Women's & Gender Studies Archive 2020-2021

4.00

Explores the roles and images of women in Western culture and the realities of women's everyday lives through literature, film, history, art, psychology, and recent feminist scholarship. Analyzes gender inequalities and the influence of gender on social structure, human behavior, and artistic expression. Topics include: the social construction of gender and identity; domestic prescriptions for women; women and work; intersections of gender, class, and race in American society; sexualities and identity; the politics of motherhood and reproductive rights; educating girls; negotiating male privilege and structural inequalities; representations of women in Western art and film; and women as artists and gendered models of creativity in art, film, fiction, and science.

4.00

Explores women's lives from the perspective of the social and natural sciences, including examination of recent biological, psychological, and sociological theories about gender and gender roles, as well as the influence of feminist scholarship in these areas. Topics include: the social construction of gender; the psychology and biology of sex and gender; women and work; media representations of women; the female body and eating disorders; women's health and lifecycle; women and sexuality; reproduction, abortion, and motherhood; and sexual violence against women.

4.00

Introduces the key topics and debates that have shaped the field of gender studies, including queer studies, masculinity studies, and women's studies. Through lecture and class discussion of texts from literature, film, history, psychology, and sociology, explores the pervasive influence of gender on the structure of society and our everyday experiences and the role that gender plays in our understanding of love, friendship, sexuality, and even violence. Topics include: biological arguments about gender and sexuality; the social construction of gender and identity; intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality; masculinity and femininity; and theories of sexual difference and the construction of sexuality.

4.00

Examines the portrayal of homosexuality in political, social, and cultural discourse. Analyzes the role of media and symbolic construction in the shaping of public values, opinions, and social movements.

4.00

Explores issues of sexuality, gender, race, and social class in the ancient and medieval worlds. Examines key artworks from ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and medieval Europe within historical, social and cultural contexts.

4.00

Surveys women artists from the sixteenth century to the present and examines new direction in art-historical scholarship developed by feminist art historians during recent decades.

4.00

This class explores the images of the traditional "bad" girl in films. The course examines the idea of moving beyond merely the delinquent, many images in film suggest that girls and women who break with the socially condoned role of femininity are somehow bad. Girls and women who have power or challenge authority are often portrayed in films as deviant and therefore "bad". Girls and women who are "frigid" are just as "bad" as their sexually promiscuous silver-screen opposites. This course further focuses on the impact of these images on real life social roles for girls and women as well as the symbiotic relationship between fact and fiction.

4.00

This course examines the complex relationships between women and crime today. This focus will include women as criminal offenders; women as victims of crime; and women as both offenders and victims. Course materials draw from recent feminist scholarship on these issues in the social sciences. Topics include the causes of women's crime women, drugs, and crime; child abuse and trauma; prostitution and sex trafficking; race, gender and victimization; and feminist social movements against violence. Crimes of violence against women are a central focus in the course.

4.00

This course focuses on the many forms of violence against women, with particular attention to child sexual abuse, rape, and violence and abuse in intimate relationships. These crimes have been the subject of intense political organizing, cultural controversy, and criminal-legal reform over the past 40 years. Together these issues account for a significant portion of the work of the police and the courts. They are also major issues in women's health over the life span. This course will address these issues from psychological, sociological, political, and criminal-legal perspectives.

4.00

This course takes students on a tour of witches, "nasty women," and other "unruly tongues" or "bitter spirits" throughout American literary history. Regularly assigned essays on the reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Fulfills the Literature Requirement of the CAS Core Curriculum.

4.00

Study of 20th century writing on the American West by American women and men in the form of novels, memoirs, and short stories. Regularly assigned reading responses and essays on the readings as well as discussion questions and quizzes provide the basis for the study of "frontier" or western literature by American authors. Fulfills the Literature Requirement of the CAS Core Curriculum.

Take WRI-102 or WRI-H103

4.00

Introduces Jane Austen's major novels, including Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, along with relevant current scholarship and contextualizing historical material. Contemporary parodies, updates, and film adaptations of Austen's work will also be considered. Topics to include the history of the novel, gender and authorship, and narrative theory.

