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Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Curriculum

Learning Outcomes

Upon graduation from Dickinson, Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies majors will be able to:

  • analyze how evolving gender and sexuality norms intersect with shifting racial, ethnic, classed, and geopolitical systems of power and marginalization;
  • articulate how queer activism and feminisms operate as vibrant, multifaceted social movements, analytical frames, and political identities that challenge contemporary intersectional systems of injustice;
  • write reflectively and critically on how WGSS topics tie to students’ practical engagements with their own lives, the campus, the community, and the larger world;
  • write clearly and persuasively about topics in the field; conduct intersectional research that applies interdisciplinary methods; and articulate how intersectional, interdisciplinary scholarship illuminates complex social problems.

Major

10 courses

Core Courses
WGSS 100: Introduction to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
WGSS 200: Feminist Practices, Writing and Research 
WGSS 300: Feminist Perspectives and Theories
WGSS 400: Senior Seminar 

Six Elective Courses
At least one from each of these four thematic categories, with two of the electives at the 300- or 400-level: 
Histories, Theories, Representations
Transnational and Global Perspectives
Sexual and Gendered Pluralities (including WGSS 208)
Intersectionalities, Institutions and Power

For elective courses, see the list of courses below as well as regularly-offered cross-listed electives here

Note: Although a single course may have designations for multiple thematics, it can only count as one course toward the major or minor.  

Internship notation. Prerequisite: One WGSS core course, with exceptions approved by the department chair.
Final reflective essay

Thematic Descriptions:

1) Histories, Theories, Representations 
Introduces key histories, theoretical debates, and cultural artifacts that inform past, present and future feminist perspectives. May include: historical analysis of diverse gendered experience and social movements; distinct feminist theoretical traditions; artistic, literary or cultural movements; WGSS field perspectives on relevant phenomena such as media representation, war, memory, consumerism, colonialism, environmentalism, urbanization, online culture, technology, disability, science and incarceration. 

2) Transnational and Global Perspectives 
Examines how gendered, sexualized and racialized differences shape the way transnational forces create power inequalities that drive the asymmetrical flow of people, ideals, capital, discourses and institutions across and within borders. May be transnational, comparative or focused on one nonwestern perspective. Among other emphases, may encompass the interface between intersectional gender studies and: indigeneity; development; colonial pasts and postcolonial presents; international human rights; globalized economic structures; critical approaches to neoliberalism, empire and the nation-state. 

3) Sexual and Gendered Pluralities
Explores how practices, identities, behaviors, and representations of diverse sexualities, erotic practices and gendered expressions shape and are shaped by political, cultural, social, religious, and economic practices of societies across time and space. Develops diverse understandings of sexual and transgender expression as they are embedded in racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, geographical, historical and political contexts.  

4) Intersectionalities, Institutions and Power
Examines how interlocking systems of power shape the shifting significance of bodies, differences, opportunity, and marginalizations. Offerings may emphasize the significance of overlapping ethnic, racial, ability-based, classed, citizenship, sexual and gendered categories, as well as variations within and beyond them. Courses may also focus on how institutions such as the family, religion, nation-state, law, government, politics, and economics structure diverse gendered and sexualized power relationships. 

Minor

Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Minor Requirements
Six Courses

Core Courses
WGSS 100
WGSS 200 or 300

Four electives, at least two in two of the four thematic categories or an additional cores course (WGSS 208, 200, 300, or 400)

For elective courses, see the list of courses below as well as regularly-offered cross-listed electives here

Internship Notation. Prerequisite: One WGSS core course, with exceptions approved by the department chair.
Final reflective essay 


Sexuality Studies (SXST) Minor Requirements
Six courses

Core Courses
WGSS 208:  Introduction to Sexuality Studies 
WGSS 200 or 300

Four electives
Queer, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (QLGBT) Perspectives Requirement – 200- or 300-level
Two electives from the Sexual and Gendered Pluralities Thematic 
One core course or elective from WGSS or another department with WGSS approval

Internship Notation. Prerequisite: One WGSS core course, with exceptions approved by the department chair.
Final reflective essay 

QLGBT Perspectives Requirement Description: The QLGBT Perspectives Requirement explores how queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans approaches complicate or rework the area of study at hand.  Courses should go beyond Thematic 3 (Sexual and Gendered Pluralities) by explicitly emphasizing queer theory, evolving queer methodologies, or QLGBT perspectives on identity formation, sexualized behaviors, or erotic desires.  May include QLGBT perspectives on literature, art, racialized power dynamics, national identity, ability, memoir, social movements, law and policy, history, economics and globalization, among other areas.

