History 697D: Topics in U.S. Women's History

Laura Lovett

Fall 2005, Thurs. 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Synopsis:

This course will focus on selected topics in U. S. women’s and gender history from the colonial era to the present.  Our focus will be on how interpretations of women’s experience have been influenced by changing conceptions of race, ethnicity, sexuality, family, class, religion, region, immigration, economics, and politics. We will consider and compare the lives of Native American women, African American women, Asian American women, Latina women, and European

American women from the colonial period through industrialization and into the twentieth century.  We will give special consideration to different forms of women’s political participation, to the influence of different conceptions of masculinity and femininity on political and cultural discourse, and to changing scientific constructions of body norms, ability and disability, reproduction, race, and eugenics, womanhood and motherhood, heterosexuality and homosexuality. 

Requirements: two essays, 8-12 pages each, and one presentation as a seminar discussion facilitator, in addition to  regular and active participation in class and group discussion.

Syllabus: Not available

Course Website: Not available