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

4.00

An investigation of the lives and works of two of nineteenth-century America's greatest and most original poets. Topics will include types of poetic language and formal structure, the work of the poetic imagination in transforming observations of the world into art, and the ways in which poets process the idea of death and the reality of war. Finally, this course examines Whitman and Dickinson's impact on American popular culture as well as on the writings of modern poets and literary critics.

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

4.00

This course studies 19th and 20th century women writers and questions the type of women who write, what they write about, and why they write. Themes we examine include domesticity, assimilation, and madness. Authors studied in the past have included Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Anzia Yezierska, Nella Larsen, and Sylvia Plath. Normally offered alternate years.

4.00

Explores the condition of European women from 1800 to 1914. Readings focus primarily on women's experiences in France and Great Britain. Topics include: the effects of industrialization on the lives of working-class women; working and middle-class women's negotiation of marriage, work, and family life; the rise of feminism, women's greater participation in the public sphere, and conservative reaction to these changes in women's place in society; women and crime; Victorian ideas about female sexuality; the politics of class and gender in nineteenth-century European society.

4.00

Examines the changing place of women in European society since 1900. Topics include: women's suffrage and the political advances of the 1920s and 1930s; the revolution in sexual mores, birth control, and the rise of companionate marriage; women and the consumer economy; the anti-woman policies of Fascist Italy and Germany under National Socialism; liberation of women and retrenchment in the Soviet Union; World War II; feminism, sexual liberation, and women's political engagement since the 1960s; and, throughout the twentieth century, women's continuing negotiation of work and family responsibilities.

4.00

Traces the roles, images and experiences of women in America from colonial times to 1865. Topics include the family, work, religion, education, health care, motherhood, sexuality, social and political activism legal status, labor activism and popular culture. With attention to ethnicity, race, class, age, region of residence, disability and sexual orientation, the course focuses primarily on the everyday lives of ordinary women.

4.00

Of the estimated 5,575 statues depicting historic figures in the United States, only 559 of them commemorate women, and this disparity is echoed around the world. What are we to make of the gap between the historical "monumental woman" and the physical structures that celebrate them? This class examines global efforts to memorialize important women through monuments, museums, and other public spaces. It will focus on how acts of memorialization produce public and collective memories about the past, and how these bring up issues of patriarchy, subjugation, inclusivity, and representation. We will explore the contradictions between women's empowerment and historical exploitation, expressed in things like pussy hats and other feminist gear, in artistic representations of the female form, in exploration of cultural difference, and in grass-roots and official forms of activism.

4.00

Explores ideas about emotional life from the fields of history, anthropology, sociology, and psychology as well as the evolution of emotion rules and prescriptions, focusing on western Europe and the United States since 1700. In the eighteenth century, emotions were seen as a positive influence on politics and public life, especially during the French Revolution. After the fall of Robespierre, the emotions were banished to the private sphere - so we will read both primary sources and recent scholarship on 19th- and 20th- century ideas about masculinity and femininity, romantic love and marriage, childrearing, and about what parents and children are supposed feel toward each other, how ideas about these subjects have changed over time, and whether our feelings change with them.

Certificate or Sophomore status, or Instructor's consent

4.00

An opportunity to learn the history of domestic violence including battering, child abuse and child neglect, and the legal response to it. Focus will be on Massachusetts Law and its response, especially the Abuse Prevention Act, its application and enforcement, and on laws protecting children from abuse and neglect. Filings, law office issues and special issues in dealing with battered women and abused and neglected children will be included with the psychological issues, cultural issues, and advocacy possibilities. Normally offered yearly. Sophomore status required.

Take LAWU-101, LAWU-280, or LAWU-340

4.00

This course will provide undergraduate students with an introduction to the many ways that gender and sexuality are affected by, and affect, the law in the United States. Subjects explored will include the history and context of sex-based and orientation-based discrimination in American law, the primacy of gender as it affects and is affected by law, and special cases of transgender and intersex ideation within American legal constructs. Particular emphasis will be placed on the law of sexuality and gender in the workplace, in education, in criminal law, and within social relationships such as families. This course is not a legal specialty course.

