Women’s and Gender Studies

Major

Due to University Updates, Course Numbers for all Departments have Changed. Please reference the Courses Tab for new Course Numbers.

Requirements for the Major (44-48 Credits)

I. Required Courses (16 credits)

• WGST 12/Introduction to Women’s Studies (4)
• WGST 52/Global Feminisms (4)
• WGST 111/History of Feminist Thought (4)
• WGST 112/Contemporary Feminist Theory and Methodology (4)

II. Five additional intermediate- and upper-level courses (20 credits)

At least three of which are upper level, chosen from the following list of departmental and interdisciplinary courses focused on women and gender. At least two of the courses must be in the humanities or arts and at least two in the social sciences. A maximum of two of these five classes can be completed in a study abroad program.

A. Women’s and Gender Studies Courses

• WGST 22/Topics in Women’s Studies (2-4)
• WGST 122/Advanced Topics in Women’s Studies (2-4)
• WGST 172/Advanced Seminar in Women’s Studies (4)

B. Social Sciences

• ANTH 10/Culture, Gender, and Family (4)
• WGST 131/ANTH 131/Gender and Culture (4)
• ECON 136/Political Economy of Race, Class, and Gender (4)
• PSCI 155/Gender and U.S. Politics (4)
• PSCI 156/Seminar on Gender and International Politics (4)
• PSYC 140/Psychology Seminar: Gender, Violence and Women’s Resistance (4)
• PSYC 142/Seminar in the Psychology of Women (2-4)
• SOC 25/Sociology of Gender (4)

C. Humanities & Arts

• HIST 126/American Women’s History (4)
• HIST 135/Women in Modern European History (4)
• HIST 190/Selected Topics in History [when appropriate] (4)
• REL 125/Women and Religion (4)
• REL 149/Women in Asian Religions (4)
• THEPH 337S/Feminist Theology (Graduate)

D. Languages and Literatures

• ENGL 32/Gender and Literature (4)
• ENGL 33/Sexuality and Literature (4)
• ENGL 132/Women’s Literary Tradition (4)
• ENGL 133/Advanced Studies in Sexuality and Literature (4)
• ENGLG 826S/Feminist Criticism (Graduate) (4)
• FREN 50/Francophone Literature in Translation: Women Novelists (4)
• MUS 112/Women in Music (4)
• THEA 65/Women in the Theatre (4)

III. Academic Internship(s) (4 credits)

The internship requirement may be fulfilled by one 4-credit internship or two 2-credit internships. Internships should be selected in consultation with the adviser. They should be planned as experience/praxis linked to an aspect of the student’s major.

IV. Independent Senior Project (4-8 credits)

• WGST 150/Independent Study in Women’s and Gender Studies OR Honors thesis in Women’s and Gender Studies

Recommended: Women’s and Gender Studies majors, particularly those intending to pursue graduate studies, are strongly encouraged to have a minor in a traditional discipline rather than in an interdisciplinary field. Majors should consult the list published each semester by the Women’s and Gender Studies program for additional courses that may be applied to the major. Other courses may be applied to the major if they are proposed to and approved by the Women’s and Gender Studies Committee.

Minor

Due to University Updates, Course Numbers for all Departments have Changed. Please reference the Courses Tab for new Course Numbers.

Requirements for the Minor (24 Credits)

Students minoring in Women’s and Gender Studies must complete at least 24 credits of intermediate- and upper-level work.

I. Required Course

• WMST 12/Introduction to Women’s Studies (4)

II. Choose one of the following in consultation with women’s studies faculty as appropriate to connect with your field of interest:

• WMST 52/Global Feminisms (4)
• WMST 111/History of Feminist Thought (4)
• WMST 112/Contemporary Feminist Theory and Methodology (4)

III. Four additional courses of which no more than two may be counted toward a major; no more than two courses in any one department.

Faculty

Faculty

• Director: Wendy Kolmar, Professor of English
• Associate Professor: Debra Liebowitz (Political Science)

Courses

Courses Offered

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WGST 101 - Formerly 12 - Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies (4)

An interdisciplinary course designed to lay the groundwork for the women's and gender studies major and minor. Also appropriate as a first course for any student interested in pursuing the study of gender within their major field. This U.S. focused course considers questions fundamental to the field: What is a woman? What is gender? What is sex? How does culture construct gender and gender difference? How do gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality intersect and interact?; the course, also, lays the groundwork for further work in the field by introducing students to analytical and critical concepts and approaches for understanding the lives of women and the construction of gender within larger social, political, and cultural structures; and it considers how we think about individual lives using these questions.
Required for women's and gender studies majors and minors. Offered spring semester annually.
Fulfills: BI, DUS

