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Women’s and Gender Studies Program

Graduate Course Offerings

 

Spring 2021

WGST 551: Adolescent Mentoring

This course will be divided into two sections: Part I:  The first five weeks of the semester will be spent preparing you to provide quality service to at-risk youth. Classes during the training portion of the course will focus on training you in effective methods of intervention with at-risk adolescents. Topics include the characteristics and circumstances of adolescents that place them at risk, how theory informs potential approaches for improving the well-being of at-risk youth, working effectively with your mentee, the development of cultural humility, principles of responsible mentoring, and mentoring special populations of youth (e.g., academically at-risk students, youth in trouble with the law, youth with mental health needs). During this portion of the class, weekly quizzes and thought papers will be utilized to confirm your understanding of the course material. Part II:  Toward the end of the training portion of the class, you will be matched with student(s) from New Bridge Academy, and Thursday classes will begin meeting at New Bridge Academy. Once the training has been completed, class begins to be solely based on mentoring and case responsibilities. Cross-listed Course: CRJU 551

WGST 554: Women and Crime

Impact of gender-based relations on crime and the criminal justice system. Cross-listed Course: CRJU 554

WGST 701: Feminist Theory and Epistemologies

Examination of feminist theories and epistemologies from diverse disciplines and intellectual movements, providing an overview of historical developments in feminist discourse. Emphasis on debates surrounding such concepts as gender, identity, difference, power, and embodiment.

WGST 796.001: Queer Times, Irish Times

In this course, we will be thinking about time and temporality at the intersection of three theoretical discussions: J. Jack Halberstam and other theorists on queer time, David Lloyd on Irish time, and Caroline Levine on rhythms as cultural forms. We will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on Irish texts of the 20th and 21st centuries. Following Halberstam’s claim that queerness can open up new life narratives that are characterized by “strange temporalities” and “eccentric life schedules,” we will ask, as we examine these texts, how they fit, resist, exceed, ignore, or queer cultural norms. In addition, we will attend to the layered times of Irish culture (Lloyd) and the rhythms of cultural, institutional, and social norms (Levine). Among the texts we will consider will be novels by Emma Donoghue, Keith Ridgway, as well as poetry, film, and popular culture. Grades will be based on weekly response papers, an analysis paper, and a final project. While this class falls at the intersection of queer studies and Irish studies, grounding in either field is not required. Meets with: ENGL 803

WGST 796.002: Interview Methods 

In this course students will design and conduct a research project using qualitative interview methods. First, students will learn how to pose appropriate research questions that can be answered with in-depth interview data. Then, students will select an appropriate interview sample and design an interview guide. Next, students will practice virtual and in-person face-t-face interviewing techniques. Finally, students will learn qualitative coding skills, produce an analysis, and write up findings in a format appropriate for a scholarly journal. The class will conclude with a research symposium in which students present their findings. Throughout the course students will also read exemplary research highlighting class topics, ethics, and reflexivity. Grades are based on intermediate assignments building up to the final written research project.   Meets with: SOCY 729

WGST 796.004: The Brontës

In this seminar, we will explore the novels of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë alongside the poetry, art, and fiction they produced independently and collaboratively over the course of their lives. We will begin with the complex works they made as young girls, including miniature handwritten storybooks, pencil sketches and watercolors, and fictional stories. As we trace their professional development, we will consider the difficulties they faced as young women wading into the patriarchal culture of London’s literary circles and print market. As we read their major novels, we will work to complicate what Lucasta Miller calls “the Brontë myth,” which continues to shape popular representations of Charlotte, Anne, and Emily today, and develop a more sophisticated understanding of how the Brontës’ lived experiences informed their writing. For example, we will consider how their gender and social class shaped their novels, which represent women’s desires and professional ambitions; their experiences of courtship, marriage, domesticity, and childrearing; their traumatic experiences of domestic violence and verbal abuse; their resilience and resistance to the influence of patriarchal institutions and authorities; and their investment in the restorative qualities of education, art, writing, travel, and sisterhood. Finally, we will consider the aesthetics of the Brontës’ fiction, surveying the distinctive styles they crafted and the formal innovations they made the novel as genre, and explore interpretations of their works by filmmakers and postcolonial writers. Meets with: ENGL 803

WGST 797: Seminar in Women's Studies

 A capstone seminar applying women’s studies theories and methodologies to professional or discipline-based research projects. Prerequisite(s): WGST 701

 

Fall 2020

WGST 555: Language and Gender

Approaches to gender and language emphasizing the social grounding of both; how language reflects sociocultural values and is a tool for constructing different types of social organization. Cross-listed Course(s): ANTH 555, LING 541

