Fall 2008 Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Course Listings 

WGSS 200:01/02: Introduction to Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Jane Geaney, Section 01: WF 11:30-12:45 & Section 02: WF 1:15-2:30
An introduction to the broad, interdisciplinary field of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.  Special attention will be paid to the meaning and history of the terms “gender” and “sexuality” and to the political movements mobilized around those terms.  Students will read both contemporary and historical materials and both primary and secondary sources.  Lecture/discussion format. No Prerequisite.

WGSS 250: Politics of the Body
Melissa Ooten, W 7-9:40
Examines both historical and contemporary interdisciplinary material on the body.  Special attention will be paid to examining images of the body in contemporary popular culture and long-standing historical connections between medicine, technology, and the body, such as eugenics movements.

WGSS 280 Women and Work
Melissa Ooten, MW from 3:00-4:20
This course explores contemporary issues facing working women from a critical, historically-informed perspective.  We will begin with theoretical discussions of what constitutes “work” – is it only work if it can be translated into monetary wages? – and why and how issues of gender further complicate our understandings of work. We will read about women’s labor in the past to provide a framework for understanding women’s challenges in the workplace today.  We will explore how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, class, culture, and sexual identity to reinforce ideologies of inequality in the workplace and at home. While the course focuses primarily on American women, we will discuss issues of globalization at length and women in other international settings as time allows. We also will consider how our own lives and careers are implicated in global networks of women's labor.  Themes such as the social construction of "appropriate" gender roles, the conflict between public and private lives, and the feminization of poverty will recur throughout the course.

WGSS 379:01: American Identities  
Eric Yellin, Th: 2:40 – 5:20
How have Americans come to define themselves to each other?  How and when have divisions that we often take for granted -- such as categories of race, gender, or class -- been formed and changed over the twentieth century in the United States?  In this upper-division colloquy, we will analyze and discuss the historical construction of identities that have shaped American social, cultural, and political life.  The seminar will focus around key moments and groups and examine their histories in depth.  Such groups include, women and men, black, white, Latino and Asian Americans, gay, queer, and straight Americans, as well as broader identities like "immigrants" and "workers." Most importantly, no single American claims only one identity, so we will talk about how all of these identities have interacted, overlapped, and influenced each other in the twentieth century. ( 3 Seats Available to WGSS students)

WGSS 379:02 / LDSP 390 Gender and Leadership
Crystal Hoyt / Liz Faier, TR 11:15-12:30
The goal of this course is to examine the role of gender, broadly defined, in the leadership process. This course will be co-taught by a social psychologist (Hoyt) and an anthropologist (Faier).  Thus, issues surrounding gender and leadership will be examined through the social scientific literature on gender, stigma, and leadership.  One of the focuses in this course will be to familiarize you with basic empirical research so that you can: (1) use science to help decipher fact from myth, (2) evaluate and analyze the scientific merit of this research, and (3) apply this research to real world situations. We will examine topics such as the glass ceiling, proposed causes of the glass ceiling, the causes, correlates and consequences of stereotype-related biases against female leaders, and how these biases impact the perception of female leaders as well as the experience of these leaders.  In addition to understanding the effects and theoretical origins of gender-related biases in leadership roles, we will also examine strategies for change.

WGSS 379:03: Gender & Politics
Staff, TR 2:15-3:30
Examination of politics through the lens of gender hierarchy. Emphasis on how constructions of masculinity and femininity shape and are shaped by interacting economic, political, and ideological practices.

WGSS 379:04/ RELG 373: Witchcraft and Its Interpreters
Douglas Winiarski, M 7-9:40 p.m
Interdisciplinary exploration of witchcraft, magic, and demonic possession in early America based on original legal records and other primary sources. Special attention given to the Salem Witch-hunt and the historical methods used by contemporary scholars to interpret this unique religious event.  

WGSS 399: Topics in Adv Feminism: Global Feminism
Staff, TR 9:45-11:00
Seminar that examines the global dimensions of feminist organization and policy-making, drawing on
both historical and contemporary examples with a consideration for the interactions with local and national women’s movements, as well as the role that the United Nations and other international organizations have played in sustaining global feminisms.

WGSS 489: Senior Capstone Preparation
Ladelle McWhorter, TR 3:45-5:00
A seminar limited to WGSS majors in which students will hone research skills, review theoretical material in the discipline, and prepare a research or performance proposal for their capstone experience.  Proposals will be presented for approval to a panel of WGSS faculty. Prerequisites: WGSS 200 and approval by WGSS coordinator.
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ANTH 338:01 Anthropology of Human Rights
Jan French, TR 3:45-5pm
This course will examine the origins of human rights thinking in Europe and the United States and its elaboration and dissemination in the post-World War II period. This includes an analysis of its institutional grounding in United Nations institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The course will also examine the opposition between culture and rights, both individual and collective, along with current theoretical efforts to negotiate an intermediate space.  Current anthropological work focuses on the way human rights concepts and institutions are mobilized in particular political struggles in various parts of the world.  We will discuss the way concepts of culture and rights are deployed in the global production and localization of human rights ideas and examine human rights as a practice, a discourse, and a form of global law.  Specific areas of focus include indigenous rights, women's rights, balancing rights and the war on terrorism, and justice after authoritarianism and dictatorship, including truth commissions in South Africa and Latin America.  We will read ethnographic work that addresses such questions in transnational, deterritorialized (i.e. refugees), and multi-sited settings.  

ANTH 300:01: Gender and Sexualities Across Cultures
Jennifer Nourse, TR 12:45-2:00
This course critically examines ways in which gender and sexuality are constructed from biological and cultural perspectives in a number of global contexts.  Additionally we examine a number of controversial issues: female circumcision, women in Islam, sexuality and biological determinism, through debates.  The course will rely on discussion of readings.  Students will be expected to pass a Midterm Exam, a Final Exam and to write a research paper on a topic approved by Professor Nourse.

