Courses
Courses offered in the past four years.
▲ indicates offered in the current term
▹ indicates offered in the upcoming term[s]
WAGS 0102 - Gender/Sexuality/Literature
Introduction to Gender, Sexuality and Literature
This course offers an introduction to the ways in which literature reflects, influences, creates, and reveals cultural beliefs about gender and sexuality. We will read a wide range of novels, poems, and plays from a diversity of eras and national traditions; we will also study seminal works in feminist theory, queer studies, and the history of sexuality, from early thinkers to today's cutting-edge theorists. Throughout the course, we will explore the ways in which gender intersects with other crucial cultural issues such as race, nationhood, globalization, and class. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Fall 2012
WAGS 0105 - Victoria's Secrets
Known as the great age of the realist novel and the epitome of staid decorum, the nineteenth century also had its guilty pleasures: mysteries, ghost stories, science fiction, imperialist adventure tales, and radical fantasies of gender confusion. In this course we will read both canonical realist novels and their non-traditional counterparts in an attempt to understand the productive interplay between these two seemingly disparate literary traditions. In our comparisons we will focus on numerous issues, including domesticity, gender politics, class and racial identity, and international politics. Authors may include: Austen, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, the Brontës, Wilkie Collins, R.L. Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and others. 3 hrs.lect.
EUR LITFall 2009
WAGS 0114 - Reading Women's Writing
Reading Women's Writing
Why and how do women write? Does literary history reveal distinctive styles, patterns, and continuities in the works of female authors? We will begin to address these questions through our close reading of a wide variety of women's literature in English, including poetry, fiction, essays, and drama from the 18th through the 20th centuries. Secondary readings will reflect on the concept of gender as a central organizing principle. Employing various methods of literary analysis, the course will address issues of interest to students in a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, and history, as well as literature. 3 hrs. lect./3 hrs. disc.
Spring 2010, Spring 2012
WAGS 0172 - Writing Gender and Sexuality
Writing Gender and Sexuality
In this course we will analyze and produce writing that focuses on expressions of gender and sexuality. Readings will include work by Collette, Baldwin, Leavitt, Powell, Tea, Claire, and others. Students will draft and revise creative non-fiction and fiction with some attention to poetry. During class we will discuss form, craft, and the writing process; experiment with writing exercises; and critique student work in writing workshops. Each student will meet with the instructor a minimum of three times and produce a portfolio of 20 revised pages. (This course is a prerequisite to ENAM 0370, 0375, 0380, or 0385).
Spring 2012
WAGS 0191 - Intro to Sociology of Gender
Introduction to Sociology of Gender
What is gender and what would a sociology of it look like? When did gender become a category of inquiry and more importantly why? We will look at how the meaning and performance of gender changed over time, from Classical Greece to Victorian England, to the contemporary U.S. We will also look at how gender changes depending on one’s position in social space, e.g. one’s race, class, sexuality, and nationality. Finally, we will consider how the need to look at gender is the result of a variety of discourses, from psychoanalysis to capitalism to movements of liberation such as feminism. 3 hrs. lect.
Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2013
WAGS 0200 - Foundations in W & G Studies
Foundations in Women's and Gender Studies
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.
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013
WAGS 0201 - Writing for Social Change
Writing for Social Change
This course explores the many choices we face as speakers and writers when communicating across race, gender, sexuality, religion, culture, class and ability. Drawing on works by W. E. B. Dubois, James Baldwin, Beverly Tatum, Paulo Freire, Dorothy Allison, Arundhati Roy, Amy Tan, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Desmund Tutu, and others, the class explores a range of genres and voices and examines patterns of domination and subordination in diverse cultural contexts. Students will learn strategies for both creative and critical writing and respond to formal and informal writing assignments. The class will hold occasional writing workshops, and final projects will provide opportunities for collaboration.