Suggested curricular flow through the major

The WGSS Department encourages study abroad. Early planning makes this possible. The internship may be done while abroad.

The guidelines are written for the entering student who knows they want to major in WGSS. Rather than specify the courses that you “must” have in a given semester, the following are general guidelines regarding courses that we suggest you take during each year. You should think of these guidelines as giving you a fast track into the major – this provides maximum flexibility in your junior and senior year.

First and Sophomore Years
WGSS 100
WGSS 200
Two or three electives from among the four thematic categories                                 
Possible Internship (sophomore year or summer)

Junior Year                                                                                                                      WGSS 300
One or two electives from among the four thematic categories, including at  the 300- or 400-level
Possible internship
Possible study abroad

Senior Year
If still needed, WGSS 300 or 200 (fall semester) 
WGSS 400, required for majors, optional for minors (spring semester)
Internship and/or elective(s) as needed (especially 300-levels for major)

Honors

A student pursuing honors must enroll for a one semester, Independent Research (WGSS 550) during the Fall of their senior year to develop a project that will be continued in their Senior Seminar. The year-long project will culminate in a well-researched, original, sophisticated, and clearly written thesis, typically ranging from 50-75 pages.

Students can self-nominate but will be officially selected based on the department faculty’s assessment of the student’s academic ability, including their performance in the major. Typically, students pursuing honors will have at least a 3.5 GPA in the major. The selection is also based on the department faculty’s assessment of the student’s potential for successfully completing the project and the strength of the proposal (see below), which must show strong promise for further development toward a thesis. If the project is accepted, the student should identify an honors committee comprised of three faculty members, including the WGSS 550 advisor and Senior Seminar instructor. Two members of the honors committee must be faculty appointed in WGSS; the third member of the honors committee must be either a faculty member in the department or a WGSS contributing faculty member.  In addition, faculty or staff with expertise in the area of the student's project may join the committee in an advisory capacity, without vote.

A student interested in pursuing honors should work with their WGSS advisor or another appropriate WGSS faculty member to start developing a 2-page project proposal with an attached bibliography in the late spring or early summer before their senior year. A final draft that defines the scope, focus and methodology of the preliminary project is due no later than August 15th at the start of the senior year. The 2-page proposal should articulate the project’s central research questions and methods, situating them in relationship to central debates, concepts and dilemmas within the WGSS field. This proposal will be read and voted upon by all members of the WGSS department.

The student will be notified by the first day of classes in the Fall semester whether the proposal has been accepted. If so, the student will enroll in WGSS 550 with the primary advisor with the intention of beginning a year-long research project. If the proposal is not accepted for honors, the student may still seek to enroll in WGSS 550 with the intention of a single-semester independent study.  

If accepted, the student will work with their supervisor to refine the project’s scope and methods, as well as develop a schedule of readings, research and writing to pursue in the Fall. Pertinent writing assignments potentially may include an annotated bibliography and literature review: the exact parameters will be determined on an individual basis. By the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving break, the student should have completed a 20-25 page draft of a significant portion of their thesis and have revised their 2-page proposal to reflect the intended trajectory of the project in the Spring semester. The proposal should outline the project’s central research questions and methods, situating them in relationship to central debates, concepts and dilemmas within the WGSS field (if these have changed since the proposal was written) and the student’s writing goals during the Spring Seminar. 

Prior to the final week of classes, all departmental faculty will assess the revised proposal and 20-25 page draft to determine if the project is eligible for continuation as a possible honors thesis during the spring Senior Seminar (WGSS 400). The student will be notified by the end of the Fall semester whether the project is approved to continue in pursuit of honors.  If the project is not approved, or if the student chooses to discontinue the project after submitting the 20-25-page paper, the student will receive credit and a grade for the independent study. In consultation with their supervisor, the student will revise the paper so that it is a complete, stand-alone research paper. The final paper will be due during finals week.

