WGS 600. The WGS Field Guide to Museums. (1.5, 3 h)

This hands-on course consists of gender/sexuality-focused lectures, readings, workshops, digital storytelling, and guided visits of university and art galleries, museums, historical societies and homes, community centers, and other local institutions that have relevant artwork or archive materials, whether print or digital. Provides opportunities to develop expertise in interpretation of collections through a gender lens while considering the role o public education and creative thinking in community settings.

WGS 601. Feminist Political Thought. (3 h)

Introduces feminist thought and its implications for the study and practice of political theory. Topics includes feminist critiques of the Western political tradition and schools of feminist political theory.

WGS 602. Studies in Gender and Literature. (3 h)

Addresses ways in which gender and literary practices intersect in various cultures and historical periods. Attention will be paid to the role of literature in formulating, subverting, or resisting gender norms. May be repeated for credit if topic differs.

WGS 603. Gender and Sexuality in Literary Adaptations. (1.5, 3 h)

Focuses on understanding the relationship between written literature (novel, play, short story, poem) and its adaptation to another genre or medium (film, painting, video game, song, etc.) through the lens of gender and sexuality. It can also involve adapting the same literary work in the same genre or medium for different purposes, i.e. to work with a cast of differing gender or race, in a smaller or larger venue (or on the road), for a different demographic or ethnic group, or in a different geographical/historical setting. This course studies how adaptations enable us to rework literature and rethink attitudes about issues of gender, ethnicity, class, history, and identity.

WGS 604. Transgender History, Identity, and Politics. (3 h)

Explores the experiences of and responses to transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGI) people in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. We will examine how scientific/medical authorities, legal authorities, and everyday people have understood and responded to various finds of gender non-conformity.

WGS 606. Queer Public Histories. (3 h)

This course explores how public history projects (oral histories, museums, archives, documentaries) document gay, lesbian, and queer communities in the U.S. Discusses how historical and contemporary LGBTQ stories have been collected and examines the various queer identities that merge through this process.

WGS 609. Gender, Humanities, and the Environment. (3 h)

Provides a framework for understanding how the Humanities can contribute to civic conversations about environmental change, examining in particular the role of women environmentalist and eco-feminist in constructing global environmental narratives.

WGS 610. Gender, Power, and Violence. (3 h)

A research-centered study of various issues related to violence, power, and gender in American society. Emphasizes sociological analysis of competing theoretical explanations of violence with respect to race, class, gender, religion, and sexual orientation.

WGS 617. Introduction to Sexuality Studies. (3 h)

Provides an interdisciplinary grounding in the foundations of queer culture and studies, with a critical interrogation of sex, gender, sexuality, pleasure, and embodiment in popular culture, literature, health, science, and politics.

WGS 618. Film Lab in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. (1.5 h)

Viewing, dissecting, and analyzing films. Fosters the skills to create complex cinematic analyses and explore feminist theoretical issues related to spectatorship.

WGS 619. Women Playwrights. (3 h)

Examination of selected plays and/or performance texts by women. Focus varies, for example, looking at works by contemporary American women or early women dramatists such as Hrosvitha, Sor Juana, and Aphra Behn.

WGS 621. Introduction to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. (3 h)

An interdisciplinary course that integrates materials from the humanities and the sciences, taught by WGS faculty representing at least two fields. Topics include critical methods and practical solutions, history and theory of women's gender, and sexuality studies, women in culture and society, and cross-cultural issues of gender, ethnicity, social class, disability, and sexual orientation.

WGS 622. Introduction to Women's and Gender, and Sexuality Studies. (3 h)

An interdisciplinary course that integrates materials from the humanities and the sciences, taught by WGS faculty representing the least two fields. Topcs include critical methods and practical solutions, history and theory of women's gender, and xexuality studies, women in culture and society, and cross-cultural issues of gender, ethnicity, social class, disability, and sexual orientation.

WGS 623. Feminist, Womanist, and Mujerista Theologies: Constructive Perspectives on Christian Thought. (3 h)

Discourse featuring womanist and feminist theologies as "lived" and "living" religious orientations that shape ethical worldviews, earth communal landscapes, and experiences of spiritual life.

WGS 624. Queer Theologies. (1.5-3 h)

This seminar-style reading course surveys classic and new works in queer theology. Queer theology transgresses dominant constructions of gender identity and sexuality; and as such, it can be seen as an expression of the Christian gospel that subverts human understandings of life, community, and the divine. The course explores biblical and Christian theological perspectives on sexuality, social constructions of sexuality, and issues such as power, marriage equality, and sexual ethics.

WGS 625. Feminist Leadership Project. (1.5 h)

Explores the principles of feminist leadership to deepen self-awareness about personal leadership skills and gain tools for creating feminist social change. This highly interactive class welcomes students who are new to feminist thought/activism as well as those seeking to deepen their engagement with feminism. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.

