WGSS 100-01 |
Introduction to Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Instructor: Katie Schweighofer Course Description:
Permission of Instructor Required. This course offers an introduction to central concepts, questions and debates in gender and sexuality studies from US, Women of Color, queer and transnational perspectives. Throughout the semester we will explore the construction and maintenance of norms governing sex, gender, and sexuality, with an emphasis on how opportunity and inequality operate through categories of race, ethnicity, class, ability and nationality. After an introduction to some of the main concepts guiding scholarship in the field of feminist studies (the centrality of difference; social and political constructions of gender and sex; representation; privilege and power; intersectionality; globalization; transnationalism), we will consider how power inequalities attached to interlocking categories of difference shape key feminist areas of inquiry, including questions of: work, resource allocation, sexuality, queerness, reproduction, marriage, gendered violence, militarization, consumerism, resistance and community sustainability.
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10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF DENNY 211 |
WGSS 101-01 |
Southern Women Writers Instructor: Carol Ann Johnston Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 101-02. A course in prose written by women of the American South. We will begin with the diary of Mary Chesnut written during the Civil War and continue with notable writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, which may include Katherine Anne Porter, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, Ellen Gilchrist, Ellen Douglas, Kaye Gibbons. Some critical and theoretical texts will also be required. Writing assignments will include short explications, longer essays, and an exam. Attendance and participation in class discussion are required.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR BOSLER 208 |
WGSS 102-01 |
Psychology of Human Sexuality Instructor: Michele Ford Course Description:
Cross-listed with PSYC 145-01. This course is a study of human sexuality emphasizing psychological aspects. We will cover sexual development from childhood to adulthood, sexual orientations, biological influences, sexual attitudes and behavior, gender, sex therapy, sexual coercion and abuse, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual health, and the development of sexual relationships. The study of human sexuality is inherently interdisciplinary in nature (drawing from such varied disciplines as sociology, women's studies, biology, anthropology, history, and others). Although we will cover some material from these disciplines, we will take an explicitly social psychological perspective, focusing on individual, personal, and social aspects of sexual behaviors, attitudes and beliefs.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR KAUF 179 |
WGSS 201-01 |
Angela Davis Instructor: John Rufo Course Description:
Cross-listed with AFST 220-06 and AMST 200-03. This class introduces the political and philosophical contributions of Angela Y. Davis. We will discuss international communism, Black feminism, and abolition as crucial concepts and practices in her repertoire. Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944, Angela Davis became internationally known in the late '60s/early '70s as a political prisoner. She successfully gained her freedom from prison through an enormous global campaign. Davis has been active in international movements for freedom against class oppression, racism, imperialism, sexism, incarceration, and transphobia. We will consider key texts by Davis, including An Autobiography, the edited volume If They Come in the Morning, Women, Race, and Class, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, and Are Prisons Obsolete? We may also read excerpts from Davis' influences, teachers, and comrades: Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Claudia Jones, Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, George Jackson, Erika Huggins, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mike Davis, and Assata Shakur. Key areas of study addressed include Representation and Structures & Institutions.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR DENNY 212 |
WGSS 201-03 |
Sex Instructor: Jeff Engelhardt Course Description:
Cross-listed with PHIL 261-03. This course investigates sex, sexual activity, sexual orientations, and related philosophical topics. We'll consider questions such as, Is sex important? What is morally good sex, if there is such a thing? What is a sexual orientation? What roles should sex, sexual activity, and sexual orientation play in our lives?
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR EASTC 314 |
WGSS 201-04 |
Masculinity, Sex and Power in Action-Adventure Movies Instructor: Charity Fox Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 210-05.
American popular culture is full of action-adventure stories, from kids shows to Hollywood blockbusters to the nightly news. This course will explore the patterns and conventions of action-adventure as a popular American film genre with the goal of understanding the deeper cultural work performed by action-adventure narratives. Through critical reading, viewings and class discussion, we will examine what action-adventure films can teach us about evolving understandings of masculinities, gender, race, class, violence, war, and politics at various historical moments in the 20th and 21st centuries.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR DENNY 110 |
WGSS 201-05 |
Pause: The Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Hip Hop Instructor: Naaja Rogers Course Description:
Cross-listed with AFST 220-02 and MUAC 210-01. This course examines the complex and dynamic relationship between race, gender, and sexuality in hip hop, one of the largest cultural movements in the world. However, since hip hop is more than music, fashion, language, and style, and transcends the commercialization of products both in mainstream U.S.A. and globally, this course sets out to achieve two goals: (1) To introduce students to classic and emergent scholarship in the interrelated fields of critical race theory, feminist and gender studies, and queer theory which will be used to analyze hip hop and (2) to use hip hop as a heterogeneous and constantly shifting cultural and political formation that informs, complicates, and offers new of imaginings of these fields of study. Ultimately, utilizing a primarily interdisciplinary approach, this course will examine the ways in which the historical and contemporary social organizations of sexuality, gender, and race are mutually negotiated, contested, and constructed within and across hip hop music, film, dance, dress, and other sites of cultural performance. Students will have ample opportunity to engage hip hop lyrics, videos, and images throughout the span of the course.
