Catalog
Women and Gender Studies
Professors Herzig (Women and Gender Studies, chair), Kane (Sociology), and Rand (Art and Visual Culture and Women and Gender Studies); Associate Professors Beasley (African American Studies and American Cultural Studies), Engel (Politics), Ewing (Environmental Studies), Hill (Politics), and Houchins (African American Studies); Visiting Associate Professor Plastas (Africian American Studies, Environmental Studies, and Women and Gender Studies); Assistant Professors Osucha (English) and Robert (Geology)
The goal of the Program in Women and Gender Studies is to enable learners to recognize, analyze, and transform gender relations as they appear in everyday life. The program provides the opportunity to study women as social agents whose identities and experiences are shaped by systems of race, class, sexuality, and national power. At the same time, to study gender is to refute simple assertions about women, men, and gender binaries, and to strive instead for richly detailed accounts of the political, economic, and technological conditions through which relations of power have been established and maintained. Analyzing gender enriches our ability to apprehend the differing social roles assigned to individuals, the inequitable distribution of material resources, and the ties between structures of knowledge and larger systems of privilege and oppression. Courses examine women and gender relations in multiple cultural, historical, and material contexts, encouraging the use of transnational, multiracial feminist perspectives. Students may choose to either major or minor in women and gender studies. More information on the women and gender studies program is available on the website (bates.edu/gender).
Major Requirements
Students must complete ten courses, including:1) All of the following:
WGST 100. Introduction to Women and Gender Studies.
AA/WS 201. Race, Ethnicity, and Feminist Thought.
INDS 250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry.
WGST 400. Junior-Senior Seminar.
WGST 457 or 458. Senior Thesis.
Majors should take WGST 100 and INDS 250 before the end of the sophomore year.
2) Additional Courses. Five additional courses offered by women and gender studies or program-approved courses offered by other departments and programs. At least two of these five courses must be at the 300 or 400 level. No more than one Short Term course may be counted toward the major. The list includes committee-approved first-year seminars. The following courses may also be used toward fulfillment of major or minor requirements:
AVC 375. Issues of Sexuality and the Study of Visual Culture.
EDUC 240. Gender Issues in Education.
ENG 238. Jane Austen: Then and Now.
FYS 135. Women in Art.
FYS 177. Sex and Sexualities.
FYS 305. Corporal Culture: Body and Health in America.
FYS 346. Desire, Devotion, Suffering.
PLTC 297. The Household and Political Theory.
PLTC 298. Sexuality and the Politics of Difference.
PLTC329. Law, Gender, and Sexuality.
RHET 260. Lesbian and Gay Images in Film.
RHET 265. The Rhetoric of Women's Rights.
SPAN 344. Gendering Social Awareness in Contemporary Spain.
3) WGST 457, 458. Senior Thesis.
The women and gender studies course list represents only those courses which are currently part of the Bates curriculum. Students may use courses—including first-year seminars and topics courses—that were listed as women and gender studies core courses in a previous year, provided the catalog year is one in which the student was matriculated.
Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, many courses in women and gender studies have prerequisites in other departments. Majors should plan their schedules carefully and are urged to consult regularly with the chair to ensure that their program has both breadth and depth.
Senior Thesis
Planning for the senior thesis should begin in the junior year. In consultation with the chair of the program, each student chooses a thesis advisor according to the subject matter of the thesis. With the assistance of the thesis advisor, each major submits a thesis proposal to the Committee on Women and Gender Studies according to a schedule determined by the program. Students should consult the program website for thesis guidelines and a schedule of deadlines.Pass/Fail Grading Option
Aside from the thesis, which must be taken for a grade, there are no restrictions on the use of the pass/fail option within the major.Minor
A minor in women and gender studies consists of WGST 100, AA/WS 201, INDS 250, WGST 400, at least one other 300- or 400-level women and gender studies course, and two other committee-approved courses. No more than one Short Term course may be counted toward the minor.Pass/Fail Grading Option
There are no restrictions on the use of the pass/fail option within the minor. CoursesWGST 100. Introduction to Women and Gender Studies.
An interdisciplinary study of women and gender in cross-cultural and historical perspectives. Emphasis is given to the gendered lives and to potentials for solidarity given diversities of race, class, ethnicity, age, (dis)ability, sexuality, nationality, and religion. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every year. Staff.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
RE/WS 111. Religion and the Monstrous Feminine.
Religion tells us what we should shun: the unfamiliar, the impermissible, the Other. We turn to religion to protect us from demons, vampires, and other monsters. Knowing what scares us tells us who we are, what we want, and what we cannot or will not tolerate. How, then, do we make sense of the monstrous feminine? This course uses monsters and the concept of the monstrous to introduce fundamental concepts in the academic study of religion and gender. Students analyze popular culture sources, including films, short stories, and graphic novels, in conversation with scholarship on religion and cultural studies to explore what monstrosity can tell us about religious and embodiment. Not open to students who have received credit for AC/RE s29. New course beginning Winter 2016. Enrollment limited to 40. One-time offering. M. Goodwin.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/WS 121G. Asian American Women Writers.
