01-02 LS&A Bulletin

Courses in Women's Studies (Division 497)

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WOMENSTD 100. Women's Issues.: (2). (Excl). Offered mandatory credit/no credit.; This course uses small group discussion to enable students to explore selected topics in women's studies as they apply to their own lives and to contemporary social issues.
WOMENSTD 110. Practical Feminism.: (1). (Excl). Offered mandatory credit/no credit.; This minicourse focuses on the practical implications of recent feminist scholarship. After a brief introduction to relevant theory and research, the course concentrates on issues of gender asymmetry in a particular environment.
WOMENSTD 111. Women in Popular Culture.: (1). (Excl). Offered mandatory credit/no credit.; This minicourse examines the question of how gender roles and behaviors are represented in popular culture. Potential materials for the course include films, advertising, music, popular fiction, magazines, news media.
WOMENSTD 112. Issues for Women of Color.: (1). (Excl). Offered mandatory credit/no credit.; This minicourse examines the effects of various social, political, and/or cultural systems on women of color, focusing specifically on the intersections of gender and racial oppressions and on strategies for overcoming these oppressions.
WOMENSTD 150. Humanities Seminars on Women and Gender.: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (HU).; This course serves to introduce diverse topics on women and gender, is interdisciplinary in nature, and partially meets the Humanities requirement.
WOMENSTD 151. Social Science Seminars on Women and Gender.: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (SS).; This course serves to introduce diverse topics on women and gender, is interdisciplinary in nature, and partially meets the Social Science requirement.
WOMENSTD 211 / HISTART 211. Gender and Popular Culture.: (4). (HU).; This course concentrated on visual manifestations of 'popular culture' in various media such as film, advertising, television and music videos. We focus on women as signs, producers and consumers, of 'popular culture' in 20th-century America with some attention also to masculinity and race.
WOMENSTD 220 / NURS 220. Perspectives in Women's Health.: (3). (SS).; A feminist perspective on concepts and issues in women's individual and aggregate health. Course includes definitions of women's health, women's health concerns throughout the life cycle, women as health care consumers and providers, and analysis of the impact of multiple factors on women's health.
WOMENSTD 230. Women's Movements.: (3). (SS).; This course focuses on women's movements, as they have arisen in the US and in other contexts, in the historical past as well as currently. Topics cover political, social, and relationships within/between groups.
WOMENSTD 231 / CAAS 241. Women of Color and Feminism.: AAS 111. (3). (Excl).; Provides an exposure to the main feminist issues confronting women of color by comparing women of color communities and their feminisms.
WOMENSTD 240 / AMCULT 240. Introduction to Women's Studies.: (4; 3 in the half-term). (HU). (R&E).; A survey introduction to women's studies which serves as a foundation for more advanced work. An interdisciplinary approach acquaints students with the broad dimensions of the field.
WOMENSTD 243 / AMCULT 243. Introduction to Study of Latinas in the U.S.: (3). (HU). (R&E).; This course serves to introduce the study of gender, culture, and identity among Latinas in the U.S. It grapples with the cultural forces that have historically created and re-created Latina identities.
WOMENSTD 245. Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.: (4). (Excl).; This interdisciplinary course introduces students to the study of sexualities from the perspective of lesbian, gay, queer, bisexual and transgender scholarship. Throughout, we consider the interplay between sexualities and differences of ethnicity, culture, race, class and gender.
WOMENSTD 250 / RELIGION 250 / BUDDHST 252. Religion and Culture: Feminine and Masculine Images of Religious Experience.: (3). (HU).; An exploration of human differences and how they affect our sense of what is personal religious experience: inwardness, contemplative solitude, spirituality, ready from classical works of "spirituality" or religious self-reflection.
WOMENSTD 253. Special Topics.: (3). (Excl). A maximum of seven credits of WS 252 and 253 may be counted toward graduation.; This course takes up a single topic of a very specific or contemporary nature.
WOMENSTD 270. Women and the Law.: (4). (SS). (R&E).; This course surveys American Constitutional and statutory law as it affects differential treatment based on gender. It also considers affirmative action in education and employment.