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11:30 AM-12:20 PM, MWF ALTHSE 08 |
WGSS 201-06 |
Goddesses, Prostitutes, Wives, Saints, and Rulers: Women and European Art 1200-1680 Instructor: Melinda Schlitt Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 216-01.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF WEISS 221 |
WGSS 201-07 |
Arab Cinema: Women and Sexuality, Politics and Revolution Instructor: Magda Siekert Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 210-03 and MEST 200-01. This course introduces students to Arab society and culture through an exploration of Arab cinema, which has a long and rich tradition. Students will watch a representative selection of Arab films from across the Arab world that reflect the many challenges and narratives in the region. Through the films, we will explore Arab societies and cultures, especially women and sexuality, politics and revolution, and the role of religion and tradition in shaping public discourse and imagination on taboo topics including LGBTQ issues. In addition to weekly film viewings and discussions, we will read critical film and culture theory and analysis as they apply to Arab cinema. The class will be conducted in English and all films will have English subtitles.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W DENNY 104 |
WGSS 201-08 |
Women, Gender and Judaism Instructor: Andrea Lieber Course Description:
Cross-listed with JDST 240-01 and RELG 240-01.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR ALTHSE 207 |
WGSS 202-01 |
Political Economy of Gender Instructor: Ebru Kongar Course Description:
Cross-listed with ECON 230-01 and SOCI 227 01. Political Economy of Gender adopts a gender-aware perspective to examine how people secure their livelihoods through labor market and nonmarket work. The course examines the nature of labor market inequalities by gender, race, ethnicity and other social categories, how they are integrated with non-market activities, their wellbeing effects, their role in the macroeconomy, and the impact of macroeconomic policies on these work inequalities. These questions are examined from the perspective of feminist economics that has emerged since the early 1990s as a heterodox economics discourse, critical of both mainstream and gender-blind heterodox economics. While we will pay special attention to the US economy, our starting point is that there is one world economy with connections between the global South and the North, in spite of the structural differences between (and within) these regions.For ECON 230: ECON 111 (ECON 112 recommended); For SOCI 227: SOCI 110 or ECON 111; For WGSS 202: none (ECON 111 recommended)
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR ALTHSE 206 |
WGSS 202-02 |
Fashion & Politics of the Body Instructor: Amy Farrell Course Description:
Cross-listed with AMST 200-01. Part of the Fashioning the Body, Shaping the Nation Mosaic.
Fashion and the Politics of the Body will focus on the historical question of clothing, fashion and adornment in U.S. culture. Who has had the right to wear what? What does this reveal about the hierarchies of class, of race, of gender and the very idealization of the "normal" body? How have different groups of people struggled for the right to wear what they want to wear? We will focus on a variety of historical moments, from the laws structuring what enslaved people could wear, to the Zoot Suit riots, the shop girls' fast fashion, the "ugly laws" that forced disabled people to cover themselves, and the most recent push by fat activists for fashion that not only fits but that goes beyond "minimizing " fatness. We will explore the questions of who gets to wear what, how the history of making the clothes relates to the question of wearing the clothes, and, finally, how all this relates to questions of clothing and adornment in a time of climate crisis.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR DENNY 212 |
WGSS 202-03 |
Gender, Politics, and Policy in the U.S. Instructor: Katie Marchetti Course Description:
Cross-listed with POSC 233-01. Overview of gender and politics in the United States. Examines the roles women play in the U.S. policy process, how public policies are "gendered", and how specific policies compare to feminist thinking about related issue areas. The course also discusses gender-based differences in political participation inside and outside of government.
This course is cross-listed as WGSS 202. Prerequisite: 120 or AP credit equivalent.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR ALTHSE 110 |
WGSS 202-04 |
What is Feminismus? Women and Post-WWII German Politics Instructor: Sarah McGaughey Course Description:
Cross-listed with GRMN 250-01. In 2005 Angela Merkel became Germany's first female chancellor. In 2023 Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced her Feminist Foreign Policy. These historical events are perhaps the best-known moments of female agency in post-war German politics, but women are at the forefront of a longer history of activism, power, and agency in Germany. This course will look at both the forms of feminism as well as the political movements in which women took key roles. We will pose questions about the impact of feminist and female engagement in politics, changes in modes of political participation through feminist and female interventions, and conflicts and similarities in women's rights in Germany with those in the US and other countries. The course will be taught in English with a discussion session (FLIC) for German majors, German minors, and INBM/IS majors.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR KADE SEM |
WGSS 202-05 |
Sociology of Sexualities Instructor: Amy Steinbugler Course Description:
Cross-listed with SOCI 228-01.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR DENNY 311 |
WGSS 202-06 |
Race and Second Wave Feminism the U.S. Instructor: Say Burgin Course Description:
Cross-listed with HIST 211-02.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF DENNY 304 |
WGSS 221-01 |
Women of the Middle East: Stories of Resistance Instructor: Mireille Rebeiz Course Description:
Cross-listed with FREN 364-01 and MEST 221-01. The condition of women writers in post-colonial, predominantly Arab countries is heavily marked by the dual legacy of the regions Muslim heritage and the cultural imprint of former colonizers, which are intertwined with ethnic, religious, linguistic and other differences that in varying ways traverse the region as a whole. The tensions associated with these differences erupted in wars in some countries and violence and discrimination against women in some others. Several women writers stood up against injustice and sexism by writing to defend womens rights and render justice. Their writing served to bear witness and preserve the victims memory. This course focuses on Middle Eastern womens narratives in times of conflict and examines issues of representation, gender and sexuality, national identity, and memory and trauma.
