Prerequisites

Course Credits

4.00

Description

This interdisciplinary course explores the roles and images of women in Western culture. Through class discussion and a close reading of texts from literature, film, history, art, psychology, and recent feminist scholarship, we will examine the realities of women's everyday lives and analyze gender inequalities and the influence of gender on social structure, human behavior, and artistic expression. Topics will include the social construction of gender and identity; domestic prescriptions for women; women and work; intersections of gender, class, and race in American society; sexualities and identity; the politics of motherhood and reproductive rights; educating girls; negotiating male privilege and structural inequalities; representations of women in Western art and film; and women as artists and gendered models of creativity in art, film, fiction, and science.Cultural Diversity A

Term Offered

Offered Both Fall and Spring

Course Types

Cultural Diversity Opt A,Cultural Diversity BFA,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement

Prerequisites

Course Credits

4.00

Description

An exploration of women's lives from the perspective of the social and natural sciences.This interdisciplinary course examines recent biological, psychological, and sociological theories about gender and gender roles, as well as the influence of feminist scholarship on these areas. Topics will include the social construction of gender; the psychology and biology of sex and gender; women and work; media representations of women; the female body and eating disorders; women's health and lifecycle; women and sexuality; reproduction, abortion, and motherhood; and sexual violence against women. Cultural Diversity A

Term Offered

Offered Both Fall and Spring

Course Types

Cultural Diversity Opt A,Social Science

Prerequisites

Course Credits

4.00

Description

This interdisciplinary course provides an introduction to the key topics and debates that have shaped the field of gender studies, including queer studies, masculinity studies, and women's studies. Through lecture and class discussion of texts from literature, film, history, psychology, and sociology, we will examine the pervasive influence of gender on the structure of society and our everyday experiences. What role does gender play in our understanding of love, friendship, sexuality, and even violence? Topics will include biological arguments about gender and sexuality; the social construction of gender and identity; intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality; masculinity and femininity; and theories of sexual difference and the construction of sexuality.

Term Offered

Occasional

Course Types

Cultural Diversity Opt A

Prerequisites

Course Credits

4.00

Description

What can we learn from the books that teenage girls read? Our fondest memories of reading are often also memories of our earliest encounters with books - particularly those so mesmerizing that we would read them under our desks or by flashlight long after bedtime. This class will introduce students to some of the most interesting and complex Young Adult books targeted to young female readers. In addition to a wide array of novels, students will be exposed to theories of adolescent development, literary criticism, and social theory. We will consider how the dilemmas of girlhood have changed or stay constant. We'll also investigate the urge, so common in books for children and teens, to teach kids how to think and behave - what do we want teenage girls to know, and when would we rather keep them childlike and unaware?

Term Offered

Occasional

Course Types

Cultural Diversity Opt A

Prerequisites

Course Credits

4.00

Description

This course will investigate the complex intersections between feminism and popular culture through several different lenses. We will start by exploring some of the ways that feminists make arguments about popular culture. We will continue by looking at the complexities of public femininity in today's popular culture, including figures such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and television shows like The Bachelor and Grey's Anatomy. We will also look at a variety of articulations of feminism within mass media ‚??blogs, social media, and popular books such as Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs, and Caitlin Moran‚??s How to Be a Woman, among others. Along the way will be asking questions such as: what makes a work of art "feminist"? How does modern media contribute to or distract us from a variety of political debates in the realm of female equality? How can we, as individuals, use modern media to create and advance smart, feminist arguments? How can we create med ia that reflects a broader array of women's experiences and perspectives?

Term Offered

Course Types

Cultural Diversity Opt A

Prerequisites

Course Credits

4.00

Description

What is feminist thought? How have feminists - both today and in history - understood inequality and difference, and what have they seen as the best ways to address these issues and bring about social justice? How do feminist theories help us to understand how gender and other social categories, such as race, class, sexuality, disability, age, and nationality, are constructed within and through each other? Students will read classic critical texts by authors including Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Julia Cooper, Emma Goldman, Virginia Woolf, Chandra Mohanty, Gloria Anzaldua, and Judith Butler. The course will analyze feminist engagements with liberalism, socialism, psychoanalysis, existentialism, post-colonialism, critical race theory, and queer theory. It will also consider anti-feminist arguments.

Term Offered

Course Types

Cultural Diversity Opt A

Prerequisites

Course Credits

4.00

Description

This interdisciplinary course explores autobiographies by African American, Hispanic, Afro-Caribbean writers such as June Jordan, Edwidge Danticant and Corneluis Eady. Other writers include David Sedaris and Lucy Grealy. Students will analyze these texts in terms of language, writing craft and story line. Students will also write their own autobiographies during the course of the semester by focusing on childhood memories, high school, and family life. Critical attention will be paid to the role race, class, ethnicity, gender and sexuality play in narrative identity. Students will learn creative writing techniques such as linear and nonlinear storytelling, dialogue, fantasy, showing verses telling, and monologue.

Term Offered

Occasional

Course Types

Cultural Diversity Opt A

Prerequisites

Course Credits

4.00

Description

An exploration of various cultural worldviews in order to reveal and assess the voices of women from around the world as they respond to important global issues such as sexual violence and gendered oppression. Topics include: national citizenship, sexual politics, legal discourse, aesthetic representation, literary movements, genre, constructions of femininity, sexual identities, and representations of gender in relation to race and class and international cultures, and the relationship of self-image to the body politic. A central theme of the course will be the analysis of the notions of female culture and image in an international and interdisciplinary context.

Term Offered

Occasional

Course Types

Humanities Literature Requirement,Cultural Diversity Opt B

Prerequisites

An Independent Study form must be submitted to the CAS Dean's Office.

Course Credits

4.00

Description

Substantive reading/research in an area of special interest in Women's and Gender Studies, directed by a faculty member in the appropriate academic discipline. Open to Juniors and Seniors by special arrangement with the relevant faculty member and the Director of Women's and Gender Studies. Instructor's permission required.

Term Offered

Course Types

Social Science