Fall 2023 Course Guide

WGSS

Attention Majors and Minors! For those of you that declared the major or minor before Fall 2020, you must follow the old requirements. Please contact the department advisor about these requirements. Courses in yellow count towards the theory requirement for majors. Courses in green are UWW/Online.

WGSS 187 -Gender, Sexuality and Culture
Monday, Wednesday 11:15-12:05 p.m.
Discussions sections Friday 9:05, 10:10, 11:15 and 12:20

This course offers an introduction to some of the basic concepts and theoretical perspectives in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Drawing on disciplinary, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies, students will engage critically with issues such as gender inequities, sexuality, families, work, media images, queer issues, masculinity, reproductive rights, and history. Throughout the course, students will explore how experiences of gender and sexuality intersect with other social constructs of difference, including race/ethnicity, class, and age. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which interlocking systems of oppression have shaped and influenced the historical, cultural, social, political, and economical contexts of our lives, and the social movements at the local, national and transnational levels which have led to key transformations. (Gen. Ed. I, DU)

WGSS 201 – Gender & Difference: Critical Analyses
Section 1 11:30-12:45 p.m. Deb Chakraborty
Section 2 1:00-2:15 p.m. TBD

An introduction to the vibrant field of women, gender, and sexuality studies, this course familiarizes students with the basic concepts in the field and draws connections to the world in which we live. An interdisciplinary field grounded in commitment to both intellectual rigor and individual and social transformation, WGSS asks fundamental questions about the conceptual and material conditions of our lives. What are “gender,” “sexuality,” “race,” and “class”? How are gender categories, in particular, constructed differently across social groups, nations, and historical periods? What are the connections between gender and socio-political categories such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, (dis)ability and others? How do power structures such as sexism, racism, heterosexism, and classism and others intersect? How can an understanding of gender and power enable us to act as agents of individual and social change? Emphasizing inquiry in transnational feminisms, critical race feminisms, and sexuality studies, this course examines gender within a broad nexus of identity categories, social positions, and power structures. Areas of focus may include queer and trans studies; feminist literatures and cultures; feminist science studies; reproductive politics; gender, labor and feminist economics, environmental and climate justice; the politics of desire, and others. Readings include a range of queer, feminist and women thinkers from around the world, reflecting diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives in the field.

WGSS 220 – Sustainability, Gender and the Global Environment
M,W,F 9:05 – 9:55 a.m.
Friday class will be discussion/review

Gender, the environment and sustainability are key terms in debates about economic globalization and social justice. While not new, they are reemerging in the as part of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. This course will introduce students to the perceived and existing links between women, gender, and the global environment as they appear in 21st century discussions about sustainable development. We will explore these debates by focusing on questions such as:
- When did the environment and sustainability emerge as key issues on global agendas?
- What are their connections to economic globalization? To colonialism and capitalism?
- How did women and gender become part of these discussions?
- How did governments, multilateral institutions (e.g. the United Nations, the World Bank), and development policies target third world women? Was it to meet their needs and address gender equality? Or was it for more efficient and effective environmental and sustainability outcomes?
- What were the results and implications of these interventions?
- In what guise are these interventions reemerging in the context of the ?green? economy, food security, and population and reproductive rights?
- How have women across the world organized to address concerns about the environment and sustainability?
- How have feminists engaged with issues of gender, the global environment and sustainability?

The primary goal of this class is to familiarize students with these debates in a way that will enable them to participate in 21st century discussions in informed, critical and self-reflexive ways. (Gen. Ed. SB, DG)

WGSS 250 – Intro to Sexuality and Trans Studies: Movements for Justice in the Contemporary World
Wednesday 2:30-4:30 p.m.
B Aultman

This interdisciplinary course will help students to understand what the terms "sexuality studies" and "trans studies" mean, by providing a foundation in the key concepts, historical and social contexts, topics, and politics that inform the fields of sexuality studies, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies, and queer studies. Course instruction will be carried out through readings, lectures, films, and discussions, as well as individual and group assignments. Over the course of the semester, students will develop and use critical thinking skills to discern how "sexuality" and "gender" become consolidated as distinct categories of analysis in the late nineteenth century, and what it means to speak about sexuality and transgender politics and categories today. Topics include queer theories and politics, trans theories and politics, LGBTQ social movements within and outside of the U.S., relationships with feminist reproductive justice movements, heterosexuality, gender norms, homophobia, and HIV/AIDS and health discourses. The range of materials covered will prioritize developing analyses that examine the interplay between sexuality and class, gender, race, ethnicity, and neoliberalism. (Gen. Ed. SB, DG)

WGSS 286 – History of Sexuality and Race in the U.S.
Section 1 Tuesday, Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m. Tiarra Cooper
Section 2 Tuesday, Thursday 2:30-3:45 p.m. Derek Siegel
UWW Section - TBD

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary feminist study of sexuality. Its primary goal is to provide a forum for students to consider the history of sexuality and race in the U.S. both in terms of theoretical frameworks within women's and gender studies, and in terms of a range of sites where those theoretical approaches become material, are negotiated, or are shifted. The course is a fully interdisciplinary innovation. It will emphasize the links rather than differences between theory and practice and between cultural, material, and historical approaches to the body, gender, and sexuality. Throughout the course we will consider contemporary sexual politics "from the science of sex and sexuality to marriage debates" in light of histories of racial and sexual formations. (Gen. Ed. HS, DU)

WGSS 230 – Politics of Reproduction
Tuesday, Thursday 2:30-3:45 p.m.
B Aultman

From the Black Panther Party and Young Lords in the 1970s to SisterSong and Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice in the 1990s to Ferguson and Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement in the present, communities of color and socialist feminists have fought for a comprehensive reproductive freedom platform--birth control and abortion to be sure, but also the right to raise wanted children that are safe, cherished, and educated. The names of these issues have included freedom from sterilization, high quality affordable day care, IVF, immigrant justice, social reproduction and wages for housework, welfare and neoliberalism, foreclosure and affordable housing.

WGSS 310 – Writing for WGSS Majors
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Miliann Kang

Fulfills Junior Year Writing requirement for majors. Modes of writing and argumentation useful for research, creative, and professional work in a variety of fields. Analysis of texts, organization of knowledge, and uses of evidence to articulate ideas to diverse audiences. Includes materials appropriate for popular and scholarly journal writing. Popular culture reviews, responses to public arguments, monographs, first-person narratives and grant proposals, and a section on archival and bibliographic resources in Women's Studies. May include writing for the Internet. Nonmajors admitted if space available.

WGSS 392AA – Asian American Feminisms
Tuesday 4:00-6:30 p.m.
Miliann Kang

How have the figures of the Chinese bachelor, the geisha, the war bride, the hermaphrodite, the orphan, the tiger mother, the Asian nerd, the rice king, the rice queen, and the trafficked woman shaped understandings of Asian Americans, and how have these representations been critiqued by Asian American feminist scholars and writers? Is there a body of work that constitutes "Asian American feminism(s)" and what are its distinctive contributions to the field of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies? How does this body of work illuminate historical and contemporary configurations of gender, sexuality, race, class, nation, citizenship, migration, empire, war, neoliberalism and globalization? In exploring these questions, this course examines Asian American histories, bodies, identities, diasporic communities, representations, and politics through multi- and interdisciplinary approaches, including social science research, literature, popular representations, film, poetry and art.

WGSS 393M – What to Expect When You’re Expecting
Tuesday, Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Kirsten Leng

Pregnancy losses are generally resigned to silence. They are not publicly discussed and do not constitute a standard part of pregnancy education. Moreover, different kinds of pregnancy loss are siloed from each other. Within public discourse and political activism, "induced" pregnancy loss (abortion) is treated separately from "involuntary" loss (miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and stillbirth). Within this course, we will hold all forms of pregnancy loss within a common frame. We will think collectively about how we might reimagine and treat reproductive losses - and indeed, reproduction itself - as existing on a spectrum of experiences, and will approach reproduction as a simultaneously biological, social, cultural, political, economic, and subjective phenomenon. Grounded in an approach informed by reproductive justice, and specifically birth justice, this course will draw upon interdisciplinary scholarship and guest talks by academics, activists, care providers, and support group leaders. Learning objectives include (among others): historicizing experiences and conceptualizations of pregnancy losses; interrogating the relationship between pregnancy and childbearing; identifying how (and why) federal and state laws criminalize pregnancy losses; analyzing how pregnancy loss experiences vary based on race, class, gender, sexuality, and nature of loss; and examining how both the women's health movement and medical science have addressed forms of loss.

WGSS 395A/ENGLISH 395A – Poetry as Black Feminist Thought
Monday, Wednesday 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Cameron Awkward-Rich

From Pauli Murray to Audre Lorde to the contemporary practice of Alexis Pauline Gumbs, many of our most visionary black feminist theorists have also been poets. Taking seriously Lorde?s insistence on poetry's thought- and world-building function, this course traces a history of black feminist theorizing that puts poetry at the center in order to ask after how and what poetry allows us to know. Possible reading includes: poetry/theory by Pauli Murray, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Dionne Brand, fahima ife, the Trans Day of Resilience project, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs and criticism by Hortense Spillers, Kevin Quashie, Theri Alice Pickens, and Christina Sharpe. This is a theory class but will ask you to exercise your creative capacities.

WGSS 395J - Imagining Justice
Tuesday 1:10-5:00 p.m.
Laura Ciolkowski

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the critical, aspirational, artistic, and creative forms that Justice takes in literature and the humanities more broadly. What sorts of ethical, social, and political questions are animated by writers and thinkers who seek to imagine and build a different world? What are the tangled roots of inequality and the legacies of sexual, racial, economic, and ecological injustice? How do writers, poets, artists, and "freedom dreamers," as Robin D.G. Kelley so memorably called them, labor to expose injustice and re-invent our universe? Ursula Le Guin has written, "We will not know our own injustice if we cannot imagine justice. We will not be free if we do not imagine freedom. We cannot demand that anyone try to attain justice and freedom who has not had a chance to imagine them as attainable." Taking Le Guin's focus on the radical imagination as a starting point, this course explores the relationship between literature, the arts, and a wide range of social justice projects. Topics will include: Afrofuturism; utopian and dystopian fiction; art, politics and social justice; bioethics and literature; antebellum slave narratives and fictions of restorative and transformative justice; mass incarceration and prison literature; diaspora studies and literary and artistic representations of movement, forced migration and displacement.

This course will be conducted inside the Hampshire County Jail in Northampton and will enroll students from UMass/Five Colleges and students who are incarcerated in the facility.

As a member of this course, you will be joining an international community of educators and students who are committed to dialogue and scholarly learning inside prisons and jails. Enrollment in this course is by application only. Permission by Instructor is required. Application for admission to the course is available here: https://forms.gle/vUbzCbXJx87gWwYj7 . Transportation will be provided from UMass. Students should also note that the seminar schedule includes travel time, to and from the jail.

