Gender & Women's Studies Courses

GWST 101 Women, Culture, and Society

An introduction to the analysis of culture and society from a feminist perspective. Using gender as a category of analysis, and with attention to the distribution of power in society, we explore such questions as: What are the shaping influences on women's lives and how do women's lives compare with men's? What is the interplay of gender, race, and class in cultural forms and social institutions? What kinds of biases have shaped our understanding of biological "facts," literary "value" and historical "importance"?

GWST 205 Queer Indigeneities

We will explore the power of Queer Indigeneities to disrupt fictions around Indigenous peoples imposed by Western hetero-patriarchy and Christian mythologies about Indigenous sexualities. We will trace a genealogy of theorists, activists, creative writers, performance artists, and filmmakers who employ Indigenous-centered approaches to understanding gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and Two-Spirit (GLBTQ2) lives and communities. This course traverses disciplines including literature, performance studies, queer theory, and Indigenous feminisms, while critiquing the relationship between colonialism and hetero-patriarchy. The course foregrounds contemporary queer Indigenous lived experience(s) and conversations in Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous Studies.

GWST 207 Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement

An historical survey of Black women in the modern Civil Rights Movement, especially of their significant contributions. We shall explore the virtual silence regarding those contributions for almost a quarter of a century and how that silence was broken. The most prominent organizations will be examined and the gender and class issues that evolved. Finally, the sexism of Black men in the movement will be assessed, along with interracial relationships.

GWST 208 The Sociology of Gender

This course provides an examination of the ways in which social systems create, maintain, and reproduce gender dichotomies with specific attention to the significance of gender in interaction, culture, and a number of institutional contexts, including work, politics, family, and nation.

GWST 221 Gender and Literature

Emphasis is on the use of gender as a category of analysis by which to examine literary characters, styles, and techniques, as well as the circumstances and ideology of authors, readers, and the literary canon.

GWST 222 Women and Modern Chinese Literature

This course explores the crucial role that women played in shaping modern Chinese literature. We will make close readings of short stories, autobiographies, novel excerpts, and complete novelettes of mostly female writers, exploring the ideas, themes, and theories that they were exploring while breaking new ground. We will also be dissecting these readings through our own contemporary literary lenses as a means of expanding the students' skills of literary interpretation and criticism that will be a concomitant benefit to the expansion of the students' knowledge of China and both its literary and historical past.

GWST 235 African American Women Writers

A broad survey of the poetry, fiction, autobiographies and literary criticism of African American women. Beginning with late eighteenth-century poetry, we explore the themes and images of black women and men, language, settings, and form of that literature. With African American women at the center of discourse speaking as subjects, we further examine the interlocking of gender, race, and class and the uniqueness of their experience as reflected in their literature, as well as how the historical context of internal colonialism has affected their voices.

GWST 238 Latin American Women Writers

The past two decades have seen the rise of an unprecedented number of Latin American women writers who have made important aesthetic contributions to the literary traditions of their countries. This course examines some of their works paying special attention to the gendered politics and poetics of the text. Among some of the works included are Nellie Campobello's novels of the Mexican Revolution, the testimonial narrative of Elena Poniatowska, the magical realist works of Isabel Allende. All works are read in English translations.

GWST 243 Philosophies of Feminism

This course explores the theoretical frameworks by which feminists explain the exploitation and oppression of women. The aim of this course is to understand how feminists conceive of sexism, how they model a nonsexist society, and the manner in which they believe this society may be established. We proceed historically, beginning with Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of A Woman, ending with contemporary feminist issues. Among the varieties of feminist thought covered are Enlightenment feminism, cultural feminism, Marxist feminism, psychoanalytic feminism, radical feminism and contemporary French feminism.

GWST 248 Teaching Assistant 1/2 or 1

GWST 261 Women and Film

This is a course examining the representation of women in the cinematic medium. We will especially focus on the intersection of two interpretive theories, psychoanalysis and feminism, and their multi-varied application to the literary text that is cinema, with particular interest in questions of dream, hysteria and transference.

GWST 267D History of Gender and Sexuality in the U.S.

This course seeks to recover the shifting history of what gender and sexual identity have meant in American history to the present day. Personal choice, cultural possibility, and the operations of the state have all come together to shape the ways in which people experienced sex and attraction (or did not), and understood masculinity, femininity, and non-binary identities over time. Through readings, short stories, oral histories, illustrations, and photographs we will engage with this history in search of a more complex understanding of present-day debates around these issues.

GWST 271 Human Sexuality

An analysis and discussion of information and misinformation concerning human sexual anatomy and physiology, evolutionary and historical foundations of attitudes towards sexuality, sexuality research, sexual response and techniques of arousal, emotional health, contraception, STDs, diversity and cultural issues. Various research techniques are also discussed. Student participation and presentation are a major part of the course.

GWST 280 Feminist Methodologies

The course examines the fundamental questions characteristic of the interdisciplinary field of Women's Studies, and explores the contributions of feminist scholarship in several specific disciplines that contribute to this field, such as literature, history, anthropology and sociology, philosophy of science, and psychology. Readings include both classic statements and recent writings.

GWST 295 Special Topics 1/2 or 1

Courses offered occasionally to students in special areas of Gender and Women's Studies not covered in the usual curriculum.

GWST 322 Women and Modern Chinese Literature

See description of ASIA 221. Additional research component and consent of the Instructor required for GWST 322.

GWST 326 Psychological Anthropology: Self, Culture, and Society

How is our subjective experience of ourselves and others shaped by the social and cultural context in which we live? How might one investigate this? Are Western accounts of human psychology valid cross-culturally? Drawing on recent research in the field of psychological anthropology, this course takes a comparative approach to such topics as emotional experience and its expression, gender identity, the role of power in social life, language and discursive practices, notions of self and personhood, and the indigenous representation of these in various 'folk theories' or ethnopsychologies.

GWST 348 Teaching Assistant 1/2 or 1

GWST 373 Topics in Women's and Gender History

Topics vary year to year. Current topics include: "Women, Gender and the American Revolution" - analyzing the form and function of gender in the revolutionary era. Course may be repeated for credit.

GWST 383 Women Playwrights

Analysis of the works of female playwrights who represent diversity in race, nationality, perspective, and style. A brief review of the evolution of feminisms is traced in order to identify the areas of thought and conflict that most influence the condition of the female writer and specifically the playwright.

GWST 395 Special Topics 1/2 or 1

Courses offered occasionally to students in special areas of Gender and Women's Studies not covered in the usual curriculum.

GWST 400 Advanced Studies 1/2 or 1

See College Honors Program.