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[Summer Courses]
Women, Culture, Difference (WST 103)
Andy Eicher
Online- Summer I
An introductory humanities survey focusing on women's traditional association with
the home and men's association with public life and how writers, artists, philosophers,
and religious thinkers have reflected upon those relationships over the past 150 years.
Through lectures and critical analyses of novels, poetry, art, philosophy, and religious
texts, the course explores how changing intellectual, artistic, and religious precepts
have affected gender identity and different genres in the humanities.
Gender and Horror Films (WST 210)
Tara Holmes
Online- Summer I
The horror film has always had a very obvious preoccupation with issues of gender,
sexual difference, and sexuality; but how are these issues connected to what makes
a film horrifying? In an attempt to move away from conceiving of the horror genre
as being inherently misogynistic, the focus of this class is on films that feature
strong, non-normative, and/or monstrous female characters. What times of differences
(race, gender, class, sexuality) are encoded in the representations of these women
and what makes them monstrous? Students will begin by engaging with landmark feminist
film theory in order to build a theoretical foundation from which critically interrogate
gender ideologies of the horror film and its many sub-genres. The main focus of the
class is to subject horror films to a feminist analysis which critiques larger structures
of power that influence the articulation of race, class, gender, and sexuality.
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Introduction to Feminist Theory (WST 291)
Allyse Knox
Online- Summer I
An introductory survey of historical and contemporary interdisciplinary theories used
in Women's and Gender Studies. Theoretical debates on sex, gender, sexuality, race,
class, knowledge, discourse, representation are among the topics to be considered.
The course will provide a strong theoretical foundation for further studies in Women's
and Gender Studies.
Introduction to Feminist Theory (WST 291)
Melis Umut
Online- Summer II
An introductory survey of historical and contemporary interdisciplinary theories used
in Women's and Gender Studies. Theoretical debates on sex, gender, sexuality, race,
class, knowledge, discourse, representation are among the topics to be considered.
The course will provide a strong theoretical foundation for further studies in Women's
and Gender Studies.
Transnational Feminism (WST 398)
Yalda Hamidi
Online- Summer II
This course will introduce students to feminist theory in a transnational context
and draw upon postcolonial theories that seek to situate gender and race relations
within the historical context of colonialism and its aftermath. Our primary focus
will be to deconstruct the idea of these so-called other women in the discourse of
white feminism, and then we will continue by reading, watching and discussing the
literature of other women of the world to broaden our understanding of them, as well
as ourselves. The representation of the non-white and non-western women of the world
is not the story of their victimization, but one that reveals the resistance they
expressed in the face of colonialism, classism, sexism and racism. In this course,
we are going to talk about the process of colonization both inside and outside colonies.
In the literature of white feminism and Orientalism, these people are portrayed as
voiceless victims of their misery, and unfortunately, this idea bleeds into some of
the western feminist thoughts of the 20th and 21st centuries. But thanks to postcolonial
and transnational critics and thinkers like Chandra Mohanty and Sara Ahmed, and Margot
Badran, among others, in this course, we will know more now about these women’s lives,
their agencies, strategies, and viewpoints.
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[Fall Courses]
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies in the Social Sciences (WST 102)
Teri Tiso
Tuesday and Thursday, 11:30 a.m. - 12:50 p.m.
This course is an introductory and interdisciplinary survey that will familiarize
students with gender and sexuality theories, histories of women’s and feminist movements,
and current debates within Women’s and Gender Studies. We draw on sources from across
the social sciences to understand how gender and sex is explained with respect to
specific physical bodies; formulates identities within gendered institutions; and
influences our everyday personal and political interactions. Critically thinking of
these issues can only occur when we include the intersection of racial, class, age,
ableist and national identities within our analysis. The overarching theme of power,
hierarchy, and privilege in structured(ing) institutions will always guide our study.
Women, Culture, Difference (WST 103)
Ritch Calvin
Tuesday and Thursday, 1:00-2:20 p.m.
An introductory humanities survey focusing on women's traditional association with
the home and men's association with public life and how writers, artists, philosophers,
and religious thinkers have reflected upon those relationships over the past 150 years.
Through lectures and critical analyses of novels, poetry, art, philosophy, and religious
texts, the course explores how changing intellectual, artistic, and religious precepts
have affected gender identity and different genres in the humanities.
Women, Culture Difference (WST 103)
Yalda Hamidi
Tuesday and Thursday, 8:30- 9:50 a.m.
An introductory humanities survey focusing on women's traditional association with
the home and men's association with public life and how writers, artists, philosophers,
and religious thinkers have reflected upon those relationships over the past 150 years.
Through lectures and critical analyses of novels, poetry, art, philosophy, and religious
texts, the course explores how changing intellectual, artistic, and religious precepts
have affected gender identity and different genres in the humanities.