4.00

Surveys music in the lives of women, including composers, performers, producers, mothers, and educators from the Middle Ages to the present; examines issues of gender and control, perspective in historical narrative, and religious and secular traditions that impact the cross-cultural reception of women's music. Normally offered every year.

4.00

This course is an introduction to the philosophy of feminist thought. Feminist theories of epistemology, metaphysics and morality will be examined as critiques of traditional philosophy. Feminist perspectives and methodologies include radical, liberal, and postmodern, as well as more recent trends in eco-feminism. Special emphasis will be placed on explicit and implicit practices of alienation and exclusion as they have unfolded in the "gendering" of thought, truth, and reality. 1 term - 4 credits. Normally offered every third year. C b

4.00

An exploration into the various dimensions and ideologies concerning the role of the feminine in relation to the Divine. Belief systems, myths and archetypes from ancient Goddess worship to 20th century feminist theology will be examined in terms of the philosophical content and psychological consequences. Special emphasis will be placed on feminist metaphysical structures for understanding consciousness and Reality. Classes will be conducted by means of lectures, primary and secondary texts, and class discussions. Normally offered alternate years. Cultural Diversity A

4.00

This course examines the impact and influence of women on public policy from the inside, as formal actors in government and partisan institutions, and from the outside, via civic organizations as both non-citizens and citizens. The course uses a comparative approach to explore systematically the ways in which women have navigated, sometimes successfully, intersectional realities of class, race, gender identity and ideological orientation to influence public policy. The first half of the course concentrates on women in politics and the second examines specific policy areas, such as reproductive choice and equity issues. Normally offered alternate years.

Not open to freshmen

4.00

This course examines the interaction between gender and globalization. It discusses the centrality of gender in international development by focusing on gender as one of the most critical factors that affect the success or the failure of globalization. Critically reviewing general theories of globalization, the course presents a historical overview of gender and development. It then explores selected topics: global restructuring and feminization of the labor force, gender in multinational corporations, gender and international migration, sex-tourism, AIDS, and the impact of the state, religion, and culture in creating social dislocations and inequalities. Finally, we will consider strategies of change and diverse forms of resistance by women. Offered as needed. Cultural Diversity B

4.00

Examines the field of human sexuality across the life span. Topics include: sexual anatomy and physiology, sexual development, typical and atypical sexual behavior, sexual dysfunctions, current research on human sexuality, and relationship issues as they relate to sexuality and intimacy.

4

Since the beginning of time," women have been ""doing battle"" to themselves\"

4

Since the beginning of time and across cultures, people have been interested in the supernatural, the paranormal, and the otherworldly. Often, these phenomena have appeared in the form of witches, wizards, and spirits, whether good or bad, wicked or wonderful. Women who have not fulfilled traditional gender roles have historically been cast as witches or, to use Shakespeare's phrase," as ""weird sisters""\"

4.00

A critical analysis of theory and research related to the socialization, roles and social participation of women in contemporary society.

4.00

An examination of human sexuality as experience and institution. Sexuality is considered in relationship to power, love, religion, family, race, gender, sexual orientation, violence and courtship.

4.00

An exploration of topics that relate particularly to women as providers and consumers in the health care system. The course will consider historical and current information on issues of reproduction, technology, health and illness.

4.00

Explores what we can learn from the books that teenage girls read. In addition to a wide array of interesting and complex Young Adult novels targeted to young female readers, students will be exposed to theories of adolescent development, literary criticism, and social theory. Topics include how the dilemmas of girlhood have changed or stayed constant and the urge, so common in books for children and teens, to teach kids how to think and behave.

4.00

Examines through both classic and contemporary science fiction a variety of possibilities for world-reimagining in the realms of gender, sexuality, race, and other forms of difference. Draws on theories of utopian and dystopian discourse, engages with questions of biology and reproduction, and explores colonialism through first-contact and space empire narratives.

4.00

Examines the social, moral, and political construction of masculinity through an analysis of film and other expressions of popular culture. Using case studies, explores the specific ways in which boys are impacted, stigmatized, and "made bad" in institutional arenas such as schools, sports, politics, family systems, the military,the workplace, and the criminal justice system.

