Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Courses

WS 100. CONFRONTING INEQUALITY: WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SOCIETY (3) (GEN. ED. #9 AND #10)
An interdisciplinary examination of contemporary women's experience drawing on a variety of sources-scholarly journals, autobiography, fiction, poetry, political analysis-with an emphasis on racial and ethnic diversity. Focus is on issues such as sexualities, labor force, family, motherhood, education, cultural images, health, sexual violence, and political activism.
Fall semester. Department.

WS 150. WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES (3) (GEN. ED. #9 AND #10)
An interdisciplinary examination of women's status and activism worldwide, including regional and local comparisons and the roles of government, nongovernmental, and international organizations in shaping women's experiences.
Spring semester. François.

WS 180. GENDER AND PUBLIC POLICY: A WASHINGTON SEMINAR (3) (PSC 180)
An off-campus experience that provides students with a firsthand look at the policy-making process at the federal level. Faculty lectures supplemented by guest presentations by women judges, lobbyists, regulatory board members, congressional leaders, and government agency representatives. Policy briefings and site visits are an integral part of the seminar. Prerequisites: preliminary application and interview. First-year students are eligible to apply.
January intersession. Brown, Githens.

WS 192. POLITICS FOR EVERY WOMAN (3) (PSC 192)
Designed primarily for non-majors interested in enhancing their political awareness and skills as citizens and women. Relates traditional political concepts to practical politics for women in their many roles. Topics include the development of the concept of sisterhood and its relationship to political life and women's identity; issues such as rape, health care, equal rights, consumer affairs, welfare, and day care; avenues for political activity, such as volunteer associations and women's organizations; political campaigns; direct and indirect action techniques for political change; and alternatives to radical feminism. Guest speakers, field trips, and films.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10. Githens.

WS 217. LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN VOICES: ARGENTINA AND URUGUAY (3) (LAM 217) (GEN. ED. #9 AND #10)
A detailed introduction to the role of different women's groups in Argentina and Uruguay as protagonists of social movements. Personal narratives, fiction, film, history, and political activism will provide the framework for examining women's participation in the human rights and social movements. Prerequisite course to the three-week intensive study abroad during the January intersession in Argentina and Uruguay. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. Department.

WS 222. WOMEN AND LITERATURE (3) (ENG 222) (GEN. ED. #9 AND #10)
Topic for 2009-10 will be posted in the registration booklet.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. Department.

WS 224. IS THERE LIFE BEYOND THE LOOKING GLASS? GENDER, IDENTITY, AND RACE IN CARIBBEAN CULTURE (3) (GEN. ED. #9 AND #10)
An interdisciplinary examination of women, their families, and society in Caribbean culture. Emphasis is given to the process of representation and self-portraiture of women in the works of contemporary Caribbean women writers, including Jean Rhys, Simone Schwarz-Bart, Ramabai Espinet, Ana Lydia Vega, Michelle Cliff, Edwidge Danticat, and Jamaica Kincaid, as well as to the themes of colonialism, resistance, migration, and exile. Prerequisite:WS 100, 150, or sophomore standing.
Spring semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. François.

WS 225. WOMEN AND SEXUALITY (4) (GEN. ED. #4 AND #10)
An interdisciplinary examination of theories of women's sexuality and their impact on specific 19th- and 20th-century sociopolitical movements and issues, such as voluntary motherhood, prostitution, white slavery, social purity, trans-sexualism, and sexual preference. Prerequisite: WS 100 or 150 or sophomore standing.
Fall semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. Department.

WS 226. WOMEN, PEACE, AND PROTEST: LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE SEARCH FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE (3) (GEN. ED. #10) (LAM 226)
Examination of women's participation in the human rights, social, and economic movements. Focus on understanding if, why, and under what circumstances gender becomes a central force in the development of these movements.We will address three questions: Has the involvement of women helped to define the human rights movement in Latin America? To what extent have feminist theory and theories of the state accounted for the nature of women's protest? How and why were women instrumental in the political process that led from authoritarian to democratic rule in their countries? This course focuses primarily (but not exclusively) on women's movements in the southern cone countries: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.
Spring semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. François.

