Women's and Gender Studies

Program Faculty: Ellen Oxfeld (program director, sociology/anthropology), Laurie Essig (joint women's and gender studies and sociology/anthropology, on leave academic year), Cheryl Faraone (joint women's and gender studies and theatre and dance), Margaret K. Nelson (joint women's and gender studies and sociology/anthropology), Sujata Moorti, Program Coordinator: Janine Podraza

Participating Faculty:Katherine Smith Abbott (history of art and architecture), Holly Allen (American studies), Febe Armanios (history), Timothy Billings (English and American literatures), Louisa Burnham (history), Alison Byerly (English and American literatures), Susan Campbell (psychology), Armelle Crouzieres-Ingenthron (French), James Davis (religion), Deborah Evans (American studies), Juana Gamero de Coca (Spanish), Rebecca Gould (religion), Roman Graf (German, on leave academic year), Heidi Grasswick (philosophy), Maria Hatjigeorgiou (religion), Brigitte Humbert (French), Rachel Joo (American studies), Bethany Ladimer (French), Antonia Losano (English and American literatures), Tamar Mayer (geography), Claudio Medeiros (theatre),  Brett Millier (English and American literatures), Jason Mittell (American studies and film media), Amy Morsman (history), Kevin Moss (Russian), Ellen Oxfeld, (sociology/anthropology), Nathalie Peutz (Middle East studies), William Poulin-Deltour (French, on leave academic year), Paula Schwartz (French), Yumna Siddiqi (English and American literatures), Gail Smith (physical education), Almeta Speaks (music), Jacob Tropp (history, on leave academic year), William Waldron (religion), Marion Wells (English and American literatures)

The Women’s and Gender Studies Program is a vibrant and intellectually stimulating interdisciplinary arena of scholarship which was established in 1991. Originally organized to examine women’s contributions to society and the obstacles they have faced, this interdisciplinary program today has expanded to use gender as a basic category of analysis in a variety of social and historical contexts. Our courses investigate the operations of gender in family, popular culture, the labor market, globalization processes, political systems, and creative expressions. The Program in Women’s and Gender Studies at Middlebury provides students with the intellectual tools to investigate the intersections of gender with other forms of difference and power -- such as sexuality, race, class, and nation -- in local and transnational contexts. Our courses also help chart paths to social change through investigations of the forms of activism prevalent around the globe.

We understand women, gender, feminism, queer, masculinity, and transgender as politicized terms. Our curriculum and faculty research the constantly changing directions that multiple "first" and "third" world feminisms are taking today. Our program serves as a space for intellectual debate and a catalyst for student groups committed to addressing various forms of social inequalities. Students in our program are active members of the campus community and learn leadership skills through their activism.

Requirements for a Women's and Gender Studies Major: The major consists of four parts as outlined below:
     1) a solid grounding in the theories and methods of women's and gender studies,
     2) specialized expertise within a traditional discipline (the field requirement),
     3) a non-Western requirement, and
     4) senior work: The minimum requirement for the major is 10 courses; most students will require some additional courses.

     1. Women's and gender studies courses (10 courses, some of which may also serve the second and third requirements outlined below):

• SOAN/WAGS 0191
• WAGS 0200
• WAGS 0400
• one introductory-level course in women's and gender studies:  This may be chosen from among the list of courses indicated below, under introductory courses offered in departments. (Appropriate first-year student seminars may be substituted for an introductory course with the permission of the program director.)

    At least five other women's and gender studies courses in the 0200-to 0500- level range (in at least two different academic categories). These five courses may also serve the second and third requirement outlined below.  
     Students will take four to six courses in a discipline of their choice (the requirements for each discipline participating in the program are listed below). At least one of these courses must be a course that is cross-listed in women's and gender studies (if none is available then an independent study should be arranged). In choosing a discipline, students must also consult with the WAGS program director as well as with an advisor from their field. If a discipline is not listed below, students may construct a disciplinary focus, in consultation with an advisor from the field and the WAGS program director. (Note: the field requirement is satisfied automatically by joint majors, but not for double majors).