This course examines from a sociohistorical perspective fictional, autobiographical, and critical writings by Asian American women including Meena Alexander, Sui Sin Far, Gish Jen, Maxine Hong Kingston, Tahira Naqvi, Cathy Song, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Hisaye Yamamoto. Students explore their concerns with personal and cultural identity, as both Asian and American, as females, as minorities, and often as postcolonial subjects. The course highlights the varied immigration and social histories of women from different Asian countries, often homogenized as "Oriental" in mainstream American cultural representations. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. L. Dhingra.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 130. Food in Ancient Greece and Rome.
Participants in this course study food in ancient Greece and Rome: the history of the food supply for agrarian and urban populations; malnutrition, its probable impact on ancient economies, and its uneven impact on populations; famine; the symbolism of the heroic banquet—a division of the sacrificial animal among ranked members of society, and between men and gods; cuisine and delicacies of the rich; forbidden food; the respective roles of men and women in food production, and their unequal access to food supply; dietary transgression; and sacred food. Cross-listed in classical and medieval studies, history, and women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for CMS s28. Enrollment limited to 50. D. O'Higgins.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
PT/WS 155. Women, Power, and Political Systems.
This course studies politics through the experiences of half the world's population: women. Using several frames —political theory, voter behavior, international politics, social movement activism, and global studies—the course examines what counts as "politics" and surveys the impact of gender on women's status, roles, and actions in political systems from the ancient world to contemporary emerging democracies. Why are women under-represented in nearly all governments? Do women make more of an impact on national and global politics than the images of "men in suits" imply? Students consider women—differentiated by class, race, nation, and sexuality—as political subjects and study their participation in and impact on politics and public decision making in a variety of political systems. Not open to students who have received credit for PLTC 155. Enrollment limited to 40. L. Hill.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/WS 201. Race, Ethnicity, and Feminist Thought.
While all courses in the women and gender studies program examine gender in relation to other critical categories of social identity and experience, this course focuses on race, ethnicity, and national power at their intersections with gender. Using perspectives from the social sciences, the humanities, and critical race, womanist, feminist, and queer theories, students examine feminist efforts at self-definition and self-sufficiency, as well as feminist contributions to knowledge, social and political activism, and theorizing. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. Normally offered every year. S. Houchins.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
WGST 202. Queer and Trans Sports Studies.
This course brings queer studies and trans studies perspectives to sport, looking at practice, representation, discourse, and relations among them. Topics include the reach into the lives of all athletes of gender binarism and gender segregation; the regulation of transgender, gender nonconforming, and intersex athletes, including the delineation of those categories, in the context of other discourses around human variation in sport; the roles of raced masculinities, femininities, heteronormativities, and homonormativities in the valuation of athleticism, athletes, and sports; and issues from pleasure to pink-washing surrounding the participation of queer-identified people in recreational, competitive, and professional sport. Recommended background: one course on the study of gender, sexuality, queer studies, trans studies, and/or sports studies. Enrollment limited to 30. [W2] E. Rand.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
RE/WS 203. Women, Gender, and Islam.
The course introduces normative Islamic traditions and Islamic discourses about women and gender from inception of the religion in the seventh century C.E. to the present day. It surveys Muslim women's experiences across a broad span of historical periods and cultural arenas, from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa to Europe and North America. Encouraging a critical postcolonial reflexive perspective and emphasizing Muslim women's voices and historical agency, the course draws on a range of scholarly disciplines and methods including historical, anthropological, literary, and art historical studies to explore understandings beyond common stereotypes of "the oppressed Muslim woman." Recommended background: WGST 100. New course beginning Winter 2016. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. S. Oladi Ghadikolaei.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
CM/WS 204. Gender and the Body in Ancient Greece.
How did people in ancient Greece think about the categories of male and female? How did these categories intersect with others, such as social status, age, and ethnicity? This course considers issues of gender in archaic and classical Greece and looks at how Greek people thought about the body, sexuality, and "transgressive" behavior and individuals. Students analyze literary texts (in translation) as well as medical, religious, and legal evidence—inscriptional and textual—and modern scholarship. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 35. D. O'Higgins.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
RE/WS 207. Eve, Adam, and the Serpent.
This course examines the historical formation of Genesis 1–3 against the background of its literary, cultural, and historical context and its subsequent interpretation and use in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. Special attention is given to the ways in which the biblical texts have been interpreted and used to imagine, promote, and justify social orders — both hierarchical and egalitarian — as well as how the construction of gender relations links to the ways in which other social institutions are articulated and justified. Topics include the creation of the cosmos, characterizations of the Creator, the origins and perfection of humanity, the origins of evil, and the human fall from perfection. Enrollment limited to 40. C. Baker.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 210. Technology in U.S. History.