WS 227. BECOMING VISIBLE: FICTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL FEMALE IDENTITY (3)
This course looks at the social, cultural, and political construction of femininity within different sociopolitical contexts.We read an internationally diverse range of women writers from various countries from the non-Western world. Thus we can explore the concept of female marginality in various modalities and its relationship to questions of power and gender formation.We look at the geographical, political, personal and imaginative space women occupy and discuss how women move through the world both literally and figuratively.
Fall semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. François.

WS 229. CONTEMPORARY BRAZILIAN VOICES
Brazil is a country rich in haunting paradoxes, contradictions, awesome in its diversity and multiplicity with renowned writers, artists, and grassroots activists mostly unfamiliar to Americans. This interdisciplinary course aims to introduce students to selected contemporary Brazilian women writers, activists, and artists with emphasis on the complex web interconnecting and disconnecting representations of nationality, geography, race, class, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexuality. It is organized around a cultural/women's studies perspective, taking as a point of departure and returning to the dis-junctures between popular film constructions of Brazil and its people, in particular Brazilian women, by U.S./European filmmakers and representations by Brazilian themselves. Analyses of texts, films, telenovelas, music, and dance will center on fantasies/quests of female subjectivity or stardom in specific historical and contemporary contexts, as opposed to pervasive and entrenched national myths of racial democracy and pluralistic identities.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. François.

WS 230. CONTEMPORARY FEMINISMS: DIVERSE VOICES (3) (GEN. ED. #10)
An examination of feminists' analyses of women's status in America since the 1960s. This course focuses on issues raised and analytic frameworks used by Latina, African American, Native American, Asian American, and European American women in seeking to improve women's status and in theorizing gender inequalities. Prerequisite:WS 100 or 150 or sophomore standing.
Spring semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. Department.

WS 231. WORKING-CLASS WOMEN: THEORY, HISTORY, AND LITERATURE (3) (GEN. ED. #9 AND #10)
The term working-class has, in popular use become a short hand for white laborers. Furthermore, representations of the working-class often feature male laborers.Women and people of color are absent from popular depictions of the working class. This course will examine the writing of working-class women from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds, as well as from different sexual orientations. It will situate the literature in the context of theories on class and difference. Writers and theorists include Patricia Hill Collins, Gloria Anzaldua, Janet Zandy, Anzia Yezierska, Audre Lorde, Sandra Cisneros, Tillie Olsen, and Maxine Hong Kingston. The course will focus on working-class women writers from the United States but may include Canadian and Caribbean writers as well.
Spring semester. Offered 2010 and alternate years. Tokarczyk.

WS 232. AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN'S HISTORY (3)
This course will examine the social, political, and cultural history of African American women in the United States from the Colonial period through the present. Special attention will be given to the construction of race and the diversity of African American women's experiences in the United States.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-2010 and alternate years. Hoyt.

WS 233. SCIENCE AND GENDER (PHL 233)
Students will read feminist critiques of science and technology with attention to the ways in which science reinforces existing power structures, as well as the ways in which feminist scientists work to challenge those structures. Readings include work in feminist epistemology and standpoint theory, as well as critiques of feminist philosophy of science. Prerequisite: a 100-level course in philosophy.
Spring semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. Grebowicz.

WS 234. INTERNSHIP WITH WOMEN PUBLIC OFFICIALS (3-4) (PSC 234)
Internship working with women in public leadership positions combined with individual conferences or seminars focusing on governmental issues confronting women public officials and featuring briefings by political leaders. May be taken for letter grade only. Prerequisite: one political science course orWS 100 or 150.
Variable semesters. Brown, Githens.