Depending upon the status of COVID-19 in fall 2023, the format of this class may be adjusted to accommodate the needs of students both inside and outside the jail. Students should be prepared for some blended sessions with the jail to be taught remotely, via Zoom.

WGSS 398/698 – Teaching and Learning in Carceral Spaces
Mandatory Zoom meetings on Mondays at 5:00 p.m.
Laura Ciolkowski

This course is centered on teaching and learning in carceral spaces. It gives students the opportunity to facilitate weekly tutoring sessions in the Hampshire County Jail and the Franklin County Jail; to read and explore critical prison studies; and to discuss broad questions around equity and access to education in prison and jail. Students will complete a multi-part Tutor Training; offer individualized tutoring sessions that support the academic goals of students in the jail; participate in seminar meetings to deepen reading and research in educational theory, critical prison studies, and carceral pedagogy; and complete a 3-part Reflection Journal Project. As a member of this course, you will move beyond the traditional classroom to become active participants in your learning. You will develop the knowledge, experience, and practical skills to support justice in education and to work with others to imagine, advocate for, and build a more just society in which all people, regardless of their circumstance, have access to quality higher education. Instructor's permission required. Application for admission is available at this link https://forms.gle/79RmUWbwyfdK1JY39

WGSS 695E – Theorizing Eros
Tuesday 10:00-12:30 p.m.
Angie Willey

This graduate seminar centers around the project of theorizing eros. The erotic has been a rich site of queer feminist thinking about the epistemic and material costs of the imposition of sexuality as an interpretive grid for making sense of human nature. The course will begin with the study of sexuality as a knowledge system, with a focus on racial and colonial histories of sexuality, while most of the rest of the semester will be devoted to queer feminist considerations of the erotic as a site of ethics and politics. Michele Foucault famously distinguished between ?scientia sexualis? and "ars erotica" and Audre Lorde, coterminously, between the pornographic and the erotic. In The History of Sexuality and "Uses of the Erotic," eros operates as a set of possibilities, or capacities, - for pleasure, joy, fulfilment, satisfaction - that exceed and provincialize sexuality and which might inspire ways of rethinking nature, need, and relationality. In addition to Lorde and Foucault, we will read Lynne Huffer, L.H. Stallings, Ladelle McWhorter, Adrienne Marie Brown, Sharon Holland, Ela Przybylo, Jennifer Nash, and Amber Jamilla Musser, among others, to help us think capaciously about what queer feminist erotics can do.

WGSS 698/398 – Teaching and Learning in Carceral Spaces
Mandatory Zoom meetings on Mondays at 5:00 p.m.
Laura Ciolkowski

WGSS 701 – Genealogies of Feminist Thought
Tuesday 2:30-5:00 p.m.
Cameron Awkward-Rich

This graduate seminar in feminist theory constitutes a core course for students enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies. The seminar will be organized around questions that emerge for feminisms from the rubrics of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, transnationalism, human rights, economics and postcolonialism. Feminist theory is inherently interdisciplinary and we will draw on classic and contemporary writings from the many fields that contribute to the "field" of feminist theory. This is a required course for students enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies and was previously numbered 791B (Feminist Theory). If you've taken 791B, you should not sign up for this course. This course is only offered in the FALL semester. Contact lindah@umass.edu if you are enrolled as a certificate student and need to be added to the course.

WGSS 891P – Critical Feminist Pedagogy
Thursday 10:00-12:20 p.m.
Laura Ciolkowski

Feminist pedagogy is a radical philosophy of teaching and learning. It is an approach, rather than a toolbox of assorted tips and strategies, that is rooted in feminist, anti-racist critiques of power and knowledge, and is deeply informed by the values of social justice feminism and feminist practice. This graduate-level course in critical feminist pedagogy will explore the epistemological, methodological, and theoretical foundations of feminist pedagogical approaches, from Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed to bell hooks' Teaching to Transgress; from readings in the Black radical tradition to the Latin American experiments with literacy and empowering the poor; and from Bettina Love's abolitionist pedagogies and Audre Lorde's pedagogies of social justice and collective dissent to the growing scholarship on participatory methods, mindfulness and presence, and feminist experiments with alternative epistemological frameworks. The course will also explore, from a feminist pedagogical perspective, the obstacles that students face in learning: why some believe we have a "push out" problem more than a "drop out" problem; how pedagogical practices can be painful and harmful to students; the debates over classroom "safe space"; and the critiques of the "corporate university" and its metrics. A combination practicum and graduate theory seminar, the course also centers the practice of feminist pedagogy in the classroom. Feminist Pedagogy will create a fully collaborative space for students to interrogate, explore, test out and reshape the methods, methodologies, theories, and critical pedagogies that support our feminist teaching practices. Over the course of the semester, students will develop and workshop a course syllabus; they will design, critique, and practice learning plans; and they will build a community of feminist teachers and learners with whom they may continue to think about, reflect on, and reimagine critical feminist pedagogy.

UMass Courses Outside of WGSS (Departmental)

All courses listed here count towards the minor. Courses on this list 200-level and above automatically count towards the WGSS major. If you're taking a class that is not listed here, you can petition for it to count towards WGSS with this Google Form.

CHINESE 394WI – Women in Chinese Cultures
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Elena Chiu

This course focuses on the representation of women and the constitution of gender in Chinese culture as seen through literature and mass media. It focuses on literary and visual representations of women to examine important issues such as the relationship between gender and power, self and society, and tradition and modernity. This course has a dual goal: to explore how women's social role has evolved from pre-modern China to the present and to examine important issues such as women's agency, "inner-outer" division, and the yin-yang dichotomy in Chinese literature and culture. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Chinse majors.

CLASSICS 335 – Women in Antiquity
Tuesday, Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m.
Lauren Caldwell

Lives, roles, contributions, and status of women in Greek and Roman societies, as reflected in classical literature and the archaeological record. (Gen.Ed. HS)

COMM 209H – LGBT Politics and the Media
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Seth Goldman

This course aims to further understanding about 1) historical trends in media portrayals and public opinion about LGBT issues; 2) the effects of mass media on attitudes toward sexual and gender minorities; 3) the interplay of LGBT issues and electoral politics; and 4) the evolving role of sexuality and gender identity/expression in U.S. politics and society. (Gen. Ed. SB, DU)

COMM 394EI – Performance and the Politics of Race
Tuesday, Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m.
Kimberlee Perez

This course looks at the ways race, racial identities, and interracial relations are formed through and by communication practices in present-day U.S. America. Though focusing on U.S. America in the current historical moment, the course takes into account the ways history as well as the transnational flows of people and capital inform and define conversations about race and racial identities. Race will be discussed as intersectional, taking into account the ways race is understood and performed in relation to gender, sexuality, class, and nation. The course will focus on the performance and communications of race, ranging from everyday interactions, personal narratives and storytelling, intra- and inter-racial dialogue, and staged performances.

ENGLISH 132 – Gender, Sexuality, Literature, and Culture
Section 1 – Monday, Wednesday, Friday Jarrel De Matas
Section 2 – Monday, Wednesday, Friday Olivia Barry
Section 3 – Monday, Wednesday, Friday Sam Davis

ENGLISH 378 - American Women Writers
Tuesday, Thursday 11:30-12:45 a.m.
Sarah Patterson

Fiction by women exploring the social and sexual arrangements of American culture.

GERMAN 363 – Witches: Myth and Reality
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 1:25 – 2:15 p.m.
Kerstin Mueller Dembling

This course focuses on various aspects of witches/witchcraft in order to examine the historical construction of the witch in the context of the social realities of women (and men) labeled as witches. The main areas covered are: European pagan religions and the spread of Christianity; the "Burning Times" in early modern Europe, with an emphasis on the German situation; 17th-century New England and the Salem witch trials; the images of witches in folk lore and fairy tales in the context of the historical persecutions; and contemporary Wiccan/witch practices in their historical context. The goal of the course is to deconstruct the stereotypes that many of us have about witches/witchcraft, especially concerning sexuality, gender, age, physical appearance, occult powers, and Satanism. Readings are drawn from documentary records of the witch persecutions and witch trials, literary representations, scholarly analyses of witch-related phenomena, and essays examining witches, witchcraft, and the witch persecutions from a contemporary feminist or neo-pagan perspective. The lectures will be supplemented by related material taken from current events in addition to visual material (videos, slides) drawn from art history, early modern witch literature, popular culture, and documentary sources. Conducted in English. (Gen Ed. I, DG)

HISTORY 290STA/LEGAL 290STB – Women and the Law: History of Sex and Gender Discrimination
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Jennifer Nye

This course examines the legal status of women in the United States, focusing specifically on the 20th and 21st centuries. How has the law used gender, sex, sexuality, and race to legally enforce inequality between women and men (and among women)? We will examine the legal arguments feminists have used to advocate for legal change and how these arguments have changed over time, paying specific attention to debates about whether to make legal arguments based on formal equality, substantive equality, liberty, or privacy. We will also consider the pros and cons of using the law to advocate for social justice. Specific issues that may be covered include the civil and political participation of women (voting, jury service), employment discrimination, intimate relationships, reproduction, contraception and abortion, violence against women, women as criminal defendants, and women as law students, lawyers, and judges. Prior law-law related coursework helpful, but not required.

HISTORY 364/SPP 364/POLISCI 364 – Gender and Race in US Social Policy
Tuesday, Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m.
Libby Sharrow

What are the problems associated with developing equitable and just policy? Why does social policy in the United States continue to be marked by tensions between the principle of equality and the reality of inequalities in social, political, and economic realms? How might policy subvert or reinforce these differences and inequalities? This class examines the history of social policy in the United States, particularly those policies affecting concerns of gender, race, and class. We will examine a wide range of social policies, focusing on those affecting groups such as: women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBT people, and low-income people. We will study primarily empirical work, while asking questions about how political culture, interest groups, social movements, government institutions and other factor influence U.S. social policy.

HISTORY 390STC – Rape Law; Gender, Race, (In)Justice
Tuesday, Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Jennifer Nye

The history of the legal response to rape has often resulted in injustice for both the victim/survivor and the alleged perpetrator. This course will examine the evolution of the U.S. legal system's treatment of rape, paying particular attention to the movement against lynching in the post-civil war era, the rise of the feminist anti-rape movement in the 1970s and the student movement against campus sexual assault. Through an analysis of court cases, legislation, and other texts we will consider the role sexual violence has played in maintaining gendered and racialized power relationships. We will examine how and why such violence came to be seen as a crime, including who is worthy of the law's "protection" and who is subject to the law's "punishment." We will explore issues such as: rape as a form of racialized and imperial violence, especially against black and Native American women; the criminal legal treatment of rape and the evolution of the legal concepts of force, resistance, and consent; and the civil responses to rape under the Violence Against Women Act and Title IX. We'll also look at the international law responses to rape as a weapon of war. Finally, we'll think about how the legal responses, or non-responses, to rape have differed over time depending on factors such as the race/ethnicity, income level, immigration status, sexual orientation/gender identity, age, and marital status of the victim/survivor and the perpetrator. Finally, we'll consider how the legal system can or should respond to rape, particularly in this age of mass criminalization and mass incarceration, and whether restorative justice responses might be preferable. Prior law-related coursework is helpful, but not required.