This course is cross-listed as MEST 221, FREN 364.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR BOSLER 314 |
WGSS 301-01 |
James Baldwin: Reflections of a Radical Instructor: Nadia Alahmed Course Description:
Cross-listed with AFST 320-01. This is an interdisciplinary seminar that seeks to explore the different sides of James Baldwin: a writer, an intellectual, a cosmopolitan, a radical, and an activist. The seminar will focus on James Baldwin's essays, in addition to his major novels and works of fiction. We will watch the recent, highly acclaimed film based on his writings, "I am not your Negro" as well as his speeches and debates with prolific figures like Malcolm X. Finally, we will explore Baldwin's invaluable contributions to the discourses on Queer Studies, critical race theory, class, philosophy, and above all, his visions of Black liberation and the meaning of freedom.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF DENNY 203 |
WGSS 301-02 |
Ethical Theory Instructor: Amy McKiernan Course Description:
Cross-listed with PHIL 302-01. This seminar will explore major issues or texts in classical or contemporary moral philosophy. Prerequisites: three prior courses in philosophy, at least two at the 200 level, or permission of the instructor.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR DENNY 112 |
WGSS 301-03 |
The Novel and the Normal Instructor: Claire Seiler Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 331-01. Theorists of the novel have long debated the means and the extent to which the genre consolidates national, social, and embodied ideas of the "normal" person or citizen. This course takes up that debate with reference to 19th- and 20th-century American, British, and Irish fiction in which a character's or a polity's physical body is at issue. How and why do modern novelists variously bend, break, or repurpose the rules of the novel genre or engage with the "norms" it projects? How do hallmarks of the novel (e.g., the creation of "round" and "flat" characters, the arc of plot, the evocation of mood, the description of social and environmental settings) contribute to dominant or other imaginations of the normal body at discrete historical moments? How does the novel genre work on its readers across time and in particular communities, including disability communities? Students can expect to explore these and other pressing questions about the novel and its publics as they read (a lot)-and savor reading-engrossing novels by Charlotte Bront, Willa Cather, J.G. Farrell, Toni Morrison, Ann Petry, and Virginia Woolf, among others, as well as important critical writings on the politics, disability and otherwise, of the novel genre itself.
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09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR BOSLER 314 |
WGSS 301-04 |
Early/Modern Crossdressing and Transgression Instructor: Amaury Leopoldo Sosa Course Description:
Cross-listed with SPAN 380-01. Why did crossdressing feature so prominently in the literary, theatrical , and cultural texts of the Spanish Siglo de Oro? How did these gender-bending performances captivate the imagination of writers, readers, and theatergoers? What were the aesthetic, ethical, and political consequences of this practice? In this course, we unpack the construction and function of this figure, we examine the threat this tradition poses, and we analyze these transgressions in light of early modern and contemporary theories gender and sexuality. While our primary cases are from Spain (Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Pedro Caldern de la Barca, Mara de Zayas y Sotomayor, and Ana Caro Malln de Soto), we compare these to examples from Spanish America (Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz), England (William Shakespeare), and contemporary television and film representations. Throughout, we consider questions of womanhood, desire, honor, vengeance, marriage, religion, nationalism, sovereignty, and resistance. This course will be taught in English with the option for FLIC.
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11:30 AM-12:20 PM, MWF BOSLER 222 |
WGSS 301-05 |
Dance History Seminar: Modernism and the Body Instructor: Sarah Skaggs Course Description:
Cross-listed with THDA 316-01.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF MONTGM 100 |
WGSS 302-02 |
Gender and Justice Instructor: Kathryn Heard Course Description:
Permission of instructor required. Cross-listed with LAWP 234-01 and PHIL 261-04, SOCI 230-04 and POSC 234-01. This course analyzes how legal theorists have drawn upon notions of gender, sex, and sexuality in order to understand and critique the American legal system and its norms. It considers questions like: How might a feminist perspective on the law illuminate instances of systematized inequality or legalized discrimination? Can queer theorists engage with the law in order to alter it, or does the very act of engagement hinder the possibility of future socio-legal change? How can the law better represent women of color, working women, queer women, stay-at-home mothers, transgender or non-binary individuals, women seeking surrogate or abortion services, and more, without reinforcing traditional understandings of what it means to be a "woman"? These questions - and more - will be taken up as we move through a rich combination of political philosophy, legal cases, and works of socio-legal analysis. Prerequisites: One POSC, LAWP or WGSS course or permission of instructor.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR DENNY 317 |
WGSS 302-03 |
Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japanese History Instructor: Evan Young Course Description:
Cross-listed with EASN 306-01 and HIST 317-01. This course is an exploration of how sexuality and gender have been continually redefined and experienced throughout modern Japanese history. We will analyze the changes Japanese society underwent from the 19th century to the present, paying particular attention to transformations as well as continuities in eroticism, same-sex love, family structure, and gender roles. A key theme of the course is the socially-constructed nature of gender norms and how women and men frequently transgressed feminine and masculine ideals, a theme that we will explore through both primary sources in translation and secondary scholarship. Building upon in-class workshops and a series of short-essay assignments, the final goal of the course will be to produce a paper that analyzes the development of this new and exciting field of history.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, R LIBRY ALDEN |
WGSS 310-01 |
Immigration Politics: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Contemporary Migration Instructor: Katie Oliviero Course Description:
Cross-listed with SOCI 310-01 and INST 290-02. Why do global controversies over immigration so often center on migrant womens fertility and their childrens access to government benefits? Why do some countries accept LGBTQ migrants but deny them the right to adopt, use assisted reproductive technologies, or extend citizenship to their children? How are efforts to limit marriage-and-family based migration racialized and classed? What are the gendered implications when nurses are a countrys central export? Could building a border wall or sending refugees back stop unwanted immigration? This course examines how intersecting gender, sexual and ethnic hierarchies shape and are shaped by immigration. Applying insights from feminist and queer theories of migration, students will explore how the gendered processes surrounding immigration craft concepts of nation, borders and citizenship. Readings and films examine how racial and sexual norms are renegotiated through the selection and regulation of immigrants. Central to our investigation is how transnational and economic forces compel migration, reshaping understandings of national belonging, workplaces, and family in the process. We will particularly consider how migrants negotiate multiple marginalizations, and in turn refashion understandings of community, identities, culture, and politics. An interdisciplinary framework combines sociological, historical, legal, activist, media, literary and artistic accounts.Prerequisite: One WGSS or SOCI course, or permission of instructor; not appropriate for first-year students. Cross-listed as SOCI 310.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF DENNY 211 |
WGSS 500-01 |
Fashioning the Body, Shaping the Nation Mosaic Instructor: Amy Farrell, Regina Sweeney, Nicoletta Marini Maio Course Description:
Cross-listed with AMST 500-01, HIST 500-01, FMST 500-01 and ITAL 500-01. Permission of Instructor Required. Part of the Fashioning the Body, Shaping the Nation Mosaic.
