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Undergraduate
Courses G101:
Gender, Culture, and Society (3 cr.) A & H Examination of the international emergence of the field of women’s
studies; the achievements and limitations of scholarly work exploring
oppression and discrimination based on sex and sex differences; the
development of the category “gender” and its uses and abuses; and the
relevance of changing understandings of the term “culture” for the study of
women, gender, and/or sexuality across diverse historical periods, regions,
nations, and societies. Exploration of a series of case studies. Particular
attention devoted to the ways in which “gender” as practice, performance, and
representation has differed for women and men according to race, class, and
other divisions. G102:
Sexual Politics (3 cr.) S & H Investigation of
cross-cultural meaning for the term “sexual politics,” from Kate Millet’s
classic 1970 text to those offered by historians, social scientists, and
other critics analyzing political structures, processes and mobilizations
around sex, sex differences and sexual practices and statuses, including the
inextricable links between sexual politics and “other/ mainstream” politics. G104:
Topics in Gender Studies (1–3 cr.) Analysis of selected
ideas, trends, and problems in the study of gender across academic
disciplines. Explores a particular theme or themes and also provides critical
introduction to the challenges of analyzing gender within the framework of
different disciplines of knowledge. May be repeated with a different topic
for a maximum of 6 credit hours. G105: Sex,
Gender and the Body (3 cr.) S & H Examines the diverse
and historically varying relationships forged between biological sex,
culturally formulated discourses of masculinity and femininity, and the sexed
body. With variable title and themes, the course may employ a range of
different approaches, depending on the instructor. G205:
Themes in Gender Studies (1–3 cr.) Exploration of a
theme or series of themes arising from the study of gender, generally from
within a particular discipline or subfield. The course will provide some
critical reflection upon the challenges of analyzing gender within the
framework of different disciplines of knowledge. Focus on specific instances,
topics, or case studies, depending on the instructor. May be repeated with
a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours. G206: Gay
Histories, Queer Cultures (3 cr.) S & H Examines the social, cultural, and political history of same-sex
relationships and desires in the United States and abroad, emphasizing the
historical emergence of certain American sexual subcultures, such as the
modern lesbian and gay “movement” or “community.” The course also highlights
particular formations such as race, class, and regional difference that
interrupt unified, universal narratives of lesbian and gay history. G215: Sex
and Gender in Cross Cultural Perspective (3 cr.) S & H, CSA Investigation of forms in which gender, gender markings, gender
meanings, and gender relations are arranged in different cultures of the
world. Assessment of debates concerning the global salience of feminist
claims about women’s “oppression,” political mobilization around gender, body
rituals marking masculinity and femininity, indigenous women, and resistance
to gender formations beyond Euro-American borders. G225:
Gender, Sexuality, and Popular Culture (3 cr.) A & H, CSA Examination of popular cultural “makings” of masculinity, femininity,
and sexuality through typical representation of gender within fiction,
theater, cinema, radio, music, television, journalism, and other secular mass
media. Analysis of the developing international telecommunications
“superhighway” and struggles to secure increased representation of women and
of feminist perspectives within existing culture industries. G230:
Gendered Relations (3 cr.) S & H Examines the
gendered dynamics of social relations. Explores how gender and sexuality are
imagined, constructed, and lived within a diverse set of institutions and
cultural locations, such as the military, the antebellum slave plantation,
the global sex market, the hospital, and the contemporary workplace. G235:
Scientific Understandings of Sex and Gender (3 cr.) S & H Interrogates the evolution of scientific approaches to, and
conceptualizations of, the terminology of sex and gender from the perspective
of the behavioral, medical, and social sciences. Topics may include:
femininity, masculinity, and androgyny; femaleness, maleness, intersex, and
transgender; heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. G290:
History of Feminist Thought and Practice (3 cr.) A & H Introduction to historical and contemporary feminists. Critical focus
is placed on criteria by which attributes of identifiable feminist discourses
and their contexts may be evaluated. Disputes among feminist theorists with
