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Fall 2008 Course Descriptions Undergraduate| Graduate*Graduate students may take 100-level undergraduate courses for graduate credit but must arrange this with the instructor. WSTU 001.80 (3) Women in Western
Civilization MORRIS This course is about the private and
public lives of women in Europe from the classical world to the
late-twentieth century. It investigates the roles women played in religion,
the economy, the family and politics. It looks at attitudes toward women,
women's self-regard, and women's legal status. It also examines theories
about the female, the emergence of feminist self-consciousness, and female
immigration to North America. WSTU 120.10 (3) Introduction to
Women's Studies Moshenberg A multidisciplinary examination of historical conditions, cultural norms, and social institutions that define women's status in Western culture. Experiences of girls and women in various racial---ethnic, class, and age groups. Alternative visions for women's (and, by implication, men's) roles and status. Sophomore standing required. Syllabus WSTU 139.80 (3) Women in the Part I of a survey of women's experience
in WSTU 170.10 (3) Athletics &
Gender MORRIS This course offers a unique look at the
legacy of women in American sports. How have attitudes toward women
athletes changed during the 20th centruy?
What impact has Title IX had on broadening opportunities? How does the
media portray male vs. female athletes? We will explore a full
range of topics, from health issues to Olympic scandals to sports
marketing. SOPHOMORE STANDING Syllabus. WSTU 170.11 (3) Gendered Bodies
Ramlow Through theoretical and empirical readings we will analyze the ways in which women’s bodies have been socially constructed to support a gendered power structure. We will explore questions such as: What counts as a “feminine” body (e.g., in terms of weight, figure, muscles, etc.)? How do race and other social identities intersect with gender in making this judgment? What are the costs of internalizing a dominant perspective (e.g., eating disorders, prioritizing beauty over intelligence, promoting competition instead of solidarity)? What forms of resistance are an effective means of social change? Syllabus. WSTU 170.12 (3) Hate Crimes in Our
Communities Lynch Over the past decade, hate crimes have
garnered increased national attention as a social problem intertwined with
systematic discrimination, intensified through strained inter-group
relations, and complicated through public policy issues. “Hate Crime in Our Communities”
will examine the causes, manifestations, and consequences of hate crime
through three general themes: 1. Conceptualizing and measure hate crime, 2.
The social context of hate crime, 3. The social regulation of hate crime. The
course will explore an array of classic and contemporary theoretical work,
empirical research, and case study to look at the motivations behind hate
crimes based on bias toward race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and
disability, and will include gender as a too often ignored classification
group with regard to hate crime. Syllabus. WSTU 195.10 (1-3) Undergraduate
Research By permission only. Students interested
should first submit a written proposal to the member of the faculty who will
supervise the research. Please see the WSTU Director, Associate Director or
relevant faculty member. Students must fill out the
independent study form prior to registration. WSTU 199.10 (3) Senior Capstone
Seminar Lynch The Senior Seminar in Women's Studies
provides a multi-disciplinary and multi-media forum in which students compare
and contrast the writings of a number of contemporary scholars and writers
whose work provides critical frameworks for feminist scholarship and research and pursue
individual or collaborative original research projects which will be
presented and critiqued in class before final submission as written papers,
in the hopes of being published. Syllabus. WSTU 801.10 Policy, Gender, & Inequality Deitch FRESHMAN ONLY. Abortion and same-sex marriage are but two
examples of hot-button political issues that bring debates about gender and
sexuality into the public policy arena. Poverty, social security, and
tax policies also have an impact on gender inequality. We will explore
differing political and philosophical ideas about equality and the
appropriate role of government in reducing inequality. The course examines how policies and policy debates shape, and are
shaped by ideas about gender difference; how gender intersects with race and
class among other inequalities; and how social movements affect public
policy. The focus is primarily on the Undergraduate courses in other departments Please note: We
list here only the courses submitted to us by other departments. Other
departments may be offering other courses in the Fall which may count toward
the major or minor. Please consult an advisor. ANTH 150.10(3) Human Rights &
Ethics Staff Issues of basic human rights and their violation by different cultures, states, and organizations. Genocide, ecocide, abuses on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or similar factors, and the treatment of those seeking asylum. Rights of informants and groups studied in anthropological research. ANTH 150.11(3) Human Rights &
Ethics Thulman Issues of basic human rights and their violation by different cultures, states, and organizations. Genocide, ecocide, abuses on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or similar factors, and the treatment of those seeking asylum. Rights of informants and groups studied in anthropological research. Eng 162 (3) American Realism
Romines This course looks at
texts produced in the ENGL 175 Gender &
Literature McRuer
The course will examine how (primarily) American women writers transform and re-create the genres of autobiography and memoir. Given autobiographical traditions that emphasize individual confession and internal spiritual transformation (St. Augustine, Rousseau) or public service or development as a citizen (Franklin, Adams), how do women negotiate the process of writing their stories? How do women justify the act of writing publicly about their lives? How do women negotiate the public/private divide, in life and in writing? How do women write about bodies, sexuality, spirituality, citizenship, and other aspects of self? Who gets to write a memoir, under what conditions, and for whom? ENGL 175W Inward Journeys: Gender and Autobiography The genres of autobiography, memoir, and
"life writing" have been re-theorized in narrative and
epistemological terms; the idea of objective, transparent reportage has
been supplanted by questions about truth, memory, language, history,
ethnography. How do women's texts negotiate these questions? ENGL 185 CRN 55159 W 9:30-Noon Lorraine Hansberry is most famous for her
perennially popular play Raisin in the Sun, most recently revived (in
2008) by Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad,
and Audre McDonald, in an ABC television special.
