Course Offerings
The core courses are offered
every year. The other Women, Gender, and Sexuality courses vary somewhat from year to year but are offered on a fairly regular
basis. Courses in brackets are not offered in the current academic
year.
Fall
Term - Spring Term
F a l l T e r m
2 0 0 3
Core WMGS Courses
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 301. Western Feminist Thought:
An exploration of the main currents in American feminism, with
occasional excursions into European thought. The course readings assume
(rather than demonstrate) women’s historical subordination to man and
put forward various explanations and strategies for change. Readings in
J.S. Mill, C. P. Gilman, Emma Goldman, Simone de Beauvoir, Adrienne
Rich, bell hooks, Mary Daly, Audre Lorde, and others. Primarily for
sophomores and juniors. Permission of the instructor is required.:
Hedrick
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 401. Senior Seminar:
The goals of this seminar are to sharpen critical thinking and to afford
an opportunity for synthesis of student work in women’s studies. Towards
these ends we will examine the construction of race, class, and
sexuality in America as they intersect with gender. The capstone of the
course is a twenty-five-page research paper. There will be opportunities
to share work in progress with seminar members and to involve the wider
campus community in the issues.: Hedrick
Other WMGS Courses
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 207. Homosexuality and Hollywood
Film: The
20th century is generally understood as a crucial period for the
emergence and consolidation of modern lesbian and gay identities and
practices. A case can be made for the special role of Hollywood in this
historical process. Stars such as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Bette
Davis, James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Montgomery Cliff provided lesbians
and gays with powerful models of gender and sexual nonconformity, and
Hollywood genres such as the musical and the domestic melodrama informed
the camp sensibility in crucial ways. Beginning with the 1930s and
ending with the 1990s, this course examines how Hollywood contributed to
the formation of lesbian and gay subcultures. It pays particular
attention to the representation of lesbians and gays in Hollywood films
and how this representation did and did not shift over the course of the
20th century. In addition, it engages recent theoretical and historical
work on gender and sexuality. Mandatory weekly screenings. (Also listed
under English.) -- Corber
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 212. The History of Sexuality:
Sexuality is commonly understood as a natural or biological instinct,
but as scholars have recently shown, it is better understood as a set of
cultural practices that have a history. Starting with the ancient
Greeks, this course examines the culturally and historically variable
meanings attached to sexuality in Western culture. It pays particular
attention to the emergence of sexuality in the 19th century as an
instrument of power. It also considers how race, class, gender, and
nationality have influenced the modern organization of sexuality. Topics
covered include sex before sexuality, sexuality and colonialism,
sexuality and U.S. slavery, and the emergence of the hetero/homosexual
binarism in the late-19th century. Primary readings include The
Symposium, A Passage to India, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,
The Well of Loneliness, and The Swimming Pool
Library. Secondary readings include work by Michel Foucault,
David Halperin, Angela Davis, Hazel Carby, Martin Duberman, George
Chauncey, Madeline Davis and Elizabeth Kennedy. (also listed under
History) : Corber
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 215. Drink and Disorder in
America:
Drinking as an institution has reflected the varieties of cultures,
interest groups, and ideologies that have swept America. We will examine
the tumultuous history of this institution from the origins of the
Republic to the present in order to understand what the Ôwets’ and the
Ôdrys’ can tell us about the nature of community in America. Special
attention to the ways in which gender, race, class, and ethnicity shape
perceptions of drinking, leisure, and social control. (Also listed in
American Studies and History.) --Hedrick
[Women, Gender, and Sexuality 234. Gender and Education]:
What is gender equity in schooling and what impact does this have on
gender equity more broadly? Different disciplinary perspectives on the
impact of gender in learning, school experience, performance and
achievement will be explored in elementary, secondary, post-secondary,
and informal educational settings. The legal and public policy
implications of these findings (such as gender-segregated schooling,
men’s and women’s studies programs, curriculum reform, Title IX,
affirmative action and other proposed remedies) will be explored.
Findings on socialization and schooling in the U.S. will be contrasted
with those from other cultures.
[Women, Gender, and Sexuality 278. Sexual Orientation and the
Law]: The
purpose of this course is to introduce students to the growing
theoretical literature and case law in the area of sexual orientation
and the law. We will study the historical treatment of gays and lesbians
as a matter of law and public policy, and we will examine the particular
discriminatory laws that have been enacted at the local, state, and
national level. Texts will include books on a variety of policy issues
concerning the legal status of gays and lesbians, as well as court
cases, legal briefs, and law review articles. Topics will range from
same-sex marriages to discrimination against individuals infected with
the HIV virus.
