Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS)
WGSS 150X - Women's Rights and Women's Roles Around the World. 3 Credits.
Offered intermittently. This course offers an interdisciplinary perspective on women?s participation in family, community, and political life around the world. This course will use a comparative approach to familiarize students with multiple societies in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia and examine transnational themes that range across time and place. Guest lectures, field trips, and films will expose students to different approaches to the study of women?s lives, work, and activism and to the range of women?s activities around the world. In the second part of the course, students will collaborate on further research and design a final project presentation.
Gen Ed Attributes: Cultural Intl Diversity (X)
WGSS 163L - Hist/Lit Persp Women. 3 Credits.
Offered autumn. Formerly PHL 151H, LS 119H, WGS 119H, WGGS 163H. This is an introduction to the discipline and scope of Western thought from antiquity to the present focusing on women as the subject rather than men. The objective of the course is to provide an understanding and critical appreciation of seminal texts by and about women through readings, class discussion and written assignments.
Gen Ed Attributes: Lit & Artistic Studies (L)
WGSS 191 - Special Topics. 1-3 Credits.
WGSS 250 - Media Representations of Women, Men, and Sexuality. 3 Credits.
Offered autumn in even-numbered years. This course is designed as a survey introduction to a variety of issues related to gender and sexuality in the mass media and pop culture. The goal of the course is to familiarize students with the breadth of these issues while at the same time providing them tools to critically analyze and engage with modern media. The course focuses largely on mass mediated forms such as television, film, music, sports, news, advertising and new media. An underlying understanding within the course is a recognition of the inextricable interconnections between gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation and so forth. Therefore, the course is invested in exploring the ways in which differences in identity produce different mediated representations and experiences of media. The course is comprised of class discussions based on readings, class presentations, and viewing and interpreting various mediated texts and documentaries. The course readings are both practical and theoretical, and while many of them focus on specific case studies, they are intended to provoke thoughtfulness in each student such that it can be applied to a variety of media.
WGSS 263S - Social and Political Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality. 3 Credits.
Offered autumn. The course is designed to introduce students to the broad fields of women?s, gender, and sexuality studies through an overview of a number of the theoretical and experiential perspectives of WGSS from a social science perspective. Students will analyze the history of feminism, women?s studies, gender studies, and the growing field of queer studies; biological and psychological theories of gender; the social construction of gender as a product of history and culture; the relationship between gender and other categories of difference (race, sexual orientation, class, ethnicity); family and work; gender-based violence; the relationship between politics, economics, and gender; the representation of gender in popular culture; health and reproduction; and activism.
Gen Ed Attributes: Social Sciences Course (S)
WGSS 291 - Special Topics. 1-6 Credits.
(R-6) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.
WGSS 294 - Seminar. 1-6 Credits.
(R-6) Offered intermittently. A review and discussion of current research. Topics vary.
WGSS 363 - Feminist Theory and Methods. 3 Credits.
Offered spring. Prereq., WRIT 101 or equivalent, and one intermediate writing course. In-depth exposure to feminist views and critique of the ethics and methods of scientific, social, and literary inquiry. Includes exposure to primary sources and current societal and global issues and movements, research finding, and literature exemplifying these methods of inquiry and the gendered dimensions of such inquiry. Gen Ed Attributes: Writing Course-Advanced.
WGSS 378 - LGBTQ Studies. 3 Credits.
Offered autumn. This course examines issues, questions, and interdisciplinary approaches that characterize the field of lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans/queer (LGBTQ) studies. It explores the formation of LGBTQ politics and cultures in the United States, theories of sexual and gender diversity, and sexuality and sexual identity as key categories for understanding knowledge and the self.
WGSS 390 - Undergraduate Research. 1-6 Credits.
(R-6) Offered intermittently. Directed individual research and study appropriate to the back ground and objectives of the student.
WGSS 391 - Special Topics. 1-6 Credits.
(R-6) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.
WGSS 392 - Independent Study. 1-12 Credits.
(R-12) Offered intermittently. Course material appropriate to the needs and objectives of the individual student.
WGSS 398 - Coop Education/Internship. 1-6 Credits.
R-6) Offered intermittently. Prereq., consent of director. Extended classroom experience which provides practical application of classroom learning during placements off campus. Prior approval must be obtained from the faculty supervisor and the Internship Services office. A maximum of 6 credits of Internship (198, 298, 398, 498) may count toward graduation.
WGSS 423 - Medieval Women Authors. 3 Credits.
Offered every third year, spring. This course will examine writings by, for, and about (but mostly by) women in the European Middle Ages and the Early Modern period with a focus on secular and religious authors from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. We will explore how medieval and early modern female authors found their voices and constructed alternative discourses of gender, religion, and sexuality against the dominant medieval vision of woman as Bride of Christ or Devil’s Gateway. Level: Undergraduate-Graduate.
WGSS 433 - African and Caribbean Women Authors. 3 Credits.
Offered every odd numbered spring. Course explores the writings of authors who identify as women across francophone Africa and the Caribbean through postcolonial, feminist, and queer perspectives. Students can choose to complete readings and assignments in French or English. This class will expose students to the writings of African and Caribbean francophone women authors and centering their experiences in the globalized and postcolonial contexts of today. Level: Undergraduate-Graduate.
WGSS 463 - WGS Capstone. 2 Credits.
Offered spring. Capstone course for the Women's and Gender Studies majors and minors.
WGSS 490 - Undergraduate Research. 1-6 Credits.
(R-6) Offered intermittently. Directed individual research and study appropriate to the back ground and objectives of the student.
WGSS 491 - Special Topics. 1-6 Credits.
(R-6) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.
WGSS 492 - Independent Study. 1-9 Credits.
(R-9) Offered intermittently. Course material appropriate to the needs and objectives of the individual student.
WGSS 494 - Seminar Women & Gender Stds. 3 Credits.
WGSS 594 - Graduate Seminar. 3 Credits.
WGSS 595 - Special Topics. 1-12 Credits.
(R-12) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics. Level: Graduate
WGSS 596 - Independent Study. 1-6 Credits.
(R-6) Offered intermittently. Prereq., consent of instr. Course material appropriate to the needs and objectives of the individual student. Level: Graduate
WGSS 598 - Internship. 1-6 Credits.
(R-6) Offered by special arrangement. Prereq., consent of department. Extended classroom experience which provides practical application of classroom learning during placements off campus. Prior approval must be obtained from the faculty supervisor and the Internship Services office. A maximum of 6 credits of Internship (198, 298, 398, 498) may count toward graduation. Level: Graduate
WGSS 695 - Special Topics. 1-12 Credits.