But in her brief life (she died at age 35), Hansberry produced several other
outstanding works of theater, journalism, and non-fiction. Her intellectual
range was wide and deep, touching on issues of Pan-Africanism
and African liberation struggles, gay and lesbian identity, Cold War
politics, black feminist activism, and anti-racism. In this seminar, which meets once weekly for 2˝
hours, we will read all of Lorraine Hansberry’s work (published and
unpublished), view various versions of her plays, read the plays of
affiliated playwrights (including Jean Genet, LeRoi
Jones, and Adrienne Kennedy), and explore cultural theory and intellectual
history related to her plays and their various thematic and political
trajectories (texts might include: George G.M. James’s Stolen Legacy,
Nina Simone, “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” Harold Cruse, The
Crisis of the Negro Intellectual). The class will be discussion-based and will
involve students in their own research projects related to Hansberry’s
life and career. PHIL 125.80/80 (3) Philosophy of
Race and Gender Staff W/F 2:20-3:55 In this course we will
examine differing perspectives on how race, gender, class, and ethnicity
inform individual as well as group identities. Despite their diverse views, all of the
authors we will be reading are united in the belief that race, gender, class,
and ethnicity are formative influences on both people and cultures, and many
of them focus on the consequences of being marginalized because one is deemed
to be a member of the "wrong" race or the "wrong"
gender. We will explore these
consequences in the course, and we will discuss some of the strategies that
have been proposed to rectify social and political inequities that are due to
one’s inhabiting a marginalized identity. SOC 181.10 (3) Gender, Race &
Film Torres Graduate Courses *Undergraduates interested in taking graduate courses should be seniors and must have permission of the instructor. WSTU 220.80 (3) Fundamentals of
Feminist Theory Lynch WSTU 221.10 (3) Research Issues in Women’s Studies: Applied Feminist Theory Deitch This seminar analyzes the contribution of feminist/gender perspectives from social science and humanities disciplines to the issues and methods of social research. Critical questions include: How and by whom is knowledge produced and validated? Do distinctively feminist methods exist? What is the relationship of the researcher to the researched? How does the location (race, class, sexual identity, etc.) of the researcher affect research? Students explore a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods for making visible and giving voice to the diversity of women's experience. Recommended background: graduate course work in feminist theory or second year graduate status, or permission of the instructor. Syllabus. WSTU 230.10 Global Feminisms
Ramlow In this course we will explore women’s organizing and feminist advocacy as it has occurred in various regions of the world, and as feminist interests and organizations have become globalized into a larger international force. Key questions will include: How do feminisms emerge? What specific issues have galvanized women across national and regional borders? What are the politics of generalizing cross-culturally about women’s interests and/or feminist demands? What is the relationship between feminism and nationalism? globalized feminism and imperialism? How and when do the interests of first world women and third world women come together? And when do they conflict? What is the history of the globalized women’s movement and how does it impact local women’s movements, international development, and the politics of globalization? What role might feminist agendas play in addressing current global concerns? The course will combine multimedia, multidisciplinary scholarship, applied research and advocacy and an intensive individual research project to provide a comprehensive and critical overview of these issues. Syllabus. WSTU 241.10 Women
& Law Warbelow This course will examine the construction
of women in WSTU 251.80 Women and Writing Romines In this seminar, we will
examine how Southern women writers responded to the enormous upheavals of the
Civil War and the resultant series of constructions and reconstructions of
gender, especially for women. We’ll
read a selection of fiction spanning more than a hundred years, by writers
including Kate Chopin, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Katherine Anne Porter, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Mitchell, Eudora Welty,
Margaret Walker, Dorothy Allison, Ellen Douglas, and others. Theoretical/critical/ historical texts will
include recent work on memory and on the Civil War’s transformations of
WSTU 257.80 Gender & Sexuality Kelly Description TBA. WSTU 270.10 Global
Domestic Labor Studies Moshenberg What circumstances constitute women's
domestic labor? Global domestic labor? Global women’s domestic
labor? How are the household, the local, the national, the transnational, the global articulated and entwined? Who cares? How
is caring, for and by care providers, manifested? In this course, we study women
domestic workers’ historical and current organizations and movements in order
to answer these questions and perhaps produce more interesting ones. In study
groups, students will focus on a nation, other than the WSTU 280.10 (3) Independent
Study This course may be repeated for credit. Arrangements must be made with sponsoring faculty member prior to registration. Students must fill out the independent study form prior to registration. WSTU 295.10 Independent Research in
Women's Studies Women's Studies M.A. students doing independent research rather than a thesis should register for WSTU 295 not WSTU 280. Students must fill out the independent study form prior to registration. WSTU 299.10 (3) Thesis Research
Graduate Courses in other departments Please note: We list here only the courses submitted to us by other departments. Other departments may be offering other courses in the Fall which may count toward the major or minor. Please consult an advisor.
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