Spring 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2013
WAGS 0206 - Contempory Women Playwrights
Contemporary Women Playwrights
WAGS/THEA 0206 Contemporary Women Playwrights (Fall 2012)
In this course we will read and discuss the work of the most influential and interesting American and European playwrights from the 1980s to the present. Authors will include: Maria Irene Fomes, Caryl Churchill, Suzan-Lori Parks, Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Judith Thompson, and Naomi Wallace. Issues of race, class, and gender will be closely examined. Readings will include selections from performance and feminist theory. 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2010, Fall 2012
WAGS 0212 - Family in Contemporary Society
The Family in Contemporary Society
This course will investigate the social, economic, and political forces that have brought about changes in family life in the beginning of the 21st century. We will begin by looking at various attempts to define "the family," and we will then explore a range of topics, including the webs of family relationships (e.g., mothering, fathering, kin networks), labor and family intersections (e.g., mediating between work and family; the household division of labor), gay and lesbian family life, and domestic violence. Although the focus will be on contemporary United States, we will also examine some cross-cultural and historical material. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2012
WAGS 0223 - Intro to Gay/Lesbian Studies
Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies
This course will provide an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of gay and lesbian studies. We will explore three topics: queer theory, the construction and representation of homosexuality in history, and queer culture before and after Stonewall. Readings will include works by Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Eve Sedgwick, George Chauncey, John Boswell, Lillian Faderman, Oscar Wilde, Radclyffe Hall, Michael Cunningham, and Tony Kushner. 3 hrs. lect./3 screen
Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2013
WAGS 0230 - Gender Images in Pop Am Cult
Gender Images in American Popular Culture
In this course, we will examine representations of gender in American popular culture. Course materials will include 19th century popular music, literature, and theater, early 20th century advertising and film, 1950s television, and more recent electronic media. Considering a range of cultural forms over a broad historical period allows us to determine the impact that particular media have had on our conceptions of gender difference. Finally, by becoming critical readers of popular cultural forms that represent manhood and womanhood, we gain a greater appreciation for the complexity, variability, and open-endedness of gender constructions within American life. 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2010, Fall 2012
WAGS 0234 - Philosophy and Feminism
Philosophy and Feminism
This course will examine the contributions of various feminists and feminist philosophers to some of the central problems of philosophical methodology, epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, and ethics. Are there gendered assumptions in operation in the way particular philosophical problems are framed? For example, do the politics of gender contribute to accounts of objective knowledge and rationality? Are some philosophical perspectives better suited to the goals of feminism than others? We will also examine the general relationship between feminism and philosophy, and we will reflect on the relevance of theorizing and philosophizing for feminist political practice.
Fall 2010
WAGS 0245 - Women's Activism in Japan
Josei Undo: Women’s Activism in Contemporary Japan
In this course we will critically evaluate Japanese feminism since the late nineteenth century. We will focus on the following themes within Japanese feminism, namely, the structure of work and family life, the relationship between the state, women, and the military, and the politics of reproduction and women's bodies. In addition, we will consider the role of feminism in Japanese society and the connections between global feminisms and Japanese local political struggles. This course will help students develop a deeper understanding of Japanese society and the position of women in society. It will also help students contextualize gender relations and feminist activism cross culturally. 3 hr. lect./disc.
Fall 2011
WAGS 0250 - Gender In Japan
Gender in Japan
In this course we will examine changing ideas about gender and sexuality in Japan in the 10th through 20th centuries, with special attention to the modern period. Sources will include literary texts, films, and social/historical studies. We will discuss topics, including women's writing in classical Japan; the commercialization of sexuality in the 18th century; ideas of "homosexuality" in late-medieval and modern times; and women's social roles and political struggles in the 20th century. 3 hr. lect./disc.
Spring 2010, Spring 2011
WAGS 0254 - American Women Poets
American Women Poets
We will examine the rich tradition of lyric poetry by women in the U.S. Beginning with the Puritan Anne Bradstreet, one of the New World's earliest published poets, we continue to the 19th century and Emily Dickinson, along with the formidable line of "poetesses" who dominated the popular poetry press in that era. We examine the female contribution to the Modernist aesthetic in figures like Millay, Moore, H.D. and Gertrude Stein; the transformation of modernist ideals by Bishop, Plath, Sexton, and Rich; and, among the postmodernists, Lyn Hejinian and Susan Howe. 3 hrs. lect.
Fall 2009
WAGS 0256 - British Crime Drama
British Crime Drama
What makes British crime drama different from its American counterpart? Using gender, race, and sexuality as the primary lens, students will tease out the signature features of the British television genre. Through an examination of historical and contemporary shows, students will discern how cultural differences and Britain’s specific histories of empire and colonialism inflect the crime stories that are told. In particular we will use the crime drama to understand Britain’s encounter with modernity and how this is reflected in aesthetic choices.
Spring 2013
WAGS 0262 - Mobile Women
Mobile Women: Transnational Work Patterns
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.
Fall 2009, Spring 2012
WAGS 0264 - Indian Cinema Romance
Indian Cinema: Romance, Nation, and Identity
In this course we will use the lens of romance to examine the world's largest film-making industry. Focusing primarily on Hindi cinema produced in Bombay/Mumbai, we will examine the narrative conventions, aesthetic devices (such as song-dance sequences), and other cinematic conventions that are unique to Indian films' narration of romance. Through a historical overview of films from the silent, colonial, and post-colonial eras into the contemporary era of globalization, we will track how the family is configured, the assignment of gender roles, and how national identity is allegorized through family romance. The course includes weekly screenings of films, which will be sub-titled in English. 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2011, Fall 2012
WAGS 0267 - Gender Sexuality Media
Gender and Sexuality in Media
In this course, we will explore the intersecting roles played by gender and sexuality in our media, focusing specifically on film, television, and digital culture. We will examine the multiple ways in which popular media texts construct and communicate gender and sexuality, and we will analyze the role of gender and sexuality in the processes of spectatorship and meaning-making. We will study a wide range of theories of gender and sexuality in media including feminist film theory, queer media theory, and literature on gender and sexuality in video game history and culture. 3 hrs. lect./3 hrs. screen.
Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012
WAGS 0269 - Gender & Class in Middle East
Gender and Class in the Contemporary Middle East
During the past decades scholars have devoted considerable attention to the subject of gender in the Middle East. Much of this work, however, has focused on the situation of women of lower socio-economic classes. This course will offer a comparative perspective on gender and class in the Middle East, including work on the construction of masculinities and the situation of both men and women from lower, middle, and upper economic classes. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Spring 2009
WAGS 0270 - Reading Postcolonial Lit.
Reading Postcolonial Literature
The purpose of the course is to examine a cross-section of the literature that has been marked by the experience of European colonialism and its aftermath. In addition to discussing a range of writing from South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, we will explore the criticism and the theoretical debates that this postcolonial literature has spawned. Topics will include orientalism, colonial discourse analysis, critiques of colonialism, resistance theories, subaltern studies, nationalism, postcolonial gender studies, diaspora, and globalization. We will discuss novels by Monica Ali, Indra Sinha, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, Assia Djebar and others. 3 hrs. lect/disc.
Spring 2010
WAGS 0283 - Social Dance & Popular Culture
From George Washington to John Travolta: Social Dance in Popular Culture
In this course we will examine religion, gender, morality, etiquette, politics, and other cultural and societal issues in American history as they intersect in the public sphere through the activity of social dance. Coursework will involve the investigation of primary source materials including contemporary letters and diaries, dance manuals, newspaper and journal reports, and accounts of social dance in American literature. Students will read texts on dance and cultural history, view images of dance in American art and popular film, and listen to four centuries of American dance music. 3 hrs. lect./2 hrs. screening
Spring 2013
WAGS 0284 - Modern Dance History in U.S.
Modern Dance History in the United States: Early Influences to Postmodern Transformations
In this seminar we will focus on the emergence and development of 20th century American concert dance--especially modern and postmodern dance forms--from the confluence of European folk and court dance, African and Caribbean influences, and other American cultural dynamics. We will look at ways in which dance reflects, responds to, and creates its cultural milieu, with special attention to issues of gender, race/ethnicity, and class. Readings, video, and live performance illuminate the artistic products and processes of choreographers whose works mark particular periods or turning points in this unfolding story. Our study is intended to support informed critical articulations and an understanding of the complexity of dance as art. 3 hrs. lect./2 hrs. screen.
Fall 2012
WAGS 0285 - Ethics/Aesthetics/Body
Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Moving Body
What are you willing to do to "look right?" In this course we will investigate how questions about what is good, and what is beautiful, affect how we treat our bodies. We will explore somatic techniques, in which the body is used as a vehicle for understanding compassion. In contrast, we will examine the extreme physical regimens of concert dance techniques that originated in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, in which the body is seen as an object to be molded into an aesthetic ideal. The course will utilize readings in philosophy and dance history, reflective and research based writing, and movement practices. (No previous experience necessary) 3 hrs. lect./1 hr. lab
Spring 2013
WAGS 0290 - Women's Religious Life/Thought
Women's Religious Life and Thought: The Female Pursuit of God in Late Antiquity and Byzantium
This course will explore the female religious experience in Greco-Roman antiquity and Early Christianity. We shall trace the transition from the mystery religions of Demeter and Isis in the Eastern Mediterranean to the cult of Mary the Mother of God (Theotokos) and the worship of female saints. Drawing on a wide range of sources (hymns, saints' Lives, Apocryphal Gospels, Patristic texts, and icons), we shall study the varieties of female devotion and examine the roles available to women in the early Church: deaconesses and desert mothers, monastics and martyrs, poets and rulers. Different theoretical approaches will enable us to ask a series of questions: were women in the early Church considered capable of holiness? To what extent did the female 'gifts of the spirit' challenge church authority? What is distinct about the feminine experience of the divine? Finally, we shall consider the vision and poetics of female spirituality in select modern poets. 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2011, Fall 2012
WAGS 0302 - Unquiet Minds:Gender & Madness
Unquiet Minds: Gender and Madness in Literature and Medicine
In this course we will explore the fascinating intersection of gender, literature, and medicine from the Greeks to the present day, focusing in particular on the early modern period. We will consider why and how such diseases as melancholy and hysteria became flashpoints for anxieties about gender and sexuality in this period, turning to both literary and medical narratives to illuminate the troubled interface between mind and body in the social construction of melancholic illness. Alongside literary texts that dramatize mental illness (such as Chrétien's Yvain and Shakespeare's Hamlet) we will read sections from Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy as well as the recently published account by a 17th century woman of her own private struggles with madness. We will conclude with a consideration of contemporary texts that explore the experience of madness, including Kay Redfield Jamison's memoir An Unquiet Mind and Sarah Ruhl's Melancholy Play. In this final section we will also explore the work being done in the exciting emerging field of "narrative medicine," which brings together literature and medicine in quite explicit and strategic ways.
