May 10, 2024  
College Catalog 2023-2024 
    
College Catalog 2023-2024 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Courses


 

Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

  
  • 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)

  
  • 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)

  
  • WGSS 205 - Trans Theories and Politics

    Cross-Listed as AMST 205  
    From Caitlyn Jenner to Laverne Cox, CeCe MacDonald to Chelsea Manning, Transparent to Pose, trans people are experiencing unprecedented media coverage. In fact, some years ago now Time Magazine declared that we are at the “transgender tipping point.” And yet, alongside this positive media coverage, we see legislatures across the country debated so-called “bathroom bills” that foment fear of the transsexual child predator and bills that would restrict trans kids’ participation in sports. Even more concerning, The National Coalition of Antiviolence Projects reports that 2020 saw a record number of murders of transgender individuals, in particular trans women of color. In all of these instances, it’s useful to consider how and why the specter of transness is raised. What social and political work does that figure do? This course will examine transness as a practice of gender transgression, rather than solely an identity category, one which is historically and geographically contingent. In this class, we will ask: What has gender non-conformity meant in various historical moments? How do race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability structure trans lives and communities? How have key institutions within the US constructed ideas about gender normativity and policed gender transgression? How has that policing impacted and shaped trans life? What is the relationship between feminism and trans people and trans liberation? How have trans people envisioned and fought for social justice? What space can trans embodiment and politics open up for new ways of living, relating, and imagining otherwise? Every year. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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)

  
  • WGSS 217 - Gender and Race Theory in Performance

    Cross-Listed as THDA 217  
    This course introduces students to debates, methods, and conceptual frameworks in race and gender, as represented in performance. It engages students in an interdisciplinary exploration of key terms - such as corporeality, embodiment, intersectionality, and performativity - that remain central to the fields of gender and sexuality, critical race theory, and performance. Through drafts and revisions of written work, critical dialogues and oral presentations in small groups, peer feedback, and analytical reading, students will engage in questions around identity formation, structural inequality, and the politics of citizenship.  Fall semester. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 218 - Philosophy of Race and Gender

    Cross-Listed as PHIL 218  
    This class addresses conceptual and ethical questions at the foundation of the study of sexism, racism, heterosexism, and transphobia. Many of us believe, for example, that race and gender are both socially constructed. But what exactly is social construction?  Would there be room for races and genders in a perfectly just society, or are races and genders intrinsically oppressive categories that should be eliminated?  Nowadays we are taught to distinguish gender from sex. But what is sex? Is sex socially constructed, like gender, or is it a strictly biological phenomenon?  Population geneticists have recently argued that, surprisingly, race is biological after all. Are their arguments convincing, or flawed?  How can thinking carefully about gender and sex problematize our ordinary understanding of sexual orientation? In our unjust society, when if ever does it make sense to respond to racial injustice with affirmative action? Is sex-selective abortion immoral? If you think it is, can you still be pro-choice? What should we think about affirmative action? We will address these questions, and others, by drawing on recent work at the intersection of philosophy, social science, and biology. Authors to be studied include Elizabeth Anderson, Anthony Appiah, Sally Haslanger, Kate Manne, Debra Satz, Tommie Shelby, Quayshawn Spencer, and Laurence Thomas. Alternate years. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 220 - Feminist Reconstructions: Indian


    A historical accident has led to the creation and use of ‘Indian’ in very different geographies-North America and South Asia. We will study what happens when these diverse cultural and political depictions of ‘Indian’ are juxtaposed. Through an intersection of gender with nation, race, class, and sexuality, we will discuss the connections between the concepts of native, ancient, and modern, nation and citizenship, hyphenated and hybrid identities, global cultural consumption, and old/new forms of marginalization, to name some issues. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or permission of instructor; at least one introductory-level WGSS core course or cross-listed course recommended. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 225 - Women and the Bible