regard to the pertinence of differences ordained by sexuality, race, class,
ethnicity, and other political and philosophical adherence emerge as central
themes for appraisal. G300:
Gender Studies: Core Concepts and Key Debates (3 cr.) IW, P: G101 Examination of the
field of gender studies. Students will explore a series of themes through
which gender is discussed, analyzed, and defined. Conceptual frameworks of
gender, theories of sexuality, and the cultural and historical construction
of the body are emphasized. Examination of gender as a contested category
ranging across categories of race, ethnicity, class, and nationality. G302:
Issues in Gender Studies (1–3 cr.) This topical,
variably titled course addresses selected ideas, trends, and problems in the
study of gender across academic disciplines. It explores a particular theme
or themes and also provides critical reflection upon the challenges of
analyzing gender within the framework of different disciplines of knowledge. May
be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours. G303:
Knowledge and Sex (3 cr.) S & H Exploration of
debates about knowledge as cultural production or representation, implicated
in contemporary understandings of gender and sexual difference. Feminist
critiques of various disciplines and fields are interrogated, in terms of
their justifiability and coherence. Significant differences in
interpretations offered by such critics are identified, and their impact upon
areas of knowledge during the twentieth century are assessed. G304:
Constructions of Masculinity (3 cr.) S & H An interdisciplinary examination of what constitutes (and has
historically constituted) masculinity. Designed to illuminate the contested
underpinnings of masculinity. G310:
Representation and the Body (3 cr.) A & H Analysis of scholarship concerned with how the body is perceived,
represented, and symbolically charged. This course examines concepts that
include sexed bodies, desiring bodies, corporeality, body politics, and
sociological bodily rituals. Thematically, the course investigates
exterior/interior, solid/fluid, and sex/gender distinctions critical to
discussions of the body. G325:
Technologies of Gender (3 cr.) S & H Investigates
“gendered” ways that technological transformations reshape social life,
physical space, built environments, or medical research. Familiarizes
students with how feminist inquiry remaps such fields as computer technology,
urban and development studies, geography, medicine, or health sciences. May
be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours. G330:
Looking Like a Feminist: Visual Culture and Critical Theory (3 cr.) A & H
Advanced study of feminist film theory which
examines gender in popular film from a variety of perspectives. Examines how
cinema works as a “technology of gender,” how film constructs subject
positions and identities, and what these constructions can tell us about how
gender structures our culture. G335:
Explaining Sex/Gender Differences (3 cr.) S & H Compares biological, psychological, and social theories regarding the
development and maintenance of gender differentiated behavior, gender and
sexual identities, and the meaning of sexed bodies. The course scrutinizes
the social and cultural forces that magnify, minimize, or subvert the
expression of gender differences. G340:
Gender, Geography, Sex, and Space (3 cr.) S & H Examines the crucially important role that space and place play in the
construction and maintenance of gender norms and sexual practices. Subjects
may include the gendered history of the domestic domain, feminist critiques
of architecture and urban planning, the modernist art of flaneurie, or
the gendered and racial politics of imprisonment in the United States. G350:
Queer Theory (3 cr.) A & H Examines queer
theory, particularly in relation to other intellectual/political movements
(post-structuralism, critical race studies, feminism, gay and lesbian
studies) which it both borrowed from and challenged. Focus on the ways in
which queer theory articulates a radical transformation of the sex/gender
system in opposition to normalizing and essentializing impulses. G399:
Regulating Gender (3 cr.) S & H Explores the
regulation of gender relations through the institutions of state, church,
and/ or civil society, including: public policies; laws and their
enforcement; religions; ethical and moral norms; and other social conventions
and cultural norms. Strong focus on cross-cultural and transnational
comparisons. May be thematically concentrated around case studies. G402:
Problems in Gender Studies (1–3 cr.) Topical seminar in
gender studies. Analysis of a particular issue or problem that has generated
debate within gender-related scholarship in a particular discipline, or
across several disciplines/fields of inquiry. May be repeated with a
different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours. G410:
International Feminist Debates (3 cr.) CSA Investigation