WGST 211 - Formerly 22 - Topics in Women's Studies (4)

Description pending.
Course may be repeated.
Fulfills: BH, BI, DUS

WGST 201 - Formerly 52 - Global Feminisms (4)

This course examines women's movements internationally and globally. It explores the variations in constructions of sex, gender and gender difference as well as the range of feminisms and women's movements that have emerged from these differing cultural, economic and political situations. Such topics as women and development, the sexual division of labor, health, the environment, the international traffic in women and human rights may be among those explored in the course.
Offered fall semester. Same as: PSCI 241 - Formerly 54 -
Fulfills: BI, DIT

WGST 301 - Formerly 111 - History of Feminist Thought (4)

An interdisciplinary course that explores the development of feminist theories principally in the United States and Europe from Mary Wollstonecraft through "the Second Wave. The course examines the work of such theorists as Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anna Julia Cooper, Emma Goldman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mary Church Terrell, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, as well as feminism's evolving conversations with liberalism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis and its dialogues with the anti-slavery/civil rights movements and the gay/lesbian rights movements.
Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: (WGST 101 - Formerly 12 - or ) Offered fall semester in alternate years.
Fulfills: WI

WGST 310 - Formerly 112 - Contemporary Feminist Theory and Methodology (4)

An interdisciplinary course focused on contemporary feminist theory. The objectives of the course are first, to explore the broad range of theories that make up the body of contemporary scholarship referred to as "feminist theory"; second, to examine feminist critiques and innovations in methodologies in many fields; and third, to consider some of the fundamental questions these theories raise about the origins of gender difference, the nature and origins of patriarchy, the intersections between gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationality as categories of analysis and bases of oppression or empowerment.
Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: ( or WGST 101 - Formerly 12 - ) Offered fall semester in alternate years.
Fulfills: WM

WGST 311 - Formerly 122 - Advanced Topics in Women's and Gender Studies (2-4)

An interdisciplinary course designed to lay the groundwork for the women's and gender studies major and minor. Also appropriate as a first course for any student interested in pursuing the study of gender within their major field. This U.S. focused course considers questions fundamental to the field: What is a woman? What is gender? What is sex? How does culture construct gender and gender difference? How do gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality intersect and interact?; the course, also, lays the groundwork for further work in the field by introducing students to analytical and critical concepts and approaches for understanding the lives of women and the construction of gender within larger social, political, and cultural structures; and it considers how we think about individual lives using these questions.
Course may be repeated. Prerequisite: WGST 101 - Formerly 12 - or permission of instructor Offering to be determined.

WGST 331 - Formerly 131 - Gender and Culture (4)

A study of the construction of gender across cultures. The course considers how culture influences and shapes gender roles in varying human domains, such as religion, creative traditions, work, scholarship and research, and popular culture.
Prerequisite: ANTH 104 - Formerly 4 - or permission of instructor Offering to be determined Same as: ANTH 303 - Formerly 131 -

WGST 318 - Formerly 138 - Gender and Globalization (4)

In this class we will examine how scholars have understood and made sense of how gender issues intersect with economic globalization. Two ways in which economic globalization is manifest is through changes in trade in goods and services, and migration. We will focus on these two aspects of economic globalization. As we will discover through the readings and our discussions, scholars from a range of disciplines/theoretical frameworks, (eg economics, history, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, feminist, post-colonial theory), have contributed to our understanding of economic globalization and the way in which gender and globalization intersect.
Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: ECON 101 - Formerly 5 - or WGST 101 - Formerly 12 - . Offering to be determined.
Fulfills: DIT, WI

WGST 300 - Formerly 150 - Independent Study in Women's and Gender Studies (4)

A tutorial course. Independent investigation of a topic, preferably interdisciplinary, chosen in consultation with the instructor and the director of women's studies. Regular meetings by arrangement with the instructor. Oral and written work.
Course may be repeated. Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: WGST 101 - Formerly 12 - offered every semester

WGST 390 - Formerly 172 - Advanced Seminar in Women's and Gender Studies (4)

Graduate courses being taken for undergraduate credit will be cross-listed under this course number. Possible courses include CSOC 644 - Formerly CHSOC 444 - : Ethically Responding to Violence Against Women; BBST 731 - Formerly BIBST 731 - : Gender and Sexuality in the Bible and the Fathers; : Feminist Criticism.
Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: WGST 101 - Formerly 12 - and permission of the instructor Offering to be determined.