Introduction to Queer Studies (WST 111)
Andy Eicher
Monday and Wednesday, 4:00-5:20 p.m.
This course will provide students with a broad overview of queer studies and major
theorists and thinkers within the field. Beginning with Foucault before turning to
more contemporary theorists, this course will be an interdisciplinary approach to
American queer studies. Through the examination of visual culture, literature, and
theory, students will learn to read critically through the lenses of queer theory,
critical ethnic studies, disability studies, and feminist theory.
Contemporary Issues in Women’s and Gender Studies:
Gender, Sexuality, and Political Organising around the World (WST 210)
Alexandra Novitskaya
Monday
and
Wednesday
,
5:30-6:50 p.m.
Sociology of Gender (WST 247)
Kathleen Fallon
Monday and Wednesday, 2:30-3:50 p.m.
The historical and contemporary roles of women and men in American society; changing
relations between the sexes; women's liberation and related movements. Themes are
situated within the context of historical developments in the U.S. This course is
offered as both SOC 247 and WST 247.
Introduction to Feminist Theory (WST 291)
Victoria Hesford
Tuesday and Thursday, 11:30 a.m. -12:50 p.m
This course provides an introductory survey of historical and contemporary interdisciplinary
feminist theory. The class is designed to introduce you to a wide variety of feminist
theories from different perspectives and areas of knowledge production. One of our
goals for the semester will be to create a “theory toolbox” through our engagement
with a range of theoretical perspectives on questions of sex, gender, sexuality, race,
class, knowledge, discourse, and representation as they effect and shape social and
economic forms of power including, nationalism,
capitalism, imperialism, and war. The emphasis of the course will remain focused on
the theories produced by feminists to help explain and resist dominant or exploitative
forms of power. We will also pay attention to the variety of theories produced and
the contradictions and conflicts that may arise between feminists as a result. There
has never been just one way of being a feminist, nor has there been only one feminist
theory. A primary aim of the course is to map the diversity of feminist theoretical
interests and solutions from different times and places. This course will provide
a strong theoretical foundation for further studies in Women’s and Gender Studies.
Histories of Feminism (WST 301)
Nancy Hiemstra
Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00- 11:20 a.m.
This course offers a historical study of the theoretical and practical developments
that form contemporary feminism. Although the course will concentrate primarily on
feminist histories in the United States, it will also place those histories within
a global context, paying close attention to class and race as well as gender. To that
end, we will examine a variety of materials including historical studies, theoretical
essays, literature, and film. The course will follow a roughly chronological order
beginning with the emergence of the idea of “Women’s Rights” during the late
18th century, and ending with the emergence of the concepts of global and third wave
feminisms in the 1990s and beyond. We will consider the questions: How do we know
a feminist when we see/read one? What makes something feminist?
Feminist Theories in Context (WST 305)
Melissa M. Forbis
Monday and Wednesday, 4:00-5:20 p.m.
This course will examine the key debates and concepts that have informed contemporary
articulations of feminist theory. We will focus on how feminist theory is produced,
along with gender, through configurations of nation, race, citizenship, sexuality,
and class in different historical and cultural contexts. We will begin with a brief
look at the shifts in feminist theory from the 1970s to the early 21st century by
examining a selection of classic texts. Reading across disciplines, we will employ
a transnational and decolonial feminist perspective to examine the continuities and
ruptures of feminist theorizing in diverse locations, challenging the presumed location
of
theory
in the West/Global North and the middle-class. Finally, we will work collectively
to trace the conditions and contours of emerging feminist thought.
Gender and the Law (WST 330)
Wednesday, 5:30- 8:30 p.m.
A critical exploration of American law that specifically addresses the issues of (in)equality
of women and men in the United States. The course surveys and analyzes cases from
the pre-Civil War era to the end of the 20th century dealing with various manifestations
of sex discrimination, decided in the federal court system, typically by the Supreme
Court, and the state court system. The course also considers how the political nature
of the adjudicative process has ramifications for the decisions rendered by a court.
This course is offered as both POL 330 and WST 330.
Sociology of Human Reproduction (WST 340)
Catherine Marrone
Wednesday, 7:00-9:50 p.m.
A study of the links between biological reproduction and the socioeconomic and cultural
processes that affect and are affected by it. The history of the transition from high
levels of fertility and mortality to low levels of both; different kinship, gender,
and family systems around the world and their links to human reproduction; the value
of children in different social contexts; and the social implications of new reproductive
technologies. This course is offered as both SOC 340 and WST 340.
Women and Gender in Chinese History (WST 345)
Iona Man-Cheong
Tuesday and Thursday, 11:30 a.m.- 12:50 p.m.
Exploration of traditional cultural practices and values, and the 20th-century changes
in Western and Asian relations in China brought about by nationalism, interaction
with Western influences, and socialist rule. This course is offered as HIS 345 and
WST 345.