WS 235. THE GENDERED BODY: A HISTORICAL AND FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE (3)
This course will examine how the ideal body image changes over time. Using historical and feminist analysis it will explore the importance of gender in the social and cultural construction of the body and the ways in which the media and culture help to construct the image of the ideal body.
Fall semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. Hoyt.

WS 236. WOMANIST THEOLOGY (3) (RLG 236) (GEN. ED. #10)
What is the meaning of faith for black women as they struggle for life and freedom? This course attempts to answer this question as it explores black women's religious/theological experience from a Christian perspective. Attention is given to the nature of the social/historical struggle that informs black women's understandings of themselves in relationship to God, church, and community. Focus is given to four distinct periods in black women's history: the Antebellum period, the period of the Great Migration, the Civil Rights era, and the contemporary situation. Reflective of the womanist tradition, this course accesses various media forms to discern the womanist religious experience. Prerequisite: one course in women's studies or religion and sophomore standing.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. Douglas.

WS 237. GENDER AND MIGRATION IN A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: I DETECT AN 'ACCENT' WHERE ARE YOU ORIGINALLY FROM?
Dominating recent policy discussion both in North America and Europe, migration has proven to be one of the most difficult and controversial topics of our time. This interdisciplinary course seeks to uncover recurrent and recognizable patterns and to create a dialogue that takes into account issues of gender, geography, race, and sexuality. Exploring the fundamental connections between gender and immigration it looks at how women and their bodies dramatize "the achievements" and/or "failures" of the nation and how these "successes" or "failures" figure differently in transnational contexts. It looks at how archaic hetero-normative images of family, the language of victim-hood, the erotics of immigration, and anxiety permeate national discourses of migration and how immigration laws are explicitly gendered but framed as genderneutral. Finally it considers how economic factors, geography, empire-building, political imperatives, racism, sexism, and the exploitation of national principles of security affect the contemporary lived experience of migration.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. François.

WS 240. WOMEN, WAR, AND PEACE (3)
An interdisciplinary examination of the female experience of war and efforts toward peace, from women's historical response to armed aggression to the contemporary feminist response to the threat of nuclear war. Examination of essays, novels, speeches, and historical works written by women about every aspect of war and peace work; exploration of the traditional treatment and analysis of women's involvement in war and the peace movement. Prerequisite:WS 100 or 150 or sophomore standing.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. Department.

WS 246. WOMEN AND GENDER IN MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY (3) (HIS 226)
This course examines modern Europe through the lens of women and gender, including topics such as the Enlightenment and women's rights, masculinity in revolutionary politics, Victorian domesticity, the rise of consumer cultures, discourses on sex, reproduction and women's bodies, the effects of colonialism on gender ideology, suffrage campaigns, gender politics during and after the two world wars, and negotiating gender across the ColdWar divide of Eastern and Western Europe. Prerequisite: HIS 117.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternating years. Fraser.

WS 250. SPECIAL TOPICS: AMERICAN WOMEN IN TIMES OF WAR (3) (GEN. ED. #10)
This course focuses on gender roles and women's issues by examining American women's roles during wartime. The focus will include a study of women's lives on the home front and in the military.We will read about women activists for peace in the different conflicts, as well as about women who fought to serve in the military. Feminist scholarship is key to many of these issues, especially those concerning sexuality, both on the home front and in the military.We will consider issues surrounding homosexuality and rumors of prostitution during WorldWar II, as well as African American women's experiences in the CivilWar and wars that occurred during the 20th century.
Fall semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. Hoyt.

WS 260. WOMEN AND THE LAW (3) (PSC 260) (GEN. ED. #7 AND #10)
Focus on current issues involving women and the law including family law, reproductive rights, violence against women, employment, pregnancy, pensions, sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and women in poverty. Prerequisite:WS 100 or 150 or sophomore standing.
Variable semesters. Department.