ENGL 203:01: Victorian Fantasy
Elizabeth Gruner, MWF 9:20-10:10
This course will reflect on Victorian speculative fiction, or fantasy. Victorian fiction often asks “what if" questions throughout its texts. In novels aimed at a broad readership of both children and adults, writers from Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) to Bram Stoker (Dracula), from Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol) to Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) to J. M. Barrie (Peter Pan) asked a variety of "what if" questions and answered them in strikingly new and original ways.  Students will read widely and speculate, themselves, on the causes and conditions of the works' creation, and will analyze the kinds of questions speculative writers asked as they respond to their works.

ENGL 203:02: Children’s Literature (SCLC)
Elizabeth Gruner, MWF 9:20-10:10, MWF 10:25-11:15am
The primary goal of this course is to get you reading and thinking critically about children's literature, a body of work you may be extremely familiar with, but may also have taken for granted. This course is about uncovering what we take for granted, finding the cultural, historical, and literary contexts for the literature of childhood, and asking hard questions. It will be a complete analysis of children’s literature, form folk and fairy tales to today’s stories, poems and novels for children.
Prerequisite: English 103 with C or better, or exemption.
This course fulfills the Literary Studies General Education Requirement.

ENGL 206: Selected Readings in American Literature (SCLC)
Lee Carleton, MWF 9:20-10:10
In this course we will read reflections on nature both fiction and non-fiction to see what others have learned from nature and to think more deeply about our relationship to the Earth. The value of our readings will be enhanced with a variety of outdoor experiences designed to transcend the artificial confines of the classroom and maximize the intellectual potential of combining scholarship with direct experience.  

GERM 472: Multiculturalism, Identity and Authorship in the German Context
Kathrin Bower, TR from 12:45-2:00pm
This course is an investigation of literary and filmic texts from Expressionism to the present to examine increasing diversity and complexity of identities and social relations in the German context.

HIST 100:01/02 Intro to Historical Studies / Harems and Veils
Yucel Yanikdag, 100:01 TR 2:15-3:30 or 100:02 TR 3:45-5:00
The subject of this course is woman and gender in Middle Eastern and Islamic history from the seventh century to the modern period.  The course is not meant to provide comprehensive coverage; instead we will be highly selective to explore as fully as possible the historian’s craft. The roles and status of women in the Middle East and North Africa have been shaped and contested both from within and also by outsiders, who have frequently misunderstood and stereotyped both the culture and the women of the region.  This course examines the complex and multi-layered processes and dimensions which have shaped women’s experiences in the different societies of the Middle East.  Readings include both original and secondary sources, allowing us to explore the ways in which historians do their work and the problems and challenges they encounter in their tasks.  Besides the content knowledge, the course aims to sharpen the student’s writing and analytical skills.

HIST 299: African Caribbean/African American Relations 1782-1944
Erna Brodber, TR 2:15-3:30pm
This course looks at the occasions of and the nature of the interaction of African Caribbean peoples and African Americans between 1782 when loyalists and their enslaved workers left the USA for some Caribbean islands, and 1944 when the ownership of property ceased to be a requirement for the suffrage and black people who were the poorest in Caribbean societies, could now participate in government by voting. We will pay special attention to the part played by women in facilitating the interaction between these two groups of descendants of Africans enslaved in the New World.

HIST 399:01 American Identities  
Eric Yellin, Th: 2:40 pm – 5:20pm
How have Americans come to define themselves to each other?  How and when have divisions that we often take for granted -- such as categories of race, gender, or class -- been formed and changed over the twentieth century in the United States?  In this upper-division colloquy, we will analyze and discuss the historical construction of identities that have shaped American social, cultural, and political life.  The seminar will focus around key moments and groups and examine their histories in depth.  Such groups include, women and men, black, white, Latino and Asian Americans, gay, queer, and straight Americans, as well as broader identities like "immigrants" and “workers." Most importantly, no single American claims only one identity, so we will talk about how all of these identities have interacted, overlapped, and influenced each other in the twentieth century.

RHCS 295: Topics in Rhetoric Research: Doing History and Theory (SCLC)
Mari Lee Mifsud, WF 10-11:15
This methods course focuses on ways of doing history and theory in the study of rhetoric. Students will read and explore a variety of approaches to doing history and theory in general, and in rhetorical studies in particular. We will make visible traditional methods of knowledge production through history and theory, as well as explore critically these methods through the lenses of critical theory, feminist theory, and post-colonial theory. Assignments, in addition to reading and class participation, will be student presentation, essay, and exam focused.

RHCS 340: 01/02 Culture and Communication
Archana Bhatt, TR 8:15-10:00 am, TR 12:25-1:15 pm
Studies dynamics of intercultural communication.  Emphasis on familiarizing students with issues relating to diversity and improving students' skills in communicating across cultural barriers.

THTR 331: Practicum - Directing / Dramaturg (Skin of Our Teeth) (SCLC)
Dorothy Holland
Understanding theatre arts through analysis of and participation in the preparation and creation of a main stage production. The application of feminist, gender and performance theory to text analysis
and production.   Prequisite: instructor permission.

*WGSS courses are open to all students regardless of major. Some courses listed below may have specific prerequisites, but you should always check with the professor if you are interested. Please contact the program coordinator, Dr. McWhorter, with any questions.

**NOTE: Courses designated by SCLC carry WGSS credit only if students contract with the professor at the beginning of the semester to do work specific to the WGSS component of the course. Interested students should consult with the professor within the first couple of weeks of class to complete paperwork for WGSS credit.