4.00

Explores how gender and sexuality are depicted, constructed, and interrogated across a variety of visual mediums, including film, television, and photography. We will pair foundational readings in queer and feminist thought with representations in order to consider how theory and popular culture engage in a constant dialogue. Topics include: the maintenance of norms regarding gender and sexuality; how race, class, and ability complicate our understanding of gender and sexuality; the ways in which sexuality intertwines with other social and political formations; imagining alternative theories and practices in representing gender and sexuality in contemporary media culture. Possible texts include theoretical work by Sigmund Freud, Judith Butler, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, and David Halperin and media such as The Shape of Water (2017), Blade Runner (1982), Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (2003-2007), and Jess Dugan's To Survive on This Shore (2018).

4.00

Examines a broad range of feminist-themed literature, with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century literature in a range of genres including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Texts considered in this course are not merely those that centralize women's experiences; they also challenge systems of gender oppression and intervene in cultural conversations about women and gender minorities. How is feminism discussed and questioned across historical representations and diverse experiences? What can literature teach us about how gender impacts our lives? Possible texts include: Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Toni Morrison's Beloved, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, poetry by Adrienne Rich, and Michelle Obama's Becoming.

4.00

Investigates the complex intersections between feminism and popular culture through several different lenses: by exploring how feminists make arguments about popular culture; by looking at the complexities of public femininity in today's popular culture, including figures such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and television shows like The Bachelor and Grey's Anatomy; by focusing on a variety of articulations of feminism within mass media, blogs, social media, and popular books such as Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs, and Caitlin Moran's How to Be a Woman. Along the way we will ask questions about: what makes a work of art feminist; how modern media contributes to or distracts us from a variety of political debates in the realm of female equality and how can we, as individuals, use modern media to create and advance smart, feminist arguments.

4.00

Investigates how feminists, both today and in history, have understood inequality and difference and looked for the best ways to address these issues and bring about social justice. Examines how feminist theorists help us to understand how gender and other social categories, such as race, class sexuality, disability, age and nationality, are constructed within and through each other; and analyzes feminist engagements with liberalism, socialism, psychoanalysis, existentialism, post-colonialism, critical race theory, and queer theory, as well as consider anti-feminist arguments. Readings include classic critical texts by authors including Mary Wollstonecraft, Emma Goldman, Virginia Woolf, Chandra Mohanty, Gloria Anzaldua, and Judith Butler.

4.00

Explores of various cultural worldviews in order to reveal and assess the voices of women from around the world as they respond to important global issues such as sexual violence and gendered oppression. Topics include: national citizenship, sexual politics, legal discourse, aesthetic representation, literary movements, genre, constructions of femininity, sexual identities, and representations of gender in relation to race and class and international cultures, and the relationship of self-image to the body politic.

4.00

Explore the deep antipathy women have faced at nearly every turn in their struggles for civic and social inclusion. Anti-feminist denials of women's rights have taken the form of attacks on women's nature, bodies, and fitness for public life, tagging them with labels of otherness: opponents of women's rights deem them irrational, unnatural, traitors to society, even sexual deviants. This course will examine the dangers that women allegedly represent to social stability from the Enlightenment to the present day, as well as how women have fought back to assert their rights and independence.

4.00

Explores the stories that help us to understand communities, identities, and bodies that could be considered queer, and the ways that film, music, memoir and fiction have discussed queer as different, unusual, or other. Texts include the documentary, "Paris Is Burning", Frank Ocean's 2012 album, "Channel Orange", and Janet Mock's recent memoir, "Redefining Realness", as well as foundational queer theory from Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Lee Edelman, among others, to help build a framework for approaching and interpreting both fictional and non-fictional accounts of queer lives.

4.00

Examines the history of female portrayal on the Western stage including women in Shakespeare and other early modern plays (when female characters were played by men); in Restoration comedy; the works of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw; and 20th and 21st century depictions of women on stage, including in the works of authors such as Lillian Hellman, Lorraine Hansberry, Caryl Churchill, Paula Vogel, Suzan-Lori Parks, Rebecca Gilman, and Sarah Ruhl. Students develop familiarity with key concepts in performance theory including catharsis, Brecht's alienation effect, and the distinction between performance and the performative.