If the project is approved, the student will continue the research as part of the Senior Seminar. The Senior Seminar requires all students to complete a 25-page capstone research project. Students pursuing an honors thesis will work in tandem with their Fall independent study advisor and the WGSS 400 instructor to adapt this and other course writing requirements and deadlines to their honors-eligible project. Students are expected to complete all assigned WGSS 400 readings as well as additional relevant projects and smaller papers (except when those smaller papers are related to the individual research projects). 

The final honors thesis must be completed by two weeks prior to the last class day in the Spring semester of the senior year, so that the student and honors committee members have time to prepare for an oral defense. The thesis will be read by the three-member committee who will determine whether the student should stand for an oral defense.  If the project is not so approved, then the paper will fulfill the capstone project requirement of the senior seminar.

If the project is approved to stand for honors, the student will prepare a short presentation of the paper for the committee, with the format to be determined in conversation with the project’s central advisor (usually the Senior Seminar instructor).  The presentation will be followed by questions and discussion.  At the conclusion of the defense, the committee will vote on honors and notify the student as soon as possible.  In rare cases, a vote for honors may require some final, minor revisions to the paper due no later than a week before graduation. 

Only the best projects will be granted honors and completing an honors project does not necessarily mean that honors will be conferred.  Although students’ topics and methods will be diverse, faculty will evaluate each project on: an original question posed by the student; sophisticated analysis of primary source(s); effective research, demonstrating the integration of concepts and sources drawn from WGSS and other relevant fields of study; a polished, well-written paper; and a clear presentation, with proficient and fluent responses to questions during the defense.

If a student is pursuing honors in two majors through an interdisciplinary thesis, the project must be of a significant length and scope to qualify for honors in two departments. The specific criteria must be established and mutually agreed upon by the student and the advisors of both departments in the Fall semester.

Internships

All students must successfully complete an internship for transcript notation approved by the department chair and the internship office. Please see the Internship section of the WGSS website for more information.

Courses

100 Introduction to Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
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.
Attributes: AMST Struct & Instit Elective, Appropriate for First-Year, Social Sciences, Sustainability Connections, US Diversity

101 Topics in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
This course will focus on specific topics within women’s, gender and sexuality studies in the arts and humanities.
Attributes: Appropriate for First-Year

102 Topics in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
This course will focus on specific topics within women's, gender and sexuality studies in the social sciences.
Attributes: Appropriate for First-Year, Social Sciences

136 Psychology of Women and Gender
See course description with PSYC 135 listing.
Attributes: AMST Struct & Instit Elective, Appropriate for First-Year, PSYC 100-level Group 3, Social Sciences, US Diversity, WGSS Sexual & Gendered Plural

200 Feminist Practices, Writing and Research
Building upon the key concepts and modes of inquire introduced in the WGSS Introductory course, WGSS 200 deepens students’ understanding of how feminist perspectives on power, experience, and inequality uniquely shape how scholars approach research questions, writing practices, methods and knowledge production. Approaches may include feminist approaches to memoir, oral histories, grassroots and online activism, blogging, visual culture, ethnography, archival research, space, art, literary analysis, and policy studies.
Prerequisite: 100 or 208, which can be taken concurrently.
Attributes: Writing in the Discipline

201 Topics in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
This course will focus on specific topics within women’s, gender and sexuality studies in the humanities, such as feminist philosophy, literature by women, and gender and sexuality in art.
Attributes: Humanities

202 Topics in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
This course will focus on specific topics within women’s, gender and sexuality studies in the social sciences, such as gender and transnationalism, reproductive justice, European feminism, black feminist thought, gender in Africa, Jewish masculinities and gender and politics in social movements.
Attributes: Social Sciences