PSYCH 391LB – Psychology of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Experience
Tuesday, Thursday 2:30-3:45 p.m.
John Bickford

Students in this course will explore psychological theory and research pertaining to gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. Topics include sexual orientation, sexual identity development, stigma management, heterosexism & homonegativity, gender roles, same-sex relationships, LGB families, LGB diversity, and LGB mental health

PUBHLTH 328 – Fundamentals of Women’s Health
Thursday 4:00-6:30 p.m.
Sara Sabelawski

This course will provide a comprehensive overview of issues related to health in women, addressing areas including but not limited to biology, psychology, geography, economics, health policy, and social issues.

PUBHLTH 372 – Maternal and Child Health
Wednesday 4:00-6:30 p.m.
TBD

This course is designed to give students a broad overview to pertinent topics in the field of global maternal and child health. Topics covered include causes of maternal and infant mortality, treatment of malaria in pregnancy, HIV and pregnancy, infant nutrition, maternal and child nutrition, gender roles, and cultural and religious concepts in relation to working in a global setting. This course will explore approaches to public health programming that acknowledge and incorporate cultural differences.

SOCIOL 106 – Race, Gender, Class & Ethnicity
Tuesday, Thursday 11:30-23:45 p.m. – Joshua Kaiser
Tuesday, Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m. – Kathryn Reynolds

Introduction to Sociology. Analysis of the consequences of membership in racial, gender, class and ethnic groups on social, economic and political life. (Gen.Ed. SB, DU)

SOCIOL 287 – Sexuality and Society
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9:05-9:55 a.m.
TBD

The many ways in which social factors shape sexuality. Focus on cultural diversity, including such factors as race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity in organizing sexuality in both individuals and social groups. Prerequisite: 100-level Sociology course. (Gen.Ed. SB, DU)

SOCIOL 344 – Gender and Crime
Monday, Wednesday 4:00-5:15 p.m.
Gender and Crime
TBD

The extent and causes of gender differences in crime, from the "streets" to the "suites." Topics include problems in the general measurement of crime, historical and cross-cultural differences in the gender gap, the utility of general theories of the causes of crime in explaining the continuing gender gap, and a detailed look at the question and magnitude of gender discrimination in the American criminal justice system.

SUSTCOMM 255 – RaCE, Gender, Sexuality, and Equity
Monday, Wednesday 11:15-1:10 p.m.
Darrel Ramsey-Musolf

In capitalist societies, inequity creates winners and losers, profits and losses, and the privileged and the marginalized. Inequity is defined as a ?lack of fairness or justice? and refers to a system of privilege that is created and maintained by interlocking societal structures (i.e., family, marriage, education, housing, government, law, economics, employment, etc.). Alternatively, equity is defined as ? `the state, quality or ideal of being just, impartial and fair.? To achieve and sustain equity, equity needs to be thought of as a structural and systemic concept? and requires action. In this seminar, we will question society?s values and deepen one?s understanding of `self? and agency as we examine how people create and implement equity when such persons are defined by their race, gender, or sexuality. (Gen. Ed. SB, DU)

UMass Courses Outside of WGSS (Component)

For component courses, majors and minors must focus their work on WGSS topics in order for these courses to count. 100-level courses only count towards the minor and 200 level and above count towards the major. All courses listed here count towards the minor. Courses on this list 200-level and above automatically count towards the WGSS major. If you're taking a class that is not listed here, you can petition for it to count towards WGSS with this Google Form.

GERMAN 270 – From The Grimms to Disney
Monday, Wednesday 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Sara Jackson

This course focuses on selected fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm (Hansel & Gretel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Iron Hans) and Hans Christian Andersen (Little Sea Maid, The Red Shoes), locating them in the 19th-century German or Danish culture of their origins and then examining how they became transformed into perennial favorites of U.S. popular culture through their adaptations by Disney (feature animation films), Broadway (musicals), or bestselling self-help books (Iron John, Women Who Run With the Wolves). As a point of comparison, this course will also introduce popular fairy-tale films of the former East Germany (GDR) from the UMass DEFA archives & library, which present the same stories as popular fare in a Cold War communinist cultural context. Conducted in English. (Gen. Ed. ALDG).

ANTHRO 384 – African American Anthropology
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Amanda Johnson

This course will introduce students to both the study of African-diasporic peoples in the Americas by anthropologists, as well as the practice of anthropology by African American scholars. We will contextualize African American anthropologies within the historical developments, social movements, cultural and artistic production, and political philosophies that have shaped African American communities. By critically engaging with seminal texts and writings, we will consider contradictions, challenges, critiques, and contributions present within African American Anthropology. This course will also work to de-marginalize gender, sexuality, and class in conceptions of race and Blackness, attending to the complexity and nuance in interpretations and analyses of African American culture and communities.

COMM 248 – The Folklore of New England
Monday, Wednesday 4:00-5:15 p.m.
Stephen Olbrys Gencarella

This course examines the folklore of New England and adjacent regions. It introduces students to the fundamentals of the study of folklore, including notions of tradition, the vernacular, expressive culture, performance, storytelling, material lore, customs, folk groups, community, and worldview. It surveys folklore genres including legend, myth, folktale, folk songs and ballads, proverbs, folk medicine, superstition, folk arts and crafts, rituals, holidays, festivals, and foodways. It illustrates these ideas and provides a history of the folklore of New England, including the precolonial and colonial periods as well as those of immigrant and recent groups to the region. Throughout the semester, we consider issues of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and related manifestations of social diversity?or lack thereof?in New England. We also analyze the role that folklore plays in creating, maintaining, challenging, and changing social norms and values. As such, this course assumes a critical perspective on folklore and on the concept of New England itself. (Gen. Ed. SB)

GEOGRAPH 342/642 – Environmental Geography and Sustainability
Tuesday, Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Britt Crow-Miller

PUBHLTH 389 – Health Inequities
Monday, Wednesday 4:00-6:15 p.m.
Daniel Gerber

While the health and wellbeing of the nation has improved overall, racial, ethnic, gender and sexuality disparities in morbidity and mortality persist. To successfully address growing disparities, it is important to understand social determinants of health and translate current knowledge into specific strategies to undo health inequalities. This course will explore social justice as a philosophical underpinning of public health and will consider the etiology of disease rooted in social conditions. It aims to strengthen critical thinking, self-discovery, and knowledge of ways in which socioeconomic, political, and cultural systems structure health outcomes.

SOCIOL 395k – Domestic Violence
Monday, Wednesday 4:00-5:15 p.m.
Maria Puppolo

This course looks at domestic, partner, and family violence as a social problem. Students will learn about the feminist social movement that brought domestic violence to national attention, how protections were codified into law, and the major critiques that have since arisen. Final project will combine your experiences in the community with what you learn in class, as you and a small group propose a potential intervention into the social problem of domestic violence.

SPANISH 324 – Introduction to Latino/a Literature
Tuesday, Thursday 10:00 -11:15 a.m.
Stephanie Fetta

In this course students will think critically about the various "wild tongues" that have defined U.S. Latinx literature and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. Our analysis will center on issues of power as they are experienced by diverse U.S. Latinx populations. Specifically, we will focus on Latinx writers, performers, and scholars that push the boundaries of acceptable gender, sexuality, and racialization within U.S. Latinx cultures, focusing specifically on Caribbean and Chicanx populations in the United States. Students will be required to engage critically with primary texts, as well as reflect on the ways in which these issues exist in the world around us. Because Latinx thinkers often blur the boundaries of traditional literary and scholarly genres, we will consider pinnacle works of Latinx studies - such as those of Pedro Pietri, Gloria Anzaldua, and Junot Diaz - alongside other forms of cultural production, such as performance art and film. We will also try our hands at these art forms in an effort to find new, embodied ways to interact with expressions of Latinx culture. Course texts are written in both English and Spanish. Class discussion will take place in Spanish. All assignments must be completed in Spanish. (Gen. Ed. AL, DU

GRADUATE LEVEL

WGSS 695E – Theorizing Eros
Tuesday 10:00-12:30 p.m.
Angie Willey

WGSS 698/398 – Teaching and Learning in Carceral Spaces
Mandatory Zoom meetings on Mondays at 5:00 p.m.
Laura Ciolkowski

WGSS 701 – Genealogies of Feminist Thought
Tuesday 2:30-5:00 p.m.
Cameron Awkward-Rich

This is a required course for students enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies and was previously numbered 791B (Feminist Theory). If you've taken 791B, you should not sign up for this course. This course is only offered in the FALL semester. Contact lindah@umass.edu if you are enrolled as a certificate student and need to be added to the course.

WGSS 891P – Critical Feminist Pedagogy
Thursday 10:00-12:20 p.m.
Laura Ciolkowski

COMP-LIT 691S – Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Translation
Wednesday 4:00-6:30 p.m.
Corine Tachtiris

This course takes a critical look at issues of race, gender, and sexuality both in translated texts and in the translation profession. Readings will include: translation studies scholarship addressing race, gender, and sexuality; example translations dealing with these issues; and scholarship from critical race and ethnic studies and gender and sexuality studies. The objectives of the course include developing a reflective, ethical practice for translating discourse around race, gender, and sexuality as well as developing strategies to address the marginalization of certain identities in the profession (queering translation, combatting pay inequity for women translators, increasing the number of domestic translators of color, etc.). Students will prepare a critical essay that can be developed into an article or dissertation chapter; or a translation with a critical reflection that can be submitted for publication.

ENGLISH 791WP – American Women Writers in Protest
Thursday 1:00-3:30 p.m.
Sarah Patterson

This class will focus on the biographical and cultural histories surrounding women writers and the literary conventions that appear in their works of fiction and non-fiction. During our studies, we will pay special attention to themes surrounding sentimentality, family formation, subjectivity, protest, and professionalization, among others, and the ways such themes impact notions of womanhood and early expressions of feminist values.

ECON 736 - Survey of Feminist Economics
TBD
James Heintz

This course surveys a range of topics in feminist economics, including gender and macroeconomics, gender and development, and micro-level approaches to households and bargaining. The course will primarily focus on the feminist economics literature, although critical engagement with neoclassical approaches will also be part of the class. Although the course will focus on issues of economics and gender, topics relating to other socially constructed groups (based on race, ethnicity, nationality, etc) will also be explored.

