercises, text and character analysis, and scene studies, the student is introduced to the process of acting preparation and performance. Limited to 16 students. Every semester. (4 Credits)
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THDA 121 - Beginning Dance Composition
The creative art of choreography is the transformation of felt and learned experiences into externalized forms. The process of organizing movement and evaluating the choices made within that organization is the development of the craft of choreography or composition. The elements of space, time and energy are studied in depth. Each student is actively involved in the creative process as choreographer and viewer. Either this course or THDA 341 is required for a dance minor. Every spring. (4 Credits)
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THDA 125 - Technical Theater
This course grounds students in the technical and construction practices of performance-making: materials and their sources and histories; conventional and contemporary technologies and techniques; quantitative methods for calculating and assessing drawings for execution. Classroom instruction and a weekly studio/drafting lab allow students to learn and apply knowledge through working with materials. Students in this course also provide support to mainstage construction projects, further extending their learning in the course. Every semester. (4 Credits)
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THDA 145 - Make-Up Design and Application
This course teaches students the theory and practice of make-up design and application, through a combination of lecture, discussion, demonstration and intense application. Students independently complete an extensive research portfolio called a “make-up morgue” while learning the principles of make-up design and application in weekly classroom laboratory format. $45 materials fee required. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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THDA 194 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
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THDA 210 - Community-Based Theatres
In almost every town in the world, in a rich tradition spanning millennia, communities make theatrical representations of themselves: their heroes, their unsung neighbors, their struggles, their aspirations. Community-based theatre is made by, for and about communities, and the varieties, strategies, controversies and triumphs of this form are the content of this course. In the United States, which is the geographical focus of this course, community-based theatre has emerged from rural and urban communities, communities of color, communities of coalitions united toward a cause - we will learn from historical and scholarly accounts, and from participants, about many of these efforts. We also will explore the Twin Cities’ own deep history of community-based theatre-making, and participate in at least one major community project during the semester. Offered every other spring semester. (4 Credits)
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THDA 215 - Reading the Dancing Body: Topics in Dance History
Dance is an art of the body in time, space, and culture. It is a language that reflects individual, economic, social, and religious forces. This class will “read” the gender, race, and politics of the dancing body within African-American and Euro-American dance traditions from the 19th century to the early 21st century. The focus will be on theatrical dance forms in the United States including ballet, modern, and musical theater dance. Social dance will also be looked at as a predecessor to some of these genres. We will read, write, discuss, dance, view videos, and attend performances. Offered every other spring; next offered Spring 2014. (4 Credits)
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THDA 220 - Voice and Speech
An introduction to the fundamentals of correct and successful playing of the vocal instrument of the individual human body. Using techniques of Lessac, Linklater, and Rodenburg, students learn all the elements of elocution: communication awareness and confidence; breath support; healthy voice production and projection; posture and poise; articulation; Standard American English pronunciation; vocal expressiveness. Essential for all theatre and performing arts majors, including singers, and extremely useful for anyone choosing a career such as law, teaching, politics, leadership, etc., which demands speaking to groups and public presentations. Students learn to craft their own process of vocal support practice through a continuous self analysis, journaling of classroom exercises, explorations and performance. This is a dynamic, physical, highly experiential, practical, and performance-based, lab course. Every spring. (4 Credits)
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THDA 230 - Physical Approaches
This laboratory course offers intensive training in making theatre from action . Based on the teaching of Jacques Lecoq and his school of physical theatre training in Paris, work will focus on the observation, re-creation and transposition of daily life to create a theatre that is at once playful, emotional and creative. Course work will include an examination of the natural world and all its movements, our relationship with space and time, the neutral and larval masks and object manipulation. We will use improvisation, games and exercises to develop physical and creative skills with which to create original work; training includes basic acrobatics, balancing and juggling. Applied analyses of professional productions are required, as are written analyses of course work and individual progress. The goal of the course is to encourage curiosity and exploration to engage the student as creator, designer and performer. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Prerequisite(s): or other performance training strongly encouraged. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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THDA 235 - Fundamentals of Scene Design
Study of the concepts, principles, and techniques of scene design in the modern theater. The emphasis is on developing an understanding of what a design concept involves and how to put ideas into colors, spaces, and forms. Much of the class lectures concern how to handle theater space and how other designers and periods in history have solved these problems. The lectures and exercises analyze the diverse materials available to the designer and the skills involved in mastering them. Prerequisite(s): THDA 125 or permission of instructor. (4 Credits)
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THDA 240 - Brain to Bone: Aliveness, from Rehearsal through Performance
