Professor Corber, Director; Charles A. Dana Professor of History Hedrick∙∙
The program in women, gender, and sexuality takes gender and sexuality as its critical terms of inquiry, exploring them as social constructs and analyzing their impact on the traditional disciplines. The program draws on the liberal arts and sciences to examine a wide range of topics relating to gender and sexuality, including women’s varied experiences in different historical periods and cultures, as well as their contributions to culture in all its forms; the relationship among sex, gender, and sexuality; lesbian, gay, and transgender subcultures, and their histories and politics; and the institutional and discursive regulation of gender and sexuality. Recognizing that gender and sexuality cut across most fields of knowledge and that race, class, and nation are crucial components of gender and sexual identities, the program has both an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural focus.
Core faculty
Curricular options—Students may either major or minor in women, gender, and sexuality. The requirements for both are listed below.
The major in women, gender, and sexuality—Majors are required to complete, with grades of C- or better, 13 course credits in women, gender, and sexuality, which must include the following:
In order to ensure rigor, breadth, and diversity, the concentration and elective courses must include the following:
Honors—The award of honors in women, gender, and sexuality will be based on a grade point average of 3.5 or better in the courses for the major and completion of a senior thesis with a grade of A- or better. Application to complete a senior thesis should be made to the director of women, gender, and sexuality the semester before the thesis is undertaken.
The minor in women, gender, and sexuality—The minor consists of six courses completed with a C- or better: two required core courses in women, gender, and sexuality; three electives in women, gender, and sexuality; and a senior seminar.
Fall Term
[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. Not open to seniors. (Enrollment limited)
[212. 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.) (Enrollment limited)
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. Prerequisite: C- or better in one other course in Women Gender and Sexuality. (Enrollment limited)-Hedrick
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, gender, and sexuality. 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. Course open only to senior Women Gender and Sexuality majors and minors. (Enrollment limited)-Corber
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 “wets” and the “drys” 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 under American Studies and History.) (Enrollment limited)-Hedrick
[319. The Woman’s Film]— In the 1930s Hollywood created a new genre, the woman’s picture or “weepie,” designed specifically for female audiences. This course examines the development of this enormously popular genre from the 1930s to the 1960s, including important cycles of women’s pictures such as the female gothic and the maternal melodrama. It pays particular attention to the genre’s exploration of female sexuality and its homoerotic organization of the look. It also considers the genre’s role in the formation of contemporary theories of female spectatorship. Film screenings include both versions of Imitations of Life, These Three, Stage Door, Blonde Venus, Stella Dallas, Mildred Pierce, Rebecca, Suspicion, Gaslight, The Old Maid, Old Acquaintance, The Great Lie, Letter from an Unknown Woman, All that Heaven Allows, and Marnie. Readings by Doane, Williams, Modleski, de Lauretis, Jacobs, and White. (Enrollment limited)
345. Film Noir— This course traces the development of film noir, a distinctive style of Hollywood filmmaking inspired by the hardboiled detective fiction of Dashiell Hammett, James Cain, and Raymond Chandler. It pays particular attention to the genre’s complicated gender and sexual politics. In addition to classic examples of film noir, the course also considers novels by Hammett, Cain, and Chandler. (Enrollment limited)-Corber
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
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. (0.5-1 course credit) -Staff
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. (1-2 course credits) -Staff
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). (2 course credits) -Staff
Courses Originating in Other Departments
American Studies 248. Female Bodies in 19th Century American Literature & Culture— View course description in department listing on p. 239. -Miller
[American Studies 340. The Body in 19th Century American Culture]— View course description in department listing on p. 240.
[American Studies 341. Spectacle of Disability in American Culture]— View course description in department listing on p. 240.
[Anthropology 256. Anthropology of Reproduction]— View course description in department listing on p. 267.
Classical Civilization 208. Men, Women, and Society in Ancient Greece and Rome: Myth and Reality— View course description in department listing on p. 319. -Safran
[English 431. Writing Women of the Renaissance]— View course description in department listing on p. 416.
[English 833. Writing Women of the Renaissance]— View course description in department listing on p. 420.
English 851. Queer Harlem Renaissance— View course description in department listing on p. 420. -Paulin
[International Studies 218. Women, Gender, and Family in the Middle East]— View course description in department listing on p. 570.
[International Studies 234. Gender and Education]— View course description in department listing on p. 570.
[International Studies 249. Immigrants and Refugees: Strangers in Strange Lands]— View course description in department listing on p. 570.
International Studies 311. Global Feminism— View course description in department listing on p. 572. -Bauer
[Music 150. Women in Music]— View course description in department listing on p. 683.