Surveys the development, distribution, and use of technology in the United States from colonial roadways to microelectronics, using primary and secondary source material. Subjects treated include sexual and racial divisions of labor, theories of invention and innovation, and the ecological consequences of technological change. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, history, and women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 40. R. Herzig.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
PT/WS 220. Gender, War, and Peace.
This course uses gender as an analytical tool to examine the history of war and peace. How do war and militarization construct masculinities and femininities? What types of roles have women played in the making of war and in the making of peace? How has gender socialization influenced people's analysis of and participation in war and in peace activism? What are the gender politics of the politics of war and of peacemaking? How is gender deployed in current war zones and in current movements for peace? Recommended background: WGST 100. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. M. Plastas.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 238. Sexuality Movements and the Politics of Difference.
This course introduces students to social movement theory and interest group politics in the United States via the case study of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) politics from the immediate post-World War II period to the present, and examines the relationship of sexuality to the racial and gender dynamics of American identity-based social movements. The course traces the development of research methodologies to study collective action from early rational choice models to resource mobilization theory to new social movement models and political opportunity and process models. How the LGBTQ movements drew upon, expanded, and challenged foundations established by both African American civil rights and feminism is also explored. A range of source materials includes political science, sociology, and history monographs and articles, primary source documents, literature, and film. Cross-listed in politics, sociology, and women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 30. [W2] S. Engel.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EC/WS 239. Gender Issues in Economics.
This course uses economic theory and analysis to understand the changing roles of women in the economy and explain why we observe different outcomes for men and women. The first half of the course investigates gender issues within the household by focusing on topics such as household division of labor, marriage, divorce, fertility, and differential investment in children. The second half of the course explores gender differences in the labor market. Specifically, students examine variations in the supply of female labor, occupational differentiation by gender, and gender gap in earnings. Students consider these issues in the context of the United States as well as developing countries. The goals of the course are to a) demonstrate how economic tools can be applied to a diverse range of topics, b) practice summarizing and critiquing published research, and c) hone students' communication skills. Prerequisite(s): ECON 101. Enrollment limited to 30. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
PT/WS 245. Democratizing States and Gender Politics.
Does political change offer opportunities for women to increase their representation in politics, and to gain access to decision-making and leadership positions? Under what circumstances do women oppose authoritarian regimes? How do gender politics shape transitions to democracy? This course uses a comparative approach to investigate cases of regime change in Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa in order to understand whether and how democratization creates possibilities for democratizing gender relations and for women to enter politics as men's equals. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. L. Hill.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry.
Interdisciplinarity involves more than a meeting of disciplines. Practitioners stretch methodological norms and reach across disciplinary boundaries. Through examination of a single topic, this course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods of analysis. Students examine what practitioners actually do and work to become practitioners themselves. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and women and gender studies. Prerequisite(s): AAS 100, ACS 100, or WGST 100, and one other course in African American studies, American cultural studies, or women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
PT/WS 254. Sex Matters? U.S. Women and Politics.
During the last quarter of the twentieth century women made a visible entry into U.S. politics. Politics has shaped women's lives as citizens, workers, and mothers, just as notions of ideal manhood and womanhood have shaped politics since America's founding. Why are women significantly under-represented in public office today? Do increasing numbers of women in government make a difference in policy outcomes affecting women's everyday lives? Does women's political participation and influence—as decisive voters, social movement activists, persuasive legislators, and presidential candidates—make an impact on the conduct of politics or political thinking of the nation? This course examines politics, policy, and the political lives of U.S. women—variously positioned in racial, class, sexual, and cultural communities—in order to make sense of changes and continuity in women's status, participation, and influence on public life and decision making. Not open to students who have received credit for PT/WS 255. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. L. Hill.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 255. Female Authorship: Japanese Women Writers and Filmmakers.
Women have authored many of Japan's most treasured classical texts, have inked their way to celebrity status as manga artists, and now hold rank in a new generation of Japanese filmmakers. Yet the idea of the Japanese woman and the Japanese girl circulated in national and international imagery has been problematically penned by patriarchy. This course examines texts authored by women in the literary and visual fields to explore how women imagine and construct themselves. Students engage in critical analysis of Japanese gender performance and social roles as depicted in images of the family, national identity, selfhood, the body, and gendered experience. Readings and discussion are in English. Cross-listed in Asian studies, Japanese, and women and gender studies. Open to first-year students. [W2] C. Laird.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
HI/WS 260. Women and Gender in Middle Eastern and North African History.