The performance experience, for both actor and spectator, is a collaboration in “aliveness:” switched-on cognition, participatory embodiment systems (muscles, nerves, organs, etc.), moment-by-moment discovery. This course will establish effective, body0based practices for character exploration and original performance creation. The work of the class will involve anatomy study and research, exercises and explorations, and ultimately, solo performance work. The class is physical and meets six hours per week. Preference given to students with acting experience, though well-described curiosity and commitment will be considered favorably. Prerequisites: sophomore standing and permission of instructor. Prerequisite(s): sophomore standing and permission of instructor. Offered alternating fall semesters. (4 Credits)
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THDA 242 - Playwrighting and Textual Analysis Cross-Listed as
Students will read a variety of plays that exemplify structural and genric concerns of writing for live performance: tragedy; comedy; the courtroom drama; farce; experimental, others. Students will elaborate their own interests in these forms through a series of time-bound conventions: the 3-minute, 10-minute and ultimately one-act form. In-class exercises and prompts, and small-group workshopping and reading will challenge writers’ development. A mid-term and final playreading series will allow students to hear their work read in a supportive public setting. Offered alternate spring semesters. (4 Credits)
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THDA 250 - Experiential Anatomy and the Mind Body Connection
Through reading, writing, research, hands-on exercises, and structured movement activities, this course will explore the body’s design and function, focusing on the skeletal, muscle, nervous, and respiratory systems. We will use yoga postures (asanas) and breath control (pranayama) as tools to cultivate direct knowledge of anatomy and alignment. This course is designed to integrate scientific models of anatomy and one’s lived experience of body and movement. We will investigate the relationship between body and mind, beginning with the question of how the body and mind are defined and understood. Along with recent scholarly research, we will use mindfulness meditation (calm, precise attention) as a means to study thought, feeling, sensation, perception, and consciousness and how they interrelate. Every spring. (4 Credits)
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THDA 255 - Lighting Design
This course is an introduction to basic lighting design and the history of lighting. While emphasis is on theater, it also teaches the lighting design of film, television, dance, opera, and environmental settings. This course is primarily an approach to lighting design, but the student will be expected to have a basic grasp of lighting hardware as well. The first aim of the course is to make the student more aware of color and light around him/her every day. Demonstrations are an integral part of the lectures. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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THDA 260 - Performance Studies Praxis: Avant Garde Arts and the Social
In this introductory course we examine the key issues and methods of Avant-garde performance, performance art, and Performance Studies. Focusing on a poetics of “revolution,” we study the theory and practices of aesthetic inquiry within and beyond the conventions of cosmopolitan modernisms. Students of performance studies examine the trajectory of body and performance art from early 20th century Avant-garde practices through the contemporary period in which performance has become a vehicle to explore identities of gender, sexuality, race and issues of power. The representational critiques of literary, sonic, somatic, visual, and theatre arts guide our study. Offered yearly. (4 Credits)
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THDA 262 - Performing Feminisms Cross-Listed as
Feminisms in performance - whether on an actual theater stage or in offstage force fields of politics, history and culture - are the concern of this course. Through feminist, queer and performance theories of the body, representation, identification and spectatorship, and through the reading of plays, students will engage with the historic and contemporary practices of feminisms and performance-making. Attending performances, viewing films and performance documents will contribute to students’ capacities to write critically about feminist performance practices. Prerequisites: sophomore standing or permission of instructor. Prerequisite(s): sophomore standing or permission of instructor. Offered alternate spring semesters. (4 Credits)
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THDA 263 - African American Theatre
This course is an overview of the development of theatre by and about Black Americans. It examines the historical, social, political, and cultural context of African-American Theatre. After investigating the roots of African-American Theatre in African culture, performance modes, and social values, it focuses on a study of plays written by Black Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. Prerequisite(s): sophomore standing or permission of instructor Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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THDA 265 - The Oral History Project
This seminar trains students in the methods and theories of Oral History which have become so important for contemporary artists engaging with “real” subjects and social locations. Of particular concern for the course are questions about what it means to work between orality, work in the field, and the documentations of writing. Secondary, primary, and other sources are all used for this research project, in which students learn to evaluate their deployments of sources, as they contribute to critical reflections on their own critically creative working processes. Throughout the semester, students examine theories and methods of oral history, orality, performance, and writing - at the same time that they develop research for their own ‘oral history’ projects in Theatre and Performance research. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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THDA 266 - Performance/Documents/Rights Cross-Listed as INTL 266
This course examines experimental techniques in contemporary performing arts and media that theorize the history, politic, and everyday practice of human rights. Locating the avant-garde as a site for critical interdisciplinary work in performance and rights, we study the prevalence of contemporary uses of “the archive,” which works between database and narrative in order to think the interlinking challenges of memory, narrative, and documentation. We engage works in Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, Dance Studies, Critical Theory, Legal Studies, Media and Documentary Studies, Visual Art, as well as plays, multimedia performance texts, literatures, film, and events. Sources include artistic projects from Latin America, Algeria, Morocco, France, Germany, South Africa, Hungary, former-Czechoslovakia, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, England, and the US. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)
