Women's Studies Fall 2008 Courses

Introduction to Women's Studies

WOST 207

Staff

TR 3:30-4:45

This course will introduce students to key topics, concepts, approaches, and problems in Women's Studies as the field has developed over the past 40 years in the United States. We will focus on the lives, work, and beliefs of women in the United States but will adopt comparative and transnational perspectives at certain points. As part of the course, we will investigate the significance and meanings of gender at different periods in U.S. history and will explore the development of feminism and feminist theory. The ways in which race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and age shape experience, culture, ideology, and politics will be central areas of inquiry. We will also address the means through which women have resisted inequality and effected social and political change. This course will be interdisciplinary in its approach, meaning that we will read feminist essays from a wide range of disciplines, including cultural studies, economics, history, philosophy, political theory, psychology, and sociology. Gen Ed.

NEW COURSE!!!   Chinese Women and Society
Professor Siqin Yang WOST 376
T 6-8:30

This course introduces the “herstory” of Chinese women and current social issues in China. It helps students gain knowledge about Chinese culture, and skills to compare the development and cross-cultural issues of Chinese and American women as well as global/transnational/international feminism. We will review Chinese women’s “herstory” in the pre-Communist society to socialist liberation, and from Cultural Revolution to the Post-Mao society. This course investigates the influence of Confucianism on gender relations and the transformation of the traditional gender system in Chinese society. It covers race, gender, and class issues in China as well as concerns for social justice for women in the world. We will examine the “Marxist View of Women”, Chinese feminism, and Western feminism from a comparative perspective as well as the process of translating feminisms in China. The course illuminates how women/gender issues are conceptualized in different social, cultural, and political contexts and how the development of a socialist market economy has both positive and negative impacts on Chinese women and society. Topics addressed include Chinese
culture, education, family life, sexuality, economic development, social movements, politics, transnationalism, and art.

Independent Study
WOST 497

Susan Alexander, Ann Clark, Laura Haigwood, Astrid Henry, Amanda Littauer, and Catherine Pittman are among the Women's Studies faculty willing to direct independent study projects. Students interested should speak first to the Women's Studies faculty member who will guide the project, then contact Professors Henry or Littauer to formalize the proposal and ensure proper registration.

Internship
WOST 499

Practical off-campus experience in a Women's Studies related field at an approved site. Jointly supervised by a faculty member and a representative from the sponsoring agency. Open to junior or senior Women's Studies majors or minors who have taken at least two Women's Studies courses. Must be approved by Professors Henry or Littauer. Graded S/U. May be repeated for up to three hours. A reflection paper appropriate to the nature of the internship will be required.

Advanced Writing Proficiency
WOST 998

Senior Comprehensive
WOST 999

Anthropology of Women
Staff ANTH 346
TR 2-3:15

This course offers students the opportunity to understand the factors that influence how women, in different cultures around the world, lead their lives. Using a gender-based perspective, our method will involve anthropological cross-cultural comparison and analysis. The class will be particularly interested in studying the different factors that impinge on the role and status of women, and that affect the interrelationships between women, men, and society. Issues may include: family structure, gender identity, marriage practices and residence pattern, social organization and kinship, political organization and decision-making, economic organization and contributions to material welfare, ritual activities, and the ideological reinforcements of gender identity and roles.

Novel Women

ENLT 341
Professor Tom Bonnell
TR 9:30-10:15

This course charts the origins and progress of the predominant literary form of the last 250 years: the novel. Women have played a key role in this genre from the very start. Not until the development of the novel did women become so broadly influential as writers, and their burgeoning numbers as readers were crucial to the market for the new form. In light of these facts, it is not surprising that so many novels of the eighteenth century center on women characters and, consequently, women's concerns. As we focus on these characters and concerns, we will situate our discussions in the wider contexts of literary history and life in the eighteenth century. Texts will include: Austen's Persuasion; Behn's Oroonoko; Burney's Evelina; Defoe's Moll Flanders; Lennox's The Female Quixote; and others.

Jane Austen on Film
Professor Laura Haigwood
ENLT 372
R 5-7:30

This course offers an opportunity to discuss, critique, research, and reflect upon selected film adaptations of Austen’s novels while reading the original texts, relevant feminist film theory, and scholarly criticism. Students will acquire basic skills in reading film knowledgeably and critically along with deeper understanding of Austen’s themes, plots and characters.