EDUC 612B – Race, Class and Gender in Higher Education
Wednesday 4:00-6:30 p.m.
Nina Tissi-Gassoway

The goal of this course is to explore the multiple sociocultural factors that influence the success of students and ask fundamental questions about the relationship between higher education and society. Why do some students learn more and "get further ahead" than others? Why do some students get more involved in co-curricular activities than others? What factors shape how institutions are run and organized, who attends four-year vs. two-year institutions, and what curricular materials are taught?

EDUC 624 – Critical History, Ideas & Praxis of Social Justice Education
Tuesday 4:00-6:30 p.m.
Ximena Zuniga

Theoretical issues related to manifestations of oppression with focus on social constructions of race,gender and sexuality, and disability.

UWW Summer

WGSS majors and minors much focus their work on WGSS topics for any courses designated as component in any of our course guides. As a reminder, majors can only count courses 200-level and above. Contact department with questions! All courses listed here count towards the minor. Courses on this list 200-level and above automatically count towards the WGSS major. If you're taking a class that is not listed here, you can petition for it to count towards WGSS with this Google Form.

COMM 288 - Gender, Sex & Representation
Session 1
Sut Jhally

This course will examine the relationship between commercialized systems of representation and the way that gender and sexuality are thought of and organized in the culture. In particular, we will look at how commercial imagery impacts upon gender identity and the process of gender socialization. Central to this discussion will be the related issues of sexuality and sexual representation (and the key role played by advertising).

FRENCHST 280 - Love and Sex in French Culture
Session 1
Patrick Mensah

Is love a French invention? How do we explore, through literature, the substance behind the stereotypical association of love, romance, and sexual pleasure with French culture? Do sex, passion, and love always unite in the pursuit of emotional fulfillment in human relations, according to this literature? What affiliations does this literature interweave between such relations of love, requited or unrequited, and pleasure, enjoyment, freedom, self-empowerment, on the one hand, and on the other hand, suffering, jealousy, crime, violence, negativity, notions of perversion, morbidity, and even death? How are problems of gender roles and human sexuality? i.e. Hetero-, bi-, homo- and other forms of sexuality--approached in this literature? What connections or conflicts are revealed in this literature between human love relationships and the social norms and conventions within which they occur, as well as the forms of political governance that have been practiced in France over the centuries?
Those are some of the issues that are investigated in this course, which offers a broad historical overview of selective ways in which love, passion, desire and erotic behavior in French culture have been represented and understood in Literature and, more recently, in film, from the middle ages to the twentieth century. Readings are from major French authors drawn from various centuries such as Marie de France, Beroul, Moliere, de Sade, Flaubert, Gide, and Duras. They will be supplemented with screenings of optional films that are based on those texts or are pertinent to them in important ways. (Gen. Ed. AL)

HIST 264 - History of Health Care and Medicine in the U.S.
Session 1
Emily Hamilton

This course explores the history and social meaning of medicine, medical practice, health care, and disease in the United States from 1600 to the present. Using a variety of sources aimed at diverse audiences students will investigate topics such as: the evolution of beliefs about the body; medical and social responses to infectious and chronic disease; the rise of medical science and medical organizations; the development of medical technologies; mental health diagnosis and treatment; changing conceptions of the body; the training, role, and image of medical practitioners and the role of public and government institutions in promoting health practices and disease treatments. We will pay particular attention to the human experience of medicine, with readings on the experience of being ill, the delivery of compassionate care, and the nature of the relationship between practitioners and patients. Course themes will include race, gender, cultural diversity, women and gender, social movements, science, technology, politics, industry, and ethics. (Gen. Ed. HS, DU)

WGSS 286 - History of Sexuality and Race in the United States
Sessions 1 and 2
Tiarra Cooper

POLISCI 390STE - The Politics of Black Lives Matter
Session 1
Siddhant Issar

This course examines the political and theoretical underpinnings of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Through close engagement with primary documents such as the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) policy platform, we will trace how BLM builds on, reconfigures, and merges various traditions of radical critique to diagnose and dismantle contemporary structures of anti-Black violence. Since its emergence, BLM and the larger M4BL coalition have articulated an intersectional critique of anti-Black violence, pointing to the specific ways white supremacy, patriarchy, and racial capitalism (among other structures) affect Black populations in the United States and globally. By situating BLM’s analyses in the context of Black radical theory and politics, ranging from Black queer and feminist thought to abolition to Black Marxism(s) and anti-capitalism, we will surface the rich historical terrain that BLM draws on and contributes to. The course will begin with a historical, philosophical, and socio-political inquiry into the concepts of “race” and white supremacy. Subsequently, we will ask: How does BLM understand anti-Blackness and white supremacy? In what ways are the histories of Black enslavement and settler colonialism relevant to the present struggle for Black lives? Why are Black bodies disproportionately represented in the U.S. prison population? On what grounds does the M4BL policy platform suggest that patriarchy, exploitative (global) capitalism, militarism, and white supremacy are interlinked? What transnational solidarities and linkages has BLM forged? What universal vision of liberation does BLM seek to enact? By asking such questions, we will become familiar with the dynamic ways BLM and the M4BL coalition have theorized historical and ongoing forms of structural violence. We will also become conversant in the modes of resistance, including the formation of solidarities across national borders, that have emerged from BLM?s on-the-ground struggles.

ENGL 132 - Gender, Sexuality, Literature, and Culture
Session 2
Sarah Ahmad

Introduction to literature through a lens of gender identity and sexuality. Texts include fiction, plays, poems that deal with and inspire conversations about the public politics and personal experience of gender and sexuality, both in the past and present. (Gen.Ed. AL, DG)

FILM-ST 353/FRENCHST 353 - African Film
Session 2
Patrick Mensah
component

This course offers an introduction to African film as an aesthetic and cultural practice. Students should expect to be familiarized with the key ideas and objectives that have inspired and driven that practice since the early 1960s, and be furnished with the technical tools and methodological skills that would permit them to understand, analyze, and think critically about the artistic and thematic aspects of the films that are screened. They should also expect the course to provide them with a critical peek into several cardinal issues of social and cultural relevance in contemporary Africa and its history. Issues of interest typically include, the nationstate and its declining status, imperatives of decolonization, economic dependency and structural adjustment programs, orality and changing traditional cultures, diasporic migrations, urbanization and its problems, gender relations, civil wars, child soldiers, gangs, and related themes. Filmmakers studied include, but are not limited to, Abderrahmane Sissako, Gillo Pontecorvo, Ousmane Sembene, Raoul Peck, Jean-Marie Teno, Dani Kouyate, Mweze Ngangura, Gavin Hood, Neill Blomkamp, Moufida Tlatli, Djibril Diop Mambety (please note that this list is subject to change, and shall be updated as future changes are made). The course is conducted in English, and requires no prior knowledge of the field. All films are streamed to your computer from the UMass library on demand. Required readings are provided online, and no book purchases are necessary. (Gen.Ed. AT, DG)

PUBHLTH 340 - LGBTQ Health
Session 2
Kelsey Jordan

This course is about the unique health needs and health disparities within the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) communities, and among the individuals who make up each of these communities. We will learn about gender identity and sexual orientation development in kids and young adults, sexual health, global perspectives, strategies for improving the healthcare experience of LGBT people (e.g., patient-centered and compassionate care), barriers to accessing health care, and many other relevant topics. This is an important course for public health students, because it teaches more than just the facts, but also skills for creating a compassionate and inclusive environment for vulnerable populations. (Gen. Ed. SB, DU)

SOCIOL 287 - Sexuality & Society
Session 2
Debadatta Chakraborty

WGSS 275 - Literature & Social Justice: Gender, Race, and the Radical Imagination
Session 2
Jude Hayward-Jansen

This is an interdisciplinary and intersectional exploration of the critical, aspirational, and creative forms that Justice takes in literature and the humanities more broadly. Approaching justice through the lens of social justice feminism, gender and sexuality studies, and critical race theory, this course will ask: What are the tangled roots of inequality and the legacies of sexual, racial, and economic (in)justice and how does the study of literature provide us with strategies, artistic models, and creative blueprints for imagining more just worlds? How does literature engage with, interrogate, and reimagine the ethical, social, and political questions at the heart of gender, race, and social justice and, finally, what is the role of the literary and artistic imagination in the world-making labor of social and political change? (Gen. Ed. AL, DU)

UWW Fall

WGSS 286 - History of Sexuality and Race in the United States
TBD
This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary feminist study of sexuality. Its primary goal is to provide a forum for students to consider the history of sexuality and race in the U.S. both in terms of theoretical frameworks within women's and gender studies, and in terms of a range of sites where those theoretical approaches become material, are negotiated, or are shifted. The course is a fully interdisciplinary innovation. It will emphasize the links rather than differences between theory and practice and between cultural, material, and historical approaches to the body, gender, and sexuality. Throughout the course we will consider contemporary sexual politics "from the science of sex and sexuality to marriage debates" in light of histories of racial and sexual formations. (Gen. Ed. HS, DU)

ANTHRO 258 - Food and Culture
TBD
Component

This course surveys how cultural anthropologists have studied the big questions about food and culture. How and why do people restrict what foods are considered "edible" or morally acceptable? How is food processed and prepared, and what does food tell us about other aspects of culture like gender and ethnic identity? How have power issues of gender, class, and colonialism shaped people's access to food? How has industrialization changed food, and where are foodways headed in the future? Along the way, students will read and see films about foodways in Europe, Africa, Asia, the United States, and Latin America. (Gen. Ed. SB, DG)

HISTORY 154 - Social Change in the 1960s
TBD
Component

Few periods in United States. history experienced as much change and turmoil as the "Long Sixties" (1954-1975), when powerful social movements overhauled American gender norms, restructured the Democratic and Republican parties, and abolished the South's racist "Jim Crow" regime. This course examines the movements that defined this era. We will explore the civil rights and Black Power movements; the student New Left and the antiwar movement; the women's and gay liberation movements; struggles for Asian American, Chicano/a, Native American, and Puerto Rican freedom; as well as the rise of conservatism. Throughout the semester, we will assess Sixties social movements' ideals, strategies, and achievements, and their ongoing influence upon U.S. politics, society, and culture. (Gen. Ed. HS, DU)

SOCIOL 106 - Race, Gender, Class & Ethnicity
TBD

Introduction to Sociology. Analysis of the consequences of membership in racial, gender, class and ethnic groups on social, economic and political life. (Gen. Ed. SB, DU)

Amherst

SWAG 209/ANTH 209/SOCI 207 - Intersectional Feminist Science Studies
Tuesday, Thursday 10:00 - 11:20 a.m.
Katrina Karkazis
This seminar uses feminist theory and methods to consider scientific practice and the production of scientific knowledge. We will explore how science reflects and reinforces social relations, positions, and hierarchies as well as whether and how scientific practice and knowledge might be made more accurate and socially beneficial. Central to this course is how assumptions about sex, gender and race have shaped what we have come to know as “true,” “natural,” and “fact.” We will explore interdisciplinary works on three main themes: feminist critiques of objectivity; the structure and meanings of natural variations, especially human differences; and challenges to familiar binaries (nature/culture, human/animal, female/male, etc.).