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THDA 268 - Rights and Resistance: Theatre and Film in Latin America Cross-Listed as
This course offers an introduction to negotiations between art and the state in Latin American theatre and film texts and performances that expressly illuminate cultural and political movements in the Americas during the 20th century. We study the ways in which theatre and film address and express crisis of social conflict. Drawing on post-colonial and liberation theories of culture, art, and the state, we construct an intellectual history of socially motivated Latin American performances. (4 Credits)
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THDA 294 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
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THDA 310 - Theatre Methods: Shakespeare to Viewpoints
This course is an experiential survey of major European and U.S. performance methods, 1600-present. Through readings in theatre and performance history and theory, students will investigate the social forces that have shaped acting-as-representation: from Shakespeare’s Globe through commedia dell’arte , from Stanislavski’s “magic if” to Brecht’s V-effekt, Barba’s “paper canoe” to the ongoing U.S. performance inquiry into “presence.” In a weekly intensive lab component, students will learn the specific techniques developed by and required of these practitioners and genres. Research projects will culminate in an open community workshop of exercises and techniques, incorporated by the students as part of their comprehensive inquiry into additional innovators or genres. Requirement for Theatre and Dance majors. Enrollment limited to 12 students, with preference given to Theatre and Dance major and/or minors. Every fall. (4 Credits)
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THDA 341 - Intermediate Dance Composition
A continuation of the study of choreography, utilizing tools from the beginning level course in an advanced format, such as a juxtaposition of the dance elements involving more than one dancer. This course will deepen the student’s ability to draw upon his or her self knowledge and create work that is rich in intuitive and intellectual knowledge. A look at the relationship of movement and music will be explored. Attendance at performances, followed by choreographic analysis will be an integral part of the process. Prerequisite(s): or permission of instructor Every fall. (4 Credits)
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THDA 350 - Directing and Devising: Making Meaning on the Stage
Whether the stage is a narrow room, an open field or a proper theatre, making nonhaphazard meaning there requires knowledge of performance history - “what came here before ?” - compositional skill - “how and in what combinations do these visual/aural languages signtify ?” - and collaborative expertise. Students in this course will research the international history of theatre directing and devising since the late nineteenth century, learning from a variety of documents about process, vocabulary, composition and production. They will collaborate on an original class devising project, establishing the new work’s aesthetic codes, communication practices, and production logistics. They will also conduct extensive research, script analyses and design prospectus of playwrights’ work for their final public directing assignments in the one-act play form. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Prerequisite(s): THDA 120 , THDA 125 and THDA 235 or permission of the instructor Every spring. (4 Credits)
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THDA 360 - Acting II
Advanced work in characterization and additional acting techniques with continued focus on voice, movement, improvisation and textual analysis. A continuation of Acting I, this course is designed to deepen the student’s understanding of his/her instrument as well as develop an individualized working method. Included in the course is a consideration of style through scene work in other genres. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Prerequisite(s): THDA 120 sophomore standing and permission of instructor required. Every year. (4 Credits)
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THDA 394 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
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THDA 465 - Advanced Lighting Design
Continuation of THDA 255. Meets simultaneously with THDA 255. Emphasis will be on furthering skills and techniques used in developing lighting design concepts. Projects are more complex and require more precision in their execution. Group discussion/critiques and field trips are included. Students’ final projects will be a mock United Scenic Artist Lighting Design Exam. Prerequisite(s): THDA 255 or permission of instructor Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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THDA 475 - Advanced Scene Design
Continuation of THDA 235. Meets simultaneously with THDA 235. Emphasis will be on furthering skills and techniques used in developing a design concept and how those design concepts are presented in three dimensional models or color renderings (paintings). A design portfolio will be the outcome of this course. Materials fee of $40 required. Prerequisite(s): THDA 235 or permission of instructor Every spring. (4 Credits)
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THDA 489 - Seminar in Performance Theory and Practice
What are the hopes of performance and performance theory in the current era of globalization? How do aesthetic and social projects, including visual art, theatre, performance events, and dance, engage with the many registers of thinking, what Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak calls ‘a planetary’ arts and criticism? In this class we assess some of the ways that performance artists and theorists conceptualize and address formal artistic methodologies, culture, and the politics of performance in an era of globalization. Our premise is that all researchers are cultural producers, at once located within processes of globalization and mapping their terrains. Understanding theory as the attempt to practice and articulate methods of action (nothing more, nothing less) we examine some of the essential critical vocabularies for thinking performance and the social together. Readings in Performance research, in addition to Critical Theory, Feminist/Queer Theory, and critical race theory contribute to our study of contemporary Performance Theory. (4 Credits)