206 Fat Studies
This course introduces students to an emerging academic field, Fat Studies. By drawing from historical, cultural, and social texts, Fat Studies explores the meaning of fatness within the U.S. and also from comparative global perspectives. Students will examine the development of fat stigma and the ways it intersects with gendered, racial, ethnic and class constructions. Not a biomedical study of the “obesity epidemic,” this course instead will interrogate the very vocabulary used to describe our current “crisis.” Finally, students will become familiar with the wide range of activists whose work has challenged fat stigma and developed alternative models of health and beauty.
This course is cross-listed as AMST 200.
Attributes: Health Studies Elective, NRSC Non-Div 3 Elective, Social Sciences, WGSS Hist/Theories/Represent, WGSS Intersect/Instit/Power

208 Introductory Topics in Sexuality Studies
This course explores how practices, identities, behaviors, and representations of sexualities shape and are shaped by political, cultural, social, religious, medical and economic practices of societies across time and space. It will put sexuality at the center of analysis, but will develop understandings of sexuality as they are related to sex, gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, nationality and geographical location. Students will explore the historical and social processes through which diverse behaviors are and are not designated as sexual. They will then analyze how these designations influence a range of institutional forces and social phenomena. Topics will vary depending on instructor but may include: medicine, environmentalism, colonialism and nation-building, STI and HIV transmission, public health campaigns, art and literary production, visual and popular culture, community development, family structure, human rights frameworks, and law or policy.
Attributes: AMST Struct & Instit Elective, NRSC Non-Div 3 Elective, US Diversity

220 History of American Feminism
This course will emphasize such topics as the 19th century women's movement, the suffrage movement, radical and liberal feminism, and African-American feminism. We will pay particular attention to the diversity of women's experiences in the United States and to women's multiple and often conflicting responses to patriarchy and other forms of oppression.
Prerequisite: One course in WGSS or HIST or permission of the instructor.
Attributes: AMST American History Elective, AMST Representation Elective, AMST Struct & Instit Elective, WGSS Hist/Theories/Represent

221 Women of the Middle East: Stories of Resistance
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 course focuses on Middle Eastern women’s 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.
Attributes: Appropriate for First-Year, FLIC French, Global Diversity, Humanities, INST Middle East/N Africa Crse, Middle East Humanities

224 Reproductive Justice
Reproductive Justice is a global social movement strategy and human rights platform that places reproductive power in the context of the larger social, racial and economic well-being of women, communities and families (Ross 2011). This course explores the origins and applications of reproductive justice. It investigates how the reproductive lives of many people, particularly women of color, are embedded in embattled legal, social, economic, racial and national frameworks that shape their capacity to control their intimate and procreative lives. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the course first maps reproductive justice’s origins, exploring: political philosophies of sexual and reproductive liberty; racialized and disability-based histories of eugenics, population control, and adoption; the black women’s health movement; birth control and abortion law; social welfare and healthcare politics; the reproductive politics of incarceration and state violence; disability and prenatal testing; and the transnational and LGBTQ applications of assisted reproductive technologies. The course will subsequently explore how reproductive justice platforms can enable diverse people to thrive: making the decision to prevent, terminate or have a pregnancy a real choice. It will assess the conditions that enable access to quality health care, economic security, racial justice, women’s equality, transgender and queer rights, environmental sustainability, disability justice, sexual autonomy, and community vitality.
Attributes: AMST Struct & Instit Elective, Africana Studies Elective, Appropriate for First-Year, Health Studies Elective, LAWP Policy Elective, NRSC Non-Div 3 Elective, Social Sciences, Sustainability Connections, US Diversity, WGSS Intersect/Instit/Power, WGSS Sexual & Gendered Plural

236 Psychology of Women and Gender
See course description with PSYC 135 listing.
Attributes: AMST Struct & Instit Elective, Appropriate for First-Year, PSYC 100-level Group 3, US Diversity, WGSS Sexual & Gendered Plural

300 Feminist Perspectives and Theories
This course deepens students’ understandings of how feminist perspectives situate power and privilege in relationship to interlocking categories of gender, race, class, sexuality, ability and nation. Through foundational theoretical texts, it expands students’ understandings of significant theoretical frameworks that inform women’s, gender, critical race and sexuality studies, as well as debates and tensions within them. Frameworks may include political activisms, materialist feminism, standpoint epistemologies, critiques of scientific objectivity, intersectionality, postcolonialism, psychoanalysis, queer theory, transnational critique and feminist legal theory. Helps students develop more nuanced understandings of the relationship between everyday experiences, political institutions, forms of resistance and theoretical meaning-making.
Prerequisite: WGSS 100 or 208.

