Courses
Past courses have included:
Gender and Sexuality Studies 200: Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies
An interdisciplinary introduction to the field of Gender and Sexuality Studies, this course explores the construction of gendered ideologies and the analysis of gendered behavior from the perspectives of literature, art, film, history, sociology, psychology, and the sciences.
History 205.1: Women in Islam
This course will examine the role of women in the formation and evolution of Islam from the time of Mohammed to the present day. We will study the influential women of the early Islamic community during the time of Muhammed, such as his wives Khadja and Aisha. We will examine the key issues of polygamy and veiling in their historical and modern context. We will end with a look at the role of women in modern Islam, especially in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Anthropology/Sociology 210: Gender and Society
In this course, we will examine how and why society prescribes different gender expectations to girls and boys and to men and women. In turn, we will discuss how those expectations affect male and female experiences, attitudes, and opportunities. Lectures and readings will reflect a number of different perspectives, and we will provide an equal emphasis on gender expectations for women and men. Specifically, we will discuss the meanings of sex and gender; different theories about the appropriate roles for men and women; issues of gender and culture such as deviance, language, media, beauty/attractiveness, and childhood; gender in institutions such as science, medicine, education, family, and work; sexuality, violence, and sexual politics; cross-cultural, racial/ethnic, historical, and sexuality-based variations in gender and proposed social change. The purpose of this course is to help you better understand how gender is socially constructed and to see how gender stratification works in your everyday lives. You will gain the conceptual and theoretical tools to analyze the personal and institutional consequences of different social constructions of gender.
History 205.3: Women in Early Modern Europe
This course examines the lives of European women from approximately 1350-1700 C.E. and explores how they both shaped and were shaped by religious, political, economic, and social changes in early modern Europe. In addition to focusing on women’s lived experiences, we will study images and ideas about women, and the relationship between the two. Throughout the semester, we will also consider how historians write the history of early modern women, including what sources are available, what questions historians have chosen to ask, and how these affect what we know about early modern women.
English 221: The Novel of Manners
A study of the evolution of the novel of manners from the Regency Era to the twentieth century, giving particular attention to the work of Jane Austen, Henry James, and Edith Wharton, among others. Prerequisite: English 151 or permission of the instructor.
History 249: Black and White Women in the South
For many students, studying southern women’s history is both a personal and an intellectual encounter. In this course, we will examine both the public and private experiences of women in the southern states from colonial settlement to the present, with particular attention being paid to the interaction of race and class in shaping public roles and private behavior. You will encounter a variety of genres including autobiography, fiction, diaries, interpretive monographs, and film. [H, GS, or History credit]
History 345: Gender in the American West
This seminar explores men’s and women’s role change on American frontiers, from early contact between European and Native peoples through twentieth-century industrial migrations. The American West was one of the most diverse regions of the nation, making it a “laboratory of gender,” where encounters between cultures, processes of conflict and conquest, and the expansion of capitalism shaped the evolution of gender norms. Native American, Hispanic, African American, and EuroAmerican peoples will be investigated through memoirs, autobiographies, monographs, census manuscripts, and film. Throughout, we will consider processes of individual and community transformation.
Spanish 365: Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Women Writers
This course will explore how women writers in the Hispanic world negotiate gender construction and its impositions through literature. Literature, then, becomes the site of gender-related political resistance, and in some instances, gender redefinition. By means of comparison with a series of texts depicting more traditional visions of womanhood, the class will trace the evolution of what could be called a Hispanic proto-feminism. The course will deal with a variety of literary genres, such as poetry, the short novel, theater, autobiography, and letters, as well as oral tradition. Although the course will focus primarily on women writers, a section of the class will address male writers who could be considered either as voices from the hegemony or as proto-feminist themselves. This course is taught in Spanish.