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THDA 490 - Practicum in Performance: Theory and Practice
This course synthesizes the research, artistic and technical practices acquired by all Theatre majors. Each senior completes a capstone project in her/his area of emphasis, and these projects are supported through weekly advising, a monthly senior seminar format, and several presentation/evaluation formats throughout the arc of the senior year. Offered every year. (1-4 Credits)
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THDA 494 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
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THDA 601 - Tutorial
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (1 Credits)
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THDA 602 - Tutorial
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (2 Credits)
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THDA 603 - Tutorial
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (3 Credits)
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THDA 604 - Tutorial
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
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THDA 611 - Independent Project
For the advanced student capable of independent study requiring library research and/or experimental work in the theatre. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (1 Credits)
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THDA 612 - Independent Project
For the advanced student capable of independent study requiring library research and/or experimental work in the theatre. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (2 Credits)
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THDA 613 - Independent Project
For the advanced student capable of independent study requiring library research and/or experimental work in the theatre. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (3 Credits)
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THDA 614 - Independent Project
For the advanced student capable of independent study requiring library research and/or experimental work in the theatre. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
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THDA 621 - Internship
The theatre and dance department allows up to eight credits for approved internship experiences, which may be applicable to a major in theatre arts (and non-majors, by approval from and in consultation with a department faculty member). Prerequisite(s): Junior or Senior majors. Permission of instructor and department. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (1 Credits)
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THDA 622 - Internship
The theatre and dance department allows up to eight credits for approved internship experiences, which may be applicable to a major in theatre arts (and non-majors, by approval from and in consultation with a department faculty member). Prerequisite(s): Junior or Senior majors. Permission of instructor and department. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (2 Credits)
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THDA 623 - Internship
The theatre and dance department allows up to eight credits for approved internship experiences, which may be applicable to a major in theatre arts (and non-majors, by approval from and in consultation with a department faculty member). Prerequisite(s): Junior or Senior majors. Permission of instructor and department. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (3 Credits)
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THDA 624 - Internship
The theatre and dance department allows up to eight credits for approved internship experiences, which may be applicable to a major in theatre arts (and non-majors, by approval from and in consultation with a department faculty member). Prerequisite(s): Junior or Senior majors. Permission of instructor and department. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (4 Credits)
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THDA 631 - Preceptorship
Through a preceptorship, an advanced student assists a faculty member in the planning and teaching of a course. Prerequisite(s): Junior or Senior majors. Permission of instructor and department. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (1 Credits)
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THDA 632 - Preceptorship
Through a preceptorship, an advanced student assists a faculty member in the planning and teaching of a course. Prerequisite(s): Junior or Senior majors. Permission of instructor and department. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (2 Credits)
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THDA 633 - Preceptorship
Through a preceptorship, an advanced student assists a faculty member in the planning and teaching of a course. Prerequisite(s): Junior or Senior majors. Permission of instructor and department. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (3 Credits)
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THDA 634 - Preceptorship
Through a preceptorship, an advanced student assists a faculty member in the planning and teaching of a course. Prerequisite(s): Junior or Senior majors. Permission of instructor and department. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (4 Credits)
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THDA 641 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Offered every semester. (1 Credits)
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THDA 642 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Offered every semester. (2 Credits)
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THDA 643 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Offered every semester. (3 Credits)
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THDA 644 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Offered every semester. (4 Credits)
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Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies |
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WGSS 101 - Feminist Sex Wars
This course examines the challenges that sexuality and sexual practice brings to feminism, by exploring feminisms’ involvement in so-called anti-sex/pro-sex debates. We explore the stance of second-wave feminism, lesbian feminism, radical feminism, and queer theory and activism on issues like prostitution and sex work, pornography, butch/femme aesthetics, gender performativity, non-monogamies, sadomasochism, bisexuality, and transgenderism and transsexuality. Throughout, we study the divide between sexual agency and sexual exploitation, which emerges when thinking about the complexities of sex and desire. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 102 - Gender and Sport