Spring 2013
WAGS 0304 - Gender, Culture and Power
Gender, Culture, and Power
This course will introduce students to the anthropological study of gender and sexuality. Topics to be addressed include: the construction of femininities and masculinities in cross-cultural perspective; the role of gender and class ideologies in labor relations and global capitalism; the historical development of gender as a locus of study, activism, and practice; and instances where anthropology has engaged in social movements including anti-violence and LGBT rights. Our readings will take us a number of places, from the streets of Los Angeles, to a factory in southern China, an Islamic fashion house in Indonesia, a men’s sex clinic in Oaxaca, a folklore performance in Mali, a comic book festival in Tokyo, a debate about women’s film in Iran. Students will be introduced to key frames of history and theory in the field of gender studies. 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012
WAGS 0307 - Human Sexuality
Human Sexuality
This course will provide an introduction to the biological, psychosocial, behavioral, and cultural aspects of human sexuality. Specifically, the course will cover topics such as the physiology of sexual response, love and the development of sexual relationships, sexual orientation, contraceptive use, and sexually transmitted diseases. Emphasis will be given to discussion of relevant social issues, including sexual harassment, pornography, and cyberspace sexuality. Students will be encouraged to critically evaluate the sexual norms, attitudes, and practices of their own and other cultures. (Two psychology courses; not open to first year students; open to Psychology and WAGS majors) 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2013
WAGS 0314 - Sociology of Heterosexuality
Sociology of Heterosexuality
Most people believe that heterosexuality is natural or rooted in biology and so never look very closely at it as a product of culture. In this course we will examine the artifacts, institutions, rituals, and ideologies that construct heterosexuality and the heterosexual person in American culture. We will also pay close attention to how heterosexuality works alongside other forms of social power, especially gender, race, and class. (SOAN 0105 or SOAN 0191) 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
WAGS 0317 - Transgender Hist Ident Pol
Transgender Histories, Identities, and Politics
In this course, we will critically investigate the historical, political, social, and cultural conditions and contexts that have enabled the category "transgender" to emerge into its contemporary use by exploring topics such as: historical shifts in the medicalization and pathologization of gender and sexual deviance; differing and competing constructions of "sex" and "gender" in academia, feminist critiques of transexual identities and technologies, and the controversies and challenges surrounding transgender rights. We will examine these topics through a wide range of readings alongside a weekly documentary film screening. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Fall 2009, Spring 2012, Fall 2012
WAGS 0318 - Narrative Spanish-Amer Women
Narratives of Spanish American Women Writers: Representations of the Self *
In this course we will read selected texts by contemporary Spanish American women writers. The aim of the course is to explore the diverse writing strategies women use to represent themselves in their particular socio-cultural contexts. In the analysis of these texts, we will focus on the feminine characters of these narratives. We will also consider whether these characters might be representations of the authors. We will read texts by Elena Poniatowska, Rosario Ferré, Luisa Valenzuela, Cristina Peri Rossi, and others. This course is organized around a series of close readings and class discussions of short stories and theoretical texts. (SPAN 0220 or equivalent). 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Fall 2010
WAGS 0320 - Topics in Feminist Theory
Topics in Feminist Theory
The course offers an overview of some key feminist texts and theories that have shaped the analysis of gender and sexuality. How have feminist theories addressed the issues of romance, desire and sex? Working within a transnational perspective, course materials will examine: (1) how the concepts of choice, freedom, and agency translate in different cultures; (2) the concept of gender identity and the viability of the category woman in different locales; and (3) the political economy of romance, desire, and pleasure . In each section the readings will locate feminist theories in relation to histories of colonialism and postcolonialism, as well as theories of nationalism and globalization. (WAGS 0200 or SOAN 0191) 3 hr. lect.
Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
WAGS 0327 - Gender & Nat Identities Lat Am
Gender and National Identities in Latin America
What did it mean to be a man in Mexico in the ‘40s, a Chicana woman in the ‘70s, a homosexual in Cuba in the ‘90s, or a Puerto Rican mermaid at the turn of the new millennium? By studying these four specific gender constructions of the 20th century in Latin America we will explore the diversity and complexity that lies beneath the label latino. This will be a multidisciplinary course where students will analyze films, other visual arts, music, and literature by Mayra Santos-Febres, Reinaldo Arenas, and Senel Paz. Readings will also include theoretical texts by Judith Butler, Susan Bordo, and Marjorie Garber. (SPAN 0220 or equivalent) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Spring 2011
WAGS 0336 - South Asian Diaspora
From Bollywood to Hollywood: Gender and the South Asian Diaspora
In this course we will examine the South Asian diasporic experience in Britain and the United States. We will consider this along two dimensions. First, we will examine how this experience has been represented in popular culture, specifically in film and other visual media. Second, we will examine the role of gender in shaping these experiences. Do men and women understand and apprehend this diasporic identity differently? If so, how?