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03:00 PM-04:30 PM, M BOSLER 222 |
Courses Offered in AFST |
AFST 220-02 |
Pause: The Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Hip Hop Instructor: Naaja Rogers Course Description:
Cross-listed with MUAC 210-01 and WGSS 201-05. This course examines the complex and dynamic relationship between race, gender, and sexuality in hip hop, one of the largest cultural movements in the world. However, since hip hop is more than music, fashion, language, and style, and transcends the commercialization of products both in mainstream U.S.A. and globally, this course sets out to achieve two goals: (1) To introduce students to classic and emergent scholarship in the interrelated fields of critical race theory, feminist and gender studies, and queer theory which will be used to analyze hip hop and (2) to use hip hop as a heterogeneous and constantly shifting cultural and political formation that informs, complicates, and offers new of imaginings of these fields of study. Ultimately, utilizing a primarily interdisciplinary approach, this course will examine the ways in which the historical and contemporary social organizations of sexuality, gender, and race are mutually negotiated, contested, and constructed within and across hip hop music, film, dance, dress, and other sites of cultural performance. Students will have ample opportunity to engage hip hop lyrics, videos, and images throughout the span of the course.
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11:30 AM-12:20 PM, MWF ALTHSE 08 |
AFST 220-06 |
Angela Davis Instructor: John Rufo Course Description:
Cross-listed with AMST 200-03 and WGSS 201-01. This class introduces the political and philosophical contributions of Angela Y. Davis. We will discuss international communism, Black feminism, and abolition as crucial concepts and practices in her repertoire. Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944, Angela Davis became internationally known in the late '60s/early '70s as a political prisoner. She successfully gained her freedom from prison through an enormous global campaign. Davis has been active in international movements for freedom against class oppression, racism, imperialism, sexism, incarceration, and transphobia. We will consider key texts by Davis, including An Autobiography, the edited volume If They Come in the Morning, Women, Race, and Class, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, and Are Prisons Obsolete? We may also read excerpts from Davis' influences, teachers, and comrades: Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Claudia Jones, Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, George Jackson, Erika Huggins, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mike Davis, and Assata Shakur. Key areas of study addressed include Representation and Structures & Institutions.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR DENNY 212 |
AFST 320-01 |
James Baldwin: Reflections of a Radical Instructor: Nadia Alahmed Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 301-01. This is an interdisciplinary seminar that seeks to explore the different sides of James Baldwin: a writer, an intellectual, a cosmopolitan, a radical, and an activist. The seminar will focus on James Baldwin's essays, in addition to his major novels and works of fiction. We will watch the recent, highly acclaimed film based on his writings, "I am not your Negro" as well as his speeches and debates with prolific figures like Malcolm X. Finally, we will explore Baldwin's invaluable contributions to the discourses on Queer Studies, critical race theory, class, philosophy, and above all, his visions of Black liberation and the meaning of freedom.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF DENNY 203 |
Courses Offered in AMST |
AMST 200-01 |
Fashion & Politics of the Body Instructor: Amy Farrell Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 202-02.
Note: Part of the Fashioning the Body, Shaping the Nation Mosaic.
Fashion and the Politics of the Body will focus on the historical question of clothing, fashion and adornment in U.S. culture. Who has had the right to wear what? What does this reveal about the hierarchies of class, of race, of gender and the very idealization of the "normal" body? How have different groups of people struggled for the right to wear what they want to wear? We will focus on a variety of historical moments, from the laws structuring what enslaved people could wear, to the Zoot Suit riots, the shop girls' fast fashion, the "ugly laws" that forced disabled people to cover themselves, and the most recent push by fat activists for fashion that not only fits but that goes beyond "minimizing " fatness. We will explore the questions of who gets to wear what, how the history of making the clothes relates to the question of wearing the clothes, and, finally, how all this relates to questions of clothing and adornment in a time of climate crisis.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR DENNY 212 |
AMST 200-03 |
Angela Davis Instructor: John Rufo Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 201-01 and AFST 220-06. This class introduces the political and philosophical contributions of Angela Y. Davis. We will discuss international communism, Black feminism, and abolition as crucial concepts and practices in her repertoire. Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944, Angela Davis became internationally known in the late '60s/early '70s as a political prisoner. She successfully gained her freedom from prison through an enormous global campaign. Davis has been active in international movements for freedom against class oppression, racism, imperialism, sexism, incarceration, and transphobia. We will consider key texts by Davis, including An Autobiography, the edited volume If They Come in the Morning, Women, Race, and Class, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, and Are Prisons Obsolete? We may also read excerpts from Davis' influences, teachers, and comrades: Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Claudia Jones, Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, George Jackson, Erika Huggins, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mike Davis, and Assata Shakur. Key areas of study addressed include Representation and Structures & Institutions.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR DENNY 212 |
Courses Offered in ARTH |
ARTH 216-01 |