This course views sport as a social institution and a microcosm of the longer social processes that stage, reinforce, and perpetuate myriad inequalities in society. In this course we analyze the gendered aspects of sport, and relationship among gender, sexuality, and sport. We consider the ways that sport reinforces, and potentially undermines, heteronormality, as well as hegemonic notions of masculinity and femininity. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 105 - Transnational Perspectives on Gender, Race, Class, and Sexuality
Introductory Course Through an interdisciplinary and comparative study of selected countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, this course creates the basis for an understanding of the ways in which gender roles are established, and how these affect the individual in the realms of education, media, politics, work, sexuality, and family. On the basis of texts drawn from political science, psychology, art, film, history, music, and literature, it analyzes theories of femininity and masculinity as constructed in specific national, racial, cultural, socio-economic, and political situations. The course discusses the impact of these theories on lifestyles (both traditional and alternative) and on re-constructions of identities on equity-based, anti-racist, anti-sexist terms. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 110 - Intro to LGBTQ Studies Cross-Listed as AMST 112
This course introduces the fields of LGBT and queer studies by examining how sexuality, race, and nation relate in the lives of people in the United States, which we read in relation to histories of colonialism and globalization. Course materials foreground scholarship, testimony, activist art, and social movements by LGBT, two-spirited, queer people of color, and by white anti-racist LGBT and queer people. Their stories offer a template through which all students may examine how everyday life is shaped by sexuality, race, and nation-both as power relations, and as spaces for creating new identity and action. Every year. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 117 - Women, Health, Reproduction Cross-Listed as BIOL 117
This course will deal with those aspects of human anatomy and physiology which are of special interest to women, especially those relating to sexuality and reproduction. Biological topics covered will include menstruation and menopause, female sexuality, conception, contraception, infertility, abortion, pregnancy, cancer, and AIDS. Advances in assisted reproductive technologies, hormone therapies, and genetic engineering technologies will be discussed. Not open to biology majors. This course fulfills 4 credits in the science distribution requirement and counts toward the biology minor, but not toward the major. Three lecture hours per week. Every semester. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 127 - Women, Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome Cross-Listed as CLAS 127
This course investigates contemporary approaches to studying women, gender and sexuality in history, and the particular challenges of studying these issues in antiquity. By reading ancient writings in translation and analyzing art and other material culture, we will address the following questions: How did ancient Greek and Roman societies understand and use the categories of male and female? Into what sexual categories did different cultures group people? How did these gender and sexual categories intersect with notions of slave and free status, citizenship and ethnicity? How should we interpret the actions and representations of women in surviving literature, myth, art, law, philosophy, politics and medicine in this light? Finally, how and why have gendered classical images been re-deployed in the modern U.S. - from scholarship to art and poetry? Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 141 - Latin America Through Women’s Eyes Cross-Listed as and
Latin American women have overcome patriarchal “machismo” to serve as presidents, mayors, guerilla leaders, union organizers, artists, intellectuals, and human rights activists. Through a mix of theoretical, empirical, and testimonial work, we will explore issues such as feminist challenges to military rule in Chile, anti-feminist politics in Nicaragua, the intersection of gender and democratization in Cuba, and women’s organizing and civil war in Colombia. Teaching methods include discussion, debates, simulations, analytic papers, partisan narratives, lecture, film, poetry, and a biographical essay. This class employs an innovative system of qualitative assessment. Students take the course “S/D/NC with Written Evaluation.” This provides a powerful opportunity for students to stretch their limits in a learning community with high expectations, but without a high-pressure atmosphere. This ungraded course has been approved for inclusion on major/minor plans in Political Science, Latin American Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 194 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 200 - Feminist/Queer Theories and Methodologies
This course is a historical survey of theories and methodologies used in feminist and queer studies. Course material highlights the unique and intertwined knowledges feminist and queer scholars have produced; these include the re-makings of liberal, Marxian, antiracist, poststructuralist, and postcolonial theories, and their uses in humanities and social science methods. The course centrally examines how feminist and queer studies transform societies and are transformed through struggle over their gender/sexual identities, racial formations, and global/transnational locations. The course considers how feminist and queer studies have arisen in close relationships-of union, tension, and antagonism-and how feminist and queer work today may link. Prerequisite(s): Intermediate level courses require sophomore standing or permission of the instructor, and at least one introductory-level women’s, gender, and sexuality studies core course. Every year. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 201 - History of U.S. Feminisms Cross-Listed as
This is an introductory course about the history of U.S. feminism as it was articulated and experienced in the United States from roughly 1800-1970. We will focus on only on the experience of those who worked for the cause of women’s rights but also the ideologies at home and abroad that influenced feminist thought. In so doing, we will interrogate the myths about feminism and the backlash against it that are central to the history, culture, and politics of the United States. This course is especially concerned with the multiple and contradictory strains within feminism. Topics that the class will consider include: the roots of feminism as it took shape in the anti-slavery movement, the overlap of women’s rights and the civil rights movement of the twentieth century, and the women’s health movement, among others. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 210 - 20th Century Anglophone Women Writers