Fall 2011
WAGS 0341 - Gender Sexuality S. Asian Rel
Gender and Sexuality in South Asian Religions
In this course we will focus on historical and ethnographic scholarship on Hinduism and Islam in South Asia. We will initially draw on the theories of Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, and third world feminists to examine issues of gender and sexuality. Then we will examine a range of case studies—including colonial interpretations of the Hindu practices of sati, the experiences of devadasis in Telugu south India, an account of a female Muslim healer in Hyderabad, and the religious practices of third-gendered hijras—to address how gender and sexuality are constructed in the religious landscape of South Asian Hinduism and Islam. Prior study of religion or women’s and gender studies is required. 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2013
WAGS 0344 - Women in FR Historical Films
Women in French Historical Films: Looking at the Past through a Modern Lens
In this course we will focus on the representation of powerful women in French historical films produced since the early 1990s. At a time when the notion of gender parity was becoming prevalent in French political life, one would expect contemporary filmmakers to adopt a positive perspective on women in power. Yet, by studying such films as La Reine Margot, Ridicule, Indochine, and Lucie Aubrac and comparing them to various written accounts and/or literary texts, we will see that this is rarely the case. Historical films often offer as much information about the period when they were produced as they do about the period they depict, if not more. Could representations of powerful women in modern heritage films point to a general cultural tendency in late twentieth-century France to depreciate the notion of emancipation as a reaction to the very emergence of women in the political sphere? (Two courses among FREN 0210, FREN 0221, FREN 0230, or by waiver). 3 hrs lect/disc +2 hrs. screenings.
Spring 2009
WAGS 0347 - Remote Control:Global TV Cult.
Remote Control: Global TV Culture
In this course we will critically analyze the role television plays in the formation of national and global cultures. Our examination of television industries in the U.K., Brazil, India, and Nigeria will underscore variations in broadcasting practices and the multiple ways in which television is deployed to enact social change. In this course we will introduce students to women's participation in the four countries as audience members, program producers and subjects of television programming. Case studies will help illuminate the transformations that are entailed as television programs cross national and cultural borders. 3 hrs. lect./3 hrs. screen.
Spring 2010
WAGS 0356 - Murdered Women: Port & Brazil
Murdered Women: Politics and Literary Representation in Portugal and Brazil
In this course we will study the tragic history of three women ordered to be executed by political chiefs for political reasons. The course's aim is twofold: to analyze, in their historical frameworks, the political ideologies used to justify the women's murders, and to examine through textual analysis how these events are represented in fictional and non-fictional literature. The women are Inês de Castro (1320-1355), the lover of the Portuguese Prince Pedro; Olga Benario (1908-1942), the Jewish-German wife of the Brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes; and Elza Fernandes (1918-1934), the girlfriend of a high member of the communist party in Brazil. Inês was killed because her imminent marriage to Pedro could have rendered Portugal politically unstable. Olga died in a Nazi concentration camp, to which she was sent by Prestes' enemy Getúlio Vargas, then President of Brazil. Elza was accused of political betrayal and eventually murdered by communist party members, with the support of Luís Carlos Prestes. Readings will include poetry, a biography, and a historical novel. (PGSE 0215 or equivalent) 3hrs. lect./disc.
Fall 2011
WAGS 0358 - Theories of Spectatorship
Theories of Spectatorship, Audience, and Fandom
In this course we will explore a range of theoretical approaches to the study of spectatorship and media audiences. How has the viewer been theorized throughout the history of film, television, and digital media? How have theoretical understandings of the relationship between viewer and media changed in the digital age? How have gender, class, and race informed cultural notions of media audiences from silent cinema to today? We will consider key theoretical readings and approaches to studying spectators, viewers, audiences, fans, and anti-fans across the history of the moving image. (FMMC 0101 or FMMC 0102 or FMMC 0104 or FMMC 0254) 3 hrs. lect./disc./3 hrs. screen.
Spring 2013
WAGS 0373 - History of American Women
History of American Women: 1869-1999
This course will examine women's social, political, cultural, and economic position in American society from 1869 through the late 20th century. We will explore the shifting ideological basis for gender roles, as well as the effects of race, class, ethnicity, and region on women's lives. Topics covered will include: women's political identity, women's work, sexuality, access to education, the limits of "sisterhood" across racial and economic boundaries, and the opportunities women used to expand their sphere of influence. 3 hrs lect./disc.
Fall 2009, Fall 2010
WAGS 0375 - Social Control/Problem Youth
Bad Boys and Wayward Girls: The Social Control of “Problem Youth”
Everyone worries about young people; we scrutinize their clothes, music, friends, grades, drugs, and sports. Families, schools, medicine, and psychology communicate what it means to be a "normal" young person. Reformatories and other disciplinary mechanisms convey the consequences for rule breaking. In this course, we will (1) look at the construction of childhood, the invention of delinquency, the creation of adolescence, and the ideas of normalcy embedded in these categories; (2) consider how class, race, and gender intersect with the mechanisms of social control exerted over those who deviate; and (3) explore how young people resist the social pressures to be good boys and docile girls. (Formerly SOAN 0475) (SOAN 0105 or SOAN 0288) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Spring 2012
WAGS 0390 - Seminar in Religious Ethics
Seminar in Religious Ethics:
Topic is determined by the instructor - refer to section for the course description.
