Undergraduate Courses
The Center for Gender Studies coordinates courses and activities that take up gender and sexuality as primary objects of study and category of analysis. Courses engage these domains in many different ways, including: the study of gender and/or sexuality as historical practice, scientific concept and site of representation; gendered social movements such as feminism and gay and lesbian liberation; feminist and queer theory; family structures; the gendering of labor force participation; representations of women in literature and the visual arts, intersections of race and gender, and women's and men's participation in politics.
Our courses both fall into traditional disciplinary rubrics, and use gender and sexuality as categories of analysis to track contemporary transformations in these and other domains of knowledge. We are interested in developing points of comparison within and among diverse areas of organized knowledge, not assuming that gender means the same thing in different disciplines, historical moments, epistemologies, or cultural frameworks. We are also dedicated to fostering debate about the construction and implications of categories of gender difference and sexual identity. Further, it promotes engagement with ways that gender and sexuality give us insight into other modes of social organization and change, including transformations of economic and political systems, media public spheres; forms of repression and resistance; modes of production, knowledge and experience, and everyday life.
NOTE: A course listing can be found in the course catalog.
Spring 2008
- 15600. Medieval English Literature. This course examines
the relations among psychology, ethics, and social theory in fourteenth-century
English literature. We pay particular attention to three central preoccupations
of the period: sex, the human body, and the ambition of ethical perfection.
Readings are drawn from Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain-poet, Gower, penitential
literature, and saints’ lives. There are also some supplementary readings
in the social history of late medieval England. J. Schleusener.
Spring.
16901. Roaring Girls: Gender in Renaissance Drama. (=ENGL 16901) This course addresses some of the issues, themes, and techniques of reading Renaissance drama, both as a historical period and as a literary genre. The primary focus of the course is on how gender, culture, and class are represented in the plays, through physical presentation onstage—through what other characters say about female characters, and through what the female characters themselves have to say. Close reading is essential in this process, as the specific language of gender is investigated, but we also address the historical context of these representations through consideration of the material environment of the original staging. S. Murray. Spring.
17903. U.S. Women’s History. (=HIST 17903, LLSO 28009) This course explores the history of women in the modern United States and its meaning for the world of both sexes. Rather than studying women in isolation, it focuses on changing gender relations and ideologies; on the social, cultural, and political forces shaping women’s lives; and on the implications of race, ethnic, and class differences among women. Topics include the struggle for women’s rights, slavery and emancipation, the politics of sexuality, work, consumer culture, and the rise of the welfare state. A. Stanley. Spring.
20800/30800. Sexuality, Identity, and the Life Course. (=CHDV 24600, HIPS 26900, ISHU 35900, PSYC 24600/34600, SOCS 25900) Beginning with a consideration of the shifting historical context of narratives in our culture concerning sexuality, this course explores the concept of sexual identity, its impact on human development across the course of life, and its expression in the personal narratives. In addition to addressing the role of generational or historical change in shaping understandings of sexuality, we consider recent empirical and theoretical investigations of the cultural construction of sexuality, including the possible contributions of “queer theory.” We then move on to a consideration of the developmental processes relevant to an understanding of sexuality. B. Cohler. Spring.
21601. Introduction to Political Philosophy. (=PHIL 21600) Why obey the law? Are any existing governments actually legitimate, just, or worthy of obedience? Can a legitimate government fail to respect human rights or democratic processes? What would it take to achieve a legitimate and just society, or a legitimate and just international order? How and why should we combat genocide, prejudice, inequality, and injustice? How can we achieve a genuine civic knowledge? These are but a few of the fundamental questions of political philosophy that are addressed in this course, which draws primarily on comparatively recent works by John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Jurgen Habermas, Bernard Williams, Peter Singer, Martha Nussbaum, Danielle Allen, and Anthony Kwame Appiah. B. Schultz. Spring.
21603. Empire and Intimacy: Race and Sexual Fantasy in European Literature. (=CMLT 21603, ENGL 18105, ISHU 21601) This course critically examines European fascination with non-Western peoples, their bodies and sexual practices from the late Renaissance to the twentieth century. Along with select English and French literature that imagines cross-cultural contact in its most shocking form (i.e., interracial sexuality), we examine European proto-anthropology that detailed the sexual “aberrations” of subaltern peoples. Literature to be read includes works by Shakespeare, Behn, Diderot, Byron, C. Brontë, Haggard, Gide, and Forster. All texts available in English; students with a reading knowledge of French encouraged to read French works in the original. G. Cohen-Vrignaud. Spring.
22401. Latino/a Intellectual Thought. (=CMLT 21401, ENGL 22804, LACS 22804, SPAN 22801) This course traces the history of Latina/o intellectual work that helped shape contemporary Latina/o cultural studies. Our focus is on how Chicanas/os and Puerto Ricans have theorized the history, society, and culture of Latinas/os in the United States. Themes include folklore and anthropology, cultural nationalism, postcolonialism, literary and cultural studies, community activism, feminism, sexuality, and the emergence of a pan-Latino culture. Throughout, we pay attention to the convergences and divergences of Chicana/o and Puerto Rican studies, especially as contemporary practitioners have encouraged us to (re)think Latina/o studies in a comparative framework. R. Coronado. Spring.