WOMENSTD 301(401) / JAPANESE 301 / ASIAN 301. Writing Japanese Women.: (4). (HU).; This is a course on writing by and about women – women's self-representation and men's representations of women – in Japanese culture. Along with primary sources in literature and the visual arts, secondary sources include theoretical readings in the psychology of sex, love, and death by Freud, Kristeva, Lacan, and Bataille; in the field of cultural production by Bourdieu; in feminist theories of reading in the Anglo-American academy.
WOMENSTD 312 / RCIDIV 310. Gender and Science.: An introductory course in natural science, engineering, social sciences, or women's studies. (4). (Excl).; This course examines the history of women's participation in the sciences with an emphasis on the professional, social, and cultural factors that have contributed to their underrepresentation.
WOMENSTD 315 / ENGLISH 315. Women and Literature.: (3; 2 in the half-term). (HU). May be repeated for a total of six credits.; This course number is designed to accommodate a wide variety of courses on women and literature.
WOMENSTD 336 / CAAS 336 / HISTORY 336. Black Women in America.: AAS 201 recommended. (3). (SS).; This course examines the condition of Black women in America from an historical and contemporary perspective. The main theme of the course is the peculiarity of the social, economic, and political situation of black women in comparison to African American males and white American males and females.
WOMENSTD 341. Gender and the Individual: Transmission and Function of Sex/Gender Systems.: WS 240. (3). (Excl).; This course explores 1) how the individual acquires gender and sexuality; and 2) how the organization of kin systems transmits and reinforces gender roles.
WOMENSTD 342. Gender and Society: Hierarchies in Social Organization.: WS 240. (3). (Excl).; This course develops explanations for the persistence of gender hierarchies within public institutions. Analyses focus both on structural barriers to women and on the psychological mechanisms that maintain cultural dominance and asymmetrical power relations.
WOMENSTD 343. Gender Consciousness and Social Change.: WS 240. (3). (Excl).; This course explores the conception that women have of themselves as women, and the ways in which this conception defines an individual's actions, whether public or private, and her relations to others.
WOMENSTD 345. Third World Women.: WS 240. (3). (Excl).; Focuses on women of color, that is, minority women within the U.S. (African American, Asian-American, Latina, or Native American) and/or third world women.
WOMENSTD 346. African-American Women in Context.: WS 240. (3). (SS).; This course focuses on the complexity of African-American women's experiences, exploring central themes in Black women's lives.
WOMENSTD 347. Feminist Perspective on Lesbian Studies.: WS 240. (3). (Excl).; This course explores aspects of the varied lives, works, and communities of lesbians, past and present, and of the systems that oppress them.
WOMENSTD 350. Women and the Community.: WS 240; and permission of instructor. I. (4). (Excl). (EXPERIENTIAL).; Provides undergraduates with the opportunity to integrate fieldwork experience with classroom discussion of organizational structure and decision-making.
WOMENSTD 351. Women and the Community II.: WS 350 and permission of instructor. II. (2). (Excl). (EXPERIENTIAL).; Continuation of Women's Studies 350. Involves field placement work.
WOMENSTD 357 / CLCIV 357. Greek Medical Writers in English Translation.: (3). (Excl).; Extensive reading in the Greek medical writers from the HIPPOCRATIC CORPUS (5th c. B.C.) to Soranus and Galen at Rome (2nd c. C.E.). Treatises from the CORPUS show how intelligent men deduced a physiology for human beings from external observation of the body; Soranus and Galen reveal the benefits to medicine from dissection of human corpses in Alexandria (3rd c. B.C.E.). The gynecological writings of all these authors, in particular, show not only medical processes of reasoning, but also biases of their respective societies.
WOMENSTD 360 / HISTORY 368 / AMCULT 342. History of the Family in the U.S.: (4; 3 in the half-term). (SS).; An interdisciplinary course providing perspective on the contemporary family by studying its historical development. The course includes consideration of changing gender roles; sexuality; childrearing; work patterns; race, ethnicity and class; the changing role of state in family relations.