Spring 2012
WAGS 0392 - Seminar in Religious Ethics
Seminar in Religious Ethics: Sex, Marriage, and Family in Jewish and Christian Ethics
In this course, we will study the theological significance of sex, marriage, and family within contemporary Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant ethical discourse. Through a close reading of official statements and works by prominent theologians, we will consider how different voices within these communities balance loyalty to historical tradition with attention to modern social and scientific understandings of sexuality, reproduction, and child-rearing. We will study conservative and progressive perspectives, with special attention given to women's voices. Specific topics may include extramarital sex, contraception, homosexuality, adoption, and reproductive technologies. (RELI 0190, RELI 0293) 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2009
WAGS 0393 - Gender in Early America
A History of Gender in Early America
Exploration, conquest, settlement, revolution, and nation-building: no course in early American history should ignore such traditional topics. In this course, though, we will examine the various ways that gender shaped these historical processes. How, for example, did colonials’ assumptions about manhood and womanhood affect the development of slavery in America? Or how did the Founding Fathers’ identities as men inform their attitudes about democracy and citizenship? We will scrutinize historical documents, of both a private and public nature, and discuss several recent scholarly works on gender from 1600-1850 to consider these kinds of questions. Pre-1800. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2013
WAGS 0400 - Women/Gender-Intd Perspectives
Women and Gender: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
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.
Fall 2012
WAGS 0404 - Happy Endings?:
WAGS 0408 - Rdg Amer Hi: Gender,Race in US
Readings in American History: Gender & Race in the American Experience
This course will explore a variety of ways that gender and race have shaped the lives of Americans living in the 19th and 20th centuries. We will also examine how Americans from all walks of life have used gender and racial distinctions to manipulate their identity, improve their circumstances, resist oppression, and gain leverage over others. Readings will address the negotiation of gender and racial boundaries from the antebellum period, through the great migration and immigration waves at the turn of the 20th century, during military conflicts, and up through the Civil Rights movement. 3 hrs. sem.
Fall 2010
WAGS 0413 - White People
White People
White people are often invisible when it comes to having a race. In this course we will begin by considering the formation of whiteness in post Civil War America. We will read histories of whiteness, such as Grace Elizabeth Hale's Making Whiteness, as well as consider important milestones in whiteness, from the films Birth of a Nation and Gone With The Wind to the blog "What White People Like." Finally we will use essays, blogs, photographs, and videos to make white people at Middlebury visible by documenting how they represent themselves through language, dress, and rituals. (This course is open to junior and senior SOAN majors only; not open to students who have taken FYSE 1357) 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2013
WAGS 0416 - Women and Islam
Readings in Middle Eastern History: Women and Islam
In this course we will examine women's lives in Islamic societies from the seventh century to the contemporary period, focusing on the Middle East and North Africa. Readings will explore a variety of topics including the changing role of women from pre-Islamic to Islamic societies; women in Islamic law and practice; gender roles in relation to colonialism, nationalism, and radical Islam; non-Muslim women in Islamic societies; and Western images of Muslim women. 3 hrs. sem.
Fall 2010
WAGS 0419 - Gender, Power, and Politics
Gender, Power, and Politics on the Early Modern Stage (Pre-1800)
In this class we will explore the representation of embodiment on the early modern stage, considering as we do so how theatrical embodiment intersects with other treatments of the body in early modern culture. As we consider the representation of the gendered body on stage or in so-called "closet" dramas, we will read both early modern and contemporary theoretical accounts of gender as performance, investigating among other issues the use of boy actors, the representation of specifically "female" disorders (e.g., "suffocation" or hysteria), the performance of maternity, the portrayal of female "voice" or vocality, and the treatment of same-sex eroticism. We will also study the dramatic use of related cultural codes pertaining to betrothal, marriage, cross-dressing, and sexual slander. Primary readings will include: Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, Webster's Duchess of Malfi, Cary's Tragedy of Mariam, and Cavendish's Convent of Pleasure. Historical sources will include midwifery manuals, conduct books, medical treatises on hysteria, and legal accounts of betrothal and marriage. (Open to junior and senior ENAM majors or by approval of instructor). 3 hrs. lect.
Fall 2009, Fall 2011
WAGS 0422 - Gender, Power, and Politics
Gender, Power, and Politics on the Stage
In this course we will explore the construction of gender in modern and pre-modern culture primarily through an analysis of the theatrical embodiment of gender. We will read both early modern and contemporary theoretical accounts of gender as a performance, using Judith Butler's conception of performativity as a touchstone for our investigation. Beginning with such critical theatrical issues as the use of boy actors on the early modern English stage, the representation of specifically "female" disorders (e.g., "suffocation" or hysteria) in both medical and dramatic texts, the scapegoating of powerful female figures as witches, and the treatment of same-sex eroticism in Cavendish's early lesbian drama, we will consider how some of these issues reappear in contemporary plays, including for instance David Hwang's M Butterfly. The class will also explore the transgender themes in playwrights such as Doug Wright and Michel Marc-Bouchard. We will play close attention to other cultural products that shed light on these dramatic representations of gender, including medical texts, betrothal and marriage law, sumptuary codes, contemporary films, and contemporary marketing products that highlight the performative nature of gender. (This course satisfies the ENAM seminar requirement; this course meets the major requirement for WAGS 0400 for 2010-2011 only).