     2. Field Requirements:
     American Studies:AMST 0210, AMST 0211, one or two other AMST courses, each with a gender component.
     Film: FMMC 0131, FMMC 0231, FMMC 0232, FMMC 0340, or FMMC 0347; one foreign national or international cinema course, and FMMC 0230
     French: any four courses above FREN 0205, including one course cross-listed in WAGS. Some, but not all of the courses may be taken in English.
     Geography: GEOG 0100, two of the following: GEOG 0206, GEOG 0210, GEOG 0212, GEOG 0213, GEOG 0310 or 0320, GEOG 0410.
     German: any four courses above the 0200-level, including one course cross-listed in WAGS. Some, but not all of the courses may be taken in English.
     History: one 0100-level course, a research seminar (any course in the 0450's), and three other history courses, at least two of which should focus directly on women and/or gender.
     History of Art: HARC 0100 or HARC 0102, four courses at the 0200-level or above, one of which must be HARC/WAGS 0209.
     English and American Literatures: ENAM 0103 or from the literature program LITP 0101. Two of the following courses: ENAM 0205, ENAM 0206, ENAM 0207, ENAM 0242, ENAM 0270, ENAM/WAGS 0260, ENAM/WAGS 0114. Other literature courses may be substituted with approval.
     Music: one course cross-listed in WAGS, four courses above the 0200-level, and two semesters in a departmental ensemble or approved ensemble.
     Religion: RELI 0110 or RELI 0120, one cross-listed course in WAGS, one 0400-level seminar, and one elective (these courses should be in either the Eastern or Western tradition.
     Philosophy: five courses, including PHIL/WAGS 0234, one course in history of philosophy, one course in ethics and/or social and political philosophy, and one 0400-level philosophy seminar. Additionally, both PHIL 0150 and PHIL 0180 are strongly recommended.
     Psychology: PSYC 0105, PSYC 0203, two of the following courses: PSYC/WAGS 0307, PSYC/WAGS 0420, and 0429, and one other PSYC course.
     Sociology/Anthropology: SOAN 0103, SOAN 0105, SOAN 0301 or 0302, SOAN 0305 or 0306, and one elective cross-listed in WAGS.
      Theatre: THEA 0102 (Acting 1), THEA/WAGS 0206, and two other courses in theatre.

     3. Non-Western requirement: At least one non-Western course. This must be satisfied by a course in the field discipline or by a designated women's and gender studies course.

     4. Senior work: Majors are required to complete an independent project based in the core field that applies feminist theory and methodology. The project may be either a one-semester senior essay or other creative work (WAGS 0700), or a three-semester senior thesis (WAGS 0710).  A thesis advisor should be selected from among program faculty in the student’s core field. Students are required to meet with the WAGS Program Chair and their prospective project or thesis advisor from their selected core field before entering their senior year at Middlebury. All senior projects must be approved by the project advisor and by the chair of Women’s and Gender Studies.  For additional information, please consult “Guidelines for Senior Projects in WAGS.”

     Honors: To qualify for honors, a major must have at least a B+ average in all courses taken in the women's and gender studies program and the field requirements. The degree of honors will be based on senior work, normally a student must write a thesis to qualify for honors. Honors: thesis grade of B+; high honors: thesis grade of A-; highest honors: thesis grade of A.

     Minor in Women's and Gender Studies: The women's and gender studies minor consists of five courses, including: at least one introductory course in WAGS from among ENAM/WAGS 0114, SOAN/WAGS 0191, or an appropriate first-year student seminar, with the approval of the program director; WAGS 0200, WAGS 0400, and two electives.

Women's and Gender Studies Courses

WAGS 0200 Foundations in Women's and Gender Studies (Fall, Spring)
This course provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of women's and gender studies. Examining gender always in conjunction with the categories of race and class, the course foregrounds how inequalities are perpetuated in different fields of human activity and the creative ways in which groups have resisted these processes. The course is organized in sections to illuminate the effects of particular social institutions and structures on our gendered lives. Each section will introduce a broad overview of feminist interventions in different fields of inquiry. Cumulatively, the course reveals the importance of gender as an analytical category to understand social reality and to comprehend important areas of culture. 3 hrs. lect. SOC CMP (S. Moorti)

WAGS 0223 Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies (Not offered 2009-10)
This course will provide an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of gay and lesbian studies. We will explore three topics: the construction and representation of homosexuality in history, queer culture before and after Stonewall, and queer theory. Readings will include works by Martin Duberman, Lillian Faderman, Oscar Wilde, Radclyffe Hall, Tony Kushner, Sarah Schulman, Eve Sedgwick, and Michel Foucault. SOC NOR

