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2012-13 Undergraduate Catalog

PDF of Women's Studies Gender Studies Courses

Women's Studies Gender Studies Courses

All Women's Studies Gender Studies Courses

WSGS 2220 Women's Issues (3 credits)

An overview of women's studies as an academic discipline, including an examination of the causes and consequences of sexism and gender discrimination. Geared toward developing personal awareness of women's reality in a patriarchal society. Topics include gendered language; stereotypical images; media representations of women; gender violence; and women's roles in relationships, the home, the workplace, and politics. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7
Common Course Outline

WSGS 2600 Women and Diversity: Crossing Boundaries of Race, Class, Gender & Sexuality (3 credits)

An integrated study of the complexity and diversity of historical and contemporary realities of women across culture, race, class, age, ethnicity, and sexual identity with an emphasis on the ways these are inextricably intertwined and rooted in the structure of social institutions. Moves from a personal awareness of women's issues toward a social, political, economic, and cross-cultural analysis. Students will examine their own lives and values and those of others regarding privelege, power, prejudice, and discrimination. Prerequisite: WSGS 2220 or WSGS 2223. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7
Common Course Outline

WSGS 3100 Topics in Women's Studies Gender Studies (3 credits)

Diverse topics encompass an international range of gendered experiences and may include sources from literature, law, history, myth/religion, psychology, sociology, philosophy, theology, and the visual arts. Topics may include: myths and spirituality; mother, daughter, self; writing women's lives; art, erotica, and pornography in American Culture; reproductive freedom; Indigenous women's issues; sexualities and difference in America. May be taken for credit under different subtitles.
Common Course Outline

WSGS 3220 Gender Politics (3 credits)

An examination of the capacity of political thought and action among women and men. Students explore how women and men approach the public sphere, and their identification with particular parties in the United States. Political issues are further examined by looking at the ways in which men and women understand political thinking and how they evaluate issues and candidates. In an attempt to go beyond conventional understandings of political engagement and leadership, students will discuss what it means to engage in contested forms of political interpretation, how the public and private sphere is politicized, and how a discussion of politics is intimately related to politics of the body. (Might not be offered every year)
Common Course Outline

WSGS 3330 International Gender Issues (3 credits)

An examination of gender issues from an international perspective, with particular emphasis on both distinguishing national practices and analyzing connections between these practices. This course explores the cultural construction and representation of gender, and also focuses on the way in which gender contributes to economic and cultural inequality. Students use a comparative international framework to evaluate the relation between gender and global issues. (Might not be offered every year)
Common Course Outline

WSGS 3850 Feminist Theories and Practice (3 credits)

A critical examination of the main currents in contemporary feminist thought. Explores systems of ideas which explain the nature and causes of the position of women and men in society. The course includes a capstone experience involving student production of an original piece of work linking the student's discipline to a gender issue through the use of feminist theory and research. Prerequisite: WSGS 2600. Might not be offered every year.
Common Course Outline