WGST 554: Women and Crime

Impact of gender-based relations on crime and the criminal justice system. Cross-listed Course: CRJU 554

WGST 598.001 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Gender Issues in China

Covers a wide range of gender issues in Chinese-speaking culture in traditional China, the contemporary PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Meets with: ANTH 512

WGST 598.003 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Adolescent Mentoring    

This course will be divided into two sections: Part I:​ The first five weeks of the semester will be spent preparing you to provide quality service to at-risk youth. Classes during the training portion of the course will focus on training you in effective methods of intervention with at-risk adolescents. Topics include the characteristics and circumstances of adolescents that place them at risk, how theory informs potential approaches for improving the well-being of at-risk youth, working effectively with your mentee, the development of cultural humility, principles of responsible mentoring, and mentoring special populations of youth (e.g., academically at-risk students, youth in trouble with the law, youth with mental health needs). During this portion of the class, weekly quizzes and thought papers will be utilized to confirm your understanding of the course material. Part II:​ To;ward the end of the training portion of the class, you will be matched with student(s) from New Bridge Academy, and Wednesday classes will begin meeting at New Bridge Academy. Once the training has been completed, class begins to be solely based on mentoring and case responsibilities. Meets with: CRJU 521. 

WGST 621: Maternal and Child Health

An interdisciplinary examination of reproductive health, rights, and justice issues, with a focus on maternal and child health. Cross-listed Course: HPEB 621

WGST 701: Feminist Theory and Epistemologies

Examination of feminist theories and epistemologies from diverse disciplines and intellectual movements, providing an overview of historical developments in feminist discourse. Emphasis on debates surrounding such concepts as gender, identity, difference, power, and embodiment.

WGST 705: Race, Gender, Class, & Sexuality

Historical and contemporary dimensions of social inequality centered in race, social class, gender, and sexuality. Cross-listed Course(s): SOCY 705, PSYC 751

WGST 796.001: SPECIAL TOPICS: Bodies in Cross-Cultural Perspectives

This course examines theoretical engagements with questions of the body from the cross-cultural perspectives, with focus on gendering and sexualization as culturally embedded bodily processes. Pairing texts from “East” (esp. China) and “West”, we also critique the “East-West” dichotomy. Meets with: CPLT 880

WGST 796.002: SPECIAL TOPICS: Advanced Topics in Educational Foundations & Inquiry: Gender and Education

Gender issues and gendered practices in education have global relevance and have received sustained scholarly and policy interest in northern and southern societies, as well as in the work of major international organizations such as the World Bank, the OECD, and various United Nations’ agencies, bilateral donors, and transnational civil society organizations. This course will provide students with an opportunity to critically and comparatively explore different theoretical (e.g., feminist, womanist, Women in Development, Women and Development, Gender and Development, social change, etc.) and discursive frameworks (e.g., human capital, human rights, human capabilities), policies and practices (e.g., Education for All, United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, affirmative action, single-sex education initiatives, feminist pedagogy etc.) that have constituted and shaped the broad and interdisciplinary field of gender and education over the last century. Given that the emphasis in this course is on “gender” as a socially constructed, performed, and contested identity(s), we will critically and comparatively investigate the educational opportunities, experiences and outcomes for girls, boys, women and men, as well as people identifying as non-binary, from early childhood to adulthood. Critical attention will also be given to the intersections of gender, race, class, age, and sexual orientation (among other categories of social difference) in relation to educational access, survival, output, and outcomes.   Meets with: EDFI 845

  WGST 796.003: SPECIAL TOPICS: Feminisms Now

This course explores the centrality of gender, racemaking, sexuality, disability, and social class to different areas of feminist theory. We will not only think about how the terms of feminism have changed but also discuss where feminism might be headed in contemporary thought. Meets with: ENGL 804

WGST 797: Seminar in Women's Studies

A capstone seminar applying women’s studies theories and methodologies to professional or discipline-based research projects. Prerequisite(s): WGST 701

 

Spring 2020

WGST 555: Language and Gender

Approaches to gender and language emphasizing the social grounding of both; how language reflects sociocultural values and is a tool for constructing different types of social organization. Cross-listed Course(s): ANTH 555, LING 541

WGST 598.002 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Adolescent Mentoring    

This course will be divided into two sections: Part I:​ The first five weeks of the semester will be spent preparing you to provide quality service to at-risk youth. Classes during the training portion of the course will focus on training you in effective methods of intervention with at-risk adolescents. Topics include the characteristics and circumstances of adolescents that place them at risk, how theory informs potential approaches for improving the well-being of at-risk youth, working effectively with your mentee, the development of cultural humility, principles of responsible mentoring, and mentoring special populations of youth (e.g., academically at-risk students, youth in trouble with the law, youth with mental health needs). During this portion of the class, weekly quizzes and thought papers will be utilized to confirm your understanding of the course material. Part II:​ Toward the end of the training portion of the class, you will be matched with student(s) from New Bridge Academy, and Wednesday classes will begin meeting at New Bridge Academy. Once the training has been completed, class begins to be solely based on mentoring and case responsibilities. Meets with CRJU 521. 