SWAG 258/HIST258 - American Medical Injustice
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00 - 2:20 p.m.
Jen Manion

This course will examine the history of medicine in the U.S. with a focus on the roots and persistence of structural violence, discrimination, and stigma. The history of medicine was long viewed as the study of the development of new approaches to disease prevention and treatment. However, pathbreaking scholarship on the racist roots of American medicine has called for an examination of how broader social, cultural, and political norms and values shaped medical training and practices. Slavery and colonialism transformed early modern medicine. Specialists in gynecology and obstetrics led the attack on healers and midwives while using enslaved women to practice their methods. This group became leaders of the organized movement to elevate the status of university-trained doctors. We will explore the history and legacy of the American Medical Association in launching the first coordinated campaign against abortion. We will examine the eugenics movement and its effects on those it viewed as racially inferior and/or sexually deviant, including the forced sterilization of BIPOC women and the new classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. We will study the growth of psychiatry as a specialty, its propagation of abuse against LGBTQ people in the form of lobotomies, electroshock treatment, aversion and conversion therapies, and its legacy as the root of modern homophobia and transphobia. Medical stigma, discrimination, and bias have had profound and devastating consequences for generations of people denied access to lifesaving treatment and care, from the criminalization of abortion to the Tuskegee experiments to HIV/AIDS to transgender healthcare.

SWAG 347 / BLST 347 - Race, Sex, and Gender in the U.S. Military
Monday, Wednesday 12:30 - 1:50 p.m.
Khary Polk

From the aftermath of the Civil War to today's "global war on terror," the U.S. military has functioned as a vital arbiter of the overlapping taxonomies of race, gender, and sexuality in America and around the world. This course examines the global trek of American militarism through times of war and peace in the twentieth century. In a variety of texts and contexts, we will investigate how the U.S. military's production of new ideas about race and racialization, masculinity and femininity, and sexuality and citizenship impacted the lives of soldiers and civilians, men and women, at "home" and abroad. Our interdisciplinary focus will allow us to study the multiple intersections of difference within the military, enabling us to address a number of topics, including: How have African American soldiers functioned as both subjects and agents of American militarism? What role has the U.S. military played in the creation of contemporary gay and lesbian subjectivity? Is military sexual assault a contemporary phenomenon or can it be traced to longer practices of sexual exploitation occurring on or around U.S. bases globally?

SWAG 365/ENGL372 - Reading the Romance
Tuesday 1:00 - 3:45 p.m.
Krupa Shandilya

Do people the world over love in the same way, or does romance mean different things in different cultures? What happens when love violates social norms? Is the “romance” genre an escape from real-world conflicts or a resolution of them? This course analyzes romantic narratives from across the world through the lens of feminist theories of sexuality, marriage, and romance. We will read the heterosexual romance such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and popular romance author Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series, alongside queer films like Bros and trans-romances like Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby. We will also pay attention to the Western romantic-comedy film, the telenovela, and the Bollywood spectacular.

SWAG 400/POSC407 - Contemporary Debates: Gendered Domination and the Arts of Resistance
Wednesday 2:00 - 4:45 p.m.
Amrita Basu

The topic will vary from year to year. This seminar explores when and how women and LGBTQ communities resist domination across racial, class, and national divides. We will examine varied and changing expressions of agency and modes of activism—through art, poetry, literature, cinema, and electoral politics. We will devote particular attention to how the growth of right-wing nationalisms globally influences the character of resistance. Which modes of protest challenge dominant narratives of the nation? What alternative imaginaries do they offer? What impact do they have on our feminist futures?

SWAG 453 ANTH 453/SOCI 453 - Feminist and Queer Ethnography
Thursday 1:00 - 3:45 p.m.
Katrina Karkazis

How have feminist and queer approaches shaped the questions, methods, and ethics of ethnographic research? This course highlights key questions and dominant paradigms of the field as well as emphasizing qualitative ethnographic research including interviewing and fieldwork. As such, we will engage the practical question of how to research, observe, describe, record, and present material about feminist and queer politics and activism.

LJST260 - Feminist Legal Theory
Tuesday, Thursday 10:00 - 11:20 a.m.
Nica Siegel

In the twentieth century, American feminist movements made significant strides in securing suffrage, formal equality under the law, reproductive justice, and the possibility of economic independence through paid labor. And yet, the entry of (some) women into the public sphere has only intensified the urgency of a series of underlying questions: Is it desirable to demand legal transformations in the name of the identity “woman,” and if so, how should we incorporate considerations of gender and queerness, class, race, ability, and nationality? What is the relation between the formal emancipation of some women and intensified forms of domination of other women, for example, in the sphere of care work? What are the histories, logics, and political economies of these relations? What is the family, what is its relationship to reproduction, and how should its legal attachments, obligations, and relationships be understood from a feminist perspective? How did individual choice become the privileged legal mechanism for feminist forms of freedom and what is the status of choice today? We will aim to develop our understanding of these distinct but deeply linked questions of feminist thinking and methodology, with an emphasis on American writers and their postcolonial and anti-racist critics, and to appreciate conflicting points of view and longer histories within these debates. Thinkers include Mary Wollstonecraft, Sojourner Truth, Aleksandra Kollontai, Rosa Luxemburg, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Betty Friedan, Catherine Mackinnon, Andrea Dworkin, Shulamith Firestone, Adrianne Rich, Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, Eve Sedgewick, Sylvia Federici, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Donna Haraway, Hortense Spillers, Patricia J. Williams, Judith Butler, Kim TallBear, José Muñoz, Melinda Cooper, Sophie Lewis, M.E. O’Brian, and Amia Srinivasan, as well as materials from intersectional movements and jurisprudence that demanded legal and more-than-legal transformation, including the Atlanta Washer Women Strike of 1881, the Jane Collective, Wages for Housework, the Combahee River Collective, ACT-UP, INCITE!, sex worker unions, and the #MeToo movement.

SWAG 31 /ARHA385/EUST 385 - Witches, Vampires and Other Monsters
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00 - 2:20 p.m.
Natasha Staller

Our course will explore how evil was imagined, over cultures, centuries and disciplines. With the greatest possible historical and cultural specificity, we will investigate an array of monstrous creatures and plagues -- their terrifying powers, the explanations for why they came to be, and the strategies for how they could be purged -- as we attempt to articulate the kindred qualities they shared. We will study centuries-old witch burning manuals, and note the striking degree to which dangerous tropes -- about women, about pestilence, about dangerous sexuality, and about differences of all kinds -- have continued to our day. Among the artists to be considered are Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Dalí, Buñuel, Dreyer, Wilder, Almodóvar, and the community who made the AIDS Quilt.

SWAG 338/BLST 339/ENGL 361 - Toni Morrison-Multi-Genre Exploration
Monday, Wednesday 2:00 - 3:20 p.m.
Carol Bailey

This course examines a significant portion of Toni Morrison’s body of work. Taking a primarily thematic approach, we will read several novels, essays, and other writings by Morrison. Our readings will also include critical reception of, and the wide-ranging scholarly reflections on Morrison’s work and her contribution to American and Black Diasporic literatures. Assignments will include: oral presentations, essays, and a research project.

SWAG 339/ENGL 339 - Early Women Writers
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00 - 2:20 p.m.
Ingrid Nelson

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” Virginia Woolf famously said in 1929. But what did the landscape of women’s writing look like before women were allowed these liberties, and what effects did their social conditions have on their writing? This course focuses on the work of early female-identifying writers, from the medieval to the Romantic period–many of whom are still overlooked today. How did women writers participate in or drive the invention of new literary forms, such as the periodical and the novel? Does women’s writing have specific formal or stylistic characteristics, and are these affected by women’s social standing and access to education? What does a literary history that fully includes women’s writing look like, and how does it differ from standard literary histories? We will attempt answers to these questions as we survey a wide range of writing by women from 1350 to 1850, moving through various genres. Poets, political agitators, religious mystics and martyrs, the authors of woman-centered periodicals, and novelists, will all feature on the syllabus. Our readings will include well-known works by writers such as Margery Kempe, Mary Wollstonecraft and Harriet Jacobs, along with lesser-known and even anonymous women-authored poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Secondary readings by feminist critics and historians such as Judith Butler and Toril Moi will also frame our discussions.

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE

CSI 206 - Deviant Bodies: The Regulation of Race, Sex, and Disability in the US
Monday, Wednesday 1:00-2:20 p.m.
Professor Loza

Since its founding, the US has closely regulated the bodies of Others and punished those that rebel against these socially-constructed designations. Utilizing an interdisciplinary amalgam of Critical Race Theory, Sexuality Studies, Queer Theory, Media Studies, Sociology, American Studies, Performance Studies, and Feminist Theory, this course will explore how the state, the media, and civilian institutions police the boundaries of race, gender, and sexuality by pathologizing, criminalizing, and stigmatizing difference. We will also examine how the subjects burdened with these dangerous inscriptions evade and contest them through passing, performativity, and other forms of identity-based resistance. Special attention will be paid to the criminalization of cross-racial and same sex desire; the re-biologization of racial and sexual difference; the dehumanization of immigrants; the racialization of crime; the gendering of mental disorder; the rise of homonormativity; genetic surveillance; the biopolitics of reproduction; and the role of The Law in constructing and controlling deviant bodies.

CSI 231 - Critical Theories & Justice: Race, Gender, Disability, Sexuality, Neurodiversity
Monday 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Edward Wingenbach

Critical theory analyzes how structures, institutions, and norms perpetuate and reproduce oppression. By exposing the "ordinary" practices of society as contingent constructions that create and maintain hierarchies, critical theories create opportunities to change those practices and pursue a more just world. This seminar offers an introduction to the methods and tools critical theories employ and apply, across a range of intersecting identities. The course will begin by studying the analytic framework of critical race theory, which provides a well-developed model for analyzing the operations of oppression and reproduction of racial hierarchy. The second section of the course surveys works employing critical theory approaches to gender, disability, sexuality, and neurodiversity. The final section of the course will be designed collaboratively by the members of the seminar, responding to interests, projects, and priorities of students. No prior knowledge or expertise is necessary.