of debates among feminists as to whether aspirations towards global feminism
are possible and desirable. The course compares concerns about the global
situation of women, as articulated by international bodies such as the United
Nations, with concerns articulated by feminists in different parts of the
world. G425:
Gender and Science: The Sexual Politics of Truth (3 cr.) S & H Examination of interdisciplinary interaction of feminist perspectives
on science. Perspectives are diverse and have implications for different
scientific disciplines—medical, physical, natural, and social. May be
repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours. G430:
Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953): Genealogies and
Legacies (3 cr.) S & H Examines Kinsey’s Sexual
Behavior in the Human Female (1953) by undertaking an examination of the
text itself, and its scientific, cultural, and sexual politics context, as
well as its place in the genealogy of sexology and sex research and its
impact and influence after Kinsey’s death in 1956. G435:
Health, Sex, and Gender (3 cr.) S & H Examines
health as it relates to female and male sexuality and to the roles and status
of men and women in society. It explores public policy decisions related to
medical research practices. Topics may include research about adult sexuality
and personal health, contraception, sexual abuse, gender-specific diseases,
and sexually transmitted diseases. G440:
Feminism Between Woman Suffrage and the Pill (3 cr.) S & H What happened to feminism between the suffrage movement and the
“swinging sixties”? Was feminism dead, or did it actually transform? How
similar and how different was feminism before 1920 and after? Could a higher
understanding of feminism in these decades recharacterize twentieth-century
feminism as a whole? G480:
Practicum in Gender Studies (3–6 cr., 6 cr. max.) P: Junior or senior
standing; 12 credit hours of gender studies course work; consent of faculty
advisor and department. Directed study of issues or
policies related to gender or sexuality based on a field experience such as
an internship. Directed readings, papers and/or an analytical journal may be
required. G485:
Gender and Discourse (3 cr.) Advanced-level
analysis of cultural constitutions of gender in different cultures. Emphasis
on understanding how different discourses operate with respect to gender, and
how they can have a range of effects, including endorsement, unsettling, and
resisting prevailing gender relations. May be repeated with a different
topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours. G495:
Readings and Research in Gender Studies (1–3 cr., 6 cr. max.) P: Consent of
instructor and department. Individual readings
and research available for gender studies major and minor students. May,
under unusual circumstances, be repeated twice for credit with a different
topic. G498:
Seminar in Gender Studies (3 cr.) This course will
highlight a particular problem, theme, or controversy confronting the
interdisciplinary field of gender studies, situated in relation to the
development of gender studies since the 1970s and its institutional and
discursive setting. G499: Senior Honors Thesis (3–6 cr.) P: Consent of faculty honors thesis advisor and department. Research and preparation of senior honors thesis. May be taken for a maximum of 6 credit hours. Graduate Courses
Core Courses (required for the Gender Studies Ph.D. and open to others as well): G599 Feminist Theory: Classic Texts and Founding Debates Explores founding texts of contemporary feminist theory, asking questions about identity, knowledge, sexuality, and ethics. Such works have emerged in relation to a variety of theoretical discourses, such as Marxism, structuralism, cultural studies, and others. Examines the intellectual history of feminist theory and its resonance with more recent trends in gender studies. G600 Concepts of Gender Introduces historical, theoretical, behavioral, philosophical, scientific, multi- and cross-cultural perspectives on gender and its meanings, exploring its disciplinary and interdisciplinary uses and implications. Attention is given to the emergence of the category “gender” itself, and its variable applications to different fields of knowledge, experience, cultural expression, and institutional regulation. As the founding concept of our scholarship, “gender” will be thoroughly interrogated as it intersects and fractures along racial, ethnic, class, and national lines. G603 Contemporary Debates in Feminist Theory The course analyzes current feminist debates within and sometimes against numerous intellectual movements, including but not limited to poststructuralism, ethnic studies, critical race theory, and cultural studies. Most assuredly NOT a review of “2nd wave feminism,” this course instead assumes prior study of the major schools of feminist thought and pushes students to wrestle with critical issues that have emerged out of that earlier scholarship.