This course examines debates about the history of women and gender in the Middle East and North Africa, from the origins of Islam in the seventh century until the present day, focusing on the social, cultural, political, and economic factors that have affected the experiences of Middle Eastern and North African women. The course has three parts: women and gender in the Islamic tradition; women’s history and the methods historians use to uncover women’s experiences; and women and gender in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. One-time offering. E. Nutting.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 267. Blood, Genes, and American Culture.
Places recent popular and scientific discussions of human heredity and genetics in broader social, political, and historical context, focusing on shifting definitions of personhood. Topics include the ownership and exchange of human bodies and body parts, the development of assisted reproductive technologies, and the emergence of new forms of biological citizenship. Recommended background: course work in biology and/or women and gender studies. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, history, and women and gender studies. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. R. Herzig.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
SO/WS 270. Sociology of Gender.
This course focuses on the social construction of gender through a consideration of a series of interrelated social institutions and practices central to gender stratification. Emphasis is placed on the intersections between gender inequality and inequalities of race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and nation. Recommended background: one previous course in the sociology or women and gender studies. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. (Community-Engaged Learning.) E. Kane.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AN/WS 275. Gender and Culture.
Comparative analysis of the social construction of gender in a wide range of contemporary societies, focusing on the contrast among African, Asian, and North Atlantic notions of gender identity and gender relations. Students work toward a deeper understanding of gender diversity, confronting our own cultural assumptions. Enrollment limited to 30. Offered with varying frequency. E. Eames.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
PT/WS 282. Rights and Identities in American Constitutionalism.
This course introduces students to constitutional interpretation and development in civil rights and race equality jurisprudence, gender equality jurisprudence, sexual orientation law, and matters related to privacy and autonomy (particularly sexual autonomy involving contraception and abortion access). Expanding, contracting, or otherwise altering the meaning of a right involves a range of actors in a variety of venues, not only courts. Therefore, students consider rights from a "law and society" perspective, which focuses on analyzing judicial rulings as well as evaluating the social conceptualization, representation, and grassroots mobilization around these rights. Prerequisite(s): PLTC 115. Recommended background: PLTC 216. Enrollment limited to 30. S. Engel.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AV/WS 287. Gender and Visual Culture.
This course concerns gender in the making and viewing of visual culture, with emphasis on the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and the roles of visual culture in the construction of gendered identities. Topics include the use of the visual in artistic, political, and historical representations of gendered people; queer and transgenderings; the visualization of gender in relation to race, ethnicity, nationality, class, age, sex, and sexuality; and matters of censorship, circulation, and resources that affect the cultural production of people oppressed and/or marginalized by sex and/or gender. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30 per section. [W2] E. Rand.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AV/WS 295. The Decorated Body.
This course analyzes the arts associated with the body, using the body as subject and as lens for theoretical discussions in relation to non-Western and Western cultures. Cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary, with particular attention to the body as gendered and raced, the course addresses the ways that the body has been adorned and manipulated as an artistic medium through practices including painting, scarification, surgical manipulation, tattooing, piercing, branding, and hair adornment. Enrollment limited to 25. A. Bessire.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/WS 297. Feminisms.
This course develops students' ability to analyze gender in relation to other issues, including race, class, and sexuality. Students explore the multiple theories of how these issues intersect in literature, including black feminism, socialist feminism, queer theory, deconstruction, and psychoanalytic theory. Some attention is paid to media feminism, both the brand of feminism popular in current movies and television shows, and media reactions to feminism. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. C. Malcolmson.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AV/WS 299. Gender in African Art.
This course examines the complex role of gender in African art and visual culture. Focused topics include gender divisions in artistic production, women in royal traditions, gender restrictions in viewing sacred arts, arts and visual culture celebrating women’s power, performative cross-dressing, gender identities in cultural performance, the personification of spirit spouses, and cis- and transgender expressions in contemporary art. Enrollment limited to 30. A. Bessire.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
RE/WS 310. Gender and Judaism.
In this course, students explore aspects of Jewish culture and images of Jews and Judaism through the lenses of gender and sexuality. They examine ideologies, images, and practices from Jewish traditions with an eye to the ways in which gender and sexuality are constructed, maintained, contested, and/or transformed through them. Feminist Jews and Judaism serve as sources for insight and critique as well as constructive resources for religious reflection, ritual, and visions of Judaism's future. Enrollment limited to 15. C. Baker.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
RE/WS 311. Buddhism and Gender.
This course examines the role of gender in Buddhist communities from the inception of the religious tradition to the modern day. How has gender identity influenced the development of this tradition? Where do we see gender in Buddhist literature, doctrine, and art? How do modern ideas of what "Buddhism" is affect change in the North American context, and how is this different from the Buddhist past? The course draws on a variety of sources, including literary, cinematic, and visual materials, to answer these questions. Special attention is given to how gender is presented in doctrinal texts, and the (dis)connection between these documents and the lived experiences of Buddhist people, as presented in interviews and autobiographies by Buddhist practitioners from a variety of moments and communities. New course beginning Fall 2016. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every other year. A. Melnick.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
SP/WS 323. Gendered Experiences in the Américas Borderlands.