301 Topics in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
This course will focus on specific topics within women’s, gender, and sexuality studies in the humanities.
Prerequisite: Typically one WGSS course and prerequisite depends on topic.

302 Topics in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
This course will focus on specific topics within women’s, gender and sexuality studies in the social sciences.
Prerequisite:Typically one WGSS course and prerequisite depends on topic.

306 Seminar in Gender and Sexuality
See course description with Psychology 435 listing.
Prerequisites: 200 or PSYC 211.
Attributes: WGSS Sexual & Gendered Plural

310 Immigration Politics: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Contemporary Migration
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.
Cross-listed as SOCI 310.

Attributes: AMST Struct & Instit Elective, INST Global Security, LAWP Policy Elective, Security Studies Course, Social Sciences, Sustainability Connections, US Diversity, WGSS Hist/Theories/Represent, WGSS Transntl/Global Perspect

312 Contemporary Human Trafficking
This class serves as an introduction to contemporary issues of human trafficking in the United States and globally. Human trafficking, including both commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor, is an extremely complex crime and human rights violation that demands multi-faceted, interdisciplinary responses. Topics for discussion will include demand, vulnerability factors, governmental and non-governmental organizational responses, criminal justice systems, support and services for survivors, prevention efforts, and literary and cultural representations of human trafficking.
Prerequisite: One WGSS course or permission of instructor.
Cross-listed as SOCI 312.

Attributes: INST Global Security, Security Studies Course, Social Sciences, WGSS Transntl/Global Perspect

336 Qualitative Research Methods in Gender and Sexuality
The psychology of gender and sexuality is the study of psychological issues relating to gender identity, gender expression, sexual identity, and sexual practices. In this course, students will learn about one of the primary research methods used in the psychology of gender and sexuality – qualitative research methods. Although gender and sexuality psychologists use many methods (including experimental and quasi-experimental methods in lab and field, surveys, and observation), we will focus on interview methodology because it is particularly well-suited to studying people’s lived experience of gender and sex. Because the study of these topics has been strongly guided by feminist theory, this course will draw heavily on feminist critical perspectives on social science research. We will consider methodological topics of sampling, analysis, transferability of findings, researcher reflexivity, and research ethics. This intensive lab course will include the design and implementation of an original, community-based (on campus) research project.
This course is cross-listed as PSYC 335. Three hours classroom plus three hours laboratory a week. Prerequisites: PSYC 210 & 211, and PSYC 135, 140, 145, 150, 155 or 175; OR, WGSS 200 and one additional WGSS course.
Attributes: WGSS Sexual & Gendered Plural

351 Topics in QLGBT Studies in the Humanities
This course will take an interdisciplinary, intersectional approach to queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (QLGBT) studies. Individual instructors will focus on humanities approaches exploring diverse, evolving dimensions of QLGBT lives, histories, theories, politics, cultures and representation. Students will develop their understanding of these topics by reading and writing about primary and secondary sources and by participating in and potentially leading class discussions.
Prerequisite: One WGSS course.
Attributes: Humanities, WGSS Sexual & Gendered Plural

352 Topics in QLGBT Studies in the Social Sciences
This course will take an interdisciplinary, intersectional approach to queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (QLGBT) studies. Individual instructors will focus on social science approaches exploring diverse, evolving dimensions of QLGBT lives, histories, theories, politics, cultures and representation. Students will develop their understanding of these topics by reading and writing about primary and secondary sources and by participating in and potentially leading class discussions.
Prerequisite: One WGSS course.
Attributes: Social Sciences, WGSS Sexual & Gendered Plural

400 Senior Seminar
All topics will draw upon the knowledge of the history and theories of feminism and will be interdisciplinary in nature.
Prerequisite or co-requisite: 100, 200 and 300 or permission of the instructor.