CSI274 - Cuba: Nation, Race, Revolution
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00-2:20 p.m.
Thursday 6:00-09:00 p.m.
Amy Jordan/Michele Hardesty
Component

This interdisciplinary course critically engages a range of frameworks (geopolitical, historical, sociological, literary, cultural) to study the complex and contested reality of Cuba. The course will begin by critiquing and decentering the stereotypical images of Cuba that circulate in U.S. popular and official culture. The first part of the course will focus on revolutions that have defined the nation in the context of colonialism and neocolonialism: the impact of the Haitian Revolution on colonial Cuba; the forging of cubanidad in the late-19thcentury revolutions for independence from Spain; and the victory of the 1959 Cuban Revolution that defied U.S. neocolonial power. From there, we will examine how intersecting constructions of race, gender, and sexuality have defined the Cuban after the 1959 revolution, during the Special Period, and more recently. We will also explore how Cuba should be understood in relation to the U.S. government, to the international Left, and to its diaspora. This course is open to all, though it is best suited to students beyond their first semester of study. The class will be conducted in English, with many readings available in Spanish and English. Additionally, for students wishing to apply for the Hampshire in Havana spring semester program, this course will offer critical foundational knowledge and application support. (Concurrent enrollment in a Spanish language class is strongly recommended for non-fluent speakers considering the Hampshire in Havana program.)

HACU 221 - The Power of Black Music
Tuesday, Thursday 1:00-2:20p.m.
Olabode Omojola

The course focuses on the musics of Africa and the African diaspora through the lens of ethnomusicology. Concentrating on selected countries, including Brazil, Cuba, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States, it examines the musical performance of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality and the role of music in social and political movements. The course explores the global dimensions of Africanist musical aesthetics as enabled historically and sustained through ongoing transatlantic exchanges between Africa and the African diaspora. Also discussed are the issues of representation and identity in iconic works like Black Is King & Lemonade by Beyonce. Other topics include hip-hop adaptation in Africa and the phenomenal popularity of West African Afrobeats in the United States and globally. Class discussions will be supplemented by workshops conducted by visiting professional musicians as well as the instructor's ethnographic research in West Africa, Brazil, Cuba, and the United States.

HACU229 - Hate, Hope & Humor
Monday, Wednesday 1:00-2:20 p.m.
Viveca Greene
component

Stand up, satirical news, and memes: How do these and other humor-related cultural forms allow both right-wing extremists and the members of the many groups those extremists target (immigrants, racial/ethnic/religious minorities, queer people, women, etc.) to challenge the status quo? What is the power and are the limitations of these cultural forms? In this discussion-based and writing-intensive course, students will grapple with humor's many social and political functions, and in relation to white supremacy, rape culture, and other weighty issues. Course readings will include literature by scholars in communication, media studies, sociology, psychology, political science, and ethnic studies, which we will draw from in analyzing specific performances and platforms. Ultimately students will produce a final research project on a humor-related topic of their own choosing, and present it to the class.

HACU277 - Planet on Fire: Critical Perspectives on Art and Ecology
Tuesday 1:00-3:50 p.m.
Jennifer Bajorek
component

The desire to save our planet from imminent destruction is shared by growing numbers of people all over the world. Yet debates about climate change, environmental disaster, mass extinction, and possible solutions to them continue to be framed by ideas and discourses that have their roots in capitalist, imperialist, Western, Euro-American or Eurocentric, and patriarchal worldviews. This course examines critical and creative approaches to sustainability and extinction that challenge these frames. Through analysis of works (through exhibition documentation, catalogs, artists' books, photobooks, online archives) by contemporary artists, complemented by advanced readings in literature, philosophy, environmental humanities, and social science, we will look at histories, practices, thought systems, and imagined worlds that offer radical new possibilities for imagining what Anna Tsing calls "the promise of cohabitation," or life on earth. Our syllabus will feature work by artists working across mediums and disciplines, centering postcolonial, decolonial, Indigenous, Black, queer, and feminist perspectives.

Mt. Holyoke

GNDST 204CW - Women and Gender in the Study of Culture: 'Androgyny and Gender Negotiation in Contemporary Chinese Women's Theater'
Wednesday 1:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Ying Wang

Yue Opera, an all-female art that flourished in Shanghai in 1923, resulted from China's social changes and the women's movement. Combining traditional with modern forms and Chinese with Western cultures, Yue Opera today attracts loyal and enthusiastic audiences despite pop arts crazes. We will focus on how audiences, particularly women, are fascinated by gender renegotiations as well as by the all-female cast. The class will read and watch classics of this theater, including Romance of the Western Bower, Peony Pavilion, and Butterfly Lovers. Students will also learn the basics of traditional Chinese opera.

GNDST 204ET - Women and Gender in the Study of Culture: 'Rovers, Cuckqueens, and Country Wives of All Kinds: The Queer Eighteenth Century'
Tuesday, Thursday 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
Kate Singer

With the rise of the two-sex model, the eighteenth century might be seen to be a bastion of heteronormativity leading directly to Victorian cis-gender binary roles of angel in the house and the bourgeois patriarch. Yet, beginning with the Restoration's reinvention of ribald theater, this period was host to a radical array of experimentation in gender and sexuality, alongside intense play with genre (e.g., the invention of the novel). We will explore queerness in all its forms alongside consideration of how to write queer literary histories.

GNDST 204FT - Women and Gender in the Study of Culture: 'Feminist, Queer, Trans Disability Studies'
Monday, Wednesday 11:30 - 12:45 p.m.
Niamh Timmons

This course introduces Disability Studies concepts and discussion from a feminist, queer, and trans perspectives, specifically centering on Black, Indigenous, People of Color disabled people. Through this, we'll see the differences in disabled communities, the tensions within the field, and learn to center the most marginalized. Here, the focus is on scholarship, activism, and arts that center disabled people, their histories, struggles, and dreams. We'll also discuss the differences between the Disability Rights and Disability Justice movements and how they represent the demands and needs of disabled communities.

GNDST 204TJ - Women and Gender in the Study of Culture: 'Transforming Justice and Practicing Truth to Power: Critical Methodologies and Methods in Community Participatory Action Research and Accountability'
Wednesday 1:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Ren-yo Hwang

This course will offer an overview of select methodologies and methods from Community-based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR), Participatory Action Research (PAR), collaborative ethnography and other social justice research interventions such as radical oral history, grassroots research collectives, experimental digital archives, research and data justice networks and organizations. We will center on questions of "accountability"; that is, to whom, for whom, and to what end do processes of accountability serve those already in power? Moreover, we will investigate the chasms between academia and activism in order to explore the possibility of unlikely collaborative research alliances.

GNDST 206MA - Mary Lyon's World and the History of Mount Holyoke
Thursday 1:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Mary Renda

What world gave rise to Mary Lyon's vision for Mount Holyoke and enabled her to carry her plans to success? Has her vision persisted or been overturned? We will examine the conditions, assumptions, and exclusions that formed Mount Holyoke and the arrangements of power and struggles for justice that shaped it during and after Lyon's lifetime. Topics include settler colonialism and missionary projects; northern racism and abolitionism; industrial capitalism and the evolution of social classes; debates over women's education, gender and body politics; religious diversity; and efforts to achieve a just and inclusive campus. Includes research based on primary sources.

GNDST 210JD - Women and Gender in Judaism
Tuesday, Thursday 1:45 - 3:00 p.m.
Mara Benjamin

This course examines gender as a key category in Jewish religious thought and practice. Students examine different theories of gender and intersectional feminisms, concepts of gender in a range of Jewish sources, and feminist Jewish responses to those sources. Students work with the Judaica collection at the MHC Art Museum and consider material culture as a source for women's and gender studies. Topics may include: how Jewish practice and law regulate sexuality and desire; feminist, queer and trans methods of engaging patriarchal texts; methods of studying women and gender in Jewish cultures; racialization.

GNDST 210WR - Womanist Religious Thought
Monday 1:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Meredith Coleman-Tobias

As a conceptual framework which reconsiders the rituals, scriptures, and allegiances of religious black women, womanist thought has expanded the interdisciplinary canon of black and feminist religious studies. This course is a survey of womanist religious scholars from multiple religious traditions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Yoruba-Ifa -- as well as theorists who understand womanism as a "spiritual but not religious" orientation. Course participants will use the interpretive touchstones of cross-culturalism, erotics, earthcare, and health -- among others -- to examine contemporary womanist religious thought.

GNDST 221QF - Feminist and Queer Theory: 'Feminist and Queer Theory'
Tuesday, Thursday 1:45 - 3:00 p.m.
Christian Gundermann

We will read a number of key feminist texts that theorize sexual difference, and challenge the oppression of women. We will then address queer theory, an offshoot and expansion of feminist theory, and study how it is both embedded in, and redefines, the feminist paradigms. This redefinition occurs roughly at the same time (1980s/90s) when race emerges as one of feminism's prominent blind spots. The postcolonial critique of feminism is a fourth vector we will examine, as well as anti-racist and postcolonial intersections with queerness. We will also study trans-theory and its challenge to the queer paradigm.

GNDST 241PH - Pharmocracy
Tuesday, Thursday 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
Christian Gundermann

Since the 1950s, the pharmaceutical industry -- one of the world's largest economic sectors and a core constituent of globalized corporate power -- has built a transnational empire that controls not only gender, sex, health, food chains, science, politics, stock markets, and private/public distinctions, but has completely changed what it means to be human or animal. We will study these transformations, and how pharmocracy produces knowledge through experimentation on impoverished humans and animals. In the context of the post 9/11 legal emergency frameworks, pharmocracy is also the nearly impenetrable tangle between pharma, academia, public health, and the military biosecurity bureaucracies.

GNDST 333CM - Gender, Sexuality, & Communism
Tuesday 1:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Sandra Russell

Using the frameworks of transnational and anticolonial feminisms, this course explores the genealogies, constellations, and contestations of feminist thought in the post-Soviet world. We will consider its unique formations in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, focusing especially on "peripheral" perspectives, such as Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, students will engage with narrative, historical, archival, and ethnographic sources, giving attention to the relationship between gendered subjectivity and state practices. Topics may include: cultures of dissent, women's movements, queer intimacies and LGBTQ+ rights, and transnational collaborations.

GNDST 333EG - Eggs and Embryos: Innovations in Reproductive and Genetic Technologies
Monday 01:30 - 04:20 p.m.
Jacquelyne Luce

This seminar will focus on emerging innovations in the development, use and governance of reproductive and genetic technologies (RGTs). How do novel developments at the interface of fertility treatment and biomedical research raise both new and enduring questions about the'naturalness' of procreation, the politics of queer families, the im/possibilities of disabilities, and transnational citizenship? Who has a say in what can be done and for which purposes? We will engage with ethnographic texts,documentaries, policy statements, citizen science activist projects, and social media in order to closely explore the diversity of perspectives in this field.

GNDST 333FM - Latina Feminism(s)
Wednesday 1:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Vanessa Rosa

In this seminar, we will explore the relationship between Latina feminist theory and knowledge production. We will examine topics related to positionality, inequality, the body, reproductive justice, representation, and community. Our approach in this class will employ an intersectional approach to feminist theory that understands the interconnectedness between multiple forms of oppression, including race, class, sexuality, and ability. Our goal is to develop a robust understanding of how Latina feminist methodologies and epistemologies can be tools for social change.