Historical Perspective on Sexual Orientation: LGBTQ Histories (WST 374)
Liz Montegary
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30- 3:50 p.m.
This course will examine the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer
(LGBTQ) identities, cultural practices, and political movements in the United States.
From the invention of homosexuality during the late 19
th
century to the recent battles over the “transgender bathroom” issue, this course
aims to make historical sense of the social construction of gender and sexual identities.
We will analyze the entanglement of heterosexism and transphobia with racism, ableism,
and classism, and we will consider the limits and possibilities of the strategies
LGBTQ activists have developed for resisting these intersecting violences. In addition
to reading critical queer and trans studies scholarship on the history of gender and
sexuality and the practice of historical analysis, this course also asks students
to engage with primary source materials spanning the twentieth century, including
memoirs, oral histories, archival projects, activist ephemera, and artistic productions.
Black Women’s Literature of the African Diaspora (WST 382)
Tracey Walters
Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00- 11:20 a.m.
Black women's literature presents students with the opportunity to examine through
literature the political, social, and historical experiences of Black women from the
African Diaspora. The course is structured around five major themes commonly addressed
in Black women's writing: Black female oppression, sexual politics of Black womanhood,
Black female sexuality, Black male/female relationships, and Black women and defining
self. This course is offered as AFH 382, EGL 382, and WST 382.
Special Topics in Women’s and Gender Studies in the Humanities (WST 391)
Teri Tiso
Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. - 12:50 p.m.
Designed for upper-division students, this course provides an in-depth study of specific
current topics in women's and gender studies within humanities disciplines such as
literature, art, music, religion, and philosophy. Past topics include World Women
Writers, Music and Sexuality, Contemporary Memoirs, and Alice Walker. May be repeated
as the topic changes.
Documenting Mental Illness (WST 392)
Lisa Diedrich
Tuesday and Thursday, 1:00-2:20 p.m.
Mental illness often comes into public consciousness in the United States through
the specter of violence, such as in the many recent horrific mass shootings: at Sandy
Hook Elementary School, at the screening of Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado,
of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson, Arizona, and of 32 students
and faculty at Virginia Tech in 2007. The media frenzy that accompanies these tragic
events presents a picture of mental illness that is at best limited and at worst harmful.
In this course we will explore mental illness as a category of analysis that comes
into being through a multiplicity of discourses, practices, and institutions. We will
look at a variety of cases studies about the experience and event of mental illness
in diverse families and communities presented in a variety of genres and forms—psychological
and sociological analyses, documentary and feature films, graphic and prose memoirs,
and through interviews with people who deal with mental illness in their daily lives.
Our goal is to expand and complicate our understanding of mental illness, as well
as to think broadly and creatively about effective ways to treat mental illness and
generate personal and social well being.
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Protest and State Violence (WST 395)
Melissa M. Forbis
Monday and Wednesday, 2:30- 3:50 p.m.
Focusing on the Americas, this course explores histories and contemporary issues of
state sanctioned violence, everyday violence that emerges through and from our social
institutions and structures, and protest and dissent. Working from a transnational
feminist perspective, we will consider on a range of recent and emerging movements
for social justice that foreground issues of gender, race, and sexuality. Our comparative
study of these movements in a diversity of national and transnational arenas will
foster an understanding of the historical contexts and political conditions that give
rise to both violence and resistance. Combining key theoretical texts, social science
readings, films, literature, and social media, this interdisciplinary course looks
at those issues, and focuses on how communities and movements across the Americas
are actively working to oppose their oppression and create sustainable futures. May
be repeated as the topic changes.
Sex, Publics, and Space in the U.S. (WST 399)
Victoria Hesford
Tuesday and Thursday, 4:00-5:20 p.m.
In this course we will study sexuality as a set of institutions and practices that
changes over time and in relation to different groups of people. Drawing upon work
in the fields of American Studies, Queer Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies,
we will chart some of the ways in which different sexual practices and publics, ways
of life, and identities have been made in the U.S., how they emerged out of social
and economic changes in the nineteenth century, and how they were formed in relation
to major events in the twentieth century, including World War II, and the Civil Rights,
Black Power, and women’s and gay liberation movements. The questions we will ask are:
what is sexuality? Who gets to have sex? How and why do areas of social life and cultural
practice, like sports for example, get sexualized? Why do schools, families, and government
institutions care about how we have sex, where we have it, and with who? What is “normal”
sexuality in the U.S., and how have different groups conceived of their sexual identities
in relation to, and as a reaction against, those norms? How does sexuality operate
in relation to race and gender, as well as class? May be repeated as the topic changes.
Senior Research Seminar for Majors and Minors (WST 407/408)
Mary Jo Bona
Tuesday, 1:00-3:50 p.m.
An exploration of significant feminist scholarship in various disciplines, designed
for senior women's and gender studies majors. Seminar participants present and discuss
reports on their reading and research.