4.00

This course explores the rich intellectual tradition of Haiti, Guadeloupe, and Martinique by considering historical moments linked to colonialism, the abolition of slavery, the representation of gender, departmentalization, and decolonization through essays, films, poems, novels, and short stories by critics and writers from the 19th-21st centuries.

4.00

An introduction to the role of media in contemporary society, focusing on media's influence on cultural, political, and ideological processes. An examination of the historical contexts within which newspapers, radio, television, and new media technologies develop, and how audiences interact with and influence the use of media.

4.00

The class will consider various theoretical approaches to the TV Series Mad Men beginning with ideas gleaned from the discourse of visual literacy and proceed by applying textual analysis adapted from more traditional modes of literary studies and film analysis. A combination of critical and evaluative critiques will be examined, including book-length studies of the series and essays based on the series' appeal to style, American popular culture, advertising, gender roles, race, and 60s nostalgia. The recent phenomenon of the series recap will serve as a touchstone to the class's collective viewing of the first two seasons of the series.

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

4.00

A thematic study of Shakespeare's plays from the major genres- comedies, tragedies, histories, and romances. The course will examine playtexts, original source-texts, modern adaptations, and a range of Shakespearean criticism. The theme for this course will change yearly.

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

4.00

This course will explore the concept of decadence as a transitional literary movement bridging the 19th and 20th centuries beginning with the proto-decadent writings of E.A. Poe and proceeding to foundational texts such as Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil and Wilde's Dorian Gray. Later manifestations of decadence in 20th century England, Europe and America will also be explored (Cavafy, H.D., Waugh, Isherwood, Kushner) with a view to understanding the ongoing relevance of decadence and the current debate over cultural decline. Readings will include poetic, narrative and dramatic works as well as seminal texts and manifestos defining the movement. Film adaptations will also be viewed.

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

4.00

An Exploration of Post-colonial literature and how the "empire writes back" following the collapse of European colonialism. Special emphasis will be placed on the legacy of British Colonial rule and the contemporary use of literature and the English Language to both resist and problematize Eurocentric cultural assumptions. Authors studied will include E.M. Foster, Salman Rushdie, J.M. Coetzee, Anita Desai, Hanif Kureishi, and Zadie Smith, among others. Students will be introduced to Post-colonial critical theory and view film adaptations of literary texts.

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

4.00

This class will engage with the major novels and selected literary writings of two of the twentieth century's most important modernist voices, Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster. We will approach their writings within the intellectual framework of British modernism and the cultural context of the Bloomsbury Group out of which they emerged. Special attention will be paid to their theoretical writings on fiction as well as their respective contributions to feminism and queer theory. The class will also view cinematic adaptations of certain novels and discuss how these films have contributed to the enduring appeal and status of these texts as classics of twentieth-century fiction.

4.00

Explores the social and political development of European society between the two world wars, primarily through the literature, art, and films of the period. Topics include: the dissolution of pre-1914 middle class society; deviance and sexuality in the 1920s; the role of decadence in art and the Fascist response to deviance in life and art; women, workers, and the new technology; the rise of Fascism; political engagement and polarization throughout European society in the face of economic and social crisis.

4.00

Explores German history since 1945 through film, newsreels and other archival footage, war memorials and museums, novels, published diaries, memoirs, and recent historical scholarship. Topics include the representation, in film and other texts, of: post-war rebuilding; the German Economic Miracle; divided Berlin; 1960s and 70s radical politics; coming to terms since 1945, with Germany's Nazi past and the Holocaust; coming to terms since 1990 with the Stasi and East German past; "Ostalgie" (nostalgia in the 21st century for some aspects of East German socialism); the multi-cultural society that is Germany today, with new Turkish, Greek, Russian, Arab, and even Israeli communities.

4.00

Examines contemporary ways of conceptualizing, assessing, and treating psychological consequences resulting from exposure to traumatic stress. Topics include the psychological consequences of war, natural disaster, and interpersonal trauma (e.g., physical and sexual abuse), Combines community service with classroom study and reflection.

4.00

Consideration of the physiological, psychological and social factors associated with the aging process. Contemporary American values toward the elderly are compared and contrasted with historical and cross-cultural studies. Current opportunities and techniques enabling the elderly to enrich and expand their societal roles are explored.

