Course Descriptions
WGS 2100 Intro to Gender & Sexuality Studies
Corinne Field
An introduction to gender and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) studies, including the fields of women’s studies, feminist studies, & masculinity studies. Students will examine historical movements, theoretical issues, & contemporary debates, especially as they pertain to issues of inequality & to the intersection of gender, race, class, sexuality, & nationalism. Emphasis will vary according to the interdisciplinary expertise & research focus of the instructor.
Special Note: Required for all WGS majors and minors, Intro courses do not count toward concentrations.
WGS 2559 Feminist Science Studies
Sarah Orsak
Scientific claims are seen as objective and the pinnacle of real knowledge; this has given them incredible power to shape how we understand our identities and how we imagine social transformation. For these reasons, feminist and queer thinkers have spent many decades grappling with science and imagining new, feminist, sciences. In this course, we will explore the vibrant interdisciplinary field of Feminist Science Studies. Feminist Science Studies asks philosophical questions about how scientific knowledge is produced. To study “science” (to study how “we” study and make claims about the world around us) is to ask how scientific research and practices emerge from our social worlds.
This course introduces the varied ways feminist and queer thinkers have engaged science, which include conducting scientific research, critiquing science, and using science for social change. We will also address feminist and queer perspectives on scientific claims about race, gender, and sexuality (both modern and historical), contemporary scientific and ethical issues, and interdisciplinary research practices.
Fulfills the Science & Society requirement
WGS 2559 Sexual Health & Peer Leadership
To Be Announced
This course will equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary for serving as peer leaders for their friends and organizations (e.g., dorms, CIOs, Greek chapters, professional organizations, etc.) related to sex, sexual health, sexual harm, and university resources. Broadly, this course will cover sexual health education, the landscape of sexual harm, and leadership and communication skills. Note: this course does not teach individual-level counseling skills.
WGS 2600 Human Sexualities
Lisa Speidel
Examines human sexuality from psychological, biological, behavioral, social, and historical perspectives. Topics include sexual research and theoretical perspectives, sexual anatomy and physiology, sexual health, intimacy, communication, patterns of sexual response and pleasure and sexual problems and therapies. Course will also include examination of the development of sexuality and the intersections of other identities, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexuality and the law, sexual assault, and other social issues in sexuality.
WGS 2700 Men and Masculinities
Lisa Speidel
What is understood as "masculine" has varied throughout time as well as across cultural contexts and distinct social groupings, it is equally true that most historical periods, cultures, groups, etc. believe their own understandings of masculinity to be universal. In this course, we will deconstruct this. From this class, you should be able to think critically about where men and masculinity have been, where they are going, and what this might mean more generally for gender relations and gender inequality.
WGS 3100 Intro to WGS Theory
Tiffany King
Explores major debates, key ideas, and historical developments in women, gender, & sexuality theory. Students will gain familiarity with queer, trans, and feminist theory, including Black, Native, socialist, crip, and other approaches. Will consider the different methods that gender & sexuality scholars have used to explain the social world, and why such explanations are vital to WGS. Course emphasizes reading, discussion,and critical writing.
WGS 3125 Transnational Feminism
Srimati Basu
This course places women, feminism, and activism in a transnational perspective, and offers students the opportunity to examine how issues considered critical to the field of gender studies are impacting women's lives globally in contemporary national contexts. We will look closely at how violence, economic marginality, intersections of race and gender, and varied strategies for development are affecting women in specific geographical locations.
Course Category: Non-Western Perspectives
WGS 3150 Race & Power in Gender & Sexuality
Taylor Nichols
Offers a study of race-racialization in relation to gender-sexuality. Consider how the concept of race shapes relationships between gendered selfhood & society, how it informs identity & experiences of the erotic, & how racialized gender & sexuality are created-maintained-monitored. With an interdisciplinary perspective, we will consider how race & power are reproduced & resisted through gender & sexuality, individually-national-international.
WGS 3230 Gender and the Olympic Games
Bonnie Hagerman
In ancient Greece, women risked death if they even attended the Olympic Games. As Pierre de Coubertin looked to revive the games in 1896, he thought women better suited to cheering on the male victors, than to competing themselves. This course will explore women's early participation in the Olympic Games, the pressures upon Olympic sportswomen to be feminine, and the important intersections of race, class, and sexual orientation.
