Please note: Contents subject to change. For current information, always consult OneStart.
Undergraduate Courses Fall 2007
G101: Gender, Culture & Society (3 credits) (A&H)
Gender, Culture & Society provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary study of gender - the social creation and cultural representation of femininity and masculinity - by examining relevant beliefs, practices, debates and political struggles. Lectures, readings, and class discussions consider how people of different races, ethnicities, classes, and nationalities in various historical periods have assumed gendered identities. Topics may include: romantic love and marriage; sexuality; parenthood, reproduction , birth control and new reproductive technologies; interpersonal violence; the scientific study of sexual differences; fitness, health, body image, and popular culture; the sexual division of labor and economic development; and feminist movements.
- Lecture: 11:15am-12:30pm - TR - Instructor: Gremillion, H (section: 17109 HONORS) GL 101
- Lecture: 2:30-3:20pm - MWF - Instructor: Harrison, L (section: 26672) SY 0006
- Lecture: 12:20-1:10pm - MWF - Instructor: Harrison, L (section: 26673) BH 236
- Lecture: 11:15-12:05pm - MWF - Instructor: Rowley, S (section: 26674) GY 436
- Lecture: 1:25-2:15pm - MWF - Instructor: Rowley, S (section: 26675) SY 0006
- Lecture: 2:30-3:20pm - MWF - Instructor: Lane, B (section: 26676) SW 103
- Lecture: 12:20-1:10pm - MWF - Instructor: Lane, B (section: 26677) SW 103
- Lecture: 11:15-12:05pm - MWF - Instructor: Weida, S (section: 26678) WH 121
- Lecture: 1:25-2:15pm - MWF - Instructor: Weida, S (section: 26679) WH 106
G104: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Feminist Media Studies
This course will examine how mass media contributes to the ways we each understand gender, sex, and other aspects of identity such as race, sexuality and body image. The course will start from the premise of gender as being separate from sex and as created and reinforced by society. We will then use feminist media studies as a lens for examining the role media plays not only in reinforcing "traditional" ideas about gender, but also the role media can (and often does) play in resisting those traditional ideas and in creating alternative images and ideas. Students will be introduced to some of the key works of feminist media analysis and will be taught the skills of how to analyze and discuss various media examples through feminist points of view. Some topics to be discussed include the media's representation of bodies-both male and female; the "performance" of masculinity and femininity; various theories of how to "read" women's and men's roles in media-especially "masculinized" women and "feminized" men; and the role certain genres such as pornography, horror, action adventure, science fiction, "chick flicks," and others play in reinforcing and/or transgressing gender norms.
- Lecture: 9:30pm-10:45am - TR - Instructor: DeRose, M (section: 28200) BH 319
G104: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Latinas in the U.S.
This course focuses on the experiences of Latinas in the United States. Although many believe that Latinas, women of Latin American heritage in the United States, arrived only recently, in fact thousands of Latinas can trace their ancestry in territories that became part of the United States back to the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, well before the great waves of European and Asian immigrants. We will examine how Latinas' experiences and cultural expressions are shaped by intersections of race, gender, and class. The course would begin with a theoretical framework of the Latina experience. Thereafter, we will focus on how the institutions of health, education, and work perpetuate inequalities. Discussions will include the following topics: Exclusion of women of color in feminist theory; Chicana Feminist Discourse; Latinas in Education; Latinas and Health; and Latinas and Work.
- Lecture: 11:15am-12:30pm - T/R - Instructor: Martinez, S (section: 29112) SY 001
G104: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Disability, Gender, and Culture
Recent studies estimate that nearly a billion people worldwide are disabled, among them more than forty million Americans (or roughly one in seven). Disability rates rise ever further among gays and lesbians, the elderly, people with HIV and AIDS, residents of the global South, and former soldiers. In this course, students will examine the overlapping discourses of disability and gender. They will consider the ways associations between gender and disability have been used to legitimate the social inequality of a number of peoples (e.g., women, people of color, disabled veterans, gays and lesbians). They will also consider the ways disabled artists and activists have challenged normative ideas of gender, sexuality, and embodiment. Along the way, students will use a wide range of cultural artifacts - from TV's South Park and disability-themed fashion photography to the stage performances of sideshow "freaks" - to explore the ways in which gender and disability have been imagined, naturalized, and contested in modern America and beyond.