G700 Sexualized Genders/Gendered Sexualities This course engages students with complex debates around sex, gender, sexuality, and the body that push beyond binary models reliant on a simple “nature/culture” distinction. Drawing heavily on queer theory, sexuality studies, and trans theory, we scrutinize the collision, intersection, and interaction between theories of gender and theories of sexuality. Rather than attempt to “bring it all together,” we will instead provoke continued debate about the complicated relationship between gender, gendered identities, sexuality, sexual “identities,” racialized bodies and identities and forms of power and coercion.
G702 Researching Gender Issues Research methodologies and approaches relevant to Gender Studies are explored, and students apply them to a particular scholarly project. The impact of Gender Studies on epistemological and methodological issues in a variety of academic disciplines is examined according to student/instructor backgrounds and interests. G601 Scientific Practices & Feminist Knowledge Examines intersections of gender and knowledge, focusing on feminist analyses of scientific epistemology and practice. Explores the implications of various feminist theories about the social meaning and gendered construction of scientific research. Particular focus is placed upon race, class, sexuality and cultural difference in scientific accounts of "human nature." Specific topics for students' research projects may include: the history and politics of sexual difference in scientific discourse; feminist perspectives on, and appropriations of, the concept of objectivity; the circulation of scientific findings and technologies in popular culture; and the formulation of alternative scientific methods and knowledge. G602 Gender Dimensions of Cultural Production & Criticism This course evaluates a diverse array of arguments concerning the gendered nature of cultural production and criticism. Controversies related to the gendered dimensions of aesthetics, cultural meanings, content, or genres are examined, as are vested claims about the constitution of genius or creativity, and the role of identities in cultural production. The critical issue of theorizing audience/reader/viewer and the often gendered nature of cultural criticism warrant particular scrutiny, especially in a cross-cultural frame. G604 Knowledge, Gender, and Truth Examines feminist contributions to epistemological questioning of knowledge formations through comparison of case study disciplines and through cross-cultural analysis. Debates about "truth," "objectivity," "validity," "reason" and "representativeness" as gendered categories receive scrutiny in relation to fields such as historiography, ethnography, science, psychology, or cultural studies. G605 Cultures of Disability: Gender, Medicine and Society Investigates intersections among disability and gender, medicine, and culture through analysis of modern texts. Poses fundamental questions concerning the relationship of physically handicapped, or otherwise "disabled" and marginalized, individuals (male and female) to society. Interrogates the physiological and social construction of disability, and examines the articulation of disability with discourses of the body and sexuality. G607 Gender and Health: Research Issues and Policy Implications Examines a variety of gendered topics related to health and well being, which may include: sexual development and differentiation, adult sexuality, menstrual cycles and disorders, sexual dysfunctions, pregnancy, contraception, abortion, sexual abuse and rape, breast cancer, hysterectomy, cosmetic surgery, sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, and sex research particularly as it relates to understanding female and male sexuality. Topics examined are linked to gender issues in public health, research priorities in medicine, and policy outcomes affecting women, men, and children. G695 Graduate Readings and Research in Gender Studies [1-6 credits] This course provides for graduate students' intensive independent study of specific topics. Study is supervised by an appropriate core or affiliated faculty member whose research expertise matches the student's area of interest. These student projects are developed in consultation with this faculty member and the Director of Graduate Studies. Obtain permission form from the Gender Studies Office and have it signed by the faculty member agreeing to work with you. G696 Research Colloquium in Gender Studies [1-3 credits] Active participation in Gender Studies research colloquia. Introduces students to the problems, interpretations, theories, and research trends in all areas related to gender and sexuality studies. Colloquia also cover themes in Gender Studies professional development (identification of funding sources, resume and job interview preparation, etc). Topics vary throughout the semester. May be repeated more than once for credit. G701 Graduate Topics in Gender Studies [variable titles, 3-4 credits]: Addresses particular problems or topics arising within interdisciplinary gender studies at an advanced research-oriented level. Topics for each offering of the seminar are chosen according to instructor expertise and are rotated regularly. Students design and complete original research projects in light of seminar themes and assessments of existing scholarship. G704 Cultural Politics and Twentieth Century Sexuality This course interrogates the complex relationships