WOMENSTD 361 / FILMVID 361. Women and Film.: (3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($45) required.; An examination of films made by, for, and about women. Focus is on how societal norms and film language have constructed the representation of women in film and how women have appropriated the medium for self-representation through both narrative and experimental filmmaking.
WOMENSTD 362 / HISTORY 362. Women, Men and Nations: How Is Nationalism Gendered?: (3). (Excl).; This course explores the gendering of modern political identity in the complex interrelationship between 'nation' and 'citizenship' in Europe and North America during the 19th and 20th centuries. The social histories of race and ethnicity, family, welfare, popular culture, and militarism, are all dealt with.
WOMENSTD 370 / HISTORY 370. Women in American History to 1870.: (3). (Excl).; This course is an introduction to the history of American women--as a group, as individuals, and as members of different classes, races, religions, and ethnic communities. Using "work" as an organizing concept, it focuses particularly on the significance of gender in determining women's experience from the colonial period to 1870.
WOMENSTD 371 / HISTORY 371. Women in American History Since 1870.: (4; 3 in the half-term). (Excl).; A survey of the history of women in the United States since 1870.
WOMENSTD 372 / HISTORY 372. Women in European History, 1750 to the Present.: (3). (Excl).; A survey of the social, economic, and political roles of women in European history and the main currents of thought about women. The course explores the relationship of specific roles and thoughts to the broader social structures and ideologies of national societies.
WOMENSTD 375 / HISTORY 375. A History of Witchcraft: The 1692 Salem Trials in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective.: (4). (HU).; This course focuses on a single historical event, the Salem Witchcraft outbreak of 1692. It explores "what happened" during this highly dramatic episode in early American history, where Salem fits in the larger history of witchcraft in Europe and its American colonies, and why it continues to have such a powerful hold on the popular and scholarly imagination.
WOMENSTD 376 / RELIGION 376. Women and the Bible.: (3). (HU).; In this course, we study some of the most important women in the Bible, beginning with the matriarchs and continuing with some of the major women in the Old Testament; then on to the Apocrypha, where we find such women as Judith and Salome who beguined military leaders and heads of state. We conclude with the New Testament, the women there who theologically defined Jesus' messiahship, supported him financially, and understood his ministry not as rule and kingly glory, but as one of service.
WOMENSTD 385. Directed Reading.: WS 100 or 240, one 300-level Women's Studies course, and permission of instructor. (1-3). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT).; This course offers students an opportunity to pursue independent, interdisciplinary reading projects on subjects related to women.
WOMENSTD 386. Directed Reading.: WS 385. (1-3). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT).; This course offers students an opportunity to pursue independent, interdisciplinary reading projects on subjects related to women.
WOMENSTD 387. Directed Reading.: WS 386. (1-3). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT).; This course offers students an opportunity to pursue independent, interdisciplinary reading projects on subjects related to women.
WOMENSTD 394 / GTBOOKS 394. Great Books by Women Writers.: Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. (4). (HU).; This course is designed to introduce students to women writers from a variety of traditions. A theoretical ground is laid with Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. Authors read are Hildegard von Bingen, St. Teresa of Avila or Sor Juana de la Cruz, Madame de Lafayette, George Sand, Virginia Woolf, and Toni Morrison. the several lecturers come from various departments and use differing critical approaches. The course aims to examine differences in women's writing in specific contexts, and to explore basic constructs of feminist literary theory.
WOMENSTD 400. Women's Reproductive Health.: WS 220. (3). (Excl).; This course permits students to explore medical, social, and political aspects of Women's reproductive health. Medical, nursing, public health and feminist perspectives on topics such as prenatal care, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease and menopause is covered.
WOMENSTD 415 / HISTART 415. Studies in Gender and the Arts.: Upperclass standing, and one course in women's studies or history of art. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of nine credits.; This course incorporates the analysis of gender issues into the historical examination of selected aspects of artistic and cultural production.