This course examines tensions relating to geographical locations and historical relationships of power. It reviews gendered experiences of transnational border crossers throughout the Américas. Students become acquainted with testimonies, film, photography, and fictional narrative as well as government reports on human trafficking and slave labor. Readings are in Spanish and English. All discussions and written assignments are in Spanish. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for SPAN 223. C. Aburto Guzmán.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 325. Black Feminist Literary Theory and Practice.
This seminar examines literary theories that address the representation and construction of race, gender, and sexuality, particularly, but not exclusively, theories formulated and articulated by Afra-diasporic women such as Spillers, Ogunyemi, Henderson, Valerie Smith, McDowell, Busia, Lubiano, and Davies. Students not only analyze theoretical essays but also use the theories as lenses through which to explore literary productions of women writers of Africa and the African diaspora in Europe and in the Americas, including Philip, Dangarembga, Morrison, Herron, Gayl Jones, Head, Condé, Brodber, Brand, Merle Collins, and Harriet Wilson. Cross-listed in African American studies, English, and women and gender studies. Strongly recommended: at least one lower level literature course. Enrollment limited to 15. S. Houchins.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
WGST 335. Tobacco: Gender Matters.
In the opening episode of the popular television show Mad Men, entitled "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," cigarettes feature as the primary signifier of mid-twentieth-century social norms and cultural divides. As Mad Men suggests, tobacco matters to our ability to understand the formation of cultural values and divides. In this reading- and research-intensive seminar, students use gender to examine the global history of tobacco production, consumption, and control. Through historical and comparative study they consider the role of tobacco in shaping ideas about gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and class. Topics include the political economy of tobacco, tobacco control movements, tobacco and human rights, and health equity. Prerequisite(s): WGST 100. Not open to students who have received credit for PT/WS s14. Enrollment limited to 15. (Community-Engaged Learning.) M. Plastas.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 342. Performance, Narrative, and the Body.
This course examines the politics of the body through the inter/transdisciplinary frames of the narrative and performance, including the specific ways performance and narrative theories of the body and cultural practices operate in everyday life and social formations. Students examine how the "body" is performed and how narrative is constructed in a variety of different contexts such as race, gender, disease, sexuality, and culture. The course places narrative and performance at the center (rather than the margins) of inquiry, asking how far and how deeply performativity reaches into our lives and how performances construct our identities, differences, and our bodies: who we are and who we can become. Cross-listed in African American studies, anthropology, and women and gender studies. Prerequisite(s): WGST 100. Recommended background: course work in African American studies, American cultural studies, anthropology, politics, sociology, or women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Beasley.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
PY/WS 343. Women, Culture, and Health.
This course examines a variety of perspectives on women's health issues, including reproductive health, body image, sexuality, substance use and abuse, mental health, cancer, AIDS, heart disease, poverty, work, violence, access to health care, and aging. Each topic is examined in sociocultural context, and the complex relationship between individual health and cultural demands or standards is explored. Prerequisite(s): AS/PY 260; NS/PY 200; or PSYC 211, 215, 235, 242, 303, or 322. S. Langdon, K. Low.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
SP/WS 344. Gendering Social Awareness in Contemporary Spain.
In this course, students use gender as the main category of analysis, paying particular attention to its interconnectedness with power. Carefully examining texts written by women in contemporary Spain, students explore the deliberate use of gender as a lens through which to understand different forms of domination—economic, political, and social. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Instructor permission is required. F. López.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
PT/WS 347. Gender and the State.
Two key questions provide the focus for this course: How does gender define citizenship, politics, and the state? What roles do states play in shaping notions of masculinity and womanhood? Theoretical framings of gender and politics form the basis for reviewing women's and men's varying relationships to states. Students examine processes through which gender ideologies shape state power and policy as well as how state projects, such as economic development or war, influence gender relations. Using case studies of women's political activism, students investigate how women (re)define their political roles, seek access to state power, and thus pursue different relationships to the state. Reommended background: one course in politics or women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for PLTC 347. Enrollment limited to 15. L. Hill.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AC/WS 353. Critical Theory/Critical Acts.