    Cross-Listed as RELI 225  
    In this course we will examine the roles, identities, and representations of women in the Tanakh/ Old Testament, New Testament, and Jewish and Christian apocrypha.  We will explore how biblical writers used women “to think with,” and we will consider how gender is co-constructed alongside religious, social, and sexual identities.  We will ask the following sorts of questions: What opportunities for social advancement and leadership were open to women in ancient Israelite, early Jewish, and early Christian communities, and how did these opportunities differ from those open to women in other religious formations in the ancient Mediterranean?  How did biblical regulations of bodies, sexuality, marriage, and family life shape women’s lives? What are the social and material effects of biblical representations of women? And how might current feminist theories inform our interpretation of biblical texts about women? Alternate spring semesters. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 228 - The Law, Economy, and Family in the Anglo-American Tradition

    Cross-Listed as   
    The meaning of “family” in North America changed significantly between 1600 and 1861, governed by the intersecting “many legalities” that included English common law and the multiple forms of dispute resolution practiced by indigenous, enslaved, and other European peoples. The emerging legal systems and economic structures shaped the lives of women and families while establishing the foundation for many of our current practices.  Drawing on case studies and microhistories, this course explores how laws defined women’s property rights, economic opportunity, public voice, reproduction, “race,” and conditions of freedom. We will also examine how individuals manipulated and circumvented legal, economic, and social expectations along with the limits to those forms of resistance. Readings focus on primary and secondary sources, and students will have the opportunity to explore a relevant topic of their own choosing in a guided research project. Building on the foundations constructed by historians of women and gender, this course examines how legal traditions, economic systems, and ideologies about families delineated opportunities for the region’s diverse inhabitants between the early stages of European colonization and the outbreak of the United States Civil War. Alternate years. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 229 - Narrating Black Women’s Resistance

    Cross-Listed as AMST 229  and HIST 229  
    This course examines traditions of 20th century African American women’s activism and the ways in which they have changed over time. Too often, the narrative of the “strong black woman” infuses stories of African American women’s resistance which, coupled with a culture of dissemblance, makes the inner workings of their lives difficult to imagine. This course, at its heart, seeks to uncover the motivations, both personal and political, behind African American women’s activism. It also aims to address the ways in which African American women have responded to the pressing social, economic, and political needs of their diverse communities. The course also asks students to consider narrative, voice and audience in historical writing, paying particular attention to the ways in which black women’s history has been written over the course of the twentieth century. Every year. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 240 - Comparative Feminisms: Whiteness and Postcolonialisms


    This course brings together discourses that have remained somewhat parallel and unrelated–Whiteness Studies and Postcolonial Studies.  It is based on the premise that ‘whiteness’ as an academic/social framework stems from and is intertwined with social and political identity-based movements (feminist, critical race, etc.).  In other words, studies of the intersection of gender, race, class, and nation initiated in the post-colonizing imagination seeks to shake up paradigms of power, and whiteness studies shares in this effort.  This course explores where and how the notion of ‘whiteness’ converges and diverges from post-colonialism.  

      Prerequisite(s): Sophomore or junior standing, or permission of instructor; one introductory core or cross-listed course in the department recommended. Every other year. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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. Counts as Group E elective for the Economics major. Prerequisite(s): ECON 119  or ECON 129 . C- or higher required for all prerequisites. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 248 - Struggles for Reproductive Justice: A Global Perspective

    Cross-Listed as LATI 248  and SOCI 248  
    Prerequisite(s): This course focuses on reproductive health as a human right following the reproductive justice framework. It will focus on women and how they navigate the system to expand their rights. The course will pay particular attention to women who are marginalized due to their race, class, gender identity, indigeneity, and religion. In doing so, this course studies reproductive health and human rights in relation to the broader structural context in the Americas (e.g. national laws and international conventions). As the topic of women’s reproductive rights is vast, we will be focusing on abortion, domestic violence, and motherhood. Students in the class will study these issues from the perspective of women’s organizations that have mobilized to expand reproductive rights. This course will be comparative in nature as it will focus on reproductive rights in the U.S. and Latin America from the 1980s onwards. These two regions are intimately connected politically and economically, and in regards to reproductive rights. For example, the gag rule introduced by the Reagan administration in 1984 jeopardized the reproductive health services provided in Latin American countries that received funding from the U.S. government. Yet another way that these two regions have been coupled is through feminist networks that have been working to expand reproductive rights in the Americas.  Every year. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 250 - Race, Gender, and Medicine