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 307. Women’s Rights as Human
Rights: This
course is a cross-cultural investigation of the gendered nature of human
rights and of the changes in different societies that have resulted from
struggles for human rights for women. Topics covered will include rights
to protection against sexual abuse and gender violence (such as female
genital mutilation), subsistence rights, reproductive rights, human
rights and sexual orientation, and the rights of female immigrants and
refugees. The course will make use of formal legal documents as well as
cultural materials such as novels, films, personal testimonies,
religious rituals, and folk traditions in music. (Also listed under
Public Policy)—Bauer
[Women, Gender, and Sexuality 311. Women in Development]:
This course provides an introduction to women in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America from an interdisciplinary as well as cross-cultural and
cross-national perspective. It examines patterns of women’s
subordination in the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial context.
Particular attention is paid to the role of women in economic
development. This involves looking at women’s involvement in various
activities, from the individual household unit to women’s role in
agricultural production and the emerging global assembly line.
Prerequisite: Political Science 106 and Anthropology 201, or permission
of the instructor
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 350. American Women Artists and
Cold War Culture:
Lee Krasner’s abstract expressionist painting was praised as “so good
you would not know it was painted by a woman”; Mary McCarthy’s
best-selling novel, The Group, was condemned as a “lady book.”
Such were the terms governing the critical reception of women’s art
during the Cold War era of the 1950s and early 1960s. This course will
explore the art practice of six American women {playwrights Lillian
Hellman and Lorraine Hansberry, novelist Mary McCarthy, poet/novelist
Sylvia Plath, choreographer Martha Graham, and painter Lee Krasner} who
achieved prominence in their respective fields while negotiating a
“containment culture” that equated women’s fulfillment with domestic
bliss and promoted norms of womanhood regulating female sexuality, labor
and representation. Course material will include: McCarthy’s The
Group, Plath’s The Bell Jar, Hellman’s Scoundrel Time,
Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun, Graham’s Night Journey, and
selected paintings by Krasner. In addition, students will read passages
from Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, selections from
Freud, and historical accounts of the politics and culture of the Cold
War era.: Power
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 399. Independent Study:
Submission of the special registration form, available in the
Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are
required for enrollment. (1-2 course credits): Staf
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 466. Teaching Assistantship:
Submission of the special registration form, available in the
Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are
required for enrollment. (1Ú2-1 course credit): Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 497. Senior Thesis:
Submission of the special registration form, available in the
Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are
required for enrollment in this single term thesis.: Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 498. Senior Thesis, Part 1:
Submission of the special registration form, available in the
Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are
required for each semester of this yearlong thesis. (2 course credits
are considered pending in the first semester; 2 course credits will be
awarded for completion in the second semester).: Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 601. IDP Study Unit:
Independent study guide available only to students in the Individualized
Degree Program. Permission of the instructor and a signed permission
slip are required for registration. See the IDP Catalogue for a
full listing.: Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 602. IDP Project:
Limited to students in the Individualized Degree Program. Requires
submission of a special proposal form, which is available in the IDP
Office. (0-5 course credits): Staff
WMGS
Courses Originating in Other Departments
American
Studies Anthropology
Classical Civilization
College Course
English
French
History
International Studies
Modern Languages Music
Philosophy
Political Science
Psychology
Public
Policy Religion
Sociology
Spanish
Theater and Dance
S p r i n g
T e r m 2 0 0 4
Core WMGS Courses
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 101. Women, Gender, and
Sexuality:
This course
introduces students to the study of women, gender, and sexuality, paying
attention to issues of power, agency and resistance. Using a variety of
19th and 20th century American materials, the course seeks to
understand: women’s experiences and the way they have been shaped,
normative and nonnormative alignments of sex, gender and sexuality
across different historical periods, and the intersection of gender,
sexuality, race, class, and nation. : Corber, Hedrick
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 306. Issues in Contemporary
Feminist and Queer Theory:
This course provides an introduction to the various theories of gender
and sexuality that currently inform scholarship in women’s studies and
lesbian and gay sudies. Topics include the impact of poststructuralism
on feminist modes of analysis, the relationship between feminism and
queer theory, and the postcolonial and transnational critiques of
feminist and queer approaches to gender and sexuality.: Corber
The following will satisfy the Senior Seminar requirement:
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 406. Current Issues Seminar:
Gender, Sexuality, and the Law:
This course will explore selected issues and controversies
concerning gender, sexuality, and the law in America. We will examine
the issues from a variety of legal perspectives and will focus on the
social and political circumstances that have given rise to them. We will
also analyze the relationship between the ongoing litigation of gender
questions and the shaping of public policy. Topics to be discussed
include sexual harassment, pornography, assisted reproduction, and gay
and lesbian marriage.: fulco
Other WMGS Courses
[Women, Gender, and Sexuality 206. Sex, Gender and Power]:
This course explores issues of sex, gender, and power for women and men
in our society and in selected cultures of Africa, the Middle East,
Latin America, and the Pacific. Issues to be explored include: the
cultural construction of deviance, women’s and men’s freedom to be
sexual, reproductive rights, divorce and marriage, homosexuality,
ritualized genital mutilation, the relationship between sexuality and
social roles. By creating “maps” of the sex/gender systems of some
exotically different societies, the course encourages a reflexive
analysis of our own.