22502. Gender and Religion in the African Diaspora. This course explores the range of prominentpositions that women have held in: Haitian Vodou, Cuban Lucumí/Santería, Brazilian Candomblé/Macumba, Jamaican Rastafarianism, Yorùbá (West African) Traditional Religion. How does ritual convey normative ideas of femininity and masculinity? How should we understand the everyday experiences of actual women in these traditions alongside the worship and representation of female deities who may threaten the dominant social structure? These are some of the questions this course seeks to answer. Titles of readings include: “The Power, but Not the Glory: How Women Empower Themselves Through Religion, ”Where Men Are Wives and Mothers Rule, “Wicked Women and Femmes Fatales,” “Rastawoman as Rebel, ”The Phallus and the Outcast: the Symbolism of the Dreadlocks in Jamaica.” E. Perez. Spring.
23000. Regulation of Sexuality. (PQ. Permission of Instructor for non-law students) This course focuses on the many ways in which the legal system regulates sexuality, sexual identity, and gender and considers such regulation in a number of substantive areas, including marriage laws, custody rules, sodomy laws, and constitutional rights such as free speech, equal protection, and substantive due process. Readings include cases and articles from the legal literature together with work by scholars in other fields on current questions of identity and other theoretical issues. The grade is based on class participation and a final examination or major paper. M. Case. Spring.
23001. Gender and Literature in South Asia. (=SALC 23002/33002 CMLT 23500, GNDR 33001) Prior knowledge of South Asia not required. This course investigates representations of gender and sexuality, especially of females and “the feminine” in South Asian literature (i.e., from areas now included in the nations of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). Topics include classical Indian literature and sexual motifs, the female voice as a devotional/literary stance, gendered nationalism, the feminist movements, class and gender, and women’s songs. Texts in English. V. Ritter. Spring.
23400. Virginia Woolf. (=ENGL 23400, FNDL 24011) Readings include The Voyage Out, Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, The Waves, Between the Acts, and selected essays. L. Ruddick. Spring.
26901 Women’s Rights and Human Rights: A Historical Approach. (= LLSO 23401, INST 27105, HMRT 27105) In this course we will first explore women’s rights as they developed following the explicit inclusion of women in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. In the second part of the course we will deal with the ‘prehistory’ of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration tracing earlier debates, declarations and struggles for women’s rights. In both parts we will focus on the tensions between the (pretended/aspired/imagined) universality of human rights and the (hidden/open/suspected) exclusion of women. In the course we will read both primary sources and scholarly texts about the development of women’s rights within the human rights discourse. M. Grandner. Spring.
27100. Sociology of Human Sexuality. (=SOCI 20107/30107) PQ: Prior introductory course in the social sciences. After briefly reviewing several biological and psychological approaches to human sexuality as points of comparison, we explore the sociological perspective on sexual conduct and its associated beliefs and consequences for individuals and society. Substantive topics include gender relations; life-course perspectives on sexual conduct in youth, adolescence, and adulthood; social epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections (including AIDS); sexual partner choice and turnover; and the incidence/prevalence of selected sexual practices. E. Laumann. Spring.27702. Gender Identities in the Balkans through Literature and Film. (=SOSL 27610/37610, CMLT 23901/33901, ISHU 27610, GNDR 37700) In this course, we will focus our attention to the poetics of femininity and masculinity in some of the best works of the Balkan region. We will contemplate how the experiences of masculinity and femininity are constituted and the issues of socialization related to these modes of being – the demands, comforts, pleasures and frustrations that the social categories offer to the individuals who have to embody and negotiate them. We will examine the traditional family model, the challenges of modernization and urbanization, the socialist paradigm, and the post-socialist changes. Finally, we will consider the relation between gender and nation, especially in the context of the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Balkan history, literature or feminist theory. Readings, written assignments and discussions will be in English. I. Angelina. Spring.
28202. U.S. Latinos: Origins/Histories. (=HIST 28000, LACS 28000, CRPC 28000) An examination of the diverse social, economic, political, and cultural histories of those who are now commonly identified as Latinos in the United States. Particular emphasis will be placed on the formative historical experiences of Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans. Topics include cultural and geographic origins and ties; imperialism and colonization; the economics of migration and employment; work, women, and the family; and the politics of national identity. R. Gutierrez. Spring.
28501/38500. Science and the Construction of Sexuality. Since the 19th century, in the West science has been the privileged domain for understanding sexuality. This course investigates major chapters in this history using a sociology of science perspective. From the development of the Enlightenment view of a system of two sexes to the emergence of the ideas of homosexuality and heterosexuality, we will look at emergence of different paradigms and methods for thinking about sex, gender, and sexuality. S. Michaels. Spring.
29285. Evolution and Medicine; Brain and Sex. (=ECEV 30900, EVOL 30900, GNDR 26601) PQ: Completion of the general education requirement for the biological sciences. This course does not meet requirements for the biological sciences major. This course on medical implications uses lectures, readings, and discussions to cover a variety of areas in the evolutionary half of biology, with a focus on the brain and on sex. We consider such topics as hormones and behavior, what use are males, evolution of immunity, ghosts of environments past, and mating strategies. L. Van Valen, M. Stoller. Spring.
29300. Myths of Transvestism and Transexuality. (=HREL 40800, SALC 35900) PQ: Consent of instructor. Studies in selected Greek and Hindu myths, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and As You Like It, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly, Roland Barthes’s S/Z, Marjorie Garber’s Vested Interests and Vice Versa, Wendy Doniger’s Splitting the Difference, and selected operas (Marriage of Figaro, Rosenkavalier, and Arabella) and films (Dead Again, Queen Christina, Some Like It Hot, I Was a Male War Bride, Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, All of Me, and The Crying Game). W. Doniger. Spring. -