An Independent Study form must be submitted to the CAS Dean's Office.

4.00

Substantive reading/research in an area of special interest in Women's and Gender Studies, directed by a faculty member in the appropriate academic discipline. Open to Juniors and Seniors by special arrangement with the relevant faculty member and the Director of Women's and Gender Studies. Instructor's permission required.

4.00

Explores the roles and images of women in Western culture and the realities of women's everyday lives through literature, film, history, art, psychology, and recent feminist scholarship. Analyzes gender inequalities and the influence of gender on social structure, human behavior, and artistic expression. Topics include: the social construction of gender and identity; domestic prescriptions for women; women and work; intersections of gender, class, and race in American society; sexualities and identity; the politics of motherhood and reproductive rights; educating girls; negotiating male privilege and structural inequalities; representations of women in Western art and film; and women as artists and gendered models of creativity in art, film, fiction, and science.

At least a 3.3 GPA required.

4.00

Explores the roles and images of women in Western culture and the realities of women's everyday lives through literature, film, history, art, psychology, and recent feminist scholarship. Analyzes gender inequalities and the influence of gender on social structure, human behavior, and artistic expression. Topics include: the social construction of gender and identity; domestic prescriptions for women; women and work; intersections of gender, class, and race in American society; sexualities and identity; the politics of motherhood and reproductive rights; educating girls; negotiating male privilege and structural inequalities; representations of women in Western art and film; and women as artists and gendered models of creativity in art, film, fiction, and science.

4.00

Explores women's lives from the perspective of the social and natural sciences, including examination of recent biological, psychological, and sociological theories about gender and gender roles, as well as the influence of feminist scholarship in these areas. Topics include: the social construction of gender; the psychology and biology of sex and gender; women and work; media representations of women; the female body and eating disorders; women's health and lifecycle; women and sexuality; reproduction, abortion, and motherhood; and sexual violence against women.

4.00

Introduces the key topics and debates that have shaped the field of gender studies, including queer studies, masculinity studies, and women's studies. Through lecture and class discussion of texts from literature, film, history, psychology, and sociology, explores the pervasive influence of gender on the structure of society and our everyday experiences and the role that gender plays in our understanding of love, friendship, sexuality, and even violence. Topics include: biological arguments about gender and sexuality; the social construction of gender and identity; intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality; masculinity and femininity; and theories of sexual difference and the construction of sexuality.

4.00

Explores what we can learn from the books that teenage girls read. In addition to a wide array of interesting and complex Young Adult novels targeted to young female readers, students will be exposed to theories of adolescent development, literary criticism, and social theory. Topics include how the dilemmas of girlhood have changed or stayed constant and the urge, so common in books for children and teens, to teach kids how to think and behave.

4.00

Examines through both classic and contemporary science fiction a variety of possibilities for world-reimagining in the realms of gender, sexuality, race, and other forms of difference. Draws on theories of utopian and dystopian discourse, engages with questions of biology and reproduction, and explores colonialism through first-contact and space empire narratives.

4.00

Examines the social, moral, and political construction of masculinity through an analysis of film and other expressions of popular culture. Using case studies, explores the specific ways in which boys are impacted, stigmatized, and "made bad" in institutional arenas such as schools, sports, politics, family systems, the military,the workplace, and the criminal justice system.

4.00

Explores how gender and sexuality are depicted, constructed, and interrogated across a variety of visual mediums, including film, television, and photography. We will pair foundational readings in queer and feminist thought with representations in order to consider how theory and popular culture engage in a constant dialogue. Topics include: the maintenance of norms regarding gender and sexuality; how race, class, and ability complicate our understanding of gender and sexuality; the ways in which sexuality intertwines with other social and political formations; imagining alternative theories and practices in representing gender and sexuality in contemporary media culture. Possible texts include theoretical work by Sigmund Freud, Judith Butler, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, and David Halperin and media such as The Shape of Water (2017), Blade Runner (1982), Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (2003-2007), and Jess Dugan's To Survive on This Shore (2018).