WGST 701: Feminist Theory and Epistemologies

Examination of feminist theories and epistemologies from diverse disciplines and intellectual movements, providing an overview of historical developments in feminist discourse. Emphasis on debates surrounding such concepts as gender, identity, difference, power, and embodiment.

WGST 796: SPECIAL TOPICS: Race, Civil Rights, and the Law

Exploration of scholarship on meanings of freedom, citizenship and equality in the US from Reconstruction through the 1960s; readings on legal cases, historical episodes, and biographies of significant legal/civil rights figures; how racial ideology and democratic ideals have informed and reflected interpretations of the law and constitutional rights. Cross-listed Course(s): HIST 700

WGST 797: Seminar in Women's Studies

A capstone seminar applying women’s studies theories and methodologies to professional or discipline-based research projects. Prerequisite(s): WGST 701

 

Fall 2019

WGST 598.001 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Health

This course introduces students to health issues among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) populations with emphasis on the U.S. context. We take an interdisciplinary approach and examine measurement, theoretical, and methodological considerations in LGBTQ health research, and health disparities impacting LGBTQ populations. We consider the existing efforts to address such disparities while also collaborating to innovate new ideas and approaches. We read, discuss, and analyze detailed topics in LGBTQ health and examine how intersectional inequalities of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, age, and citizenship are related to health issues among LGBTQ populations. Meets with HPEB 627.

WGST 598.002 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Adolescent Mentoring    

This course will be divided into two sections: Part I:​ The first five weeks of the semester will be spent preparing you to provide quality service to at-risk youth. Classes during the training portion of the course will focus on training you in effective methods of intervention with at-risk adolescents. Topics include the characteristics and circumstances of adolescents that place them at risk, how theory informs potential approaches for improving the well-being of at-risk youth, working effectively with your mentee, the development of cultural humility, principles of responsible mentoring, and mentoring special populations of youth (e.g., academically at-risk students, youth in trouble with the law, youth with mental health needs). During this portion of the class, weekly quizzes and thought papers will be utilized to confirm your understanding of the course material. Part II:​ Toward the end of the training portion of the class, you will be matched with student(s) from New Bridge Academy, and Wednesday classes will begin meeting at New Bridge Academy. Once the training has been completed, class begins to be solely based on mentoring and case responsibilities. Meets with CRJU 521. 

WGST 796.001 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Engendering Global Capitalism

• How do debt, reciprocity, and redistribution structure social hierarchies?• What is the significance of "women's work" to global capitalism?• What was the relationship between the development of global capitalism and the European witch trials?• Who wins and who loses from contemporary financial crises?• How does microfinance affect poor women?• How can we rethink precarious livelihoods in this age of ecological destruction and globalization? Meets with ANTH 796.

WGST 796.002 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Theorizing Difference/Theorizing Desire

Do we desire that which is different from us, or the same? Why are we taught to celebrate and embrace “difference,” but most often in terms closer to sheer tolerance rather than attraction? Can difference—or sameness—be characterized as an ethical imperative? Politically, is difference a goal or an obstacle? How and where do we encounter the “other” in ways that change who we are? This course will probably not answer these questions tidily but will definitely bring them up over and over again, refining them through closely reading critical theory that spans psychoanalysis, queer theory, second/third-wave feminist thought, Black Studies, Asian American Studies, and postcolonial/anticolonial thought. Thinkers we may encounter together include Leo Bersani, Judith Butler, Anne Cheng, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Lewis Gordon, Julia Kristeva, Toril Moi, Tavia Nyong’o, Edward Said, Eve Sedgwick, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Kathryn Bond Stockton, and Cornel West. Meets with ENGL 796.

WGST 796.003 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Popular Visual Culture and Critical Pedagogy

In this course, we will examine essential writings on popular/visual culture and analyze a multitude of popular artifacts including TV shows, advertizings, theme parks, shopping malls, social media, and Internet with an emphasis on consumerism, sexism, racism, ableism, and other dominant cultural biases and inequalities embedded in these visual sites and narratives. We will also explore critical pedagogies of popular culture in public school and university classrooms and communities, and the strategies for engaging young people in radical awareness, action and making to disrupt the dominant cultural tropes. Meets with ARTE 703.