GNDST 333GS – Gender and Sexual Minority Health
Thursday 1:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Corey Flanders

This course is a critical overview and investigation of health as it relates to the experiences of gender and sexual minority people. We will begin with exploring theoretical understandings of health and marginalization, and use those as frameworks to examine various domains of health. Areas of interest will include mental health, sexual and reproductive health, substance use, disability, and issues related to body size and image. We will end by looking at other structural issues that affect gender and sexual minority health, such as access to care, health education, and health policy.

GNDST 333MX - Media and Sexuality
Wednesday 7:15 - 10:00 p.m.
Li Cornfeld

Sex and sexuality are frequently at the forefront of innovation in media and technology, from the beginnings of photography, film, and video to the rise of the internet, artificial intelligence, and big data. Combining critical frames from Media Studies and Sexuality Studies, this seminar investigates what happens when media and sexuality intersect. We will ask how media and technology bolster new forms of sexual expression, communication, and embodiment. And, at the same time, we will examine how emerging technologies enable new modes of social regulation and surveillance. Throughout, we will foreground queer, trans, and feminist perspectives on media histories and digital futures.

GNDST 333QH - Queering the Horror: Collective Memory, Political Violence, and Dissident Sexualities in Latin American Narratives
Tuesday 1:30 - 4:20 p.m.
Adriana Pitetta

The bloody dictatorships that took place in the Southern Cone and the armed conflicts in Colombia, Guatemala and Peru during the 20th century left behind a legacy of political violence and collective trauma. These states themselves became sadistic death machines, where bodies became territories of punishment and discipline as well as of struggle, resistance, and difference. We will analyze how recent cultural production (film, novel, short stories, and theater) along with theoretical texts imagine and represent those "body struggles" through queer and female bodies, and how they replace the masculine icons of the left-wing militants and the state military terrorists.

GNDST 333QM - The Queer Early Modern
Tuesday, Thursday 9:00 - 10:15 a.m.
TBD

This course combines early modern texts with various related secondary readings that will enable students to better understand the way that sexuality-both normative and nonnormative-was portrayed and interpreted in Renaissance literature. As we progress through the course, we will discuss what defines queer history and histories of sexuality, how the history of sexuality in the past informs the present, and, ultimately, the ways in which we can use early modern literature to better understand ourselves today. Course texts will include Christopher Marlowe's Edward II, John Lyly's Galatea, Shakespeare's sonnets, and the poetry of Aemilia Lanyer and Katherine Philips.

Smith

SWG 222 - Gender, Law and Policy
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Carrie N. Baker

This course explores the impact of gender on law and policy in the United States historically and today, focusing in the areas of constitutional equality, employment, education, reproduction, the family, violence against women and immigration. Students study constitutional and statutory law as well as public policy. Topics include sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, pregnancy and caregiver discrimination, pay equity, sexual harassment, school athletics, marriage, sterilization, contraception and abortion, reproductive technologies, sexual assault, intimate partner violence and gender-based asylum. We will study feminist efforts to reform the law and examine how inequalities based on gender, race, class and sexuality shape the law. We also discuss and debate contemporary policy and future directions.

SWG 235 - Black Feminism
Wednesday 1:20 - 2:35 p.m.
Monday 1:40 - 2:55 p.m.
Jennifer M. DeClue

An in-depth discussion of the history, debates, theory, activism and poetics of Black Feminism. Students study the conversations, ruptures and connections produced in dominant feminist scholarship by black feminist theory. The class reads foundational and emergent work in the field. Students learn the history of those scholarly interventions and examine the pervasive ways of knowing that are being disrupted through black feminist scholarship. Students develop an understanding of the relationship between black feminism, feminism, women of color feminism and queer theory. Topics covered using theoretical texts, works of cinema and popular culture. Students examine cultural texts alongside theory to practice close reading as a methodological tool. Students finish with the analytical and methodological skills to identify and critique structures of power that govern everyday experiences of gender, the body, space, violence and modes of resistance. Prerequisite: SWG 150. Enrollment limited to 25.

SWG 241 - White Supremacy in the Age of Trump
Tuesday/Thursday 2:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Loretta Ross

This course analyzes the history, prevalence and current manifestations of the white supremacist movement by examining ideological components, tactics and strategies, and its relationship to mainstream politics. We will also research and discuss the relationship between white supremacy and white privilege and explore how to build a human rights movement to counter the white supremacist movement in the U.S. Students will develop analytical writing and research skills while engaging in multiple cultural perspectives. The overall goal is to develop the capacity to understand the range of possible responses to white supremacy, both its legal and extralegal forms.

SWG 245/CCX 245 - Colloquium: Collective Organizing
Wednesday 2:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Monday 3:05 - 4:20 p.m.
Ana Del Conde

This course introduces students to key concepts, debates and provocations that animate the world of community, labor and electoral organizing for social change. To better understand these movements’ visions, students develop an analysis of global and national inequalities, exploitation and oppression. The course explores a range of organizing skills to build an awareness of power dynamics and learn activists’ tools to bring people together towards common goals. A central aspect of this course is practicing community-based learning and research methods in dialogue with community-based activist partners. Enrollment limited to 18.

SWG 300JS - Justice and Security
Tuesday 1:20 - 4:00 p.m.
Ana Del Conde

This course explores understandings of security and justice from a feminist perspective. It draws upon a trans-disciplinary range of social theories and materials from both the US and international contexts (mostly in the Global South), to critically explore how traditional practices of security authorize and protect specific interests while destabilizing and rendering vulnerable other populations. The course centers grassroots practices of security, peace and justice that challenge prevailing militarized and securitized assumptions and practices. At the heart of this course is a commitment to questioning our conceptions of how security works around the intersections of power and oppression (i.e.,gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.). Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

SWG 300QT - Building Queer and Trans Lives
Thursday 1:20 - 4:00 p.m.
Evangeline Heiliger

This seminar considers “building” as both metaphor and practice in queer and trans feminist epistemologies. What systems and institutions (e.g. white supremacy, settler colonialism, binary gender, ableism, late-stage capitalism, the carceral state) do queer and trans epistemologies slate for demolition or destruction? Should certain structures (e.g. medical, educational, political, scientific, housing) and relationships (e.g. platonic, romantic, sexual, caregiving, community) be repaired or renovated? What needs to be built from scratch or salvaged from existing resources to ensure sustainable, accessible, non-violent, joyful modes of living? We draw on queer, trans, Black feminist, critical disability and feminist science studies blueprints for world-building. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

SWG 303 - Queer of Color Critique
Wednesday 1:20 - 4:00 p.m.
Jennifer M. DeClue

Students in this course gain a thorough and sustained understanding of queer of color critique by tracking this theoretical framework from its emergence in women of color feminism through the contemporary moment using historical and canonical texts along with the most cutting-edge scholarship being produced in the field. The exploration of this critical framework engages with independent films, novels and short stories, popular music, as well as television and digital media platforms such as Netflix and Amazon. We discuss what is ruptured and what is generated at the intersection of race, gender, class and sexuality. Prerequisites: SWG 150. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

CCX 245/SWG 245 - Collective Organizing
Wednesday 2:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Monday 3:05 - 4:20 p.m.
Ana Del Conde

EAL 273 - Women and Narration in Modern Korea
Tuesday/Thursday 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Irhe Sohn

This class explores modern Korean history from women's perspectives. It charts the historical and cultural transformation in modern Korea since the 1920s by coupling key terms of modern history with specific female figures: (1) Colonial modernity with modern girls in the 1920s and 30s; (2) colonization and cold-war regime with "comfort women" and "western princesses" from the 1940s to the 1960s; (3) industrial development under the authoritarian regime in the 1970s with factory girls; and (4) democratization and multiculturalism with rising feminists in the new millennium.

EAL 273 - Women and Narration in Modern Korea
Thursday 7:00 - 9:30 p.m.
Irhe Sohn

FMS 261 - Video Games and the Politics of Play
Monday/Wednesday 9:25 - 10:40 a.m.
Jennifer C. Malkowski
component

An estimated 63% of U.S. households have members who play video games regularly, and game sales routinely exceed film box office figures. As this medium grows in cultural power, it is increasingly important to think about how games make meaning. This course serves as an introduction to Game Studies, equipping students with the vocabulary to analyze video games, surveying the medium’s genres, and sampling this scholarly discipline’s most influential theoretical writing. The particular focus, though, is on the ideology operating beneath the surface of these popular entertainment objects and on the ways in which video games enter political discourse. Enrollment limited to 25.

FRN 230BL - Topics in French Studies
Wednesday 2:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Monday 3:05 - 4:20 p.m.
Banlieue Lit Mehammed A. Mack

In this course, students study fiction, memoir, slam poetry and hip-hop authored by residents of France’s multi-ethnic suburbs and housing projects, also known as the "banlieues" and "cités". We examine the question of whether "banlieue" authors can escape various pressures: to become native informants; to write realistic rather than fantastical novels; to leave the “ghetto”; to denounce the sometimes difficult traditions, religions, neighborhoods and family members that have challenged but also molded them. Often seen as spaces of regression and decay, the "banlieues" nevertheless produce vibrant cultural expressions that beg the question: Is the "banlieue" a mere suburb of French cultural life, or more like one of its centers? Students may receive credit for only one section of FRN 230. Enrollment limited to 18. Basis for the major. Prerequisite: FRN 220 or equivalent.

GOV 266 - Contemporary Political Theory
Tuesday/Thursday 9:25 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.
Nathan DuFord
component

A study of major themes in the political thought of the early 20th century to the present. Readings will begin with a brief reflection on Hegel and Marx, before moving into considerations that animated the 20th and 21st century, such as: fascism, anti-colonialism, the welfare state, movements for civil rights, and migration. Throughout, we will pay particular attention to the tensions between freedom, justice, and equality that mark this period of political thinking. Successful completion of Gov 100 or another political theory course is strongly suggested.

GOV 367qs - Queering the State
Tuesday 1:20 - 4:00 p.m.
Nathan DuFord

This course will cover theoretical issues through the relationship between the state and queerness. The course begins with a historical theory of the state that emerges from its role in governing queer life. Students consider the social, economic, legal and biomedical implications of the straight state. Though mainstream LGBT politics advocates for more inclusion in the state apparatus, through rights and legal protections, radical queer thinkers insist we think beyond the state and in resistance to it. Throughout, the students focus on whether it is possible to have a queer state and if it is, whether that is desirable. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

HST 253 - Women and Gender in Contemporary Europe
Tuesday/Thursday 2:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Darcy C. Buerkle

Women’s experience and constructions of gender in the commonly recognized major events of the 20th century. Introduction to major thinkers of the period through primary sources, documents and novels, as well as to the most significant categories in the growing secondary literature in 20th-century European history of women and gender. Enrollment limited to 40.