    Cross-Listed as HIST 350  
    This seminar-style class examines the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality in the history of medicine and health in the U.S. Our diverse topics for study include eugenics, sexuality, midwifery, cultural/spiritual healing methods, pandemics, race- and gender-based ailments and medical experiments (such as the science and politics of the birth control pill and the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment), gender reassignment surgery, and sex-testing in the Olympics. This wide range of topics will prepare students to explore a research topic of their own choosing for a final paper. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 252 - Gender, Sexualities and Feminist Visual Culture

    Cross-Listed as ART 252  
    This course examines the ways in which gender and sexuality are understood in modern visual culture. It also covers a wide range of feminist approaches in the 20th and 21st century art and as they have been articulated in theory. Students explore social constructions of gender and sexualities, their visible and invisible representation, and discuss the impact of feminism and the changing role of women in society. The course will also cover some of the most recent global feminist trends and new directions in the feminist theory. Feminist work from Africa, India, Asia and Eastern and Central Europe and various marginalized cultural centers in Western Europe and the United States will be addressed. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 258 - Gender and Sexuality in China

    Cross-Listed as ASIA 258  and CHIN 258  
    How are masculinity and femininity defined and transformed in modern and contemporary Chinese culture? How is the culturally constructed gender related to a larger social context? Through a rigorous analysis of the content and structure of modern and contemporary novels and films, this course examines the literary representation of gender and sexuality and its relation to the tumultuous social transformations, and engages with a variety of themes including: May Fourth enlightenment, anti-Japanese war, Socialist construction, the Cultural Revolution, and the liberalization of the post-Mao era. This course seeks to help students develop critical views of Chinese society and culture from gendered perspective, and gain familiarity with major authors, genres, and literary movements. This course assumes no prior knowledge of China or Chinese, and all reading materials are in English. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 259 - Women, Gender, and the Family in Contemporary Europe

    Cross-Listed as HIST 259  
    This course will explore the ways in which the major events and processes in contemporary European history shaped the lives of women and families as well and the way that both individual women and women’s movements have shaped the history of contemporary Europe. Much of our discussion will revolve around the themes of equality and inequality and their evolution over the course of the last two centuries. Our exploration will begin with the French Revolution in 1789 and end with the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century. We will focus on issues such as family policy, reproductive rights, labor, immigration, women’s political representation, and LGBTQ equality in Europe. We will also explore the importance of children and childhood in the context of contemporary European society and the role that the state has played in shaping the lives of young people. Whenever possible, we will approach the topics at hand by exploring the voices of our historical actors themselves and we will consider the experiences of people from a wide range of identities. Alternate years. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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)

  
  • WGSS 262 - Performing Feminisms

    Cross-Listed as THDA 262  
    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. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 263 - Muslim Women Writers

    Cross-Listed as ENGL 263  and INTL 263  
    Against the swirling backdrop of political discourses about women in the Islamic world, this course will engage with feminist and postcolonial debates through literary works by Muslim women writers. The course will begin with an exploration of key debates about women’s agency and freedom, the Islamic headscarf, and Qur’anic hermeneutics. With this in mind, we will turn to the fine details of literature and poetry by Muslim women. How do these authors constitute their worlds? How are gendered subjectivities constructed? And how do the gender politics of literary texts relate to the broader political and historical contexts from which they emerge? Themes will include an introduction to Muslim poetesses and Arabic poetic genres, the rise of the novel in the Arabic speaking world, and Muslim women’s literary production outside of the Middle East: from Senegal to South Asia, and beyond. Every year. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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)

  
  • WGSS 294 - Topics Course


    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 300 - Worlds Upside Down: Revolutions in Theories and Practices


    Are we living in revolutionary times?  How do we know? This course takes a journey through the last 50 years of some large upheavals across the world-in language, politics, economics, culture, and media-to find some answers of how we are similar and different.  It uncovers how and why the struggles, in theories and practices, for power and representation have created the conditions in which we exist today. We travel through all kinds of ‘post’ and ‘neo’-liberalism, humanism, feminism, nationalism, and colonialism-and how they intertwine in our own lived experiences.  Some topics: protest against gender, sexual, race, economic, and linguistic bio-regimes, revolts of the colonized and marginalized, and resistant/ liberatory creations in art, technology, and media. Authors include Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Michel Foucault, Theresa Cha, Silvia Federici, Noam Chomsky, Ta-Nehisi Coates, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, and Gayatri Spivak, among others.  At the end of the course, we will all know a little more about where we stand. People from all disciplines welcome.