[Music 224. Music of Black American Women]— View course description in department listing on p. 683.
[Political Science 326. Women and Politics]— View course description in department listing on p. 746. Prerequisite: C- or better in Political Science 102 or permission of instructor.
[Political Science 359. Feminist Political Theory]— View course description in department listing on p. 746.
Sociology 355. Reproduction, Birth, and Power— View course description in department listing on p. 813. Prerequisite: Prior Sociology course or permission of instructor. -Morris
Spring Term
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. Not open to seniors. (Enrollment limited)-Corber
[315. Women in America]— An examination of women’s varied experiences in the public and private spheres, from their own perspective as well as that of the dominant society. The experiences of women of different classes and races will be compared, as will the relationship between images of women and changing realities of their lives. Emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. (Enrollment limited)
[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 ?wets’ and the ?drys’ 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 under American Studies and History.) (Enrollment limited)
[335. Mapping American Masculinities]— This course examines the construction of masculinity in American society starting with Theodore Roosevelt’s call at the turn of the twentieth century for men to revitalize the nation by pursuing the “strenuous life. Through close readings of literary and filmic texts, it considers why American manhood has so often been seen as in crisis. It pays particular attention to the formation of non-normative masculinities (African-American, female, and gay) in relation to entrenched racial, class, and sexual hierarchies, as well as the impact of the feminist, civil rights, and gay liberation movements on the shifting construction of male identity. In addition to critical essays, readings also include Tarzan of the Apes, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, The Great Gatsby, The Sun also Rises, Native Son, Another Country, and Kiss Me Deadly (Spillane). Film screenings include Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich), Shaft, Magnum Force, Philadelphia, Brokeback Mountain, Cleopatra Jones, and Boys Don’t Cry. (Enrollment limited)
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. (Enrollment limited)-Corber, Valocchi
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
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. (0.5-1 course credit) -Staff
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. (1-2 course credits) -Staff
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). (2 course credits) -Staff
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.) (2 course credits) -Staff
Courses Originating in Other Departments
[Anthropology 207. Anthropological Perspectives of Women and Gender]— View course description in department listing on p. 270.
[Arabic 233L. Introduction to Arab and Middle Eastern Cinemas]— View course description in department listing on p. 617.
[Educational Studies 309. Race, Class, and Educational Policy]— View course description in department listing on p. 385. Prerequisite: Educational Studies 200 or juniors / seniors with permission of instructor.
[English 220. Crime and Passion: Studies in Victorian Literature]— View course description in department listing on p. 427.
English 348. Women Writers of the Middle Ages— View course description in department listing on p. 432. Prerequisite: C- or better in English 260 or permission of instructor -Fisher
[English 365. Jane Austen and the Romantic Period]— View course description in department listing on p. 433.
[English 451. Queer Harlem Renaissance]— View course description in department listing on p. 435.
[English 851. Queer Harlem Renaissance]— View course description in department listing on p. 439.
[History 247. Latinos/Latinas in the United States]— View course description in department listing on p. 530.
[History 318. Gender and Sexuality in Middle Eastern History]— View course description in department listing on p. 533.
[History 397. Work and Motherhood in the United States 1920-Present]— View course description in department listing on p. 536.
[International Studies 131. Modern Iran]— View course description in department listing on p. 576.
International Studies 218. Women, Gender, and Family in the Middle East— View course description in department listing on p. 577. -Bauer
International Studies 300. Worldly Sex— View course description in department listing on p. 578. -Euraque
[International Studies 306. Gender and Nationalism in the Middle East]— View course description in department listing on p. 579.
[International Studies 307. Women’s Rights as Human Rights]— View course description in department listing on p. 579.
International Studies 325. Anthropology of Islam— View course description in department listing on p. 580. -Bauer
[Language & Cultural Studies 233. Introduction to Arab and Middle Eastern Cinemas]— View course description in department listing on p. 613.
[Philosophy 225. Politics, Power, and Rights: Engaging Women of Color in Hartford]— View course description in department listing on p. 712.
Philosophy 239. African-American Feminism— View course description in department listing on p. 713. -Marcano
[Philosophy 240. Introduction to Feminist Philosophy]— View course description in department listing on p. 713.
[Political Science 326. Women and Politics]— View course description in department listing on p. 752. Prerequisite: C- or better in Political Science 102 or permission of instructor.
Psychology 310. The Psychology of Gender Differences— View course description in department listing on p. 771. Not open to first-year students. -Anselmi
Sociology 207. Family and Society— View course description in department listing on p. 814. -Sacks
Sociology 246. Sociology of Gender— View course description in department listing on p. 814. -Morris