Courses

This course will explore the socio-cultural construction of sex and gender categories. Since sex and gender are often “naturalized”—seen as emerging from inborn conditions—part of our process will be unlearning our assumptions as well as learning about the tremendous range of meanings assigned to gender across various societies. By exploring and comparing the definition and performance of gender in different social worlds, students will acquire a theoretical understanding of basic processes of socialization, identity, gendered performance, and cultural change. 4 credit hours Pre requisite ANTH 1000 or permission of the instructor.

Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?” The feminist performance group, Guerrilla Girls, posed this question in 1981 while noting that less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art sections of the museum were women, while 85% of the nudes were female. Women have been making art for millennia, yet as noted by the Guerrilla Girls’ query, their contributions to cultural and intellectual traditions have been often overlooked by mainstream artworld institutions. This class examines the dilemmas and contributions of women working in the practice, theory, and criticism of the visual arts.

This course will examine gender from an evolutionary perspective in both human and non-human animals.  We will look at the natural world to critically analyze typical gender stereotypes, and discuss when and if it is appropriate to make connections between human and animal behavior.  A variety of hands-on lab activities will be incorporated into the course to actively engage students with the scientific method.

Topical, thematic investigations of the literary arts in women's communities, cultures, and subcultures.  Literature is situated in regional, national, transnational, colonial, postcolonial, disaporic, or global contexts; understood as a catalyst for self discovery, communal survival, and political transformation; and explored as a vehicle of imaginative, creative expression.  Considers a wide variety of writers and genres; engages contemporary or historical texts; advances intermediate reading and writing skills; devotes one-credit hour to foundational research experiences and information literacy; and includes opportunities to write autobiographically, reflectively, critically, and creatively.  Pre-requisite: ENGL 1155 or INST 1500.

Topical, thematic investigations of the literary arts in gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities, cultures, and subcultures.  Literature is situated in regional, national, transnational, colonial, postcolonial, disaporic, or global contexts; understood as a catalyst for self discovery, communal survival, and political transformation; and explored as a vehicle of imaginative, creative expression.  Considers a wide variety of writers and genres; engages contemporary or historical texts; advances intermediate reading and writing skills; devotes one-credit hour to foundational research experiences and information literacy; and includes opportunities to write autobiographically, reflectively, critically, and creatively.  Pre-requisite: ENGL 1155 or INST 1500.

This course provides an introduction to women’s history as an historical approach. It explores the lived experiences of a variety of women in different places and times. It also considers how and why definitions of gender roles have changed over time. Particular attention is paid to both women’s common experiences and critical factors like race, class, and location that often made their lives quite different.

In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts became the site of the last in a long line of witchcraft scares and trials that swept across the Atlantic world in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This course examines why women and understandings of gender were repeatedly at the heart of these conflicts. It also explores the consequences of this connection between gender and witchcraft

This course examines how Americans have imagined, represented, embodied, used, and resisted different ways of understanding sexuality. Focusing on key historical moments from early America to the present, the course situates sexuality in relationship to constructions of gender, race, and class and explores the connections between sexuality and power.

This course examines the historical and contemporary constructions of gender, race, and class in both media representation and audiences defined in some way by gender, race, and class. Students will also consider industry issues inherent in representation and reception, as well as questions of individual media effects. Throughout the course, you will be asked to reflect on your media use activity and work to deconstruct sexist, racist, and classist messages in media content.  

A survey of the history of women and their contributions to the world of music. In addition to learning about the important roles women have played in the development of music, students will also investigate the origins and progression of feminism, explore contemporary feminist philosophy and criticism, and consider the future of this ideal in regards to music and the arts.

This course explores the status and roles that women have played and continue to play in the religions of the world and to historically reconstruct their unrecorded roles.  Major texts will be examined in an attempt to recover the lost female voices of the great religious traditions: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, pagan, ancient, African and other indigenous.  This is a polymethodic, interdisciplinary and multitraditional course in which the horizons and perspectives of women’s status, role and image in society are expanded.  In grappling with the many questions this course will raise, one result may be that of discovering implications for understanding oneself, whether female or male. 

This course examines with a consciousness of gender and with an acute awareness of multiple cultures the international myths, goddesses, and heroines that make up the spinning and weaving of our mythological heritage and cultures.  We will acquaint ourselves with and gain a broader understanding and appreciation of the power of myth in our world cultures, specifically the role that female-centered mythologies have played in the status and role of women throughout history.  Since the goddess can be known only indirectly, we will attempt to find her by observing the different forms she takes in rituals, statues, paintings, hymns, buildings, and, most importantly, myths and stories.  As the theistic male god is being challenged more and more in today’s scientific world, the attractiveness of recovering the goddess figure as maiden/mother/crone will be examined.  An end result will hopefully be that of stretching one’s mind about definitions, attributes, and the contributions of myth. 

This course introduces students to the scientific study of the psychology of women. Special effort will be made to examine women’s development within a multicultural context and to consider the interaction of gender, race, and SES. Students will explore issues related to gender stereotypes, gender differences, gender roles, women’s health, sexuality, language, victimization, mental health, abilities, and achievement. Mastery is expected of current research and theoretical models that attempt to explain women’s strengths and challenges. The course will be taught as an interactive seminar.

Seminar on the social and cultural norms governing gender relations, forms of sexism in a variety of cultural and social groups explored, and unequal consequences of genderized social expectations. The course will explore changing roles of men and women’s sexuality in education, politics, religion, occupations, family life, and guest speakers, films, research and theory will be included. 4 credit hours Prerequisites: SOCL 1000 or permission of the instructor.

This course examines the varied forms and roles of non-profit organizations to prepare students for work in human and community services. Students focus on organizations that represent the interests of diverse groups of people to achieve social justice and self determination as well as how the persistence of community based efforts creates positive change. The course has theoretical and practical components to allow students to gain field experience while studying critical social theory, research, and films related to community service and community activism.