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Course Descriptions
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. Tarrant.
WS 150. Women’s Experiences in Global Perspective (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.
Fall semester. Francois.
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. Prerequisite: Preliminary application and interview required. 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; alternatives to radical feminism. Guest speakers, field trips, films.
Spring semester. Githens. Offered 2007-08.
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 womwn's groups in Argentina and Uruguay as protagonists of social movements. Personnal narratives, fiction, film, history , and political activism will provide the framework for examining women's participation in the human rights and social movements. Pre-requisite course to the three-week intensive study abroad during the January intersession in Argentina and Uruguay.
Fall semester. Department. Variable.
WS 221. Representations of Female Identity: Post Colonial
Perspectives (3) (GEN. ED. #9 and #10)
Drawing on specific socioeconomic, historical, and cultural contexts and using the framework of gender construction in post colonial feminist analysis, this course focuses on the representation of female identity by selected contemporary men and women writers in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Some of the writers included are: Tahar ben Jelloun (Morocco), Nurrudin Farah (Somalia), Chinua Achebe (Nigeria), Jacques Roumain (Haiti), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia), Diamela Eltit (Chile), Bessie Head (Botswana). Prerequisites: WS 100 or 150, or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester. Francois. Offered 2008-09 and alternate years.
WS 222. Women and Literature (3) (ENG 222) (GEN. ED. #9 and #10)
Topic for 2007-08: Working Class Women's Literature.
Fall semester. Cordish. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
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, Merle Hodge, 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. Francois. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
WS 225. Women and Sexuality (3) (GEN. ED. #7 and #10)
An interdisciplinary examination of theories of women’s sexuality and their impact on specific 19th- and 20th-century sociopolitical movements and issues like voluntary motherhood, anti-prostitution, white slavery, social purity, transsexualism, and sexual preference. Prerequisite: WS 100 or 150, or sophomore standing.
Fall semester. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
WS 226. Women, Peace and Protest: Latin American Women and the Search for Social Justice (3) (GEN. ED. #10)
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.
Fall semester. Francois. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
WS 227. Becoming Visible: The Metamorphosis of Modern
Woman (3)
This interdisciplinary course examines how American women interpreted changes occurring in their lives during the transition from Victorianism to the Jazz Age and how these women responded to social changes through activism in suffrage, birth control, and peace and racial justice movements. Analysis of primary and secondary sources, exploration of implications of the work of Addam, Chopin, Cooper, Gilman, Hurston, Sanger, Wells, and Wharton for contemporary issues. Prerequisites: WS 100, or 150, or sophomore standing.
Fall semester. Francois. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
WS 230. Contemporary Feminisms: Diverse Voices (3) (GEN. ED. #7)
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.
Fall semester. Offered 2008-09 and alternate years.
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. 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. Graded pass/no pass only. Prerequisite: One political science course or WS 100, or WS 150.
Githens.
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 which 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 in a effort to discern the womanist religious experience. Prerequisite: One course in women’s studies or religion and sophomore standing.
Spring semester. Douglas. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
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 2005-06 and alternate years.
WS 250. What Young Feminists are Talking About (3) (GEN. ED. #7 and #10)
An interdisciplinary exploration of selected topics in women’s studies. Topic for 2005-06: Fit to Be: Women and Their Bodies. An interdisciplinary exploration of women’s experiences with their physical selves, past and present. Focus on such issues as the relationship between appearance and self-worth; sculpting the body (surgery, dieting, exercise, clothing); cultural images and lived reality; and appearance as a determinant of women’s status. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Fall semester. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
WS 260. Women and the Law (3) (PSC 260) (GEN. ED. #7 and #10)
Focus on current issues involving women in the law: family law; reproductive rights; violence against women; employment, pregnancy and pensions; sexual harassment; sex discrimination; and women in poverty. Prerequisite: WS 100 or 150 or sophomore standing.
Spring semester. 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.
Fall semester. Offered 2008-09 and alternate years.
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, political reality. Prerequisite: SOC 106, or ANT 107, or sophomore standing.
Fall semester. Shope. Offered 2008-09 and alternate years.
WS 272Y. Intensive Course Abroad (LAM 272Y)
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.
Spring semester. Burton. Offered 2008-09 and alternate years.
WS 276. Feminist Philosophy (3) (PHL 276) (GEN. ED. #10)
The significance of gender according to four feminist philosophers: Simone de Beauvoir (an existentialist), Luce Irigaray (a psychoanalyst and phenomenologist), Carol Gilligan (a moral psychologist), and Catharine MacKinnon (a legal theorist). An examination of de Beauvoir’s discussion of woman as Other, Irigaray’s notion of the repressed female imaginary, the distinction between the “justice” and “care” perspectives that emerges in Gilligan’s research, and MacKinnon’s notion that “the law sees and treats women the way men see and treat women.”
Spring semester. Grebowicz. Offered 2008-09 and alternate years.
WS 282. Women in 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. Francois. Offered 2008-09 and alternate years.
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)
An interdisciplinary seminar aimed at integrating theoretical approaches and research on women that have emerged from a number of academic disciplines. Topic from 2003: Women and Humor. By examining various genres of women’s humor, this course explore, how humor is gendered; how women use humor as a protest against the the conventions of femininity and for political change; and for self exploration and definition. Emphasis is on women’s written and performance humor and comedy. Prerequisite: WS 100 or WS 150.
Spring semester. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
WS 308. Jewish and Christian Feminism (3) (RLG 308)
What do feminism and religious traditions have to say to one another? In this course students read both autobiography and theological texts written by women struggling with questions having to do with feminism and the religious traditions of Judaism and Christianity. Students explore themes such as the understanding of God, interpretation of sacred texts and halakhah, the meaning of community, sexuality, ritual, etc. This course also incorporates opportunities for students to pursue their own questions vis-á-vis feminism, Judaism and Christianity, through interviews and guest speakers, students attend to and analyze the religious life journeys of a variety women in their own community. Prerequisite: One course in women’s studies or religion and sophomore standing.
Variable semesters. Department.
WS 320. International Feminist Theory and Women’s Activism (3) (GEN. ED. #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, postcolonial, multinational, masculine paradigms of otherness. The central aim is to examine the extent to which their activism and theoretical thinking grew out of historical conditions; to establish a dialog which forms the wide-ranging spectrum of women’s experiences across the globe; to assess these social and political writings for national change in the 21st century. Readings may include writings by Hanan Ashrawi (Palestine), Trinh Minh-Ha (Vietnam), Lila Ahmed (Egypt), Molara Ogundipe-Leslie (Nigeria), Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma), Chandra Talpade Mohanty (India), Marjorie Agosin (Chile), Jacqui Alexander (Trinidad), and others. Prerequisite: Junior standing.
Fall semester. Francois. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
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.
Fall semester. Githens. Offered 2007-08 and alternate years.
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 the western 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. Husch. Offered 2008-09 and alternate years.
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.
Courses of Special Interest to Women’s Studies Majors
Communication
COM 213. Making Sense of Popular Culture
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 371. Seminar in American Literature (Topic for 2004-05: Modern American Novels)
History
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
Philosophy and Religion
RLG 236. Womanist Theology
RLG 253. Sexuality and the Christian Tradition
Psychology
PSY 220. Personality Theory
PSY 225. Myths and Mysteries of Human Relationships
PSY 226. Topics in Relational Psychology
PSY 230. Social Psychology
Sociology
SOC 221. Courtship, Marriage, and Family
SOC 225. From Womb to Tomb: Perspectives on the Lifecourse
SOC 228. Social Problems
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
Spanish
SP 345. Selected Topics in Latin American Literature