HST 371RS - Remembering Slavery: A Gendered Reading of the WPA Interviews
Tuesday 1:20 - 4:00 p.m.
Elizabeth S. Pryor

Despite the particular degradation, violence and despair of enslavement in the United States, African American men and women built families, traditions and a legacy of resistance. Using the WPA interviews—part of the New Deal Federal Writers Project of the 1930s—this course looks at the historical memory of former slaves by reading and listening to their own words. How did 70- through 90-year-old former slaves remember their childhoods and young adulthoods during slavery? And how do scholars make sense of these interviews given they were conducted when Jim Crow segregation was at its pinnacle? The course examines the WPA interviews as historical sources by studying scholarship that relies heavily on them. Most importantly, students explore debates that swirl around the interviews and challenge their validity on multiple fronts, even as they remain the richest sources of African American oral history regarding slavery. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

JUD 227 - Women and Gender in Jewish History
Tuesday/Thursday 1:20 - 2:35 p.m.
Sari Fein

An exploration of Jewish women’s changing social roles, religious stances and cultural expressions in a variety of historical settings from ancient to modern times. How did Jewish women negotiate religious tradition, gender and cultural norms to fashion lives for themselves as individuals and as family and community members in diverse societies? Readings from a wide range of historical, religious, theoretical and literary works in order to address examples drawn from Biblical and rabbinic Judaism, medieval Islamic and Christian lands, modern Europe, America and the Middle East. Students' final projects involve archival work in the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History.

MES 213 - Sex and Power In The Middle East
Tuesday/Thursday 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Susanna Ferguson

This course invites students to explore how sexuality has been central to power and resistance in the Middle East. When and how have empires, colonial powers and nation states tried to regulate intimacy, sex, love and reproduction? How have sexual practices shaped social life, and how have perceptions of these practices changed over time? The course introduces theoretical tools for the history of sexuality and explores how contests over sexuality, reproduction and the body shaped empires, colonial states and nationalist projects. Finally, we examine contemporary debates about sexuality as a basis for political mobilization in the Middle East today. Enrollment limited to 18.

MUS 217 - Feminism and Music Theory
Wednesday 1:20 - 2:35 p.m.
Monday 1:40 - 2:55 p.m.
Maeve Sterbenz

In this course, students evaluate the assumptions and foundations of Western music theory, primarily under the critical guidance of feminist theory. Tonal theory is often a routine part of undergraduate music study. What are the goals and criteria of this kind of analysis? While critically examining Western music theory’s intellectual values, students develop approaches to analysis that are responsive, in a variety of ways, to queer, feminist and antiracist thought. Through readings and listening assignments, students consider various challenges to the fiction of objectivity in music analysis, including embodiment, subjecthood and identity, and the mediating force of language and concepts. Prerequisites: MUS 110. Enrollment limited to 18. (E)

MUS 330 - Music and Democracy
Tuesday 1:20 - 4:00 p.m.
Andrea Moore

How have social justice movements used music to mobilize people to fight for equality and rights? How have anti-democratic movements used music for reactionary ends? What is the role of music in sustaining—or eroding—democracies? This class examines a range of U.S. and global case studies, including Black Lives Matter, the abortion wars, global protest movements, and music and urban redevelopment. Through the study of national anthems, resistance songs like “Fight the Power,” and by examining the sounds of protest itself, students practice critical listening and reflect on how sound and music can press for social change--for better or worse. Students look at the role of music in democratic processes, the importance of music for belonging and citizenship, and whether and how music itself is significant to political participation. Prerequisites: MUS 102 or 202. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

PSY 266 - Psychology of Women and Gender
Tuesday/Thursday 9:25 - 10:40 a.m.
Lauren E. Duncan

An in-depth examination of controversial issues of concern to the study of the psychology of women and gender. Students are introduced to current psychological theory and empirical research relating to the existence, origins and implications of behavioral similarities and differences associated with gender. We examine the development of gender roles and stereotypes, power within the family, workplace and politics, and women’s mental health and sexuality, paying attention to social context and intersectional identities. Prerequisites: PSY 202. Enrollment limited to 25.

PSY 364/SDS 364 - Intergroup Relationships
Monday/Wednesday 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Randi Garcia

Research on intergroup relationships and an exploration of theoretical and statistical models used to study mixed interpersonal interactions. Example research projects include examining the consequences of sexual objectification for both women and men, empathetic accuracy in interracial interactions and gender inequality in household labor. A variety of skills including, but not limited to, literature review, research design, data collection, measurement evaluation, advanced data analysis and scientific writing will be developed.

PSY 375 - Political Psychology
Tuesday/Thursday 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Lauren E. Duncan

An introduction to research methods in political psychology. Includes discussion of current research as well as design and execution of original research in selected areas such as right wing authoritarianism, group consciousness, and political activism. Prerequisite: PSY 202. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

REL 238 - Mary: Images and Cults
Tuesday/Thursday 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Vera Shevzov

Whether revered as the Mother of God or remembered as a single Jewish mother of an activist, Mary has both inspired and challenged generations of Christian women and men worldwide. This course focuses on key developments in the "history of Mary" since early Christian times to the present. How has her image shaped global Christianities? What does her perceived image in any given age tell us about personal and collective identities? Topics include Mary’s "life"; rise of the Marian cult; Marian apparitions (e.g., Guadalupe and Lourdes) and miracle-working images, especially in Byzantium and Russia; liberation and feminism; politics, activism, mysticism and prayer. Devotional, polemical and literary texts, art and film. Enrollment limited to 35.

SDS 364/PSY 364 - Intergroup Relationships
Monday/Wednesday 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Randi Garcia

Offered as PSY 364 and SDS 364. Research on intergroup relationships and an exploration of theoretical and statistical models used to study mixed interpersonal interactions. Example research projects include examining the consequences of sexual objectification for both women and men, empathetic accuracy in interracial interactions and gender inequality in household labor. A variety of skills including, but not limited to, literature review, research design, data collection, measurement evaluation, advanced data analysis and scientific writing will be developed. Prerequisites: PSY 201, SDS 201, SDS 220 or equivalent and PSY 202. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

SOC 229 - Sex and Gender in American Society
Wednesday 2:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Monday 3:05 - 4:20 p.m.
Nancy E. Whittier

An examination of the ways in which the social system creates, maintains and reproduces gender dichotomies with specific attention to the significance of gender in interaction, culture and a number of institutional contexts, including work, politics, families and sexuality. Prerequisite: SOC 101. Enrollment limited to 35.

SOC 243 - Race, Gender and Mass Incarceration
Wednesday 1:20 - 2:35 p.m.
Monday 1:40 - 2:55 p.m.
Erica Banks

This course introduces students to the historical roots of mass incarceration and how it shapes multiple aspects of life and society. Students focus on the particular experiences of currently and formerly incarcerated women, with an emphasis on the overrepresentation of Black women; the major social, political and economic factors that have contributed to the rise of mass incarceration in the United States; the primary ways mass incarceration alters the lives of people and communities; and why eliminating racial oppression cannot be disentangled from eliminating mass incarceration. Prerequisite: SOC 101. Enrollment limited to 35.

SOC 323CT - Gender, Sexuality and Social Movements in Conservative Times
Wednesday 9:25 - 12:05 p.m.
Nancy E. Whittier

This class focuses on challenges to and changes in gender and sexuality during conservative time periods. Focusing on the U.S., we will primarily examine the 1980's and the contemporary period as case studies. We will look how political and other institutions affect gender and sexuality and at social movements addressing gender and sexuality from both the right and the left. We will look at movements including queer, feminist, anti-racist, anti-interventionist movements on the left, and racial supremacist, pro-military intervention, anti-LGBT and conservative evangelical movements on the right. Theoretical frameworks are drawn from social movements, intersectional feminist and queer theories. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

SOC 327 - Global Migration in the 21st Century
Monday 1:40 - 4:20 p.m.
Payal Banerjee

This course provides an in-depth engagement with global migration. It covers such areas as theories of migration, the significance of global political economy and state policies across the world in shaping migration patterns and immigrant identities. Questions about imperialism, post-colonial conditions, nation-building/national borders, citizenship and the gendered racialization of immigration intersect as critical contexts for our discussions. Prerequisite: SOC 101. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

SPN 250SM - Sex and the Medieval City
Tuesday/Thursday 1:20 - 2:35 p.m.
Ibtissam Bouachrine

This course examines the medieval understanding of sex and the woman’s body within an urban context. We read medieval texts on love, medicine and women’s sexuality by Iberian and North African scholars. We investigate the ways in which medieval Iberian medical traditions have viewed women’s bodies and defined their health and illness. We also address women’s role as practitioners of medicine, and how such a role was affected by the gradual emergence of “modern” medical institutions such as the hospital and the medical profession. Prerequisite: SPN 220 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 19.

SPN 373RW - Latin American Women and the Struggle for Livable Worlds
Wednesday/Friday 2:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Michelle Joffroy

When your world is on fire, what can words do? This course explores how Latin American women intellectuals, dissidents and cultural revolutionaries (20th and early 21st centuries) have confronted unlivable realities and imagined radical alternatives. Students read works crafted on the front lines of social upheaval and in the face of ecological catastrophe, analyzing different modes of representation: testimonial, memoir, experimental fiction, visual narrative, and political manifestos. They will also gain understanding of social forces shaping the cultural imaginaries of the time: Black and Queer liberation and Indigenous sovereignty movements, struggles against state violence, and ecological, anarchist and revolutionary feminisms. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required.

WLT 205 - Contemporary African Literature and Film
Monday/Wednesday 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Katwiwa Mule

A study of the major writers and diverse literary traditions of Africa, with emphasis on the historical, political, social and cultural contexts of the emergence of writing, reception and consumption. We pay particular attention to several questions: in what contexts did modern African literature emerge? Is the term "African literature" a useful category? How do African writers challenge Western representations of Africa? How do they articulate the crisis of postcoloniality? How do women writers reshape our understanding of gender and the politics of resistance? Writers include Achebe, Ngugi, Dangarembga, Bâ, Ndebele and Aidoo. Films: Tsotsi , Softie and Blood Diamond.

WRT 118LG - Language and Gender
Tuesday/Thursday 9:25 - 10:40 a.m.
Tuesday/Thursday 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Miranda K. McCarvel

How people speak – the words they choose, the way they structure their sentences, the pitch of their voices, even their gender while speaking – is constantly judged by those around them. Examining the interaction of gender and language leads to questions, such as how does gender shape the way people use language, how does gender affect others’ perceptions of speech (both written and verbal), what variation occurs across cultures with regards to gender and language? This course uses the topic of language and gender to expand upon and improve rhetorical and writing skills. Enrollment limited to 15.

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