WOMENSTD 416 / ENGLISH 416 / HISTORY 487. Women in Victorian England.: (3; 2 in the half-term). (Excl).; Literary and historical sources are used to examine cultural proscriptions regarding the role of women and the actuality of women's lives in Victorian England. Topics to be discussed include women as daughters, wives, and mothers; women as workers, writers, governesses, factory operatives, teachers, and prostitutes; women in reform movements; women's education; and aspects of the nineteenth century women's rights movement.
WOMENSTD 418 / POLSCI 418. Women and the Political System.: Two courses in political science. (3). (Excl).; The purpose of this course is to examine the role of women in the political system, their involvement in and influence on the political process, and the impact of various policy decisions on women.
WOMENSTD 419 / PSYCH 411. Gender and Group Process in a Multicultural Context.: One course in women's studies or psychology. (3). (Excl).; This course provides an introduction to theories of group dynamics that illuminate stages of group development and productivity. It includes teaching and practice of group facilitation skills. The course combines theoretical presentation with an experimental learning model; material discussed and modeled in class is applied in home-base groups with opportunities for skill practice and feedback. Special attention is given throughout the course to the influence and manifestation of gender, ethnic and race dynamics as they shape events, conflict and communication patterns in various group formats.
WOMENSTD 420. Group Facilitation in Women's Studies.: WS 419 and permission of instructor. (3). (Excl).; Students study interpersonal and small group dynamics in general, and as these vary with leader gender and group gender composition. The course includes a closely supervised experience in facilitating a small group.
WOMENSTD 422 / POLSCI 422. Feminist Political Theory.: Junior standing. (3). (Excl).; The course explores the politics of inequalities between men and women by considering theories of gender differences. The purpose of the class is to draw on interdisciplinary work in feminist studies to think about political institutions – and to see the effect of political institutions on subject positions with different gender identities.
WOMENSTD 427 / ANTHRCUL 427 / WOMENSTD 427. African Women.: One course in African Studies, anthropology, or women's studies. AAS 200 recommended. (3). (Excl).; The active roles African women play in their communities as these have changed from pre-colonial to contemporary times are discussed critically through the themes of autonomy and control of resources, esp. land, labor, income, education, and political authority.
WOMENSTD 430 / AMCULT 430. Feminist Thought.: WS 240 and one 340-level course. (3). (Excl).; Examines both classical texts of feminist theory and emerging contemporary scholarship. Individual sections may focus on Black feminist thought, women of color, or a historical interpretation.
WOMENSTD 440. Issues and Controversies in the New Scholarship on Women.: WS 240 and one 340-level course. (3). (Excl).; The course provides detailed analysis of major theoretical areas of dispute for the women's studies scholar. Three to five such controversies are addressed.
WOMENSTD 441. Honors Research Tutorial.: WS 240, and junior Women's Studies concentrators. (1). (Excl). (TUTORIAL).; Students work closely with a faculty member to develop a short thesis prospectus and the skills necessary to carry out thesis research.
WOMENSTD 447 / SOC 447. Sociology of Gender.: (3). (Excl).; This course asks: Why is there gender inequality? and What are women's experiences of the inequality? This course examines politics, the state, work, family, body, and sexuality, all areas of social life that have been theorized as the locus of women's oppression.
WOMENSTD 455 / ANTHRCUL 455. Feminist Theory and Gender Studies in Anthropology.: Junior standing. (3). (Excl).; Student-directed seminar on the history of feminist thought in Anthropology and on salient issues in the field of feminist anthropology today.
WOMENSTD 460 / CLCIV 460. Theorizing Women in Antiquity.: Junior standing. (3). (Excl).; This course brings together a millennium of speculation on women by authors who span the critical intellectual and religious movements of the ancient world: Platonists, Stoics, Epicureans, Christians, and Gnostics. It also juxtaposes ancient texts with modern feminist criticism.
WOMENSTD 461 / FILMVID 461. Explorations in Feminist Film Theory.: Junior standing; and F/V 414 or Women's Studies 240. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($50) required.; The course offers an in-depth exploration of feminist theories that address film in relation to gender. Discussion focuses on contemporary feminist scholarship that draws upon a variety of viewpoints, including psychoanalysis, cultural theory, postmodernism, historical research and ideological theory.