      Prerequisite(s): Sophomore or junior standing or permission of instructor, and at least one course in the department (core course recommended, cross-listed accepted). Every year. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 305 - Telling Queer and Trans Stories: Oral History as Method and Practice

    Cross-Listed as HIST 305   
    Much about mainstream narratives of gender transgression are determined by powerful, cis-dominated institutions, still even to this day: the media, schools, police, the law, doctors and psychiatrists. These are institutions structured by a racialized, heteronormative gender binary, and for whom trans people pose a problem to be managed. Oral history offers the possibility for trans people to tell their own stories, and, in doing so, give more nuanced, complex analysis of identity, activism, and of the intersectional operations of systems of power. Oral history also makes room for the complex interplay of joy, playfulness, grief, anxiety, and connection that makes queer and trans life so valuable. In this project-based and community engaged course, students will have hands on experience working with an archive of queer and trans oral histories in the context of the pandemic and uprisings for racial justice. Working closely with our community partner, the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, we will learn about oral history methodology and interview techniques, and then have the opportunity to conduct oral history interviews, develop audio or video projects using extant oral histories, and contribute to an online archive of queer and trans oral history. Every year. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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. Prerequisite(s): One 100-level English course. Alternate years. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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 Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies course. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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)

  
  • WGSS 324 - Women, Peace and Security

    Cross-Listed as POLI 324  
    In 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). This resolution acknowledged the inordinate impact of armed conflict on women and girls, as well as the crucial role that women can and do already play in conflict prevention, conflict resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts. It urged states and other actors to increase the participation of women - and to incorporate gender perspectives - in all peace and security efforts. Since 2000, there have been nine additional resolutions that together have created the Women, Peace and Security agenda, a global framework for advancing gender equity in all areas of international peace and security. In this course we will explore feminist scholarship on armed conflict, peace and security leading up to the adoption of UNSCR 1325, as well as the 20 years of research, policy and practice on Women, Peace and Security. We will focus on the contributions and limitations of the WPS agenda as well as on new themes and issues that have emerged over time. Every year. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 325 - Conquering the Flesh: Renunciation of Food and Sex in the Christian Tradition

    Cross-Listed as RELI 325  
    This course explores how bodily practices of fasting and sexual abstinence have shaped Christian identities from the first century, C.E. to today. From Paul of Tarsus’ instructions about sexual discipline to the True Love Waits® campaign, from the desert fathers’ rigorous bodily regimens to the contemporary Christian diet movement, Christians have often understood the practice of renunciation as a necessary feature of spiritual perfection. In this course we will consider several ascetic movements in Christian history, including the development of ascetic practice in late antiquity, the rise of fasting practices among women in medieval Europe, and the culture of Christian dieting and chastity in the U.S. We will pay special attention to how Christian practices of piety both draw upon and contribute to cultural understandings of gender and the body. Every other year. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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)

  
  • WGSS 346 - Constructions of a Female Killer

    Cross-Listed as LATI 386  and SPAN 386  
    Explorations of the relationship between women and violence typically take place from the perspective of women as victims. However, how does the discourse change when the traditional paradigm is inverted and we explore women as perpetrators of violence? This seminar examines representations of women who kill in Latin American and Latino narratives (including novels, short stories, films, and newspapers). Drawing on feminist theory, media studies, criminology, and literary criticism, we will seek to understand the ways women’s violence has been read and framed in contemporary society as well as how their violence intersects with discussions of nationalism, race, class, and gender. This course satisfies the Area 2 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 307  or consent of the instructor. Generally taught alternate years. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 354 - Gender and Music