The term “Anglophone Literature” refers to writings in English from countries connected to Britain by imperial rule or by the presence of British immigrants, yet does not include England itself. This course variously studies India, the Caribbean, South Africa, the United States, and England as locations of Anglophone Literature produced by their natives, immigrants, and cosmopolitans. Writers include Virginia Woolf, Una Marson, Anita Desai, Doris Lessing, Suniti Namjoshi, Angela Carter, Ravinder Randhawa, Bharati Mukherjee, and Zadie Smith, among others. We will explore how concepts of nation, race, citizenship, gender, ownership of the language, and English/British literary canons are constructed, in written and visual media. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or permission of instructor, and at least one introductory-level WGSS core course. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 220 - Icons, Ideas, Instruments: Feminist Re-constructions
This course will explore the significance of people, concepts, and frameworks that have gained prominence across history. It will offer feminist/queer reconstructions and reviews of their contexts and analyze what they mean today. For example, figures like Marx or Mother Teresa, concepts such as socialism or atheism, and frameworks such as collective responsibility or standpoint theory could be possible foci. Topics may change based on instructor. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or permission of instructor, and at least one introductory-level WGSS core course. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 227 - Colonial Encounters: The Creation of Early American Society Cross-Listed as
Through an examination of primary documents from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries and historical articles and monographs, students will examine and discuss the forces at work on the conflict and exchange between the diverse peoples that populated North America. In this course we will use critical analysis to arrive at our own conclusions about the following questions: Who populated early America? What types of religious and spiritual practices came into contact through these populations? What political function did religion and spirituality have (if any) in this time period? What competing ideas about gender and sex existed in the colonies and the early republic? In what ways did ideas about gender and race intersect? Gender and religion? What are the ways in which the emergence of a United States of America was contingent on conflict and exchange about religion, race and sex? Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 228 - Gender & Sexuality in Early America Cross-Listed as
Since the 1960s historians have revisited early American history to identify populations on the margins and historical actors whose stories and experiences were neglected in the traditional canon of history. Historians of women made some of the first forays into this important work of recovery. Building up the foundations produced by women’s historians, the field of gender and sexuality studies have flourished and enriched the narratives of American history. This course examines American peoples and cultures from the 16th through early 19th centuries to uncover the ways in which gender and sexuality shaped the formation of an early American society. Particular attention will be given to the way that ideologies of gender and sexuality shaped early concepts of race and the development of North American political institutions. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 242 - Economics of Gender Cross-Listed as
This course uses economic theory to explore how gender differences lead to different economic outcomes for men and women, both within families and in the marketplace. Topics include applications of economic theory to 1) aspects of family life including marriage, cohabitation, fertility, and divorce, and 2) the interactions of men and women in firms and in markets. The course will combine theory, empirical work, and analysis of economic policies that affect men and women differently. Prerequisite(s): ECON 119 (4 Credits)
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WGSS 252 - Gender, Sexualities and Feminist Visual Culture Cross-Listed as ART 252
(4 Credits)
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WGSS 261 - Feminist Political Theory Cross-Listed as POLI 261
Analysis of contemporary feminist theories regarding gender identity, biological and socio-cultural influences on subjectivity and knowledge, and relations between the personal and the political. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 262 - Performing Feminisms Cross-Listed as
Feminisms in performance - whether on an actual theater stage or in offstage force fields of politics, history and culture - are the concern of this course. Through feminist, queer and performance theories of the body, representation, identification and spectatorship, and through the reading of plays, students will engage with the historic and contemporary practices of feminisms and performance-making. Attending performances, viewing films and performance documents will contribute to students’ capacities to write critically about feminist performance practices. Prerequisites: sophomore standing or permission of instructor. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or permission of instructor. Offered alternate spring semesters. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 264 - Psychology of Gender Cross-Listed as
This class is an introduction to feminist psychological theory and research dedicated to understanding and critiquing biological, psychological, social, and cultural meanings and implications of gender and its intersections with class, race, physical ability, sexual orientation, etc. Examples of research and theory will come from a wide variety of areas in psychology and related disciplines, and will address such issues as socialization and social development, stereotypes, bodies and body image, social relationships, identity, language, violence, sexuality and sexual behavior, well-being, work, etc. We will also learn about the historical, cultural, and epistemological underpinnings of psychological research on gender. Counts as a UP3 course. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100 or permission of the instructor. Offered yearly. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 294 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 300 - Advanced Feminist/Queer Theories and Methodologies Cross-Listed as