WOMENSTD 470 / HISTORY 471. Gender & Sexuality in India.: (3). (Excl).; This seminar considers the transformations of gender and sexual relations through time and across regions and social communities in India. The aim of the course is to examine the significance of gender and sexuality as historical constructs for the study of India.
WOMENSTD 471 / AAPTIS 495 / HISTORY 546 / RELIGION 496. Gender and Politics in Early Modern Islam.: Students should preferably have had one course in Islamic Studies. (3). (Excl).; An introduction to Muslim understandings of gender and gender relations, first, through a study of those sacred texts (Qur'an & Hadith) that came to define the ideal woman and man, as well as their roles and relationships. Then, gender participation in the political and cultural life of the Safavi, Ottoman and Mughal Courts shall be explored to view the interplay between theory and practice.
WOMENSTD 481. Special Topics.: WS 240. (1). (Excl). Degree credit is granted for a combined total of seven credits elected through WS 481, 482, 483, and 484.; This course takes up a single topic of a very specific or contemporary nature.
WOMENSTD 482. Special Topics.: WS 240. (2). (Excl). Degree credit is granted for a combined total of seven credits elected through WS 481, 482, 483, and 484.; This course takes up a single topic of a very specific or contemporary nature.
WOMENSTD 483. Special Topics.: WS 240. (3). (Excl). Degree credit is granted for a combined total of seven credits elected through WS 481, 482, 483, and 484.; This course takes up a single topic of a very specific or contemporary nature.
WOMENSTD 484. Special Topics.: WS 240. (4). (Excl). Degree credit is granted for a combined total of seven credits elected through WS 481, 482, 483, and 484.; This course takes up a single topic of a very specific or contemporary nature.
WOMENSTD 486 / PHIL 486. Topics in Feminist Philosophy.: Two courses in either Philosophy or Women's Studies. (3). (Excl).; This course offers a philosophical examination of gender and feminism as these relate to topics of traditional philosophical concern. Topics to be studied may include feminist moral and political philosophy, feminist epistemology and philosophy of science, and feminist theories of the self, sexuality, and society.
WOMENSTD 487 / ACABS 487. Gender and Society in Ancient Egypt.: Some familiarity with Egypt is helpful. (3). (Excl).; Using ancient texts in translation, secondary readings and artifacts in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, students in this course examine the definitions of gender, gender roles, and relations and the impact of status, religion, sexuality, and ethnicity on ancient Egyptian understandings of gender.
WOMENSTD 490. Honors Thesis.: Senior Honors Women's Studies concentrators. (2-4). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT). Credit is granted for a combined total of six credits of WS 490 and 491.; Women's Studies 490 and 491 should be elected during the senior year by students writing honors theses. Students may elect between 2 and 6 credits over the course of the academic year.
WOMENSTD 491. Honors Thesis.: Senior Honors Women's Studies concentrators. (2-4). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT). Credit is granted for a combined total of six credits of WS 490 and 491.; Women's Studies 490 and 491 should be elected during the senior year by students writing honors theses. Students may elect between 2 and 6 credits over the course of the academic year.
WOMENSTD 492 / SOC 490 / REES 490. Women and Islam: A Sociological Perspective.: (3). (Excl).; This course explores the theoretical and methodological issues involved in studying women. The course starts with an introduction to the existing paradigms on women's position in sociology, women's studies, and Near Eastern Studies. After a lecture on the position of women in Islamic history, it proceeds to study women in contemporary contexts such as in Iran and Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, North Africa, Central Asia and the Balkans, and contemporary U.S. society.
WOMENSTD 496 / AAPTIS 496. Gender and Representation in the Modern Middle East.: (3). (Excl).; An examination of the construction of gender as pertains to the contemporary Middle East (predominantly but not exclusively the Arab Middle East) as found in a wide array of literary and cultural representations (fiction, travel accounts, photographs, painting, film) produced both in the Middle East and outside of it.

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