Critical theory unravels streams of repressive discourses and hierarchies in our contemporary world, and artists have fostered ruptures and fissures in everyday life. This seminar ponders the concept of "cultural worker" and laments the domain of theory by exploring the intersections between critical theory, art, and cultural politics. Students engage in the ruptures, the fragments of knowledge, and making sense of the residue of "social change" while not forgetting the problematization of the aesthetic. They consider U.S.-based interdisciplinary artists such as Thiong'o, Fusco, Ana Mediata, Tania Bruguera, David Hammon, Jay-Z, Pope.L, and Lady Gaga with critical theorists such as Fanon, Butler, Foucault, Phalen, Muñoz, Moten, Adorno, Barthes, Dorothea Olkowski, and Benjamin. This seminar is based on close readings of theoretical texts and connecting those texts with contemporary cultural politics. Prerequisite(s): one of the following: AA/AC 119, ACS 100, AC/AV 340, AC/EN 395B, AV/WS 287, INDS 250 or 267, or WGST 100. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Beasley.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
WGST 355. Gender and Technology.
Using gender as its central category of analysis, this advanced reading seminar examines historical and contemporary relationships among masculinities, femininities, and technologies. The course devotes special attention to those technologies used to define, alter, and enhance sexual identity, including dietary aids, cosmetics, psychopharmaceuticals, and hormone therapies. Throughout, the seminar seeks to illuminate structured relations of inequality, investigating the ways in which everyday material objects come to generate, enforce, and transform patterns of social stratification. Prerequisite(s): WGST 100 and two other courses listed in women and gender studies. R. Herzig.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
WGST 356. Marriage in America.
This reading-intensive seminar delves into the surprising history of ideas and practices of marriage in the United States and U.S. territories from the colonial era to the present. Paying special attention to the idealization of intimate romantic love in contemporary popular culture, readings and discussions explore the interplay of citizenship, religion, consumption, labor, reproduction, sexuality, and racialized gender in an institution long at the center of American life. Prerequisite(s): WGST 100. Enrollment limited to 20. R. Herzig.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
WGST 360. Independent Study.
Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
WGST 365. Special Topics.
A course or seminar offered from time to time and reserved for a special topic selected by the Committee on Women and Gender Studies.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ED/WS 384. Education in a Globalized World.
We live in an era characterized by global flows of ideas and information, commodities, and people. In this course students examine the impacts of globalization and globalism upon educational policy and practices. Students explore how these transformative forces influence educative processes in different geographical, national, and cultural contexts. Topics address a set of concerns with enduring resonance to the field of educational studies, including social inequity and change; relations of power; and constructions of race, gender, and social class. A thirty-hour field experience is required. Not open to students who have received credit for ED/WS 280. Enrollment limited to 28. (Community-Engaged Learning.) [W2] P. Buck.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 390A. Sex and the Modern City: European Cultures at the Fin-de-Siècle .
Economic and political change during the 1800s revolutionized the daily lives of Europeans more profoundly than any previous century. By the last third of the century, the modern city became the stage for exploring and enacting new roles, new gender identities in particular. This course examines the cultural reverberations of these cataclysmic changes by focusing on sex, gender, and new urban spaces the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. Students consider the writings of Zola and Freud, investigate middle-class flirtations with the occult, and read about sensational crimes like those of Jack the Ripper. Cross-listed in European studies, history, women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] C. Shaw.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
HI/WS 390Q. A Woman's Place: Gender and Geography in the United States, 1800–Present.
Using a case study approach, this course looks at diverse American women from the early 1800s to the present and how they shaped, traversed, and contested the spaces they inhabited or were assigned, whether public or private, rural or urban, temporary or lifelong. Recommended background: AC/HI 141, HIST 142, or WGST 100. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] M. Creighton.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 390Z. Race and U.S. Women's Movements.
This course focuses on how racial formations develop in women's movements and how gender ideologies take shape through racialization. Some of the movements examined include the woman's suffrage movement, the anti-lynching movement, the civil rights movement, moral reform movements, the welfare rights movement, the women's liberation movement, and the peace movement. Students analyze how the intertwined categories of race and gender shape various women's responses to debates about issues including citizenship, U.S. foreign policy, reproductive rights, and immigration. Students consider current theoretical and methodological debates and examine the topic through the perspectives of women in various ethnic and racial groups. Cross-listed in history, politics, and women and gender studies. Prerequisite(s): one course in women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for PT/WS 389 or 390. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] M. Plastas.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
SO/WS 395I. Race, Class, Gender, and Family.
This seminar focuses on current debates in the research and policy literatures on social inequality and family. Potential topics include family policy, poverty, domestic violence, the division of labor in households, reproduction, partnerships, parenting, children's experiences within families, and the integration of work and family. All of these topics are addressed with attention to the role of intersecting social inequalities in structuring family experiences, including race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation. Prerequisite(s): SOC 204 and 205. Course reinstated beginning Fall 2016. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] E. Kane.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/WS 395L. Feminist Literary Criticisms.
This seminar examines feminist literary theories and the implications and consequences of theoretical choices. It raises interrelated questions about forms of representation, the social construction of critical categories, cross-cultural differences among writers and readers, and the critical reception of women writers. Students explore the use of literary theory through work with diverse texts. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] Normally offered every year. L. Dhingra, C. Malcolmson.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/WS 395P. Worldly Women as Artists: Transnational Women Writers.
