Fall 2016 Courses

Introduces students to the field of Women & Gender Studies. Examines gender issues in the United States from interdisciplinary, multicultural, and feminist perspectives. Covers such topics as sexuality, beauty ideals, women’s health, violence against women, work, the economy, peace and war, and the environment. Meets MAPS requirement for social science: general. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity.

Examines contemporary experiences of people around the world as they negotiate dominant and subversive understandings of gendered identities. Focuses on the ways in which the material and discursive circumstances of people’s lives shape their opportunities for resistance and creative construction. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity.

Explores diverse cultural forms such as film, popular fiction and non-fiction, music videos, public art, websites, blogs and zines which are shaped by, and in turn shape popular understandings of gender at the intersections of race, class, ability, religion, nation, and imperialism. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity.

Examines the positionality of women in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and power relations in a global context. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: contemporary societies.

Provides an overview and critical examination of women as political actors within the United States. Students will examine the gendered components of citizenship, election, political office, and public policy. Furthermore, students will explore the ways in which gender intersects with class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other identities in U.S. politics. Same as PSCI 3311.

From Ellen to Orange is the New Black, Ricky Martin to Tegan and Sara, and Paris is Burning to RuPaul’s Drag Race, in the last twenty years, we have seen an explosion of mass media representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. Using insights from queer theory and popular culture studies, among other critical approaches, we will examine the rich and proliferating archive of queer popular culture in television, streaming video, popular music, film, video gaming, genre fiction and graphic novels. Through discussion, essays, and our own experiments with popular forms, we will explore the following questions: to what degree have queer artists and audiences transformed the traditional genres of popular culture? Does the rise of visibility and the “queering” of mass media translate into political and social gains for the LGBTQ community? How might the forms and conditions of production of mass media work against queer media’s challenges to dominant culture?
Course texts include Sullivan’s A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory, Danesi’s Popular Culture, Introductory Perspectives, Bechdel’s Are You My Mother?, Nava’s The Death of Friends, Tsuda’s Day of Revolution, and Delany’s Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand.

It comes as no surprise that the mediated world in which we live is awash in Disney products. From theme parks to films to a television channel to a global media presence, Disney’s reach is extensive. Disney’s media products are, for the most part, uncritically accepted as good, clean entertainment and, most importantly, good for children. Indeed, Disney-branded productions are seen as a kind of media “safe haven,” praised both for not pandering to the sex and violence crowd and for offering content that provides positive role models for young girls, introduces audiences to important moments in history, and offers culturally diverse characters.
In this course we will examine these assumptions. Working from the perspective of media literate consumers looking through a feminist lens, we will take a critical look at a representative sample of Disney’s animated films, paying particular attention to Disney’s representations of gender, race, class and sexual orientation. Too, we will examine some of the practices of the corporation itself in order to better understand the Disney phenomenon in its totality.
May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours for different topics. Recommended prereq., WMST 2000 or 2600.

Description coming soon

Offers expository writing and training in analytical and descriptive skills, structures or argument, critical thinking, the rhetoric of persuasion, and the development of a personal voice. Readings and papers focus on basic issues in gender studies. Recommended prereq., WMST 2000 or WMST 2600. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: written communication. Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).

Offers expository writing and training in analytical and descriptive skills, structures or argument, critical thinking, the rhetoric of persuasion, and the development of a personal voice. Readings and papers focus on basic issues in gender studies. Recommended prereq., WMST 2000 or WMST 2600. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: written communication. Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).

Provides field experience in local and national government and non-governmental agencies focusing on women and gender-related issues. Supervision by approved field instructors. Students must relate their academic experience to their field work experience though a portfolio and a final paper. Recommended prereq., 6 hours of course work in Women and Gender Studies and 30 cumulative credit hours. Please contact the Women & Gender Studies office for enrollment information.

Enriches the academic experience of Women and Gender Studies majors and minors. This course usually will combine readings from books with lectures and discussions, community outreach and in-house publications spanning the interdisciplinary focus of the program. May be repeated up to 4 total credit hours. Restricted to WMST majors or minors.
Contact WGST Office to enroll.

Provides an introduction to the history of sexuality in the modern era through engagement with recent interdisciplinary research into what sexuality has meant in the everyday lives of individuals; in the imagined communities formed by the bonds of shared religion, ethnicity, language and national citizenship; on the global stage of cultural encounter, imperialist expansion, transnational migration and international commerce. Same as HIST 4620. Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only.

May be repeated up to 7 total credit hours. Please contact the Women & Gender Studies Program for enrollment information.

For qualified WMST majors working on the research phase of departmental honors. Prereq., junior/senior standing and 3.30 overall GPA.
Please contact the Women & Gender Studies Program for enrollment information.

Qualified Women and Gender Studies majors may write an honors thesis, an in-depth research paper, on a topic of choice. Thesis hours available to majors only after successfully completing the research phase.
Please contact the Women & Gender Studies Program for enrollment information.

Offers interdisciplinary feminist perspectives on different special topics such as gender and war, gender and globalization, women's social movements, gender and citizenship, gender and collective memory, and cultural representations of gender and sexuality. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Meets the requirements for the WGST certificate. Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.