Goddesses, Prostitutes, Wives, Saints, and Rulers: Women and European Art 1200-1680 Instructor: Melinda Schlitt Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 201-06. How has the representation of women been constructed, idealized, vilified, manipulated, sexualized, and gendered during what could be broadly called the Renaissance in Europe? How have female artists, such as Sofanisba Anguissola (1532-1625) or Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), among others, represented themselves, men, and other familiar subjects differently from their male counterparts? How have female rulers, like Queen Elizabeth I of England, controlled their own political and cultural self-fashioning through portraiture? What role do the lives and writings of female mystics, like Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) or Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) play in depictions of their physical and spiritual identity? How was beauty and sexuality conceived through the imagery of mythological women, like Venus, or culturally ambivalent women, like courtesans and prostitutes? What kind of art did wealthy, aristocratic women or nuns pay for and use? Through studying primary texts, scholarly literature, and relevant theoretical sources, we will address these and other issues in art produced in Italy, France, Spain, Northern Europe, and England from 1200-1680. The course will be grounded in an understanding of historical and cultural contexts, and students will develop paper topics based on their own interests in consultation with the professor. A screening of the documentary film, A Woman Like That (2009), on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi and a trip to the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. will take place during the second half of the semester. Offered every year.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF WEISS 221 |
Courses Offered in EASN |
EASN 306-01 |
Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japanese History Instructor: Evan Young Course Description:
Cross-listed with HIST 317-01 and WGSS 302-03. This course is an exploration of how sexuality and gender have been continually redefined and experienced throughout modern Japanese history. We will analyze the changes Japanese society underwent from the 19th century to the present, paying particular attention to transformations as well as continuities in eroticism, same-sex love, family structure, and gender roles. A key theme of the course is the socially-constructed nature of gender norms and how women and men frequently transgressed feminine and masculine ideals, a theme that we will explore through both primary sources in translation and secondary scholarship. Building upon in-class workshops and a series of short-essay assignments, the final goal of the course will be to produce a paper that analyzes the development of this new and exciting field of history.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, R LIBRY ALDEN |
Courses Offered in ECON |
ECON 230-01 |
Political Economy of Gender Instructor: Ebru Kongar Course Description:
Cross-listed with SOCI 227-01 and WGSS 202-01. Political Economy of Gender adopts a gender-aware perspective to examine how people secure their livelihoods through labor market and nonmarket work. The course examines the nature of labor market inequalities by gender, race, ethnicity and other social categories, how they are integrated with non-market activities, their wellbeing effects, their role in the macroeconomy, and the impact of macroeconomic policies on these work inequalities. These questions are examined from the perspective of feminist economics that has emerged since the early 1990s as a heterodox economics discourse, critical of both mainstream and gender-blind heterodox economics. While we will pay special attention to the US economy, our starting point is that there is one world economy with connections between the global South and the North, in spite of the structural differences between (and within) these regions.For ECON 230: ECON 111 (ECON 112 recommended); For SOCI 227: SOCI 110 or ECON 111; For WGSS 202: none (ECON 111 recommended) This course is cross-listed as SOCI 227 & WGSS 202.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR ALTHSE 206 |
Courses Offered in ENGL |
ENGL 101-02 |
Southern Women Writers Instructor: Carol Ann Johnston Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 101-01. A course in prose written by women of the American South. We will begin with the diary of Mary Chesnut written during the Civil War and continue with notable writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, which may include Katherine Anne Porter, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, Ellen Gilchrist, Ellen Douglas, Kaye Gibbons. Some critical and theoretical texts will also be required. Writing assignments will include short explications, longer essays, and an exam. Attendance and participation in class discussion are required.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR BOSLER 208 |
ENGL 331-03 |
The Novel and the Normal Instructor: Claire Seiler Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 301-03. Theorists of the novel have long debated the means and the extent to which the genre consolidates national, social, and embodied ideas of the "normal" person or citizen. This course takes up that debate with reference to 19th- and 20th-century American, British, and Irish fiction in which a character's or a polity's physical body is at issue. How and why do modern novelists variously bend, break, or repurpose the rules of the novel genre or engage with the "norms" it projects? How do hallmarks of the novel (e.g., the creation of "round" and "flat" characters, the arc of plot, the evocation of mood, the description of social and environmental settings) contribute to dominant or other imaginations of the normal body at discrete historical moments? How does the novel genre work on its readers across time and in particular communities, including disability communities? Students can expect to explore these and other pressing questions about the novel and its publics as they read (a lot)-and savor reading-engrossing novels by Charlotte Bront, Willa Cather, J.G. Farrell, Toni Morrison, Ann Petry, and Virginia Woolf, among others, as well as important critical writings on the politics, disability and otherwise, of the novel genre itself.
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09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR BOSLER 314 |
Courses Offered in FMST |
FMST 210-03 |
Arab Cinema: Women and Sexuality, Politics and Revolution Instructor: Magda Siekert Course Description:
Cross-listed with MEST 200-01 and WGSS 201-07.. This course introduces students to Arab society and culture through an exploration of Arab cinema, which has a long and rich tradition. Students will watch a representative selection of Arab films from across the Arab world that reflect the many challenges and narratives in the region. Through the films, we will explore Arab societies and cultures, especially women and sexuality, politics and revolution, and the role of religion and tradition in shaping public discourse and imagination on taboo topics including LGBTQ issues. In addition to weekly film viewings and discussions, we will read critical film and culture theory and analysis as they apply to Arab cinema. The class will be conducted in English and all films will have English subtitles.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W DENNY 104 |
FMST 210-05 |
Masculinity, Sex and Power in Action-Adventure Movies Instructor: Charity Fox Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 210-04.