In her 1927 novel To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf resisted the prevailing sentiment that "women can't paint, women can't write." What qualities allow a contemporary woman writer to be considered an artist? How does transnational women's art reflect the creators' specific cultural or gendered experiences? This seminar studies such questions by examining the fiction, poetry, memoirs, and literary criticism by transnational women writing who consciously focus on writing about art and about themselves as creators and artists. Authors may include Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, Meena Alexander, Shani Mootoo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, and Trinh T. Minh-ha. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] L. Dhingra.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/WS 395S. Asian American Women Writers, Filmmakers, and Critics.
This seminar studies from a literary and a sociohistorical perspective the fiction, memoirs, and critical theories of Asian American women such as Meena Alexander, Ginu Kamani, Maxine Hong Kingston, Lisa Lowe, Bapsi Sidhwa, Cathy Song, Shani Mootoo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Joy Kogawa, and Hisaye Yamamoto. It explores their constructions of personal and national identity, as hybridized Asians and Americans, and as postcolonial diasporics making textual representations of real and "imaginary" homelands. Films by Trinh Minh-ha, Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair, Jayasri Hart, and Renee Tajima are also analyzed through critical lenses. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] L. Dhingra.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/WS 395W. Pre-1800 Women Writers.
The seminar considers the conditions that obstructed and supported writing by British women from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. Topics include changing accounts of gender difference, the possibility of a self-conscious female tradition, elite versus non-elite genres, the influence of overseas exploration and colonial slavery, autobiographical accounts about slavery, and the new role of the professional woman writer. Not open to students who have received credit for ENG 395W. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] C. Malcolmson.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/WS 395Z. Arab American Feminisms.
This course develops students' ability to look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, politics, and sexuality. Students read theoretical and literary material as a catalyst for discussions of fiction, focusing on the way Arab American feminists articulate their unique theoretical concerns. Students read such scholars as Mohja Kahf, Rabab Abdulhadi, Nadine Naber, and Randa Jarrar. Students consider the critical triumphs and limitations of creative and theoretical work in discussing these subjects. Recommended background: previous course work in American cultural studies or women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
WGST 400. Junior-Senior Seminar.
This seminar is an advanced inquiry into feminist theories and methods. Drawing on work in several disciplinary fields, students ask how using gender as a category of analysis illuminates and/or changes the questions of other disciplines. Students also investigate the development of core theories and methods within women and gender studies. Required of all majors. Normally, one 400-level seminar is offered each year. Open to juniors and seniors only.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
WGST 400C. Understanding Disease.
Intensive reading seminar examining the nature, causes, and consequences of human disease and illness. Students consider the birth of the germ theory and biomedical model of disease; the professionalization of medical care; and the role of class, nation, gender, and race in disease research and treatment. Prerequisite(s): five core courses in women and gender studies. Open to juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. R. Herzig.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
WGST 400D. Global Feminisms.
A seminar exploring feminist movements in an international context. Topics include divisions of labor and the "global assembly line," immigration and transnationalism, postcolonialism, and cultural imperialism. Students analyze local and international feminist activism and examine multiple definitions of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationhood. Prerequisite(s): five core courses in women and gender studies. Open to juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. R. Herzig, L. Hill.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
WGST 457. Senior Thesis.
The research and writing of an extended essay or report, or the completion of a creative project, under the supervision of a faculty member. Majors normally register for WGST 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both WGST 457 in the fall semester. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
WGST 458. Senior Thesis.
The research and writing of an extended essay or report, or the completion of a creative project, under the supervision of a faculty member. Majors normally register for WGST 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both WGST 457 in the fall semester and 458 in the winter semester. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
PT/WS s12. Gender, War, and Peace.
This course uses gender as an analytical tool to examine the history of war and peace. How do war and militarization construct masculinities and femininities? What types of roles have women played in the making of war and in the making of peace? How has gender socialization influenced people's analysis of and participation in war and in peace activism? What are the gender politics of the politics of war and of peacemaking? How is gender deployed in current war zones and in current movements for peace? Recommended background: WGST 100. Not open to students who have received credit for PT/WS 220. Enrollment limited to 30. M. Plastas.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
PT/WS s14. Gender and Tobacco.
This course explores the sociohistorical complexities of tobacco and the political economies of tobacco production, consumption, and regulation. The course focuses on how gender, race, and class influence tobacco industry policies, tobacco control procedures, the health and economic impact of tobacco on communities, and the strategies of grassroots and transnational activists in tobacco regulation movements. Recommended background: course work in women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for WGST 335. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. M. Plastas.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS s19. Food, Culture, and Performance.