WGS 626. Telling Women's Lives: Writing about Entrepreneurs, Activists, and Thought Leaders. (3 h)

This course will use an interdisciplinary approach to address fundamental issues of female leadership by examining recent developments in long- and short-form narratives about women (biography, essays, profiles) and employing journalistic tools to interview and write profiles of women entrepreneurs, activists, and thought leaders.

WGS 627. The Feminist Book Society. (1.5 h)

A reading course designed to introduce students to classic and contemporary feminist texts. Exmphasis on close reading, discussion, and writing. May be repeated for credit if texts differ.

WGS 629. Politics of Gender and Sexuality: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. (3 h)

Examines cultural constructions of gender and sexuality from a cross-cultural persepctive and the relationship between feminism and cultural rights activism through time. Exmphasizes how varied forms of feminisms are constituted within diverse social, cultural, and economic systems. Students consider how feminists are negotiating positions at the intersection of cultural and human rights.

WGS 630. Gender and the Politics of Health. (3 h)

This course examines the intersections of gender, medicine, health, and illness, with a focus on the U.S. context. Topics include: reproduction, mental illness, breast cancer, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS, among others. We explore the following questions: How have women and men interacted differently with the field of medicine, as healers, patients, and subjects of medical research? How do social and cultural norms about gender influence the definition of illness categories? What role does medicine play in defining and enforcing the boundaries of what is considered socially acceptable in terms of gender? How does gender as social role affect health outcomes?.

WGS 632. Men, Masculinity, and Power. (3 h)

Introduces the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of masculinity studies. Students will explore the social, historical, and cultural constructions of masculinity and male roles (as fathers, sexual and romantic partners, and workers) and how these constructions differ according to race, class, sexuality, etc. In addition, the course will examine how norms about masculinity simultaneously empower men as a group and many individual men, while also disadvantaging any individual men and regulating the behavior of all men. Students will explore possibilities for challenging hegemonic forms of masculinity and for creating new types of masculinity.

WGS 633. Sexual Politics in the United States. (3 h)

This course explores the politics of sexuality in the United States. Drawing on feminist scholarship, queer theory, and lesbian, gay and transgender studies, we will explore different historical and theoretical approaches to thinking about issues of power and sexuality. We will discuss sexual identities and cultures, state regulation of sexuality, sexual commerce, and cultural representations of sexuality, among other topics. Throughout we will examine how other social categories such as race, class, gender, and disability intersect with the politics of sexuality.

WGS 640. Feminist Philosophy. (3 h)

Examines feminist approaches to philosophical theorizing. Topics may include feminist critiques of the scope and methods of mainstream philosophy, feminist approaches to ethics, epistemology and philosophy of language, and feminist conceptions of the self, sexuality, and moral agency.

WGS 645. Girls Gone Wild: A Century of Misbehavior. (3 h)

This course analyzes what made girls and women “bad” and “wild” in the twentieth-century United States, and how such judgments changed over time. This class engages closely with novels, short stories, movies, comics, podcasts, and an opera with an eye to what behaviors were considered appropriate, and how they interrelated with sexual attraction, with economics, and with love. We examine the relationship between being configured as a sexual object (a recipient of desire) and a sexual subject (a possessor of desire) and come to a critical understanding of how the “proper” and “improper” forms of both were constantly in flux. We ask how race, ethnicity, and queerness interacted with hegemonic concepts of beauty and desire, and whether “masculinity” and “femininity” are necessarily attached to men and women. We read theories of sex and gender, examine concepts of projection and male hegemony, and ask how men as well as women are shaped by rules of appropriate behavior.

WGS 646. Visual Narratives: Image, Sequence, Story. (3 h)

This class investigates the relationship of image, sequence, and story in typography, comics, woodcut novels, and photographic books, and films, as well as fiction and poetry wit unusual visual elements, and then asks how these various elements offer different visual and textual expressions of sexuality. Students will conduct formalist analyses and further investigate visual narrative through creative exercises with the goal of developing an aesthetic sensibility and a technical vocabulary that enable them to discuss visual narrative with precision. Please note that some visual narrative will include graphic scenes of sexuality.

WGS 647. Joan Didion/Edmund White: Personal/History. (3 h)

This course examines Didion and White, two of the most important American writers of the past fifty years. Both are known for their journalism as well as their fiction, and their interest in U.S. cultural and political history, especially in terms of gender and sexuality, permeates their novels. This course analyzes three works by each author, developing themes from motherhood, sexuality, imperialism, rebellion and AIDs.

WGS 649. Invert, Pervert, Bull Dagger, Queen: U.S. Queer Fiction in the 20th Century. (3 h)

This class explores the history of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, the transgendered, and other queers through fiction by and about them written over the last century in the United States. We also consider biography, artifacts of popular culture, comics, drama, and film. Topics include the relationship between homosexual desire and queerness in a broad sense; LGBTQ children; biological and psychological understandings of sexual orientation; and how social construction informs sexual identity and desire.

WGS 650. Biocultural Perspectives on Women and Aging. (3 h)

Examines biological, socio-psychological, and cultural issues affecting older women.