American popular culture is full of action-adventure stories, from kids shows to Hollywood blockbusters to the nightly news. This course will explore the patterns and conventions of action-adventure as a popular American film genre with the goal of understanding the deeper cultural work performed by action-adventure narratives. Through critical reading, viewings and class discussion, we will examine what action-adventure films can teach us about evolving understandings of masculinities, gender, race, class, violence, war, and politics at various historical moments in the 20th and 21st centuries.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR DENNY 110 |
Courses Offered in FREN |
FREN 364-01 |
Women of the Middle East: Stories of Resistance Instructor: Mireille Rebeiz Course Description:
Cross-listed with MEST 221-01 and WGSS 221-01. The condition of women writers in post-colonial, predominantly Arab countries is heavily marked by the dual legacy of the region's Muslim heritage and the cultural imprint of former colonizers, which are intertwined with ethnic, religious, linguistic and other differences that in varying ways traverse the region as a whole. The tensions associated with these differences erupted in wars in some countries and violence and discrimination against women in some others. Several women writers stood up against injustice and sexism by writing to defend women's rights and render justice. Their writing served to bear witness and preserve the victim's memory. This class focuses on narratives (texts and films) from the following countries: Algeria, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR BOSLER 314 |
Courses Offered in GRMN |
GRMN 250-01 |
What is Feminismus? Women and Post-WWII German Politics Instructor: Sarah McGaughey Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 202-04. In 2005 Angela Merkel became Germany's first female chancellor. In 2023 Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced her Feminist Foreign Policy. These historical events are perhaps the best-known moments of female agency in post-war German politics, but women are at the forefront of a longer history of activism, power, and agency in Germany. This course will look at both the forms of feminism as well as the political movements in which women took key roles. We will pose questions about the impact of feminist and female engagement in politics, changes in modes of political participation through feminist and female interventions, and conflicts and similarities in women's rights in Germany with those in the US and other countries. The course will be taught in English with a discussion session (FLIC) for German majors, German minors, and INBM/IS majors.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR KADE SEM |
Courses Offered in HIST |
HIST 211-02 |
Race and Second Wave Feminism the U.S. Instructor: Say Burgin Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 202-06.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF DENNY 304 |
HIST 317-01 |
Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japanese History Instructor: Evan Young Course Description:
Cross-listed with EASN 306-01 and WGSS 302-03. This course is an exploration of how sexuality and gender have been continually redefined and experienced throughout modern Japanese history. We will analyze the changes Japanese society underwent from the 19th century to the present, paying particular attention to transformations as well as continuities in eroticism, same-sex love, family structure, and gender roles. A key theme of the course is the socially-constructed nature of gender norms and how women and men frequently transgressed feminine and masculine ideals, a theme that we will explore through both primary sources in translation and secondary scholarship. Building upon in-class workshops and a series of short-essay assignments, the final goal of the course will be to produce a paper that analyzes the development of this new and exciting field of history.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, R LIBRY ALDEN |
Courses Offered in INST |
INST 290-02 |
Immigration Politics: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Contemporary Migration Instructor: Katie Oliviero Course Description:
Cross-listed with SOCI 310-01 and WGSS 310-01. Why do global controversies over immigration so often center on migrant women's fertility and their children's access to government benefits? Why do some countries accept LGBTQ migrants but deny them the right to adopt, use assisted reproductive technologies, or extend citizenship to their children? How are efforts to limit marriage-and-family based migration racialized and classed? What are the gendered implications when nurses are a country's central export? Could building a border wall or sending refugees back stop unwanted immigration? This course examines how intersecting gender, sexual and ethnic hierarchies shape and are shaped by immigration. Applying insights from feminist and queer theories of migration, students will explore how the gendered processes surrounding immigration craft concepts of nation, borders and citizenship. Readings and films examine how racial and sexual norms are renegotiated through the selection and regulation of immigrants. Central to our investigation is how transnational and economic forces compel migration, reshaping understandings of national belonging, workplaces, and family in the process. We will particularly consider how migrants negotiate multiple marginalizations, and in turn refashion understandings of community, identities, culture, and politics. An interdisciplinary framework combines sociological, historical, legal, activist, media, literary and artistic accounts. Prerequisite: One WGSS or SOCI course, or permission of instructor; not appropriate for first-year students.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF DENNY 211 |
Courses Offered in JDST |
JDST 240-01 |
Women, Gender and Judaism Instructor: Andrea Lieber Course Description:
Cross-listed with RELG 240-01 and WGSS 201-08. This course examines issues of gender in Jewish religion and culture. Starting with the representation of women in the Bible and other classical Jewish texts, we study the highly differentiated gender roles maintained by traditional Jewish culture, and examine the role American feminism has played in challenging those traditional roles. We will also study gender issues in contemporary Israeli society, such as the politics of marriage and divorce, public prayer and gender in the military. Some knowledge of Judaism and Jewish history is helpful, but not required as a prerequisite for this course. This course is cross-listed as RELG 240.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR ALTHSE 207 |
Courses Offered in LAWP |
LAWP 234-01 |
Gender and Justice Instructor: Kathryn Heard Course Description:
Permission of instructor required. Cross-listed with PHIL 261-04 and POSC 234-01, SOCI 230-04 and WGSS 302-02. This course analyzes how legal theorists have drawn upon notions of gender, sex, and sexuality in order to understand and critique the American legal system and its norms. It considers questions like: How might a feminist perspective on the law illuminate instances of systematized inequality or legalized discrimination? Can queer theorists engage with the law in order to alter it, or does the very act of engagement hinder the possibility of future socio-legal change? How can the law better represent women of color, working women, queer women, stay-at-home mothers, transgender or non-binary individuals, women seeking surrogate or abortion services, and more, without reinforcing traditional understandings of what it means to be a woman? These questions and more will be taken up as we move through a rich combination of political philosophy, legal cases, and works of socio-legal analysis. Prerequisites: One POSC, LAWP or WGSS course or permission of instructor. This course is cross-listed as POSC 234 and WGSS 302.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR DENNY 317 |
Courses Offered in MEST |
MEST 200-01 |
Arab Cinema: Women and Sexuality, Politics and Revolution Instructor: Magda Siekert Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 210-03 and WGSS 210-07. This course introduces students to Arab society and culture through an exploration of Arab cinema, which has a long and rich tradition. Students will watch a representative selection of Arab films from across the Arab world that reflect the many challenges and narratives in the region. Through the films, we will explore Arab societies and cultures, especially women and sexuality, politics and revolution, and the role of religion and tradition in shaping public discourse and imagination on taboo topics including LGBTQ issues. In addition to weekly film viewings and discussions, we will read critical film and culture theory and analysis as they apply to Arab cinema. The class will be conducted in English and all films will have English subtitles.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W DENNY 104 |
MEST 221-01 |
Women of the Middle East: Stories of Resistance Instructor: Mireille Rebeiz Course Description:
Cross-listed with FREN 364-01 and WGSS 221-01. The condition of women writers in post-colonial, predominantly Arab countries is heavily marked by the dual legacy of the regions Muslim heritage and the cultural imprint of former colonizers, which are intertwined with ethnic, religious, linguistic and other differences that in varying ways traverse the region as a whole. The tensions associated with these differences erupted in wars in some countries and violence and discrimination against women in some others. Several women writers stood up against injustice and sexism by writing to defend womens rights and render justice. Their writing served to bear witness and preserve the victims memory. This course focuses on Middle Eastern womens narratives in times of conflict and examines issues of representation, gender and sexuality, national identity, and memory and trauma.