    Cross-Listed as MUSI 354  
    In this course, students will explore how gender is constructed in a variety of American and European musical styles and contexts, with an emphasis on popular genres. Learning objectives include for students to: (1) better understand the intersectional ways in which gender relates to and is informed by other aspects of identity formation, including class, race, and sexuality, (2) investigate issues that have affected women’s participation in musical life, such as musical canons, gendered musical discourse, and gender stereotypes, (3) explore contributions of trans and non-binary musicians, as well as issues that affect their musical lives, (4) interrogate constructions of gender, masculinity, and femininity as they relate to music, and (5) to develop reading comprehension, critical thinking skills, and argumentative writing skills. Once a year. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 355 - Abolition Feminism: Race, Gender, Sexuality and Critical Prison Studies

    Cross-Listed as AMST 355  
    This course explores the history and politics of, and theoretical approaches to, gender and sexuality in relation to the racial politics of mass incarceration, or what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls the “carceral geography” of the United States. By engaging recent work in queer and trans studies, feminist studies, and critical prison studies, we will consider how prisons and policing have shaped the making and remaking of race, gender, and sexuality from slavery and conquest to the contemporary period. We will examine how police and prisons have regulated the body, identity, and populations, and the larger social, political, and cultural changes connected to these processes. While we will focus on the carceral system itself, we will also think of policing in a more expansive way by analyzing the racialized regulation of gender and sexuality on the plantation, in the colony, at the border, in the welfare office, and in the hospital, among other spaces, historical periods, and places. Every year. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 364 - Lives in Context: Psychology and Social Structure

    Cross-Listed as PSYC 364  
    In this seminar we will explore the relationship between individual lives and broad social systems in the United States. We will read theory, research, and case material from psychology and related disciplines about individual and interpersonal implications of social organization/social structure (in the domains of social class, gender, race, physical ability, sexuality, etc., and their intersections). We will pay particular attention to how and why it matters psychologically that U.S. society is organized hierarchically.  We will also address how to study the relation between individual lives and social structure. How can we really understand lives in their myriad contexts? What’s the best strategy for doing this? Is it even possible? What are some of the methodological, conceptual, and ethical dilemmas and challenges involved in such an undertaking? Because feminist psychologists have played a critical role in shaping methodology and research in these areas, we will read a considerable amount of work by feminist psychologists and other feminist academics. Counts toward the UP3 requirement. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100 , PSYC 201  and one other intermediate psychology course. Every other year. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 368 - Psychology of/and Disability

    Cross-Listed as PSYC 368  
    What is “disability” and what does an understanding of disability tell us about human experience more generally? What is a “disability identity” and what implications might claiming that identity have for psychological well-being and social change? How do stereotypes of disabled people and expectations of “normality” affect everyone’s lives (not just those with disabilities)? Why don’t many Deaf people consider themselves “disabled?” What might we learn from shifting the “problem” of disability from the individual person to the social environment? How do sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression influence how different bodies are viewed, treated, educated, and experienced? This course will explore questions that emerge from thinking about the experience of disability (and its intersection with identities based on gender, race, class, and sexuality). Our work together will be grounded in critical disability and Deaf studies frameworks that are themselves informed by and in conversation with feminist, queer, and critical race theories and perspectives. Through a consideration of the socially, culturally, linguistically, and historically constructed meanings of physical, sensory, and cognitive “impairments,” the course will rely on theoretical and empirical readings from psychology and related disciplines, personal essays, film/video, and guest visitors as we explore the social and psychological meanings of disability. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100 PSYC 201  or STAT 155 ; and one intermediate psychology course.  Offered most years. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 394 - Topics Course


    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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)

  
  • 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)

  
  • WGSS 494 - Topics Course


    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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 and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)

  
  • 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 and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)

  
  • 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 and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)

  
  • 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 and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)

  
  • 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 and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)

  
  • 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 and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)

  
  • 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 and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)

  
  • 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 and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)

  
  • 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 and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 631 - Preceptorship


    Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. (1 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 632 - Preceptorship


    Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. (2 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 633 - Preceptorship


    Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. (3 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 634 - Preceptorship


    Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. (4 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 641 - Honors Independent


    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 642 - Honors Independent


    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 643 - Honors Independent


    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)

  
  • WGSS 644 - Honors Independent


    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)

 

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