WGS 3500 RM Course: Gender, Law, Violence
Srimati Basu
This course considers the relations between the terms gender, law and violence, with a focus on methods and strategies for investigating and representing these topics. The course is interdisciplinary and transnational in its scope, and examines scales of violence from intimate to community to State, bodily to psychological, economic to cultural. Texts for discussion include essays, films and TV episodes, a play, survey and ethnographic research. You will also work on an independent project where you apply these questions to your topic.
Fulfills the Second Writing Requirement and Enhanced Writing Requirement.
WGS 3500 RM Course: Feminist Methods
Sarak Orsak
WGS is interdisciplinary; it encompasses a wide range of topics and draws on methods from
a multitude of disciplines. What holds this work together? What makes this research “feminist” or “queer”? Feminist and queer scholars continue to debate these questions. So, if you’ve ever wondered “what even is gender studies?” you’re not alone!
This class focuses on these questions about what we know and how we know it (epistemology). We will move through the “who,” “what,” “why,” “how,” and “where” of feminist and queer research, exploring scholars’ varied answers to questions like:
- How does personal experience matter (or not) for research?
- What kinds of topics do WGS scholars study?
- Why do we /they study these things?
- Can knowledge be produced in genres or forms beyond academic writing?
- How does the context of the university shape feminist research?
Because these are such big questions, we will engage a multitude of fields, including Black feminist theory, woman of color feminisms, affect theory, queer of color critique, disability studies, and critical university studies.
As a Second Writing course, the class also addresses more practical habits of mind for feminist scholars, building your skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing. You will learn to enter scholarly conversations and engage feminist scholarship in order to research a topic of interest to you. The course aims to increase your confidence in reading feminist, queer, and theoretical scholarship and in expressing your own unique contributions to these conversations.
Fulfills the Second Writing Requirement
WGS 3600 Pleasure Activism Across Time
Lisa Speidel
The history of white supremacy & the heteropatriarchy includes denying sexual pleasure of marginalized communities. A major benefit of pleasure is empowerment, which threatens power structures & leads to restrictive practices & laws. This course focuses on queer activists & feminists of color who examine pleasure, systemic oppression, & the connection of inner desires & needs -physical, mental, & emotional -as a part of enacting social change.
WGS 3612 Gender and Sexuality in the United States, 1865-Present
Bonnie Hagerman
This course explores the significance of gender and sexuality in the territory of the present-day U.S. during the period from the Civil War to the present.
Fulfills the Second Writing Requirement and Historical Perspectives
WGS 3896 Front Lines of Social Change II
Taylor Nichols
This course explores the diverse narratives and strategies of individuals and groups at the forefront of social justice movements. Through a critical examination of selected readings, students will engage with a variety of ideologies and approaches aimed at creating systemic change. While these activists may share common goals, their pathways to achieving these objectives differ significantly, reflecting a rich tapestry of thought and action.
WGS 4500 Topics Course: How To Do Drag
Aaron Stone
Course description: This course examines drag performance as a cultural phenomenon with an emphasis on representation: how various forms of media "do" drag by shaping cultural narratives about it. We will analyze and compare representations of drag in film, television, novels, life writing, social media, and academic theory to consider how these diverse representational forms construct our ideas about what "doing drag" is and what it means.
WGS 4500 Topics Course: Sex, Power, and Rock n' Roll
Isabel Gonzales
Popular music has long been a site for contestations over gender, sex, race, and class. From Disco Demolition Night to fears over the “Sinister Cult of Emo,” spectacles around popular music have been sites of power and its pushback. But popular music also offers inroads to better understand the institutions, structures, systems, and histories that shape our everyday lives. In this class, we will explore gender, sex, race, class, empire, and power through the last century of popular music and its spectacles. Through critically examining the songs, albums, and performances that have shaped shared sonic and visual cultural landscapes, students will come to better understand the important role that pop culture plays in shaping the conditions of our lives, including possibilities of resistance.