 

Spring 2019

WGST 598 - Women in Chinese Art

This seminar explores artistic depictions of women throughout Chinese history and the changing roles of female artists in China. Weekly readings and discussions examine topics such as the feminine ideal as depicted in art and its stylistic evolution, traditional roles of women in the arts, and the professional opportunities available to women in modern China.

WGST 701 - Feminist Theories and Epistemologies

Examination of feminist theories from diverse disciplines and intellectual movements, providing an overview of historical developments in feminist discourse. Emphasis on debates surrounding such concepts as gender, identity, difference, power, and embodiment

WGST 796.001 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Program Development in Art

This collaborative and participatory graduate course is designed to develop community-based art curriculum for underserved populations. Based on critical theory, feminist theory, and affective art, students will facilitate art workshops for residents in shelters, the juvenile arbitration center, or youth with autism. No art teaching experience or artistic skill is necessary. Cross-listed Course(s): ARTE 705

WGST 796.002 - SPECIAL TOPICS: Sex, Gender, and Nation in Irish Literature

In this seminar, we will examine literature and culture of Ireland, focusing especially on works of the last century and on the complex relations of national and sexual politics. We will explore representations of gender and sexuality in Irish literary texts and films, asking to what ends such representations work. How are figures and structures of gendered meaning—not just the gender binary but also maternity, marriage, the bachelor, the couple, the child—connected to social legibility and national identity? We will read the literature in the contexts of social and political struggles tied to gender, from the 1937 Constitution to more recent struggles over reproductive rights, marriage equality, mental health, and migration. Authors studied will include Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Edna O’Brien, Keith Ridgway, Desmond Hogan, Emma Donoghue, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, and Blindboy Boatclub, as well as selected materials from contemporary film and popular culture and selected readings in Irish studies and gender studies. Cross-listed Course(s): ENGL 736

WGST 797 - Seminar in Women's Studies

A capstone seminar applying women’s studies theories and methodologies to professional or discipline-based research projects.

 

Fall 2018

WGST 554 - Women and Crime

Impact of gender-based relations on crime and the criminal justice system. Cross-listed Course: CRJU 554

WGST 621 - Maternal and Child Health    

This course will enhance your understanding of reproductive health, which includes but is not limited to maternal and child health. An interdisciplinary approach to understanding reproductive health is emphasized; social determinants, life course, feminist, and reproductive justice perspectives are explored. We will examine current and historical issues, theories, principles, programs, and policies in both the United States and global contexts. Cross-listed Course: HPEB 621  

WGST 701 - Feminist Theories and Epistemologies

Examination of feminist theories from diverse disciplines and intellectual movements, providing an overview of historical developments in feminist discourse. Emphasis on debates surrounding such concepts as gender, identity, difference, power, and embodiment.   Cross-listed Course: SOCY 698

WGST 737 - Topics in British Women Writers

Selected topics related to works by British women authors from various periods, regions, or genre.  Cross-listed Course: ENGL 709

WGST 796 - Global Capitalism, Gender and Debt

This course uses economic anthropology to examine the nature of money and debt, global capitalism, the role of gender in structuring economies, and the human costs of the international debt crises.  Cross-listed Course: ANTH 791

 

Spring 2018

WGST 701- Feminist Theories and Epistemologies

Examination of feminist theories from diverse disciplines and intellectual movements, providing an overview of historical developments in feminist discourse. Emphasis on debates surrounding such concepts as gender, identity, difference, power, and embodiment.

WGST 736 - Women, Work, and Health: Global Perspectives

Intersections of women’s work and women’s health in diverse social, cultural, economic, geographic, and political contexts.  Cross-listed Course: NURS 736

WGST 737 - Topics in British Women Writers

Selected topics related to works by British women authors from various periods, regions, or genres.  Cross-listed Course: ENGL 737

WGST 738 - Topics in American Women Writers 

Selected topics related to works by American women authors from various periods, regions, or genres.  Cross-listed Course: ENGL 738

WGST 790 - Directed Reading and Research

Directed research and reading in subjects to be individually assigned.  Prerequisites: Prior written approval of professor and director of Women’s Studies required.

WGST 797 - Seminar in Women’s Studies

A capstone seminar applying women’s studies theories and methodologies to professional or discipline-based research projects.  Prerequisites: WGST 701 and WGST 702

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