WS 265. LAW, ETHICS, AND PUBLIC POLICY: CURRENT ISSUES (3) (GEN. ED. #10)
An examination of the legal, ethical, and public policy questions raised by controversial contemporary issues. Topic: abortion and reproductive technology. Focus on the impact of these issues on women's lives. Prerequisite:WS 100 or 150 or sophomore standing.
Variable semesters. Department.

WS 270. SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER ROLES (3) (SOC 270)
Assessment of changing roles of men and women in modern societies. Review of theories explaining gender differences as a basic mechanism of social organization. Impact of gender roles on love relationships, family, work, and political reality. Prerequisite: SOC 106 or ANT 107 or sophomore standing.
Fall semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. Shope.

WS 272G. INTENSIVE COURSE ABROAD (GEN. ED. #3)
Course includes a three-week intensive course abroad during the winter intersession or summer.

ARGENTINA AND URUGUAY (3)
Three-week intensive course in Argentina and Uruguay. This course will encourage a great deal of interdisciplinary study among students by examining contemporary women's activism in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The course integrates readings and lectures by historians, political scientists, women's groups, and human rights activists.
Summer 2009. François, Murphy.

WS 272Y. INTENSIVE COURSE ABROAD (GEN. ED. #3)
Courses include a pre-departure preparation or post-departure discussion (or both in the Fall or Spring semester) and a three-week intensive course abroad in January or the summer.

WS 274. WOMEN AND WORK: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE (3) (SOC 274)
Impact of economic systems on female workers, consumers, volunteers, and housewives. Analysis of theoretical explanations of women's patterns of low-paid employment, unemployment, relation to unions, media, and government. Social and economic problems of women heads of family, minorities, and unemployed homemakers. Prerequisite: SOC 106 or ANT 107 or sophomore standing.
Fall semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. Burton.

WS 276. FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY (3) (PHL 276) (GEN. ED. #10)
A philosophical study of questions of gender and gender inequality. The class will explore the sex/gender distinction; social construction of femininity and masculinity; theories of male normativity and masculine privilege; and various, competing strategies for resistance. Students will reflect on gender in relation to other social inequalities, with particular attention to sexuality and heterosexism. Prerequisite: sophomore standing, 100-level philosophy course, or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. Grebowicz.

WS 277. SEX WORK: ETHICAL AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE (3) (PHL 277)
Sex is one of the most controversial areas of feminist inquiry.While so much of the U.S. women's movement has fought to eliminate the (legal and illegal) trafficking in women's bodies, an equal amount of feminist work goes toward improving the lives and social/legal status of sex workers. This course studies the history of sex work to examine how race, class, and gender provide a basis for ethical debates on prostitution and pornography. Questions of who decides what is moral and not, what is healthy, or sick, what is considered obscene in modern society, and how these questions have been answered through the years. Prerequisites: Any one of the following: PHL 115, 276, or 237 and any one of the following women's studies courses: WS 100, 120, 225, or 230 or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. Grebowicz.

WS 282. WOMEN OF NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST (3) (HIS 282) (GEN. ED. #9 AND #10)
This course examines the role of women in the greater Middle East region, from the pre-Islamic period through the present. Using primary sources, memoirs, and visual material, the course compares and examines the impact of religion (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), empire, slavery, colonialism, and nationalism on women in Arab, Iranian, Israeli, and Turkish civil society and history. Prerequisite:WS 150, a 100-level history course, or sophomore standing.
Fall semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. François.

WS 290. INTERNSHIP IN WOMEN'S STUDIES (3-4)
Placements in settings where issues of past and present concern to women can be studied. Prerequisite: one course in women's studies. Graded pass/no pass only.
Department.

WS 299. INDEPENDENT WORK (1.5-4)
Department.

WS 300. SEMINAR IN SELECTED TOPICS IN WOMEN'S STUDIES (3) (GEN. ED. #4 AND #10)
An interdisciplinary seminar aimed at integrating theoretical approaches and research on women that have emerged from a number of academic disciplines Prerequisite:WS 100 or 150.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. Hoyt.