This interdisciplinary seminar examines the idea of cultural engagement through food. Students explore the meanings of food and eating across cultures, with particular attention to how people define themselves socially, symbolically, and politically through food consumption practices. Students in this community-based course collaborate with Nezinscot Farm exploring themes of gathering, homesteading, and biodynamic farming. The course develops research and writing skills, introduces visual and performance theories of culture, and fosters an understanding of the importance of food and its relationship to identity construction, histories, and cultural literacy. The course culminates in a performative meal. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, anthropology, and women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 20. (Community-Engaged Learning.) M. Beasley.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
SP/WS s22. Militants, Queers, and Thugs: Latino and African American Masculinities and Social Movements.
Students engage questions about Latino and African American masculinities that resonate with the contemporary moment. How do the politics of ethnicity, gender, sexuality and race complicate social perceptions of Latino and African American men? How do African American and Latino men take hold of narrative to construct and negotiate their gender identities? How do social movement narratives contest stereotypical notions of Latino and black masculinity? Students analyze Puerto Rican, Dominican, and African American fiction and testimonial narrative about masculinity during the 1960s and 1970s in New York City. Students employ intersectionality, queer theory, and racial theories to consider the relationship and tensions between militancy and queerness in the formation of Latino, Afro-Latino and Black American masculinities. Conducted in English. New course beginning Short Term 2016. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every other year. M. Pettway.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS s25. Family and Gender in China.
This course examines social and cultural changes in late imperial, modern, and contemporary China (1550-present) through the perspective of family and gender. The Chinese family and the status and identities of Chinese women and men have undergone profound changes within both domestic and global contexts. In this course students study foundations and transformations of social practices and institutions such as the multi-generation lineage, childhood and education, love and marriage, gender norms and deviations, feminist movements and migrant workers, and the one-child policy. Materials include family biographies, sociological studies, novels, paintings, and films. Activities include a field trip to the Peabody Essex Museum. Cross-listed in Asian studies, history, and women and gender studies. New course beginning Short Term 2016. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. K. Ren.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
PT/WS s27. Feminisms of the 1970s and 1980s.
This course explores the rise of multiple feminist theories and forms of activism during the 1970s and 1980s. Students critically examine the genealogy of the conceptualization of "second-wave feminism," and explore the role of gay, Chicano, and black liberation, civil rights, and labor struggles on the development of feminist thinking and action. The course pays particular attention to how feminists of this period addressed questions of U.S. foreign policy in Vietnam, Central America, and South Africa; the nuclear arms race; and U.S. domestic race relations. Students read from primary source material and study the literature produced by Marxist feminisms, black feminisms, lesbian feminisms, liberal feminisms, and radical feminisms. Recommended background: WGST 100. Enrollment limited to 25. M. Plastas.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
PT/WS s32. Global Flows: Work, Sex, and Care.
Globalization refers to processes underlying profound changes in contemporary life from the corporate boardroom to the family bedroom. What do women and sex have to do with the global political economy? How does gender—the social organization of sexual difference—shape the future "world without borders"? In what ways might global restructuring depend on women and gender relations? This course examines how sexual divisions of labor, power, and decision making shape flows of money, jobs, goods, and people across borders. Students use interdisplinary perspectives from political economy, women and gender studies, and film studies to consider gender as an aspect of global processes of change and transformation in international flows, connections, production and consumption. Enrollment limited to 20. L. Hill.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS s37. Afrofuturism and the Black Speculative Imagination: A Study of Octavia Butler.
Of the 1969 moonwalk, George Clinton said that once man defied gravity, all bets were off. The music mogul later went on to defy gravity by "funk-ifying" the world. Yet Clinton's ideas are not without precedent in African American culture. In this course, students examine the aesthetic that came to be known as Afrofuturism as an outlet for African American literary and artistic expression. Students focus on the work of Octavia Butler and her volcanic influence, fame, and talent. Since her work dovetails with Clinton's anti-gravity stance and forms a locus for black speculative fiction in particular and speculative fiction in general, they study a selection of her novels, short fiction, and own words as well as secondary critical and theoretical material. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, English, and women and gender studies. Prerequisite(s): one course in African American studies, American cultural studies, or English. Recommended background: course work in the natural sciences. Not open to students who have received credit for AA/EN 259. Enrollment limited to 30. T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
WGST s41. Introduction to Queer Studies.
New research practices and technologies have prompted exciting changes in the landscape of teaching and learning at the college level. This course investigates those changes both broadly and within a specific discipline or interdisciplinary field of study. A small group of students works under the direction of a faculty member to examine innovative trends in teaching and learning with the goal of designing or redesigning a specific course in that faculty member’s field. In this course, students design a new course on the history and contemporary applications of queer theory and interdisciplinary queer studies for the Program in Women and Gender Studies and the Queer Studies General Education concenetration, administered by the program. New course beginning Short Term 2016. Enrollment limited to 6. One-time offering. E. Osucha.WGST s50. Independent Study.
Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)