WGST 400 - Formerly 199 - Women's Studies and Gender Studies Capstone (4)

Capstone course for the major completed by all students who are not doing an honors thesis. An independent investigation at an advanced level of a topic, preferably interdisciplinary, chosen in consultation with the instructor and the director of women's and gender studies. The student designs the capstone project so that it draws on the work they have completed for the major both in core and cross-listed courses. Regular meetings by arrangement with the instructor. Oral and written work.
[CAP] Capstone Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: WGST 101 - Formerly 12 - , WGST 201 - Formerly 52 - , and either WGST 301 - Formerly 111 - or WGST 310 - Formerly 112 - .

See appropriate departments for the following courses

ANTH 303 - Formerly 131 - Gender and Culture (4)

A study of the construction of gender across cultures. The course considers how culture influences and shapes gender roles in varying human domains, such as religion, creative traditions, work, scholarship and research, and popular culture.
Prerequisite: ANTH 104 - Formerly 4 - or permission of instructor Offering to be determined. Same as: WGST 331 - Formerly 131 -

ECON 315 - Formerly 136 - Political Economy of Race, Class, and Gender (4)

A study of race, class, and gender using the political economic approach to the study of economics. The course will investigate the impact of introducing the categories of race, class, and gender into political economic theory and will also undertake some empirical analyses of the roles of race, class, and gender in producing economic outcomes for minorities and majorities in the U.S.
Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: Sophomore or higher standing and one course in Economics. Offered alternate years.
Fulfills: WI, DUS

ENGL 103 - Formerly 32 - Gender and Literature (2-4)

An introduction to questions of how gender, as it intersects with race, class, and sexuality, shapes literary texts, authorship, readership, and representation. Most often organized thematically, the course may focus on such issues as creativity, subjectivity, politics, work, sexuality, masculinity, or community in works chosen from a variety of periods, genres, and areas.
Enrollment priority: given to English majors and minors, Women's Studies majors and minors. Offered fall semester.
Fulfills: BH

ENGL 104 - Formerly 33 - Sexuality and Literature (2-4)

This course examines how sexuality is articulated and mediated through literature and such modes of cultural production as film and two-dimensional art. Attention will be paid to specific iterations of sexuality and the labels that attend them (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual). We will address theories of sexuality and study such authors as Jeanette Winterson, Mark Doty, Edmund White, Hart Crane, Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua, and Michael Cunningham. The course may additionally encompass how sexuality intersects with ethnicity, science and politics.
Offered in alternate spring semesters.

ENGL 321 - Formerly 121 - Comparative Critical Theory and Practice (2-4)

May focus on one or compare two contemporary or historical approaches to literature, such as close reading, psychoanalytic, philosophical, new historicist, feminist, Marxist, structuralist, deconstructive, or reader-response criticism.
Course may be repeated. Enrollment priority: given to English majors and minors. Prerequisite: Either ENGL 20A/B OR ENGL 21A/B Offered in alternate spring semesters.

ENGL 303 - Formerly 132 - Women's Literary Tradition (4)

Examines works by women writers in the Anglo-American and Anglophone tradition through the historical and theoretical approaches that have emerged from recent feminist criticism and theory. May focus on a particular genre, period, author or authors, the literature of a particular region, or on literature in particular social or cultural contexts. Such topics as: Women Writers and World War I; Female Bildungsroman; African American Women Writers; Victorian Women Poets.
Cross listed with Women's Studies. Course may be repeated. Enrollment priority: given to English majors and minors. Prerequisite: ENGL 150 - Formerly 9 - or permission of the instructor. Offered spring semester.
Fulfills: BH

ENGL 304 - Formerly 133 - Advanced Studies in Sexuality & Literature (4)

In continuing the study of and moving beyond English 33, this class examines how sexuality is articulated and mediated through literature and such modes of cultural production as film and two-dimensional art. Attention will be paid to specific iterations of sexuality and the labels that attend them (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual). Emphasis on queer theory and critical thinking on sexuality. We will read such authors as Sappho, Wilde, Gilbert and Gubar, Whitman, Ginsberg, Winterson, Doty, White, Bishop and Hart Crane. The course may focus on a specific theme or sub-genre such as speculative Utopic narratives or Race, Ethnicity & Sexuality.
Course may be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: ENGL 150 - Formerly 9 - or permission of the instructor. Offered spring semester in alternate years.

ENGL 371 - Formerly 171 - Studies in Poetry: Seminar (4)

A study of selected major works of poetry or a school of poetry. For example, Caribbean poetry, New York School poets, or modern American poetry.
Course may be repeated. Open to a maximum of 15 juniors and seniors. Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: a/b and 21 a/b and at least one Approaches course. Offered Annually.