- Lecture: 5:45pm-7:00pm - T/R - Instructor: Kinder, J (section: 29424) BH 205
G105: Sex, Gender and the Body (3 credits) (S&H)
Concepts of self are shaped and expressed through understandings of the nature of the body. Culturally speaking, bodies tend to be assigned to categories and to be ascribed certain tendencies, abilities, or deficiencies based on these understandings. These assigned categories and ascribed characteristics are often shaped by notions of sex and/or gender. This course addresses sex and gender as culturally and historically specific constructions of difference and identity, which are intertwined and inform one another. It investigates the ways that perceptions of sex and gender are realized in and through the body as actor and the body as subject of discourse. The investigation of these issues leads into the domains of cross-cultural comparison, science, health, sexuality, reproduction, and body image. This course is excellent preparation for further and upper level studies of gender, the body, sex differences, political, social, international, philosophical, anthropological, and cultural studies of men and women.
- Lecture: 2:30pm-3:20pm - MW - Instructor: DeRose, M (section: 17113) MO 007 Required Discussion Sections for Dr. DeRose's Course (choose one):
- R: 4:00pm-4:50pm (section: 26646)
- R: 4:00pm-4:50pm (section: 26651)
- F: 10:10am-11:00am (section : 26649)
- F: 10:10am-11:00am (section: 26652)
- F: 11:15am-12:05pm (section: 26650)
- F: 11:15am-12:05pm (section: 26654)
- R: 1:00pm-1:50pm (section: 26655)
G215: Sex & Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective (3 credits) (S&H, CS)
Sex & Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective investigates and compares different constructions of sex and gender around the world. The course asks how cross-cultural variations force us to rethink assumptions about bodies, sexuality, gendered social roles, and work and family. How do people in different cultures come to consider and express themselves as "men", "women", or something else? What are the social forces that constrain them to act and think as gendered persons? Most importantly, what are the potential consequences of not conforming to those norms? The course will also consider how global forces such as militarism and religious fundamentalism influence sex and gender formations. This course will also focus on the development of structures, meanings, and formations of sex, gender, and sexuality in different historical, national, geo-cultural, racial and class contexts. A main focus will be an assessment of debates in transnational and third world feminisms and queer diasporas concerning the oppression of women, as well as the regulation and suppression of various gender and sexual formations in different cultural sites both within Euro-America and beyond.
- Lecture: 4:00pm-5:15pm - TR - Instructor: Bailey, M (section: 17114) BH 005
G225: Gender, Sexuality, & Popular Culture (3 credits) (A&H, CS)
Gender, Sexuality & Popular Culture surveys the making and meaning of masculinity, femininity and sexuality in popular culture. Emphasizing ways in which the form and technology of popular culture have changed during the twentieth century, the course explores gender/sexuality in such contexts as: fiction, theater, cinema, music, television, journalism and other mass media. Issues interrogated may include: gender and the power of the image; sex and spectatorship; melodrama, film noir and "the women's film"; rock music women and MTV; race, age and representation; masculinity and femininity; and violence and pornography.
- Lecture: 9:30am-10:45am - TR - Instructor: Sinwell, S (section: 17116) BH 204
- Lecture: 4:00pm-5:15pm - TR - Instructor: Kinder, J (section: 22553) BH 103
- Lecture: 5:30pm-6:45pm - TR - Instructor: Maher, J (section: 17115) TH A 201
- Lecture: 5:45pm-7:00pm - MW - Instructor: Sinwell, S (section: 29124) BH 003
- Lecture: 4:45pm-6:00pm - MW - Instructor: Weber, B (section: 17117)* BQ C147A *A portion of the above class reserved for Honors students and requires a separate one credit hour Honors Discussion which meets on Wednesdays, 1:00-1:50pm. Honors Students enroll in HON-BM 299.
G290: History of Feminist Thought & Practice (3 credits) (A&H)
This course will explore the roots of feminist theory, beginning with the work of Mary Wollstonecraft and extending to feminist theory today. Course work and reading will focus on how the various "brands" of feminism evolved (for example, liberal, radical, socialist, and Marxist feminisms). In addition, we will explore those historical and environmental factors which both shaped and influenced feminist ideas over the past two centuries. The central issues and concerns of feminists from specific eras will be explored. Although the Anglo-American experience will be the focus of this course, feminist theoretical contributions on the intersection of gender, race, class and sexuality will be incorporated. This is an opportunity to explore some of the most famous (and some not so well-known) feminist theorists of the past and present, including Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, bell hooks, Shulamith Firestone and Germaine Greer.