[Women, Gender, and Sexuality 250. Feminist Economics]:
This course provides an introduction to the new field of feminist
economics, which through a diverse set of questions and analysis
critiques conventional economic theories, analyzes the economics of
gender difference, and advocates policies that promote equality for
women. Empirical, methodological, theoretical, and policy questions will
be explored. For example, has the economic position of women been
improving in the U.S. and in the world? Do existing economic theories
embody a masculine perspective? How can economists better understand
housework and childcare, and women’s predominance in them? What is a
feminist analysis of welfare? What insights does feminism provide for
development economics? And finally what might women’s liberation mean,
in economic terms?
[Women, Gender, and Sexuality 251. Gender and Dislocation]:
The plight of women raped in Bosnia, women and children in Afghan
refugee camps, homeless mothers and sweatshop workers in the USA, or
Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong, as well as the boy soldiers of
Africa, reflect the gendered natures of modern upheavals across the
globe. This course examines the gendered consequences of contemporary
forms of uprootedness, such as homelessness, labor migration, refugee
flight, and the impact of these on family and intergenerational
relations, cultural expression and identity, relationships to home,
place and culture and forms of multicultural citizenship. Students will
use case studies, ethnographies, and other accounts to consider the
conditions, such as environmental disasters, economic restructuring,
genocide, violence and political oppression, which give rise to
dislocation and the gender differences in the reconstitution of self and
community among individual migrants and survivors of trauma.
[Women, Gender, and Sexuality 322. American Literary Realism]:
We will read works by Caroline Kirkland, Rebecca Harding Davis, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, and William Wells Brown, Mark Twain, Henry James, and
William Dean Howells, asking what is real? What does it mean to be a
realist? How was realism as a literary movement constructed by male
critics in gendered opposition to sentimentalism?
Women,
Gender, and Sexuality 330. Gender and Multiculturalism in Trinidad and
Tobago:
This
multidisciplinary seminar explores gender relations in theunique multicultural setting of Trinidad and
Tobago. Variations in gender and sexuality will be examined through a
discussion of history, political economy, family life, religion, race
and class, and the cultural politics of national identity, with
particular attention given to Afro-, Hindu-, and Muslim- Trinbagonian
experiences. –Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 369.
Queer Studies: Issues and Controversies: This broadly
interdisciplinary course examines the impact of queer theory on the
study of gender and sexuality in both the humanities and the social
sciences. In positing that there is no necessary or causal relationship
between sex, gender, and sexuality, queer theory has raised important
questions about the identity-based understandings of gender and
sexuality still dominant in the social sciences. This course focuses on
the issues queer theory has raised in the social sciences as its
influence has spread beyond the humanities. Topics covered include:
queer theory’s critique of identity; institutional versus discursive
forms of power in the regulation of gender and sexuality; the value of
psychoanalysis for the study of sexuality; and lesbian and gay
historiography versus queer historiography. : Corber, Valocchi
[Women, Gender, and Sexuality 399. Independent Study]
Submission of the special registration form, available in the
Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are
required for enrollment. (1-2 course credits): Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 466. Teaching Assistantship:
Submission of the special registration form, available in the
Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are
required for enrollment. (1Ú2-1 course credit): Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 497. Senior Thesis:
Submission of the special registration form, available in the
Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are
required for enrollment in this single-semester thesis. (1 course credit
to be completed in one semester.): Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 499. Senior Thesis, Part 2:
Submission of the special registration form, available in the
Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and chairperson
are required for each semester of this yearlong thesis. (Two course
credits are considered pending in the first semester; 2 course credits
will be awarded for completion in the second semester.): Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 601. IDP Study Unit:
Independent study guide available only to students in the Individualized
Degree Program. Permission of the instructor and a signed permission
slip are required for registration. See the IDP Catalogue for a
full listing.: Staff
Women, Gender, and Sexuality 602. IDP Project:
Limited to students in the Individualized Degree Program. Requires
submission of a special proposal form that is available in the IDP
Office. (0-5 course credits): Staff
WMGS Courses Originating in Other Departments
American
Studies Anthropology
Classical Civilization
College Course
English
French
History
International Studies
Modern Languages Music
Philosophy
Political Science
Psychology
Public
Policy Religion
Sociology
Spanish
Theater and Dance