Romantic Era Feminism
Professor Laura Haigwood
ENLT 384
TR 11-12:15

Women writers of the Romantic era did not call themselves "feminists," but their vindication of the rights of woman inspired all subsequent "waves." Responding to parallel political demands for democratic government and the abolition of slavery, Romantic women authors began a movement that -- despite obstacles and backlashes -- has blazed a steady trail into the present day. We will begin by reading Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility to situate Romantic era, middle-class Englishwomen in their time and place. Our central focus will be the life and work of Mary Wollstonecraft, whose career exemplifies persistent tensions between "sense" and "sensibility" in feminist discourse and feminine experience. We will also read her contemporaries Mary Hays, Catherine Macaulay, Hannah More, Anna Wheeler, Mary Lamb and Helen Maria Williams for a wide range of perspectives on women's isssues. The heartening fact that good men consistently side with feminists against patriarchal oppression will be demonstrated by William Godwin and John Stuart Mill, among others.

American Girlhoods
Professor Amanda Littauer
HIST 412
MW 2-3:15

What does it mean to be a girl in the United States? How did female youths of early America become the teenagers of the twentieth century? In this course, students will explore the meanings, experiences, conditions, and significance of girlhood in the United States. Readings juxtapose scholarship by historians and sociologists with memoir and historical fiction, and we will interpret texts using
tools garnered from feminist theory. THEORY

Latin American Women Writers (in Spanish)

Professor Inela Selimovic

MLSP 429

MWF 1-1:50

Readings of works of women writers from a range of literary texts (novels, short stories, dramas, poems, essays) which raise questions about the female discourse vs. the dominant male canon of Latin American culture.

Women’s Health
Professor Ella Harmeyer
NURS 222
TR 3:30-4:45

This class is designed to explore the concept of health and its significance for women. We will discuss the physical, emotional, social, and cultural factors that affect the health of women. Health promotion and healthy lifestyle choices are also a strong focus, along with women's responsibilities and leadership in health awareness. Non-nursing majors

Introduction to Feminist Philosophy
Professor Ann Clark
PHIL 243
TR 11-12:15

Why do people have the ideas about sex and gender that they do? Where have these ideas come from? What are their consequences? What do they imply about relationships and communities in every day life? About differences in our relationships to knowledge, culture and art? About different views of freedom? Feminist theory integrates philosophical questions about freedom, knowledge and community with questions about the meanings of sex and gender. We will begin with selected western philosophical texts to which much of 20th century thought about sex and gender still refers. We will read second wave feminist philosophers who think about the paradoxes involved in their own philosophical feminism. And we will end with readings from contemporary philosophers who no longer feel the need for critique, but are creatively re-imagining theory in order to respond to issues currently affecting all of us on the globe. THEORY

NEW COURSE!!   Psychology of Violence
Professor Bettina Spencer
PSYC 390
MW 4-5:15

This course will cover many aspects of the psychology of violence. We will first examine how and why people aggress and under which conditions aggression may be heightened or lessened. Next, we will address the psychology of perpetrators and bystanders. In other words, what may lead one person to help and another person to harm. From there we will explore specific forms of violence including hate crimes based on ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and will discuss gendered violence such as sexual assault and domestic violence. Expanding upon domestic issues, we will next examine an international perspective of violence: civil wars, genocide, and political violence, specifically focusing on the role gendered violence and rape as a tool of war. Following these case studies, students will study the psychology of survivors and trauma before closing with research on conflict negotiations, reconciliation, and peace psychology. Students will read classic and modern psychological journal articles, paired with newspaper articles, memoirs, and films in order to better understand the processes that contribute to, or reduce, violence.

*WOST credit pending CC approval

Sociology of Families
Professor Mary Ann Kanieski
SOC 257
Sec 01: MW 1:00-1:50
Sec 02: MW 2:00-2:50

In this course, we will consider the various forms of families and their relationships to their social environments. For example, we will examine historical trends, economic pressures, and the impact of public policies. We will also consider life within families as we examine gender, childrearing, household labor, divorce, and family violence. Finally, we will always examine the ways in which family life varies because of gender, cultural differences, class position, race, and sexualities.

Sexuality, Intimacy, and Relationships
Professor JoAnn Burke
SW 341
M 6-8:00

This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to examine human sexuality and intimacy within a lifespan, relational context. Students will address these topics through knowledge of the biological, social, spiritual, and psychological aspects of relationships, sexuality, and intimacy. We will also explore populations-at-risk–namely, those who are experiencing issues with intimacy, sexuality, and relationships. Perspectives from feminist literature will be used to strengthen the analysis. Psychosocial issues are emphasized.