- Lecture: 4:00pm-5:15pm - TR - Instructor: Maher, J (section: 22251) WH 005
G302: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H)
Topic: American Sexual Histories
What can controversies over sexuality reveal about the history of American culture? How did those contesting sexual behavior, desires, and/or their consequences, narrate their own or others' sexual histories? This course surveys historical changes in American cultural conflicts about sexuality, especially as shaped by gender, race, ethnic, class, religious, and regional dynamics, through examining some well known historical examples - their genealogies and legacies - providing an introduction to the history of gender and sexuality in the United States. Many historical instances of sexuality-related conflicts emerged across the past three centuries. The course may draw some instances from amongst: the 1692 Salem witch panic, eighteenth and nineteenth century "seduction," illegitimacy, and infanticide, the 1874-75 adultery prosecution of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher for adultery, "spinster" Lizzie Borden's 1893 trial for the axe-murder of her father and step-mother; Progressive era regulation of prostitution and venereal diseases, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger's 1915 indictment for obscenity, 1920s and 1930s disputes over rape, lynching, and miscegenation, the 1948 &1953 Kinsey Reports, Christine Jorgenson and transsexualism, the Boston Strangler and other serial killers, the 1960s "Sexual Revolution, the Pill, and censorship challenges the rise of Gay Liberation, the 1973 Roe versus Wade abortion decision, and other 1990s struggles.
- Lecture: 12:20pm-1:10pm - TR - Instructor: Allen, J (section: 26750) SW 007 Required Discussion Sections for Dr. Allen's Course (choose one):
- T: 2:30pm-3:20pm (section: 26751)
- W: 9:05am-9:55am (section: 26753)
- W: 3:35pm-4:25pm (section: 26755)
- R: 10:10am-11:00am (section: 26757)
G302: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Queering Sexuality and Gender in the Media
Fulfills COAS Intensive Writing Requirement
Mediated representations of sexuality and gender permeate our daily lives. The moments and ways these representations come together are powerful in shaping how we come to think of who we are and what we
should aspire to be. This course will teach students to critically analyze gender and sexuality as they are entwined and encoded in popular media representation. We will examine how these constructs of subjectivity interrelate to commonly held and frequently unquestioned assumptions about race, class, nationality, and ability. We will think about how our assumptions about gender and sexual norms are shaped through and in turn shape several prominent sites of popular culture: advertising, television, film, music, and "cyberculture." Students will learn to decode the messages and meanings in select examples from each of these sites. Students will also learn to understand how political and economic inequalities in
the culture industries structure our sexual and gender choices, especially in terms of what it means to be "normal" and/or "queer."
- Lecture: 9:30am-10:45am - TR - Instructor: Gray, M (section : 26701) New CMCL, Room TBA
G302: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Tough Girls: Gender, Genre & Female Violence
This course will examine certain media genres such as action adventure, science fiction, horror and Westerns which often portray violence as power and will ask the question "if violence is associated with masculinity, and masculinity to men, then what can we say about violent women?" While the focus of the course will be to examine media examples of violent masculinity and femininity (and even to question if we can have violent femininity or if violent women become "masculinized"), an additional question for the course includes Does violent women's power in media examples help create a more powerful image for women in the real world? Have Buffy, Xena, Ripley, Sarah Connor, Sydney Bristow and other "tough girls" changed how our society views women, and maybe changed women's lives?
- Lecture: 11:15am-1:45pm - M - Instructor: DeRose, M (section : 24218) BH 205
G302: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits) (A&H)
Topic: Stigma: Culture, Deviance and Identity
Cultural value systems in every society rely on sets of mutually defining terms -- for example, normal/abnormal, able-bodied/disabled, heterosexual/homosexual, white/non-white -- that largely determine local attitudes of acceptance or ostracism regarding particular categories of persons. Focusing on social stigma allows us to understand how specific cultural value systems affect our most intimate senses of self, and indeed contribute to our very notions of personhood. Stigma theory speaks broadly to the nature of the social relationships that create marked categories of persons, regardless of the particular attributes devalued. In this class we look both at theory and at particular cases of devaluation, since attention to the particularities of a given stigma keys us in to the complex of cultural values that create it. The theoretical centerpiece of this course is Erving Goffman's 1963 study Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. We will read this text closely to appreciate Goffman's insights, and attempt throughout the semester to update the language he uses to convey his points by applying his model to more recent historical and ethnographic case studies of stigmatized persons and groups. Our primary focus will be on the range and efficacy of the various strategies available for managing and/or deflating stigma. We will consider the work of artists and activists that addresses contemporary cases of stigma involving class, race, disability, gender and sexuality. We will view related film clips in class, and full length films at bi-weekly evening screenings. Online postings on a class discussion site helps students participate fully and regularly in class discussions.