WAGS/SOAN 0262 Mobile Women: Transnational Work Patterns (Fall)
The course examines women's work in the formal labor sectors to offer a critical perspective on contemporary local and global patterns.  The materials will cover concerns that are central to women in the United States such as the glass ceiling, the wage gap, and the pink-collar ghetto.  The course will also offer a transnational perspective through an analysis of the central role migrant female laborers have come to play in the global economy.  This section will cover issues such as the traffic in domestic workers, nannies and sex workers.  We will interrogate how feminist theories are able to accommodate the uneven development of women's rights at the global and local levels.  Through a few case studies students will also be introduced to alternative work patterns established by groups such as the greenbelt movement in Kenya and SEWA in India. 3 hrs. lect. SOC CMP (S. Moorti)

WAGS/ENAM 0372 Gender and the South Asian Diaspora (Not offered 2009-10)
In this interdisciplinary course we will trace social, political, and economic experiences as well as the aesthetic expressions of South Asians dispersed around the world.  Beginning with a theoretical exploration of the concept of diaspora we delineate the historical specificity of the subcontinental experience. The key topics we will consider are labor, the politics of gender and sexuality, cultural production of desi identity, and religion.  The course will include literary texts, films, art, and multimedia production.  Some of the authors we will consider are: Anita Rau Badami, Jhumpa Lahiri, Shyam Selvadurai, and M. G. Vassanji.  The films will include Bhaji on the Beach, My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic, When Mother Comes Home for Christmas, and Bollywood Productions. LIT AAL CMP

WAGS 0400 Women and Gender: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Not offered 2009-10)
Open to students who have completed two introductory courses in women's and gender studies, this seminar is designed to prepare majors in the women's and gender studies program for senior work. It also serves as an advanced reading seminar for other students with course work in women's and gender studies. The class will explore how the category of gender shapes academic scholarship across the disciplines and informs public debate over women's issues. What themes, research goals, and problems unify the work of women's and gender studies across the disciplines? How is the category of gender related to other categories of identity and/or social location? Topics may include legal and political reform, language, reason and emotion, sexuality, and visual representations of the body. (WAGS 0200) 3 hrs. lect.

WAGS 0500 Independent Study (Fall, Winter, Spring)
(Staff)

WAGS 0700 Senior Essay (Fall, Spring)
(Staff)

WAGS 0710 Senior Thesis (Fall, Spring)
(Staff)


COURSES OFFERED BY DEPARTMENTS

Introductory Courses

Appropriate First-Year Seminars (Please consult program chair)

WAGS/ENAM 0105 Victoria's Secrets: The Two Faces of Nineteenth-Century Fiction (Fall)
See Department of English and American Literatures for course description. (Formerly WAGS/ENGL 0105) LIT EUR (A. Losano)

WAGS/ENAM 0114 Reading Women's Writing (Spring)
See Department of English and American Literatures for course description. (Formerly WAGS/ENGL 0114) LIT (M. Wells)

WAGS/SOAN 0191 Introduction to Sociology of Gender (Fall)
See Department of Sociology/Anthropology for course description. SOC CMP (R. Kelly)

WAGS/WRPR 0201 Writing For Social Change (CW) (Not offered 2009-10)
See Program of College Writing for course description. ART LIT

WAGS/THEA 0206 Contemporary Women Playwrights (CW) (Spring)
See Department of Theatre and Dance for course description. ART LIT (C. Faraone)

WAGS/SOAN 0212 The Family in Contemporary Society (Fall)
See Department of Sociology/Anthropology for course description. SOC NOR CMP (M. Nelson)

WAGS/GRMN 0226 To Veil or Not to Veil: Germany and Islam (in English) (Not offered 2009-2010)
See Department of German for course description LIT SOC CMP 

WAGS/GRMN 0228 Women's Fictions in German-Speaking Countries (in English) (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of German for course description. LIT SOC EUR

WAGS/AMST 0230 Gender Images in American Popular Culture (CW) (Spring)
 See Program in American Studies for course description. 3 hrs. lect. NOR (H. Allen)

WAGS/AMST 0231 Space, Place, and Gender (CW) (Not Offered 2009-10)
See Program in American Studies for course description. SOC NOR

WAGS/PHIL 0234 Philosophy and Feminism (CW) (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Philosophy for course description. PHL CMP

WAGS/JAPN 0245 Josei Undo: Women’s Activism in Contemporary Japan (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Japanese for course description. SOC AAL

WAGS/JAPN 0250 Gender in Japan (in English) (Spring)
See Department of Japanese for course description. 3 hrs. lect./disc. LIT  AAL (L. White)

WAGS/ENAM 0254 American Women Poets (Fall)
See Department of English and American Literatures for course description. (Formerly WAGS/AMLT 0265) LIT NOR (B. Millier)

WAGS/SOAN 0269 Gender and Class in the Contemporary Middle East (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Sociology/Anthropology for course description. SOC AAL

WAGS/ENAM 0270 Postcolonial Literatures: Passages from India (Spring)
See Department of English and American Literatures for course description. LIT CMP (Y. Suddiqi)

WAGS/RELI 0290 Women's Religious Life and Thought (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Religion for course description. PHL HIS EUR 

Advanced Courses

WAGS/SOAN 0304 Women, Culture and Power in Comparative Perspective (CW 5) (Spring)
See Department of Sociology/Anthropology for course description. SOC CMP AAL (E. Oxfeld)

WAGS/PSYC 0307 Human Sexuality (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Psychology for course description. 