4.00

Examines a broad range of feminist-themed literature, with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century literature in a range of genres including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Texts considered in this course are not merely those that centralize women's experiences; they also challenge systems of gender oppression and intervene in cultural conversations about women and gender minorities. How is feminism discussed and questioned across historical representations and diverse experiences? What can literature teach us about how gender impacts our lives? Possible texts include: Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Toni Morrison's Beloved, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, poetry by Adrienne Rich, and Michelle Obama's Becoming.

4.00

Investigates the complex intersections between feminism and popular culture through several different lenses: by exploring how feminists make arguments about popular culture; by looking at the complexities of public femininity in today's popular culture, including figures such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and television shows like The Bachelor and Grey's Anatomy; by focusing on a variety of articulations of feminism within mass media, blogs, social media, and popular books such as Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs, and Caitlin Moran's How to Be a Woman. Along the way we will ask questions about: what makes a work of art feminist; how modern media contributes to or distracts us from a variety of political debates in the realm of female equality and how can we, as individuals, use modern media to create and advance smart, feminist arguments.

4.00

Investigates how feminists, both today and in history, have understood inequality and difference and looked for the best ways to address these issues and bring about social justice. Examines how feminist theorists help us to understand how gender and other social categories, such as race, class sexuality, disability, age and nationality, are constructed within and through each other; and analyzes feminist engagements with liberalism, socialism, psychoanalysis, existentialism, post-colonialism, critical race theory, and queer theory, as well as consider anti-feminist arguments. Readings include classic critical texts by authors including Mary Wollstonecraft, Emma Goldman, Virginia Woolf, Chandra Mohanty, Gloria Anzaldua, and Judith Butler.

4.00

Explores of various cultural worldviews in order to reveal and assess the voices of women from around the world as they respond to important global issues such as sexual violence and gendered oppression. Topics include: national citizenship, sexual politics, legal discourse, aesthetic representation, literary movements, genre, constructions of femininity, sexual identities, and representations of gender in relation to race and class and international cultures, and the relationship of self-image to the body politic.

CAS Honors Students only

4.00

Explores of various cultural worldviews in order to reveal and assess the voices of women from around the world as they respond to important global issues such as sexual violence and gendered oppression. Topics include: national citizenship, sexual politics, legal discourse, aesthetic representation, literary movements, genre, constructions of femininity, sexual identities, and representations of gender in relation to race and class and international cultures, and the relationship of self-image to the body politic.

4.00

Explore the deep antipathy women have faced at nearly every turn in their struggles for civic and social inclusion. Anti-feminist denials of women's rights have taken the form of attacks on women's nature, bodies, and fitness for public life, tagging them with labels of otherness: opponents of women's rights deem them irrational, unnatural, traitors to society, even sexual deviants. This course will examine the dangers that women allegedly represent to social stability from the Enlightenment to the present day, as well as how women have fought back to assert their rights and independence.

4.00

Explores the stories that help us to understand communities, identities, and bodies that could be considered queer, and the ways that film, music, memoir and fiction have discussed queer as different, unusual, or other. Texts include the documentary, "Paris Is Burning", Frank Ocean's 2012 album, "Channel Orange", and Janet Mock's recent memoir, "Redefining Realness", as well as foundational queer theory from Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Lee Edelman, among others, to help build a framework for approaching and interpreting both fictional and non-fictional accounts of queer lives.

4.00

Examines the history of female portrayal on the Western stage including women in Shakespeare and other early modern plays (when female characters were played by men); in Restoration comedy; the works of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw; and 20th and 21st century depictions of women on stage, including in the works of authors such as Lillian Hellman, Lorraine Hansberry, Caryl Churchill, Paula Vogel, Suzan-Lori Parks, Rebecca Gilman, and Sarah Ruhl. Students develop familiarity with key concepts in performance theory including catharsis, Brecht's alienation effect, and the distinction between performance and the performative.

An Independent Study form must be submitted to the CAS Dean's Office.

4.00

Substantive reading/research in an area of special interest in Women's and Gender Studies, directed by a faculty member in the appropriate academic discipline. Open to Juniors and Seniors by special arrangement with the relevant faculty member and the Director of Women's and Gender Studies. Instructor's permission required.