WS 320. TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST THEORY AND WOMEN'S ACTIVISM (3) (GEN. ED. #7 AND #10)
Crossing the boundaries of nationality, ethnicity, citizenship, sexuality, and genre, this course brings together a plurality of women's voices of the non-Western world that counter colonial, post-colonial, multinational, and masculine paradigms of "otherness." The central aims are to examine the extent to which their activism and theoretical thinking grew out of historical conditions, to establish a dialog that forms the wide-ranging spectrum of women's experiences across the globe, and to assess these social and political writings for national change in the 21st century. Prerequisite: junior standing.
Fall semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. François.

WS 323. COMPARATIVE PUBLIC POLICY AND GENDER (3) (PSC 323)
Examination of the public policy process in comparative perspective, focusing on four policy areas affecting women: population control, employment, education, and health care. The role of women in the formulation and implementation of public policies in these areas. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Spring semester. Offered 2009-10 and alternate years. Githens.

WS 382. GENDER AND MEDIA IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH (3)
This course explores the complex relationships among media images, cultural values, and development of gendered identities in the global south.We will examine media-both visual and print-in their various representations.We will look at the transformation of women on the screen and the empowerment of women both in front of and behind the camera. Film screenings, readings, and discussions by female directors will address the contemporary sites of dynamic tensions between the local and the global and the religious and the secular; the public sphere; the role of broadcast media, the Internet (cyber-Islam galaxy); and the exposure to information and ideas that challenge norms. Prerequisite: WS 282 or COM 257.
Fall semester. Offered 2010-11. François.

WS 386. WOMEN, ART, AND SOCIETY (3) (ART 386)
An examination of the role women have played as producers and consumers and as the subject matter of the visual arts in theWestern tradition. Emphasis on the treatment of women's contributions to the visual arts and on issues of gender and ideology within the discipline of art history. Prerequisite: one 200-level art history course or junior standing or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester. Offered 2010-11 and alternate years. Husch.

WS 390. INTERNSHIP IN WOMEN'S STUDIES (3-4)
Prerequisite: WS 290 or permission of the director. May be taken for letter grade or pass/no pass.
Department.

WS 399. ADVANCED INDEPENDENT WORK (3-4)

COURSES OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO WOMEN'S STUDIES MAJORS

Communication

• COM 213. Making Sense of Popular Culture

• COM 245. Film Theory and History II

• COM 301. Problems in Human Communication

• COM 307. Special Topics in Film

English

• ENG 226. Nonfiction Prose

• ENG 272. Literature of the Harlem Renaissance

• ENG 361. Studies in Fiction

French

• FR 330. Special Topics in French Literature

• FR 351. Topics in Francophone African Literature and Cinema

History

• HIS 215. Social History of Europe: 1750-2000

• HIS 255. Architectural Space and the American Family Experience

Political Science

• PSC 202. Contemporary Political Thought

• PSC 224. European Politics

• PSC 225. British Politics

• PSC 271. Civil Rights in the American Constitutional System

• PSC 321. Terrorism, Political Violence, and Revolution

Peace Studies

• PCE 251. Human Rights

• PCE 310. International Human Rights Law

Philosophy and Religion

• PHL 115. Race, Gender, and Sexuality

Psychology

• PSY 220. Personality Theory

• PSY 225. Myths and Mysteries of Human Relationships

• PSY 226. Topics in Relational Psychology

Sociology

• SOC 221. Courtship, Marriage, and Family

• SOC 225. FromWomb to Tomb: Perspectives on the Lifecourse

• SOC 228. Social Problems

• SOC 240. The Social Construction of Human Sexuality

• SOC 245. Wealth, Power, and Prestige

• SOC 250. Criminal Justice

• SOC 260. Deviance and Social Control

• SOC 271. Protest! Legacy of the Sixties

• SOC 387. Seminar in Social Psychology

• SOC 392. Seminar: Domestic Violence