WGSS Courses

The Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies faculty is drawn from virtually every academic discipline represented on Richmond’s campus; consequently, teaching styles vary tremendously, and students have the opportunity to work with professors who best fit their own learning styles. All WGSS faculty encourage students to think critically and perform critical assessments of the world around them. All the department’s courses emphasize class discussion and promote active engagement with contemporary issues.

Over their course of study, students are encouraged and enabled to develop their own positions on current academic and social issues, to cultivate their own voices in their speaking and writing, and to test theoretical assumptions by applying them to real life situations.

Courses that Fulfill the Major

WGSS courses come from disciplines across the liberal arts. Each semester students can select from among dozens of courses (with and without a WGSS prefix) that count toward the WGSS major.

There are three types of courses that can count for WGSS credit. Courses that have a WGSS prefix, courses with a WGSS attribute, and special-contract courses. The last option require students to make arrangements with the instructor to complete the course for WGSS credit. Contact the course instructor or the WGSS coordinator for more information on those.

Previous course offerings are listed by term and subject to assist students with planning their programs. In addition, course offerings are provided for the upcoming term.

For faculty looking for information about special-contract opportunities, see the WGSS cross-listing policies and procedures.

WGSS Courses

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  • WGSS 200 Introduction to Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Africana Studies Group A (AFSA), Social Analysis (FSSA), WGSS elective (WGSS), AI-Social Inquiry (AISO), IF-Power/Equity/Identity/Cult (IFPE)

    Description
    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.
  • WGSS 201 WILL Colloquium

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): WGSS elective (WGSS), IF-Written Communication (IFWC)

    Description
    Introductory course of the WILL Program. Examines the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality in women's lives with particular focus on an analysis of social justice activism and strategies for social change.

     

    Prerequisites

    Enrollment in the will Program.

  • WGSS 202 Feminist and Queer Theories

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): WGSS Feminist and Queer Theory (WGFQ), IF-Power/Equity/Identity/Cult (IFPE)

    Description
    Explores a range of queer theoretical approaches. Special attention will be paid to intersectionality, the social construction of identities, and how these constructed identities impact knowing, ethical reasoning, and conduct. Engagement of the theoretical underpinnings of political, ethical, or cultural issues..
  • WGSS 279 Selected Topics

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): WGSS elective (WGSS)

    Description
    Varying issues of current relevance and importance to women, gender and sexuality studies. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.
  • WGSS 280 Gender and Work

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): IF-Power/Equity/Identity/Cult (IFPE), American studies electives (AMER), WGSS Historical Perspectives (WGHP)

    Description
    Examines the gendered nature of both historical and contemporary workplace issues from a global perspective. Gender and workplace issues will be examined from theoretical, historical, comparative perspectives.
  • WGSS 301 WILL Senior Seminar

    Units: 0.5

    Description
    Capstone course for the WILL program.

     

    Prerequisites

    will program participant

  • WGSS 359 Sexual Politics

    Units: 1

    Description
    Explores politics of sexuality by examining historical and theoretical approaches to power and sexuality, sexual identities, state regulation of sexuality, sexual commerce, and cultural representations of sexuality. Engages in thinking about how social categories of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, class, and disability intersect with sexual politics.
  • WGSS 365 Gender, Sex, and Law

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): WGSS Knowledge Production (WGKP), WGSS elective (WGSS), IF-Power/Equity/Identity/Cult (IFPE), IF-Written Communication (IFWC)

    Description
    Laws both define and regulate social and individual lives based on gender and sex. In this course, students read landmark U.S. judicial decisions and model legislation concerning gender and sex, in order to critically explore their influence on civil and political rights in the United States.

     

    Prerequisites

    WGSS 200 or permission of the instructor

  • WGSS 379 Selected Topics

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): WGSS elective (WGSS)

    Description
    Varying issues of current relevance and importance to women's studies. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • WGSS 388 Individual Internship

    Units: 0.5-1.5

    Description
    No more than .5 units of internship may be applied to the women, gender, and sexuality studies major or minor. No more than 1.5 units of internship in any one department and 3.5 units of internship overall may be counted toward required degree units.

     

    Prerequisites

    Permission of department.

  • WGSS 398 Independent Study

    Units: 0.5-1

    Description
    Pass/fail grading may be designated by department for certain enrollments.
  • WGSS 406 Summer Undergraduate Research

    Units: 0

    Description
    Documentation of the work of students who receive summer fellowships to conduct research [or produce a creative arts project] in the summer. The work must take place over a minimum of 6 weeks, the student must engage in the project full-time (at least 40 hours per week) during this period, and the student must be the recipient of a fellowship through the university. Graded S/U.

     

    Prerequisites

    Approval by a faculty mentor.

  • WGSS 490 Senior Capstone Experience

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): WGSS elective (WGSS)

    Description
    Special topics seminar for senior WGSS students only, both majors and minors, but required only for majors. The special topics will be selected per Capstone professor's choice and designed to advance research in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.