FREN 235 - Formerly 50 - Francophone Literature in Translation: Women Novelists (4)

A critical reading of novels written in French by women from the late 17th through the 20th centuries. The study of 20th-century authors also includes women writers from the Francophone world (Quebec, Africa, and the Caribbean).
Course may be repeated. Offered in 2008-2009.
Fulfills: BH

HIST 321 - Formerly 126 - American Women's History (4)

A survey of the social, economic, political, and intellectual history of women in America from the colonial period to the present, with a special emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Considers the diversity of women's experience as a result of race, class, ethnicity, and geographic location. Emphasizes developing skills in the use of primary sources-written, artifactual, and oral. Topics vary annually.
May be repeated for credit as topic changes. Offered fall semester.
Fulfills: BH, DUS

HIST 338 - Formerly 135 - Women in Modern European History (4)

A topical survey of the social, economic, and political history of women in Europe from the 15th century to the present, emphasizing work, family, religion, sexuality, feminism, politics, and the state. Examines geographical and cultural variations in women's roles in history. The focus of the course varies annually and may include such topics as class and gender, work and family, women and politics, institutions and power, or rural and urban experiences.
May be repeated for credit as topic changes. Offering to be determined.

HIST 301 - Formerly 190 - Selected Topics in History (1-4)

A study of a historical theme or topic that uses a methodological approach or viewpoint not fully explored within the departmental offerings. Topics vary according to student interest and faculty expertise.
May be repeated for credit as topic changes. Offering to be determined.
Fulfills: BH

PSCI 313 - Formerly 155 - Gender and U.S. Politics (4)

An analysis of the relationship between gender and politics from various theoretical perspectives. Focuses on the multiple ways that gender, race, and class have influenced political participation and political institutions at the at the grass roots, state, and national levels. Explores the construction of women's political interests and how those interests are, and have been, represented in political life in the United States.
Offered spring semester.
Fulfills: DUS, BSS

PSCI 367 - Formerly 156 - Seminar on Gender and International Politics (4)

An analysis and examination of gender issues in international politics with either a regional or thematic focus. The central goal of the course will be to explore how gender, race, class, nation and sexuality are core components of the discourse and practice of international politics. Such topics as gender and Latin American politics, gender and international political economy, international women's organizing, and gender and postcolonial theory will be among those regularly presented.
Offered annually.
Fulfills: DIT

PSYC 360 - Formerly 140 - Psychology Seminar: Contemporary Issues in Psychology (1-4)

A review and discussion of contemporary issues in psychological theory and practice. Issues explored change from time to time. Selections are made by the department and announced prior to registration.
Course may be repeated. Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: Announced at time of registration Offering to be determined.

PSYC 362 - Formerly 142 - Seminar in the Psychology of Women (2-4)

A review of research focusing on women. Draws upon findings from the various subfields of psychology, including stereotyping, the social construction of gender, female personality development, women and mental health, gender differences in brain lateralization, hormonal influences on behavior, the psychology of women's health, and coping with victimization. Considers how psychological methodology enhances (or obfuscates) our knowledge about women's lives and experiences. The interface between psychology of women as a subfield of psychology and mainstream psychology is explored.
Signature of instructor required for registration. Prerequisite: PSYC 101 - Formerly 3 -

REL 207 - Formerly 125 - Women and Religion (4)

A cross-cultural consideration of images of women in myth and scripture as related to women's actual roles in religious institutions and in societies at large.
Signature of instructor required for registration. Offering to be determined. Same as: CSOC 617 - Formerly CHSOC 417 - S

REL 362 - Formerly 149 - Women in Asian Religions (4)

This course examines critically the participation ofwomen in Asian religions. Possible topics include the nature of Goddesses, the social identity ofwomen as wives and mothers and the religious support or critique ofthese roles, biographies and teachings of female spiritual leaders, and the writings of female saints. One or more of these topics may be explored in a given offering of the course. The course will use methods from the history of religions and women's studies disciplines to pose and analyze issues of the construction and significance of gender in religious precepts and practices.
Offering to be determined.
Fulfills: WI, DIT

SOC 225 - Formerly 25 - Sociology of Gender (4)

An analysis of contemporary gender roles from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Focuses on the social construction of gender and how gender affects our most intimate relationships. An examination of the implications of gender stratification for family and workplace. Explores historical and cross-cultural variations in gender roles, as well as variations by race, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation.
Prerequisite: SOC 101 - Formerly 1 - or permission of instructor Offered annually.
Fulfills: DUS

THEA 265 - Formerly 65 - Women in the Theatre (4)

A selected study of the contributions of women in the theatre, with special focus on plays by women. Course may be organized by historical period(s) or appropriate theme. Also could include study of other women theatrical artists and practitioners: actors, directors, designers, artistic directors, producers.
May be repeated for credit as topic changes.