among and developments in sex research, sex reform, sexual behavior and cultural politics in the United States and comparable countries during the twentieth century, through the exploration of the writings of key reformers, researchers, scholars, and popularizers of changed understandings of sexuality. G705 Sex Differences in Life Cycles Compares and contrasts differently gendered experiences, options, and identities at key phases of development through life cycles. Evaluates competing explanations of life cycle variations, with special attention to race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, demographic factors, family forms, and cross-cultural differences. G706 Regulating Gender Identifies various cultural institutions and discourses that play a critical role in the regulation of masculinities and femininities - including the fostering of gender norms or conformity, or the discouraging of gender "deviance" or difference. Instructors may focus upon legal, educational, social welfare, religious, scientific, or mass media institutions, examining legislative, public policy, theological, or popular cultural discourses and contrasting their Western and non-Western forms. G707 Social Change and Knowledge in Feminist Theory Explores feminist uses of knowledge in order to effect social change, surveying some of the key texts that exemplify the complexities of feminism's relationship to democratic political theory, society, culture, and education since Mary Wollstonecraft [1792]. The course may examine generational issues in academic feminism, popular feminism's critique of women's/gender studies, the history of feminism in the academy, contemporary curricular change in women's/gender studies, race and gender in feminist pedagogy, postmodern challenges to feminism, and/or feminist conceptions of political action and political organization. G708 Contested Masculinities This course examines masculinity at sites of contestation -- between disciplines, historical moments, nationalities, regions and bodily ontologies. By tracing the resonances of transnational, transdisciplinary, and transhistorical masculinities, our aim is to critically examine masculinities, particularly in the context of feminist challenges to hegemonic and violative gender ideologies. G710 Gender, Medicine and the Body Examines interdisciplinary topics related to medicine and the body as they interact with gender. Theoretical works are positioned against primary texts, the latter drawn from both fiction and non-fiction works, which may be drawn from both Western and non-Western cultural traditions. Variable offerings of the course address particular topics of interest and research controversy, such as hormone replacement therapies, gender associated cancers, contraception, sexual dysfunction therapies, eating disorders, psychiatric illness, geriatric conditions, and other related subjects. G718 Transnational Feminisms and the Politics of Globalization This course interrogates recent interventions into the debates around globalization and gender, focusing on how gender plays out in the flows of money, people, and culture that characterize "globalization." In what ways is migration a gendered experience? How does gender become configured by geographic dislocations and re-routings? How are women and men differently situated as agents and subjects of global change? G719 Sexuality and Citizenship in the Age of Visibility Examines the intersections between concepts of citizenship and gendered and sexed identities in a climate where sexual minorities are increasingly visible and "spectacularized." Focus will be on the transition from abject and invisible minority to increasing engagement in the everyday fabric of cultural life - both nationally and internationally. G720 Research Seminar in Gender Studies Undertakes an in-depth study of a particular theme, issue, problem, theorist(s) or debate within research and scholarship related to gender and/or feminism. Students design assignments and original research projects according to interest and undertake further research related to the seminar's questions and discussions.
Topics of Past Graduate Seminars: · Women,
Sexuality, and Health: Research Issues and Policy Implications · Gender
and Sexuality in Modern North African and Middle Eastern Narrative · Gender
Medicine and the Body- East and West · Feminism,
Sexuality, and Cultural Politics · Women
in Modern British History
· Writing
Women in Early Modern England · Gender,
Religion, and the Body in 19th Century England · Feminist
Studies and Ethnographic Practice · The
Culture of Disability: Gender, Medicine, and Society · Gender
and Diversity Issues in Art and Education · Foundations
of Feminist Art: History, Philosophy, and Context · Ethnography
of the U.S. · Law,
Sex, and Scandal: The Lewinsky Affair · Gender,
Race, and Sexuality in Early 20th Century American Social Science · Gender
in the Victorian Age
· Law
and Culture · Gender,
Race, and Sexuality in Early American Social Science · Feminism
Between Women's Suffrage and the Pill · Gender
and Comic Strips
· Aesthetics
and Gender · Masculinities
in Early America
· Contraception,
Gender, & Culture
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The Gender Studies Webmaster & Designer is Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams. The
Original Website was designed by Michelle Wood and Cindy Stone. Last modification: March
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