WGS 651. Race and Ethnic Diversity in America. (3 h)

Different race and ethnic experiences are examined through an institutional approach that examines religion, work, gender, schooling, marriage patterns, and culture from a cross-cultural perspective. Grand theoretical schemes like the "melting pot" are critiqued for their relevance in an age of new cultural expectations among the many American ethnic groups.

WGS 658. Mothers and Daughters Literature and Theory. (3 h)

Examines literature and feminist theories on motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship. A cross-cultural perspective is taken.

WGS 659. Fathers and Daughters. (3 h)

WGS 662. Feminism and Theatre. (3 h)

Introduces the student to the intersection of theater and feminism and experience its interdisciplinary lineage and academic interventions. Students will learn and apply feminist theory which looks beyond the conventional theater for a continuum of performance that includes play, ritual, sports, everyday life and social roles, as well as performance art, global and intercultural performance. Engaging with various feminist theoretical approaches from radical and liberal feminism to intersectional and transnational feminism, students will be encouraged to critically examine race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality expressed on and offstage. Through readings, discussions, lectures, research and creative assignments, indoor and outdoor classroom activities, and campus events, students will explore historical and socio-political factors entangled with representation, identification, and spectatorship, and strengthen their capacity to exercise feminist practice in theater and performance.

WGS 663. Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Korea. (3 h)

This course will examine gender and sexuality in Korean TV, film, K-pop, protests, and everyday performances, focusing on diverse socio-political issues within and beyond the Korean Peninsula. Topics include: the evaluation of feminism, #metoo movement, LGBTQ cultures, sex work, aging, plastic surgery industry, postcolonial and post-Korean war conflicts, and transpacific affinities.

WGS 664. Women of Color, Feminism, and the Politics of Resistance in the US. (3 h)

Examines historical and contemporary issues and current events affecting the lives of African American, Asian American, Latina, and Native American women. Exploring major theoretical and practical viewpoints in women's studies scholarship, the course will reveal the importance of intersectionality between race, gender, sexuality, class, and/or ethnicity in the everyday lives of multicultural women. Through arts-based civic engagement projects and activities, this course will also encourage students to formulate their own language of resistance against multiple forms of oppression.

WGS 665. Transnational Asia and Asian American Feminism. (3 h)

This course will analyze historical, socio-political, and cultural events as well as contemporary issues structuring the lives of Asian American women and queer community. Students will learn intersectional and transnational feminist approaches to examine race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and kinship in Asian American art and activism.

WGS 671. Making Sense of the News through a Feminist Lens. (1-3 h)

Inquiry into news literacy from a feminist perspective, with the intention to identify gender bias and consider questions of empowerment, exclusion, consumerism, and how to navigate the digital landscape to distinguish verified, reliable news from propaganda.

WGS 677. Special Topics. (1.5-3 h)

Includes such a wide range of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies topics as gender issues in the 21st century, critical approaches to gender issues, and the emergence of feminist thought. May be repeated for credit if topic differs.

WGS 680. Sexuality, Law, and Power. (3 h)

Explores a wide variety of issues related to sexual identity and orientation by looking at the ways in which law can constrict development as well as a catalyst for change. Examines how religion and popular morality shape the law, and are shaped by it.

WGS 681. Gender and the Law. (3 h)

This course will examine how the law affects women's lives in a number of contexts. The class will consider a number of different areas, including but not limited to employment, education, family responsibilities, violence against women, and other issues affecting women's bodies, including pornography and prostitution. The class will also review a number of feminist legal theories and issues relating to the intersection of gender with race and class.

WGS 683. Race, Gender and the Courts. (3 h)

This course examines the impact of state and federal court cases upon the evolution of race and gender relations in the U.S. from 1789 to the present. Each case is placed within the political, economic and social historical context for the given time periods. Race includes Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans. This class will analyze government intervention, inaction, and creative interpretation.

WGS 688. South Asian Women: Religion, Culture, and Politics. (3 h)

Using a feminist and post-colonial perspective, and taking into account the histories, experiences, and lives of South Asian women this course, examines the intersection of religion, race, and gender from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. It focuses on issues of representation and identity formation, recognizing how categories such as "South Asian" and "women" become tolls for a simultaneous understanding of both culture and gender, creating a place for both oppression and empowerment.

WGS 696. Independent Study. (1-3 h)

Independent projects in women’s gender, and sexuality studies, which either continue study begun in regular courses or develop new areas of interest. By prearrangement. May be repeated for credit.

WGS 697. Public Engagement in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. (1.5, 3 h)

This class provides an opportunity for students to engage in work and research that is shared with the broader public, either on campus or in a local community. A maximum of 3 hours may apply to the major or minor.

WGS 698. Theory and Practice of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. (3 h)

Examines the major themes and terminology in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with focus on its diverse and multicultural expressions through time. Themes to be explored include schools of feminisms, interlocking systems of oppression and the connection between theory and practice.

WGS 699. Research Seminar in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. (3 h)

A capstone, research-centered course in which students complete a significant research or creative project of their choosing situated within the field of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.