2016-2017 Undergraduate Catalog

GWS 1100 Introduction to Gender Studies (3 credits)

This course offers an introduction to Gender Studies, an interdisciplinary academic field that explores critical questions about the meaning of gender in society. The primary goal of this course is to familiarize students with key issues, questions and debates in Gender Studies scholarship, both historical and contemporary. Gender scholarship critically analyzes themes of gendered performance and power in a range of social spheres, such as philosophy, economics, history, religion, politics and health. Liberal Education Goals 7 & 9.
Common Course Outline

GWS 2220 Women's Issues (3 credits)

An overview of women's studies as an academic discipline, including an examination of the causes and consequences of sexism and gender discrimination. Geared toward developing personal awareness of women's reality in a patriarchal society. Topics include gendered language; stereotypical images; media representations of women; gender violence; and women's roles in relationships, the home, the workplace, and politics. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

GWS 2223 Men's Issues (3 credits)

An exploration of the theoretical and social construction of masculinities. Hegemonic masculinity is examined in an attempt to understand the challenges it has created for men, women, and children. Students engage in reading, writing, and conversations about how gender and masculinity shape and impact relationships, family, work, education, and society. Personal beliefs and values related to masculinity are also addressed. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

GWS 2600 Women and Diversity: Crossing Boundaries of Race, Class, Gender & Sexuality (3 credits)

An integrated study of the complexity and diversity of historical and contemporary realities of women across culture, race, class, age, ethnicity, and sexual identity with an emphasis on the ways these are inextricably intertwined and rooted in the structure of social institutions. Moves from a personal awareness of women's issues toward a social, political, economic, and cross-cultural analysis. Students will examine their own lives and values and those of others regarding privelege, power, prejudice, and discrimination. Prerequisite: WSGS 2220 or WSGS 2223. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

GWS 3100 Topics in Gender and Women's Studies (3 credits)

Diverse topics encompass an international range of gendered experiences and may include sources from literature, law, history, myth/religion, psychology, sociology, philosophy, theology, and the visual arts. Topics may include: myths and spirituality; mother, daughter, self; writing women's lives; art, erotica, and pornography in American Culture; reproductive freedom; Indigenous women's issues; sexualities and difference in America. May be taken for credit under different subtitles.
Common Course Outline

GWS 3220 Gender Politics (3 credits)

This course will include examination of the capacity of political thought and action among women and men. Students explore how women and men approach the public sphere, and their identification with particular parties in the United States. Political issues are further examined by looking at the ways in which men and women understand political thinking and how they evaluate issues and candidates. In an attempt to go beyond conventional understandings of political engagement and leadership, students will discuss what it means to engage in contested forms of political interpretation, how the public and private sphere is politicized, and how a discussion of politics is intimately related to politics of the body. Prerequisite: GWS 1100. Liberal Education Goal Areas 7 & 9.
Common Course Outline

GWS 3330 International Gender Issues (3 credits)

An examination of gender issues from an international perspective, with particular emphasis on both distinguishing national practices and analyzing connections between these practices. This course explores the cultural construction and representation of gender, and also focuses on the way in which gender contributes to economic and cultural inequality. Students use a comparative international framework to evaluate the relation between gender and global issues. This course can be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: GWS 1100. Liberal Education Goal Area 8.
Common Course Outline

GWS 3850 Sex, Gender and Power: Theories and Practice (3 credits)

How, and from where, does gender emerge? What are the implications when the workings of power are played out in existing societal systems and relational understandings of gender? Students will examine feminist theories, liberal, socialist, radical, multicultural, postcolonial, ecofeminist; as well as Queer theory. This exploration of theory will introduce students to one of the most exciting and dynamic areas of contemporary inquiry, while preparing them for engagement in social movement, community and social transformation, and social justice. Prerequisite: GWS 1100.
Common Course Outline