Spring 2011
WAGS 0434 - Feminist Epistemologies
Feminist Epistemologies
In recent years, feminist epistemologies, such as feminist standpoint theories and feminist empiricisms, have been extremely influential in developing social theories of knowledge. They have also served as a crucial intellectual tool for feminist theorists trying to understand the connections between social relations of gender and the production of knowledge. In this course we will investigate some of the major themes and challenges of feminist epistemologies and feminist philosophies of science: How is knowledge socially situated? What does it mean to look at knowledge through a gendered lens? How is objective knowledge possible according to feminist epistemologies? We will work to understand the influence of feminist epistemologies on the fields of philosophy and women's and gender studies. (Approval required; Open to philosophy and women's and gender studies senior and junior majors, this course serves as a senior seminar for both majors. WAGS majors should have previously taken WAGS 0200 and WAGS/SOAN 0191.) 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2010
WAGS 0438 - Women and Islam
Readings in Middle Eastern History: Women and Islam
In this course we will examine women's lives in Islamic societies from the seventh century to the contemporary period, focusing on the Middle East and North Africa. Readings will explore a variety of topics including the changing role of women from pre-Islamic to Islamic societies; women in the Qur’an and in Islamic law gender roles in relation to colonialism, nationalism, an Islamism; the experience of women in Sunni and Shi’a contexts; and Western images of Muslim women. (formerly HIST 0416) 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2012
WAGS 0441 - Literature and Seduction
Literature and Seduction
This course will look at works of erotic and emotional persuasion: some represent seductions, some (love poems and love letters) are intended as persuasive documents themselves, while others (some first person narratives) are arguably designed to seduce the reader. As we explore material from antiquity through the 21st century, we will examine the ways in which the idea of seduction has (or has not) changed, and what cultural conceptions of seduction say about ideologies of gender, subjectivity, sexuality, and literary representation. Texts will include works by Ovid, Plutarch, Keats, Wilde, Bronte, Nabokov, Rostand, Laclos, Wittig, and others; numerous historical documents and theoretical texts; and contemporary treatments of the subject from Nora Roberts to Cosmo to Neil Strauss. (This course satisfies the ENAM seminar requirement; this course meets the major requirement for WAGS 0400 for 2011-2012 only). Sem.
Spring 2012
WAGS 0443 - Readings in African History
Readings in African History: Women and Gender in Africa
This course takes up the challenge of understanding women's experiences and the role of gender in Africa's past. We will read from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives and literary forms, including ethnographies, life histories, and fiction, in order to explore different methodological and interpretive approaches to these subjects. Themes will include: changes in the structure of patriarchy and women's status in the pre-colonial period, the gendered impact of colonial rule on African economies and ecologies, historical identities of masculinity and femininity, and gendered experience of postcolonial "development." Prior experience in African history is not required. (formerly HIST/WAGS 0421) 3 hrs. seminar
Spring 2012
WAGS 0444 - Sex, Violence, and Culture
Sex, Violence, and Culture
In this course we will critically investigate the historical and contemporary manifestations of sexual violence within their cultural, biological, and individual expressions. We will also examine how gender--as a powerful category that shapes the way we see others and others see us-can be used to create a context for the justification of gender-based violence. Discussion and analysis of a wide variety of materials, including literary texts, essays, films, music, and videos, will form the basis of our exploration of the representation of sexual violence in Hispanic literature. Readings will include literary texts by authors Antonio Muñoz Molina, Roberto Bolaño, and Juan Bonilla, as well as theoretical texts by Fausto-Sterling, Katz, Brownmiller, Jensen, and O'Toole. (Two Spanish courses numbered 0350 or above, or by waiver.) 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2013
WAGS 0460 - Sexing the Canon
Sexing the Canon
Human sexuality has been the topic of scientific and artistic explorations for centuries. Regulatory norms of individual cultures enable or deny the expression of specific forms of sexuality in life and literature. As Foucault states: "What is at issue, briefly, is the over-all 'discursive fact,' the way in which sex is 'put into discourse.' In this course we will explore and compare the ways theories of sexuality from different times and places inform and determine our readings of literature. Theoretical texts form the basis for discussions of the works of authors such as Plato, Boccaccio, Choderlos de Laclos, Stifter, Henry James, Woolf, Genet, James Baldwin, Wittig, Thomas Mann, and Santos-Febres. 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2009, Spring 2011
WAGS 0500 - Independent Study
Independent Study
(Approval Required)
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013
WAGS 0700 - Senior Essay
Senior Essay
(Approval Required)
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013
WAGS 0710 - Senior Thesis
Senior Thesis
(Approval Required)
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013
WAGS 1003 - Gay/Lesbian History: An Intro
Gay and Lesbian History: An Introduction
In this course we will explore some varieties of lesbian and gay experience in transhistorical and cross-cultural perspective. Beginning with considerations of theoretical issues involved in the study of the history of sexuality, we will focus on several specific studies of homosexual individuals and communities in ancient, medieval, and modern societies. Special, but not exclusive, emphasis will be placed on the history of homosexuality in Western societies. This course counts as elective credit towards the WAGS major.