- Lecture: 11:15am-12:30pm - TR - Instructor: Seizer, S (section : 26725) New CMCL, Room TBA
G302: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H)
Topic: Marriage and the American Nation
Fulfills COAS Intensive Writing Requirement
What is marriage? Is it a private agreement or a public contract? A legal bond or a religious sacrament? A right or a privilege? Who can enter it? Who determines when it is over, and on what grounds? This seminar examines the long history of American debates about these questions. We will consider the complex ways that beliefs and policies regarding marriage have affected national understandings of
gender roles, of racial difference, of the meaning of citizenship, and of the function and reach of government. The chronological emphasis of the course is on the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, although we will conclude by discussing the place of history in the current controversy over gay marriage. Marriage and the American Nation is a methods course, designed to meet the History Department's J300 and the College of Arts and Sciences' intensive writing requirements. As we study the topic, we will attend closely to the ways in which historians use primary sources to construct historical arguments. The assignments will give you guided opportunities to try your hands at different forms of
historical research and writing. More information about the course can be found at: http://www.indiana.edu/~marriage/.
- Lecture: 2:30pm-4:30pm - R - Instructor: Sword, K (section : 28470) BH 237
G303 Knowledge and Sex (3 credits) (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. Classes will meet more frequently in the first eight weeks of the semester, with individual library research activities comprising most of the second eight weeks of class meetings.
- Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - TR - Instructor: Allen, J (section: 26731) BH 217
G304: Constructions of Masculinities (3 credits)
Fulfills COAS Intensive Writing Requirement
This course is an interdisciplinary examination of what constitutes (and has historically constituted) masculinity as particularly demonstrated in fiction and film from the 1950's forward. All writing assignments conform to COAS regulations for writing-intensive courses and are designed to illuminate the contested underpinnings of masculinity.
- Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - MW - Instructor: Weber, B (section: 26737) SY 210
G310: Representations and the Body (3 credits)
Analysis of scholarship concerned with "the body," "sexed bodies," "corporeality," "body politics," and the significance of worldwide bodily rituals used to mark sexual difference. Dualistic and disembodied categories through which the body is "culturally thought" receive scrutiny, including exteriority/interiority and sex/gender distinctions prevalent in discussions of the body.
- Lecture: 1:00pm-2:15pm - MW - Instructor: Sinwell, S (section: 29425) Foster Quad Rm. 012 B
G402: Seminar in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H, CS)
Topic: African Women
African women carry heavy, growing responsibilities within their communities that bring them respect but rarely the resources they need. Following themes of autonomy and control of social, cultural and economic resources, we discuss alternatives and radical changes from pre-colonial to contemporary times and consider their relevance to African and US development policy, to African feminist concerns and to our own options. We will talk about how African women fit into important public discussions in Africa on economic development, urbanization, family breakdown, nationalism and religion. Some issues familiar in Western media, including famines, refugees, civil wars, Islamic and Christian fundamentalism, polygyny and AIDS, have special relevance for African women. They also can contribute distinctive experiences and ideas to our discussions of some problems Americans now feel sharply, such as preserving family and religious values, building mutual respect between men and women and between ethnic groups, teen or unwed mothers, budget cuts, unemployment and global economic competition. Basic concepts and analytic skills from this course will help you join in these debates effectively and learn critically from public media such as television and newspapers. By the end of the semester, you will know what major issues African women consider important to their lives, especially family and economic issues. You should be well aware of the broad range of diversity of viewpoints on these issues and familiar with some of the most common perspectives. You will also see the range of diversity in the situations of specific groups of African women, and be able to identify the most important local and international conditions that affect their position. We will concentrate on the factors that give women more or less access to key resources they need to provide security for themselves and their families. We will also consider how our actions and US government policies contribute to these influential factors.
- Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - TR - Instructor: Clark, G (section : 26739) SB 150
G402: Seminar in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H)
Topic: Gender & the Memoir
In memoir, apparently, you have to do with what you've got. You can't order a new shipment of materials. You're on a desert island, sorting your memories into little piles: Bobbie Ann Mason - Stranger than Fiction - 1998. This class will question how gender impacts memory and the craft of the memoir. How does gender determine the questions we ask of autobiography? What gendered choices have authors made as they constructed their texts? What forms? What metaphors? What issues? What similarities do we see between memoirs and what don't we see? This course will also examine the experience of gender interacts with a variety of social, economic, political, and sexual roles in order to understand how gender shapes experience. The exploration will include the influence of class, region, race, and ethnicity on modern memoir as they intertwine with gender, generation, and historical context. Texts will include: Dorothy Allison; Allison Bechdel; Phoebe Gloeckner; Lucy Grealy; Dave Eggers; Jane Gallop; Joyce Johnson; Alice Kaplan; Mary Karr; Brad Land; Loran Sage; Rebecca Walker; Marjane Sartrape; Edmund White; Richard Wright and others.
G480: Practicum in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Restricted to Gender Studies Majors/Minors
Prerequisite: junior or senior standing; 12 credit hours of gender studies course work; project approved by instructor. Directed study of aspects of policy related to gender studies issues based on field experience. Directed readings, practicum in social agency, papers and analytical journal required. (section: 17118) Arr.
G495: Readings and Research in Gender Studies (1-3 credits)
Must have at least junior standing
Requires course authorization from Gender Studies (for authorization e-mail: gender@indiana.edu)
The undergraduate Readings and Research course exists to enable Gender Studies BA and undergraduate minor students to undertake intensive independent study of particular topics not usually covered in existing courses. An appropriate faculty member supervises the work. Students interested in independent study should develop a topic prior to registration in consultation with a faculty member and the Chair of Gender Studies. (section: 17119) Arr.
G498/701: Critical Issues in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Gender & Comic Strips
Gender & Comic Strips explores the power of comic strips as purveyors of cultural information. Their ability to transmit various messages is enhanced by the fact that comics partake of at least two distinct discourses; the visual and the verbal. This course examines both the visual and verbal languages of comics and their intersection with gender, the body, sexuality, and politics. It scrutinizes different types of comics, from the religious to the secular. The course studies the ways in which purely verbal narratives, such as fairy tales and Biblical stories, are transformed into comic strips. Questions posed in this course are "What kinds of heroes, both male and female, live in the comics universe?" and "How do the verbal and visual languages interact to create that distinct discourse that is that of comics?".
- Lecture: 8:45am-10:45am - T - Instructor: Malti-Douglas, F (section : 24551) MME 131
G498: Critical Issues in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Gendering Modern War
Why did World War II bomber pilots paint nude pin-ups on their planes? Why has the U.S. military traditionally balked at allowing women (and homosexuals) into combat units? Why are so many conflicts framed as attempts to protect "our" women from a lustful enemy? Why does rape remain a common military tactic among modern armies? How have gendered arguments been mobilized for peace? In this course, students will explore the intersections of gender and modern war. Focusing on a wide range of practices, discourses, and cultural artifacts - including histories, film, autobiographical accounts, photography, recruiting posters, and war propaganda - students will examine how ideas about war, gender, sexuality, and embodiment have changed since the mid-nineteenth century. They will trace modern war's impact on gender roles in the United States and beyond. At the same time, they will analyze war as a distinctly gendered (and often highly eroticized) set of discourses and practices. Finally, students will consider gender as a space for contesting (and reaffirming) the necessity of war in the twenty-first century.
- Lecture: 1:30pm-4:00pm - W - Instructor: Kinder (section : 29426) MME 131
G498/701: Critical Issues in Gender Studies (3 credits) (A&H)
Topic: Dance, Gender & Embodied Discourse
Dance does not exist except as it is realized in the human body. Through its performance and its ability to elicit a kinesthetic response in performer and viewer alike, dance becomes elemental and gendered. Classical performance traditions, popular forms, and communally-embedded dance all address gender and the potential for embodied meanings. Embodied forms of discourse speak through a variety of voices and channels creating meanings that may be ambiguous and contradictory. We will examine form and meaning as we explore the danced body and its dialogic potential across Eastern and Western traditions both classical and popular. Seminar participants may choose any genre or tradition of dance or dance-theatre for their research.
- Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - TR - Instructor: Royce, A P (section : 28610) BH 209
Graduate Courses Fall 2007
G600: Concepts of Gender (3 credits)
This course 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. The class will be taught as seminar. Readings are to be done before class so that you may fully participate in the discussion.
This course deals with aspects of human sexuality and gender in a straight-forward and explicit manner. If this is a problem for you, please do not take this course.
- Lecture: 11:00am-1:30pm - T - Instructor: Sanders, S (section: 22253) MO 313
G601 Scientific Practices & Feminist Knowledge (3 credits)
This course examines intersections of gender and knowledge, with a particular focus on feminist analyses of scientific epistemology and practice, exploring the implications of various, sometimes conflicting, feminist theories about the social meaning and the gendered construction of scientific research. Particular focus is placed upon race, class, sexuality and cultural difference in medical, psychological, and evolutionary 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.
- Lecture: 2:30pm-5:00pm - R - Instructor: Gremillion, H (section: 26745) MME 131
G695: Graduate Readings and Research in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Requires course authorization from Gender Studies (for authorization e-mail: gender@indiana.edu).
This course exists to enable Ph.D. Major and Minor students to undertake intensive independent study of topics not usually covered in existing courses. An appropriate faculty member who does research in the student's area of interest supervises study. Students interested in independent study should develop a topic prior to registration and in consultation with a faculty member and the Chair of Gender Studies. (section: 17120) Arr.
G696: Research Colloquium in Gender Studies (1-3 credits)
Requires course authorization from Gender Studies (for authorization e-mail: gender@indiana.edu).
This course exists to enable Ph.D. Major and Minor students to undertake intensive independent study of topics not usually covered in existing courses. An appropriate faculty member who does research in the student's area of interest supervises study. Students interested in independent study should develop a topic prior to registration and in consultation with a faculty member and the Chair of Gender Studies.
- Lecture: 9:00am-10:15am -W- Instructor: Arr (section : 27282) MO 313
G701/498: Graduate Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Dance, Gender & Embodied Discourse
Dance does not exist except as it is realized in the human body. Through its performance and its ability to elicit a kinesthetic response in performer and viewer alike, dance becomes elemental and gendered. Classical performance traditions, popular forms, and communally-embedded dance all address gender and the potential for embodied meanings. Embodied forms of discourse speak through a variety of voices and channels creating meanings that may be ambiguous and contradictory. We will examine form and meaning as we explore the danced body and its dialogic potential across Eastern and Western traditions both classical and popular. Seminar participants may choose any genre or tradition of dance or dance-theatre for their research.
- Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - TR - Instructor: Royce, A P (section : 28199) BH 209
G701: Graduate Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Gender and the Memoir
In memoir, apparently, you have to do with what you've got. You can't order a new shipment of materials. You're on a desert island, sorting your memories into little piles: Bobbie Ann Mason - Stranger than Fiction - 1998. This class will question how gender impacts memory and the craft of the memoir. How does gender determine the questions we ask of autobiography? What gendered choices have authors made as they constructed their texts? What forms? What metaphors? What issues? What similarities do we see between memoirs and what don't we see? This course will also examine the experience of gender interacts with a variety of social, economic, political, and sexual roles in order to understand how gender shapes experience. The exploration will include the influence of class, region, race, and ethnicity on modern memoir as they intertwine with gender, generation, and historical context. Texts will include: Dorothy Allison; Allison Bechdel; Phoebe Gloeckner; Lucy Grealy; Dave Eggers; Jane Gallop; Joyce Johnson; Alice Kaplan; Mary Karr; Brad Land; Loran Sage; Rebecca Walker; Marjane Sartrape; Edmund White; Richard Wright and others.
- Lecture: 4:00pm-6:30pm -W- Instructor: Maher, J (section : 28195) BH 335
G701: Graduate Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Comparative Gender Policies
The course will examine discursive politics and social movement practices to understand the conditions and processes that lead to gender public policies. While recognizing that public policies affect all people, this course will focus on policies that either directly or indirectly confront the way gender is constructed and maintained. Our primary focus will be on issues such as marriage and civil unions (both heterosexual and same-sex), reproduction (including abortion and reproductive technologies), family/ child policies (including perhaps adoption), soldiering and citizenship (including transgender considerations.) One of our emphases will be on comparing the discursive politics and political opportunity structures across nations for the same set of issues. Why does discourse develop differently, what are the conditions leading to different opportunity structures, and why are outcomes similar or different? The first two-thirds of the seminar will focus on a core set of readings, including both classics such as Skocpol's Protecting Soldier and Mothers and Mansbridge, Why We Lost the ERA, to new studies such as Outshoorn, The Politics of Prostitution: Women's Movements, Democratic States and the Globalisation of Sex Commerce (2004), Bernstein & Schaffner, Regulating Sex (2005) and Mazur, Theorizing Feminist Policy (2006). The last third of the semester will provide an opportunity for students to explore other policy areas not covered in the core readings. Readings will be drawn from political science, gender studies, sociology, and policy studies journals, books and edited volumes.