This course is cross-listed as WGSS 221, and FREN 364.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR BOSLER 314 |
Courses Offered in MUAC |
MUAC 210-01 |
Pause: The Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Hip Hop Instructor: Naaja Rogers Course Description:
Cross-listed with AFST 220-02 and WGSS 201-05.
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11:30 AM-12:20 PM, MWF ALTHSE 08 |
Courses Offered in PHIL |
PHIL 261-03 |
Sex Instructor: Jeff Engelhardt Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 201-03. This course investigates sex, sexual activity, sexual orientations, and related philosophical topics. We'll consider questions such as, Is sex important? What is morally good sex, if there is such a thing? What is a sexual orientation? What roles should sex, sexual activity, and sexual orientation play in our lives?
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR EASTC 314 |
PHIL 261-04 |
Gender and Justice Instructor: Kathryn Heard Course Description:
Permission of instructor required. Cross-listed with LAWP 234-01, POSC 234-01, SOCI 230-04 and WGSS 302-02. This course analyzes how legal theorists have drawn upon notions of gender, sex, and sexuality in order to understand and critique the American legal system and its norms. It considers questions like: How might a feminist perspective on the law illuminate instances of systematized inequality or legalized discrimination? Can queer theorists engage with the law in order to alter it, or does the very act of engagement hinder the possibility of future socio-legal change? How can the law better represent women of color, working women, queer women, stay-at-home mothers, transgender or non-binary individuals, women seeking surrogate or abortion services, and more, without reinforcing traditional understandings of what it means to be a "woman"? These questions - and more - will be taken up as we move through a rich combination of political philosophy, legal cases, and works of socio-legal analysis. Prerequisites: One POSC, LAWP or WGSS course or permission of instructor.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR DENNY 317 |
PHIL 302-01 |
Ethical Theory Instructor: Amy McKiernan Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 301-02. This seminar will explore major issues or texts in classical or contemporary moral philosophy. Prerequisites: three prior courses in philosophy, at least two at the 200 level, or permission of the instructor. Offered at least once every two years.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR DENNY 112 |
Courses Offered in POSC |
POSC 233-01 |
Gender, Politics, and Policy in the U.S. Instructor: Katie Marchetti Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 202-03. Overview of gender and politics in the United States. Examines the roles women play in the U.S. policy process, how public policies are "gendered", and how specific policies compare to feminist thinking about related issue areas. The course also discusses gender-based differences in political participation inside and outside of government.This course is cross-listed as WGSS 202. Prerequisite: 120 or AP credit equivalent.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR ALTHSE 110 |
POSC 234-01 |
Gender and Justice Instructor: Kathryn Heard Course Description:
Permission of instructor required. Cross-listed with LAWP 234-01, PHIL 261-04, SOCI 230-04 and WGSS 302-02. This course analyzes how legal theorists have drawn upon notions of gender, sex, and sexuality in order to understand and critique the American legal system and its norms. It considers questions like: How might a feminist perspective on the law illuminate instances of systematized inequality or legalized discrimination? Can queer theorists engage with the law in order to alter it, or does the very act of engagement hinder the possibility of future socio-legal change? How can the law better represent women of color, working women, queer women, stay-at-home mothers, transgender or non-binary individuals, women seeking surrogate or abortion services, and more, without reinforcing traditional understandings of what it means to be a woman? These questions and more will be taken up as we move through a rich combination of political philosophy, legal cases, and works of socio-legal analysis. Prerequisites: One POSC, LAWP or WGSS course or permission of instructor. This course is cross-listed as LAWP 234 and WGSS 302.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR DENNY 317 |
Courses Offered in PSYC |
PSYC 145-01 |
Psychology of Human Sexuality Instructor: Michele Ford Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 102-01. This course is a study of human sexuality emphasizing psychological aspects. We will cover sexual development from childhood to adulthood, sexual orientations, biological influences, sexual attitudes and behavior, gender, sex therapy, sexual coercion and abuse, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual health, and the development of sexual relationships. The study of human sexuality is inherently interdisciplinary in nature (drawing from such varied disciplines as sociology, women's studies, biology, anthropology, history, and others). Although we will cover some material from these disciplines, we will take an explicitly social psychological perspective, focusing on individual, personal, and social aspects of sexual behaviors, attitudes and beliefs.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR KAUF 179 |
Courses Offered in RELG |
RELG 240-01 |
Women, Gender and Judaism Instructor: Andrea Lieber Course Description:
Cross-listed with JDST 240-01 and WGSS 201-08. This course examines issues of gender in Jewish religion and culture. Starting with the representation of women in the Bible and other classical Jewish texts, we study the highly differentiated gender roles maintained by traditional Jewish culture, and examine the role American feminism has played in challenging those traditional roles. We will also study gender issues in contemporary Israeli society, such as the politics of marriage and divorce, public prayer and gender in the military. Some knowledge of Judaism and Jewish history is helpful, but not required as a prerequisite for this course. This course is cross-listed as JDST 240.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR ALTHSE 207 |
Courses Offered in SOCI |
SOCI 227-01 |
Political Economy of Gender Instructor: Ebru Kongar Course Description:
Cross-listed with ECON 230-01 and WGSS 202-01. Political Economy of Gender adopts a gender-aware perspective to examine how people secure their livelihoods through labor market and nonmarket work. The course examines the nature of labor market inequalities by gender, race, ethnicity and other social categories, how they are integrated with non-market activities, their wellbeing effects, their role in the macroeconomy, and the impact of macroeconomic policies on these work inequalities. These questions are examined from the perspective of feminist economics that has emerged since the early 1990s as a heterodox economics discourse, critical of both mainstream and gender-blind heterodox economics. While we will pay special attention to the US economy, our starting point is that there is one world economy with connections between the global South and the North, in spite of the structural differences between (and within) these regions.For ECON 230: ECON 111 (ECON 112 recommended); For SOCI 227: SOCI 110 or ECON 111; For WGSS 202: none (ECON 111 recommended). This course is cross-listed as ECON 230 & WGSS 202.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR ALTHSE 206 |
SOCI 228-01 |
Sociology of Sexualities Instructor: Amy Steinbugler Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 202-05. This course explores the social origins of sexual behaviors, identities, and desires. We will investigate how sexuality intersects with other social hierarchies including race, gender, and class. Our current frameworks for understanding sexuality and sexual identity are the product of social, political, and economic forces, and reflect the common sense of a particular historical moment. We will consider a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of sexuality and explore more closely how these perspectives inform the analysis of contemporary sexual issues. Offered every two years.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR DENNY 311 |
SOCI 230-04 |
Gender and Justice Instructor: Kathryn Heard Course Description:
Permission of instructor required. Cross-listed with POSC 243-01, WGSS 302-02, PHIL 261-04 and LAWP 234-04.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR DENNY 317 |
SOCI 310-01 |
Immigration Politics: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Contemporary Migration Instructor: Katie Oliviero Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 290-02 and WGSS 310-01. Why do global controversies over immigration so often center on migrant womens fertility and their childrens access to government benefits? Why do some countries accept LGBTQ migrants but deny them the right to adopt, use assisted reproductive technologies, or extend citizenship to their children? How are efforts to limit marriage-and-family based migration racialized and classed? What are the gendered implications when nurses are a countrys central export? Could building a border wall or sending refugees back stop unwanted immigration? This course examines how intersecting gender, sexual and ethnic hierarchies shape and are shaped by immigration. Applying insights from feminist and queer theories of migration, students will explore how the gendered processes surrounding immigration craft concepts of nation, borders and citizenship. Readings and films examine how racial and sexual norms are renegotiated through the selection and regulation of immigrants. Central to our investigation is how transnational and economic forces compel migration, reshaping understandings of national belonging, workplaces, and family in the process. We will particularly consider how migrants negotiate multiple marginalizations, and in turn refashion understandings of community, identities, culture, and politics. An interdisciplinary framework combines sociological, historical, legal, activist, media, literary and artistic accounts.Prerequisite: One WGSS or SOCI course, or permission of instructor; not appropriate for first-year students. Cross-listed as WGSS 310.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF DENNY 211 |
Courses Offered in SPAN |
SPAN 380-01 |
Early/Modern Crossdressing and Transgression Instructor: Amaury Leopoldo Sosa Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 301-04. Why did crossdressing feature so prominently in the literary, theatrical , and cultural texts of the Spanish Siglo de Oro? How did these gender-bending performances captivate the imagination of writers, readers, and theatergoers? What were the aesthetic, ethical, and political consequences of this practice? In this course, we unpack the construction and function of this figure, we examine the threat this tradition poses, and we analyze these transgressions in light of early modern and contemporary theories gender and sexuality. While our primary cases are from Spain (Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Pedro Caldern de la Barca, Mara de Zayas y Sotomayor, and Ana Caro Malln de Soto), we compare these to examples from Spanish America (Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz), England (William Shakespeare), and contemporary television and film representations. Throughout, we consider questions of womanhood, desire, honor, vengeance, marriage, religion, nationalism, sovereignty, and resistance. This course will be taught in English with the option for FLIC.
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11:30 AM-12:20 PM, MWF BOSLER 222 |
Courses Offered in THDA |
THDA 316-01 |
Dance History Seminar: Modernism and the Body Instructor: Sarah Skaggs Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 301-05. This course will focus on contemporary dance history using theoretical frameworks that interrogate how race, class and gender resist, assimilate, and converge to create the construction of American modern concert dance. We will explore how the politics of the dancing female body on the concert stage produced a radicalized agenda for contemporary dance. We will address key themes and questions throughout the semester, questions such as: What makes a body "modern?" How does the feminist agenda on the concert stage aid in the construction of a "modern" body? What was the role of appropriating from exotic cultures in the making of contemporary concert dance? What is the role of technology in the creation of modern dance? What are the effects of war and politics on the dancing body? Orientalism, the Africanist presence in Western concert dance, and the restaging of Native American dances by American choreographers will be addressed as part of the overall construction of American modern dance. Through response papers, in-class presentations, and an in-depth research paper, students will engage with significant issues contributing to the development of modern concert dance. Prerequisite: 102. This course is cross-listed as WGSS 301.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF MONTGM 100 |