WAGS/RELI 0310 Issues in Modern Religious Thought (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Religion for course description.

WAGS/SOAN 0314 Sociology of Heterosexuality (CW 5) (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Sociology/Anthropology for course description. SOC NOR 

WAGS/SOAN 0317 Transgender Histories, Identities, and Politics (Fall)
See Department of Sociology/Anthropology for course description. SOC (R. Kelly)

WAGS/SOAN 0337 Resisting Women: Ethnographies of Women's Activism in Global Context (CW) (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Sociology/Anthropology for course description. SOC AAL

WAGS/FREN 0344 Women in French Film: Looking at the Past through a Modern Lens (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of French for course description. EUR

WAGS/FMMC 0347 Remote Control:  Global TV Culture (Not offered in 2009-10)
See Department of Film/Media Culture for course description.

WAGS/FREN 0349  Sex and Gender: The French Paradox (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of French for course description. SOC EUR

WAGS/SPAN 0364 Educating Women in the Spanish Golden Age (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Spanish for course description. 3 hrs. lect./disc. LIT EUR

RELI/AMST 0370 Seminar in American Religion: African American Women and 20th Century Christianity (Fall) AR, WT
See Department of Religion for course description. 3 hrs. sem. PHL HIS NOR (M. Cavazos)

WAGS/ENAM 0371 Postcolonial Writing by Women (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of English and American Literatures for course description. (Formerly WAGS/ENGL 0371) LIT AAL CMP

WAGS/HIST/AMST 0373 History of American Women (Fall)
See Department of History for course description. (Formerly WAGS/HIST/AMCV 0373) HIS NOR CMP (A. Morsman)

WAGS/RELI 0391 Seminar on Women and Religion (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Religion for course description. 

WAGS 0392/RELI 0390 Seminar in Religious Ethics: Sex, Marriage, and Family in Jewish and Christian Ethics (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Religion for course description. PHL

WAGS/HIST 0393 A History of Gender in Early America (CW) (Spring)
See Department of History for course description. HIS NOR CMP (A. Morsman)

WAGS/FREN 0395 Women's Voices from the Francophone World (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of French for course description. LIT AAL CMP

WAGS/ENAM 0404 Happy Endings?: Novels as Social Critique (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of English and American Literatures for course description. LIT EUR (A. Losano)

WAGS/HIST 0408 Readings in American History: Gender & Race in the American Experience (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of History for course description. HIS NOR

WAGS/HIST 0416 Readings in Middle Eastern History:  Women and Islam (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of History for course description. HIS PHL AAL

WAGS/ENAM 0419 Gender, Power, and Politics on the Early Modern Stage (Fall)
See Department of English and American Literatures for course description. LIT EUR (M. Wells)

WAGS/HIST 0421 Readings in African History: Women and Gender in Africa (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of History for course description. HIS AAL

WAGS/HIST 0423 Readings in Medieval History:  Sex and Society in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of History for course description. HIS EUR

WAGS/PHIL 0434 Feminist Epistemologies (Spring)
See Department of Philosophy for course description. Meets the major requirement as WAGS 0400 for 2009-2010 only. PHL CMP (H. Grasswick)

WAGS/INTL/FMMC 0437 Internationalizing Culture: Beyond the Borders in Modern Art and Film (Not offered 2009-10)
See Program of International Studies for course description. This course is equivalent to FMMC 0437 and INTL 0437. Register for this course under INTL 0437. 3 hr sem/screenings ART CMP 

WAGS/SPAN 0458 Narratives of Love in Modern Spain (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Spanish for course description. LNG SOC

WAGS/LITP 0460 Sexing the Canon (Not offered 2009-10)
See Program in Literary Studies for course description. 3 hrs. sem.  LIT CMP EUR

WAGS/SPAN 0478 Spanish Women Writers: Expanding the Canon (Not offered 2009-10)
See Department of Spanish for course description. EUR