This course is an in-depth study of some specific theories and methodologies on which contemporary feminist and queer thinkers have based their analysis, critique, and reconstruction of men’s and women’s roles. Some guiding questions are: What is a Nation? Who are its citizens? How do language and gender roles shape the ways we imagine our roles as men and women? Do sexuality or economy affect how we subscribe to or resist political ideologies? In previous offerings, the course has explored the intersection of Postcolonialism (gendered critiques of colonizing sociopolitical and economic structures) with Postmodernism (gendered critiques of language, sexuality, culture, and nation). The course will include film, photography, music, and the writings of Butler, Foucault, Chodorow, Kristeva, hooks, Spivak, and Trinh, among others. It offers ways to create links with local community and social-work organizations. Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or permission of instructor, and at least one intermediate-level WGSS core course. WGSS 200 highly recommended. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 305 - Race, Sex and Work in the Global Economy Cross-Listed as AMST 305
This seminar presents feminist and queer studies of global capitalism, which examine power relations under contemporary globalization in terms of the racial and sexual dynamics of labor, citizenship, and migration. Course material considers the local and transnational dynamics of free trade, labor fragmentation, and structural adjustment, as these shape industrial and informal labor, and community organizing around gender, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS. The material foregrounds ethnographic analyses of the everyday conditions of people situated in struggles with the effects of global capitalism. Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or permission of instructor, and at least one intermediate-level WGSS core course. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 306 - Women’s Voices in Politics Cross-Listed as
The course examines significant women persuaders as a force in Western history and culture. Concentrates on women’s efforts to participate fully in public affairs and the social, political, religious, scientific, and rhetorical obstacles that have restricted women’s access to the polis. Fundamental to the course is an analysis of how women have used speaking, writing, and protesting in attempts to overcome such obstacles, influence public policy and/or win elective office. Prerequisite(s):
POLI 170 or POLI 272 recommended. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 308 - Literature and Sexuality Cross-Listed as
This course examines ways in which literary works have represented desire and sexuality. It looks at how constructions of sexuality have defined and classified persons; at how those definitions and classes change; and at how they affect and create literary forms and traditions. Contemporary gay and lesbian writing, and the developing field of queer theory, will always form part, but rarely all, of the course. Poets, novelists, playwrights, memoirists and filmmakers may include Shakespeare, Donne, Tennyson, Whitman, Dickinson, or Henry James; Wilde, Hall, Stein, Lawrence, or Woolf; Nabokov, Tennessee Williams, Frank O’Hara, Baldwin, or Philip Roth; Cukor, Hitchcock, Julien, Frears, or Kureishi; White, Rich, Kushner, Monette, Lorde, Allison, Cruse, Morris, Winterson, Hemphill, or Bidart. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 310 - Gendered, Feminist, and Womanist Writings Cross-Listed as ENGL 362
This course investigates how women’s writing from different parts of the world (Asian, English, African-American, to name a few) convey visions of the present and future, of the real and the imagined, beliefs about masculinity and femininity, race and nation, socialist and capitalist philosophies, (post) modernity, the environment (ecotopia), and various technologies including cybernetics. Topics may change based on instructor. Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or permission of instructor, and at least one intermediate-level WGSS core course. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 315 - Comparative (Neo/Post) Modernities
This course addresses the major historical, political, and cultural formations of the ideas of Modernity in various eras and countries. Building on this concept, the course explores what the prefixes ‘post’ (as in ‘postmodernity’) and ‘neo’ (as in neo-modernity) mean in contemporary contexts, i.e., in the 20th and 21st centuries. Texts may include political speeches, historical analyses, literary genres, and representations from film, video, and music. Specific topics may change based on instructor. Prerequisite(s): junior standing or permission of instructor, and at least one intermediate-level WGSS core course. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 320 - Gender, Sexuality and Film Cross-Listed as
This course explores a variety of critical approaches to the representation of gender and sexuality in film and video, including psychoanalytic feminist film theory and criticism, gay and lesbian studies, queer theory, narrative analysis, ideological critique and cultural studies of gender and sexuality in relation to race, nation, and class. How have social constructs about gender and sexuality been promulgated and/or contested in film and video within both mainstream and avant-garde contexts of cultural production? How have these constructs functioned to uphold and/or challenge other forms of social stratification or privilege? In asking these questions, the course considers a wide range of issues, including drag, camp, spectatorship, identity and identification, the gaze, assimilation, social change, body politics, realism, and pornography. Written work emphasizes the close analysis of film texts. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing and previous experience with one of the following fields: Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, cultural studies and/or media studies, or permission of instructor. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 330 - Democracies, Feminisms, Capitalisms
Through the organizing notion of Object, we will study the intertwining of democracy and capitalism, with a brief historical overview of both but looking primarily at formations in the 20th and 21st centuries - from liberal nation-state versions through postsocialisms to neoliberal-neocolonial globalization. In this transnational comparative context, we will focus on how various feminisms have negotiated these intertwined political/economic theories, at once emerging from them, claiming a place in them, as well as self-defining against their different formations. We will explore how liberal, second- and third- wave, socialist, women of color, radical transnational, and indigenous feminisms deploy the notion of Object in addressing issues of citizenship, violence, labor, the environment, cultural representation, etc., as ways of tackling this complicated relationship with diverse forms of capitalism and democracy. Prerequisite(s): One 100- or 200- level Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies course. Every other year. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 346 - Constructions of a Female Killer Cross-Listed as LATI 446 and HISP 446