Winter 2010, Winter 2012
WAGS 1007 - Into the Forest: Fairy Tales
Into the Forest: Fairy Tales and their Cultural Contexts
In this course we will study the evolving history of fairy tales from Apuleius’ Golden Ass to the present day. Beginning with early versions of particular well-known stories--including Little Red Riding Hood, The Juniper Tree, and Bluebeard--by Giambattista Basile, the brothers Grimm, and Charles Perrault, we will also focus on the Lais of Marie de France, which incorporate fairy tale elements into romance in strikingly unconventional ways. The second half of the course will focus on feminist revisions of fairy tales by Angela Carter and A. S. Byatt, whose narratives interrogate the problematic conjunction of sex and violence in these stories. A central theoretical focus throughout the course will be the representation of sex and gender in these tales. In addition to literary narratives we will also study films inspired by fairy tales, including Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro, and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (both book and film). This course counts as elective credit towards the WAGS major or as an ENAM Pre-1800 elective. (This course is not open to students who have taken FYSE 1201).
Winter 2012
WAGS 1014 - Gender & South Asian Diaspora
From the Apu to Bollywood: Gender and the South Asian Diaspora
What is the South Asian Diaspora? How is the diasporic experience represented in popular culture, most notably in film and visual culture? Do men and women understand and apprehend this diasporic identity differently, and how? These are some of the questions we will explore in this course as we come to understand the experiences of one segment of the U.S. population. Through an examination of films, television productions, and other popular culture sites we will explore the specific ways in which South Asian diasporic experiences are represented and the cultural work conducted by such images.
Winter 2010
WAGS 1015 - Two Mexican Icons
Two Mexican Icons of the Baroque and their Legacy
Two female figures of the Baroque have deeply influenced the way contemporary Mexico imagines itself as a nation: the Virgin of Guadalupe and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe are dated from 1531, and she has evolved into a symbol of the Mexican nation since the first texts about her were published in 1648. We will study the history of the representation of the Virgin in art, poetry, and popular culture from the 17th to the 21st century. We will also explore the figure and writings of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695), known as the first feminist of the New World, some of whose poetry, drama, and autobiography reflect on the Virgin Mary and the Virgin of Guadalupe. (At least two Spanish courses at the 0300 level or above, or by waiver.)
Winter 2011
WAGS 1016 - Gender/Sexuality/Antiquity
Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World
In this course we will examine issues of gender and sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome. Through close analyses of ancient texts and material remains, we will discuss representations of gender in literature and art, sexual norms and codes, medical theories concerning the male and female body, and views on marriage, rape, adultery, and prostitution. In addition we will examine the relationship between the construction of gender identities in literature and the actual roles of men and women in society. Authors and texts include Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, the Hippocratic Corpus, Livy, Virgil, Ovid, and Catullus. (This course counts as elective credit towards the major in Classics and the major in Women's and Gender Studies)
Winter 2013
WAGS 1019 - Econ Development/Central Asia
The Dynamics of Gender in the Economic Development of Central Asia
A Kyrgyz proverb claims a frog-headed [stupid] man is better than a golden-headed [intelligent] woman. This proverb typifies the conceptual division of genders in Central Asia prior to the Soviet era. After independence, however, women began taking an active role in the region’s developing economies. The growth of women entrepreneurs provided the impetus for a transformation in the dynamics of gender that has produced surprising results in many parts of this global region. In this course we will journey through the history, culture, politics, and economies of the region to gain an understanding of the forces impacting the dynamics of gender and economic development of Central Asia. This course may count towards the economics major requirements as a 0200-level elective or as elective credit towards the WAGS major.
Winter 2012
WAGS 1034 - Women in American Politics
Women in American Politics
In this course, we will cover a wide variety of issues concerning women in American politics, examining a mixture of sources from history, political science, and popular culture. In part one of this course, we will discuss highlights of the history of women in politics in the United States. In parts two and three we will build on this knowledge by exploring how the legacy of women’s political activism affects women in America today: part two addresses women’s political behavior outside of elective office, and part three addresses women in elective office. (This course counts as elective credit towards the major in Political Science and the major in Women's and Gender Studies) (American Politics)
Winter 2013
WAGS 1043 - Reproducing the 21st Century
Making Babies in a Brave New World
In this course we will examine the fundamentals of human reproduction and its modern reproductive intervention strategies. As rapid discoveries in medical technologies have allowed us to push the limits of the human body, questions remain as to whether we should pursue, permit, or regulate such advances. We will explore scientific, societal, legal, ethical, and individual issues surrounding the control of fertility and infertility, fetal life, birth, and the neonatal period. Through critical review of the literature, class discussion, and writing assignments, students will acquire an understanding of key topics in reproductive medicine. (This course is not open to students who have taken FYSE 1232)
Winter 2011