- Lecture: 1:15pm-3:20pm - M - Instructor: Robinson, J (section: 23348) WH 204
G701: Graduate Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Feminist Jurisprudence
This class explores a variety of feminist approaches to law. We will begin with a review of the development of several schools of feminist legal theory, including liberal feminism, cultural or relational feminism, dominance feminism, and postmodernist feminism. We will examine the perspective offered by these approaches on central issues in the philosophy of law, including the meaning of equality, the possibility of objectivity or neutrality, and the role of power. We will then apply these feminist theories to a range of legal issues, such as rape, sexual harassment and other employment discrimination, child custody, spousal abuse, the regulation of reproduction, and work/family conflict.
- Lecture: 1:15pm-2:10pm - MTW - Instructor: Williams, S (section: 26746) Law 213
G701/498: Graduate Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Gender & Comic Strips
Gender & Comic Strips explores the power of comic strips as purveyors of cultural information. Their ability to transmit various messages is enhanced by the fact that comics partake of at least two distinct discourses; the visual and the verbal. This course examines both the visual and verbal languages of comics and their intersection with gender, the body, sexuality, and politics. It scrutinizes different types of comics, from the religious to the secular. The course studies the ways in which purely verbal narratives, such as fairy tales and Biblical stories, are transformed into comic strips. Questions posed in this course are "What kinds of heroes, both male and female, live in the comics universe?" and "How do the verbal and visual languages interact to create that distinct discourse that is that of comics?".
- Lecture: 8:45am-10:45am - T - Instructor: Malti-Douglas, F (section: 23347) MME 131
G701: Graduate Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: African Women
African women carry heavy, growing responsibilities within their communities that bring them respect but rarely the resources they need. Following themes of autonomy and control of social, cultural and economic resources, we discuss alternatives and radical changes from pre-colonial to contemporary times and consider their relevance to African and US development policy, to African feminist concerns and to our own options. We will talk about how African women fit into important public discussions in Africa on economic development, urbanization, family breakdown, nationalism and religion. Some issues familiar in Western media, including famines, refugees, civil wars, Islamic and Christian fundamentalism, polygyny and AIDS, have special relevance for African women. They also can contribute distinctive experiences and ideas to our discussions of some problems Americans now feel sharply, such as preserving family and religious values, building mutual respect between men and women and between ethnic groups, teen or unwed mothers, budget cuts, unemployment and global economic competition. Basic concepts and analytic skills from this course will help you join in these debates effectively and learn critically from public media such as television and newspapers. By the end of the semester, you will know what major issues African women consider important to their lives, especially family and economic issues. You should be well aware of the broad range of diversity of viewpoints on these issues and familiar with some of the most common perspectives. You will also see the range of diversity in the situations of specific groups of African women, and be able to identify the most important local and international conditions that affect their position. We will concentrate on the factors that give women more or less access to key resources they need to provide security for themselves and their families. We will also consider how our actions and US government policies contribute to these influential factors.
- Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - TR - Instructor: Clark, G (section: 26742) SB 150
G702: Researching Gender Issues (3 credits)
Research methodologies and approaches relevant to Gender Studies are explored, with students applying 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. The course provides candidates with an overview of research tools, methods, techniques, approaches, paradigms, and theoretical contributions pertinent to research related to gender issues.
- Lecture: 9:30am-12:00pm - R - Instructor: Johnson, C (section: 26747) MME 131
G899: PhD Thesis (3 credits)
Requires course authorization from Gender Studies (for authorization e-mail: gender@indiana.edu).
This course exists to enable Ph.D. Major and Minor students to undertake intensive independent study of topics not usually covered in existing courses. An appropriate faculty member who does research in the student's area of interest supervises study. Students interested in independent study should develop a topic prior to registration and in consultation with a faculty member and the Chair of Gender Studies. (section: 27283) Arr.
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