The rise in femicide across Latin America, most shockingly exhibited in the city of Juarez, Mexico, has resulted in broad discussions of women’s relationship with violence. However, what happens when the traditional paradigm is inverted and we explore women as perpetrators, rather than victims, of violence? This class will dialogue with selected Latin American and Latino narratives (including novels, short stories, films, and newspapers) constituting different representations of women who kill. This course satisfies the Area 4 requirement for the Hispanic & Latin American Studies major. Prerequisite(s): HISP 307 or or permission of instructor Alternate years. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 394 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 400 - Senior Seminar: Linking Theory and Practice
The relationship between academic theorizing and community organizing for positive social and political change is a vital, complex, and an ever-changing source of feminist inquiry. This course builds on that relationship by juxtaposing activist social work with theoretical writings on globalization, gender, race, class-relations, sexuality, community, democracy, and civil society, and exploring how these arenas inform and transform each other. The issues in this seminar are related ultimately to the student’s “location,” personally and professionally, at the threshold of the future, in search of a space of her/his own. One substantial research paper and a formal oral presentation on its ideas are the primary assignments. Prerequisite(s): At least three WGSS core courses and senior standing, or permission of instructor. Preferred: a working relationship with a local women’s or minority organization, established the spring or summer prior to enrollment in the course. Every year. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 405 - Senior Seminar: Topics
Capstone or integrative experience centering on a topic that will vary from year to year. The focus will be to develop a deeper understanding of theory and action in relation to women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Prerequisite(s): At least three WGSS core courses and senior standing, or permission of instructor. Spring semester. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 494 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 611 - Independent Project
Individual projects are supervised by women’s, gender, and sexuality studies faculty. Prerequisite(s): Two courses approved for credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Permission of instructor. Every semester. (1 Credits)
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WGSS 611 - Independent Project
Individual projects are supervised by women’s, gender, and sexuality studies faculty. Prerequisite(s): Two courses approved for credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Permission of instructor. Every semester. (1 Credits)
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WGSS 612 - Independent Project
Individual projects are supervised by women’s, gender, and sexuality studies faculty. Prerequisite(s): Two courses approved for credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Permission of instructor. Every semester. (2 Credits)
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WGSS 613 - Independent Project
Individual projects are supervised by women’s, gender, and sexuality studies faculty. Prerequisite(s): Two courses approved for credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Permission of instructor. Every semester. (3 Credits)
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WGSS 614 - Independent Project
Individual projects are supervised by women’s, gender, and sexuality studies faculty. Prerequisite(s): Two courses approved for credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Permission of instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 621 - Internship
Internships, supervised by women’s, gender, and sexuality studies faculty, bring together theoretical and practical concerns that are primarily connected with women or have feminist/queer studies as their central perspective. An internship outline plan will be developed individually between the student and the faculty sponsor. Prerequisite(s): Two courses approved for credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Permission of instructor. Every semester. (1 Credits)
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WGSS 622 - Internship
Internships, supervised by women’s, gender, and sexuality studies faculty, bring together theoretical and practical concerns that are primarily connected with women or have feminist/queer studies as their central perspective. An internship outline plan will be developed individually between the student and the faculty sponsor. Prerequisite(s): Two courses approved for credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Permission of instructor. Every semester. (2 Credits)
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WGSS 623 - Internship
Internships, supervised by women’s, gender, and sexuality studies faculty, bring together theoretical and practical concerns that are primarily connected with women or have feminist/queer studies as their central perspective. An internship outline plan will be developed individually between the student and the faculty sponsor. Prerequisite(s): Two courses approved for credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Permission of instructor. Every semester. (3 Credits)
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WGSS 624 - Internship
Internships, supervised by women’s, gender, and sexuality studies faculty, bring together theoretical and practical concerns that are primarily connected with women or have feminist/queer studies as their central perspective. An internship outline plan will be developed individually between the student and the faculty sponsor. Prerequisite(s): Two courses approved for credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Permission of instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
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WGSS 631 - Preceptorship
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. (1 Credits)
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WGSS 632 - Preceptorship
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. (2 Credits)
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WGSS 633 - Preceptorship
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. (3 Credits)
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