Department of Women's and Gender Studies

Department of Women's and Gender Studies Website

Leadership

Gretchen Arnold, Ph.D.
     Department Chair
Amanda Izzo, Ph.D.
     Graduate Studies Coordinator
Penny Weiss, Ph.D.
     Undergraduate Studies Coordinator

Overview

Saint Louis University's Department of Women's and Gender Studies offers engaging courses that help students develop a critical perspective on the world. The department's programs are characterized by both a content area and an approach that includes feminist pedagogy, feminist methodologies and strategies of interpretation. Students regularly reflect on questions pertaining to ethics and justice and examine the range and diversity of women’s experiences. 

Gretchen Arnold, Ph.D.
Amanda Izzo, Ph.D.
Claudia Karagoz, Ph.D.
Marcia McCormick, J.D.
Robert Strikwerda, Ph.D.
Penny Weiss, Ph.D

WGST 1900 - Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Examines issues concerning women and gender in a variety of disciplines, including the humanities, the social sciences, the sciences, and art. Special focus given to enabling students to recognize and critically analyze the notion of gender and patterns of gender roles.

Attributes: Catholic Studies-Elective, Global Local Justice-Domestic, Service Learning, UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 1980 - Independent Study

Credit(s): 1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 2100 - Introduction to Sexuality Studies

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course examines the lived practices, social meanings, and cultural representations of human sexuality. This introduction to the interdisciplinary field of sexuality studies samples a variety of intellectual approaches in examining sexuality as a source of personal and community identity and as contested political and ideological terrain. No prerequisites.

Attributes: UUC:Identities in Context, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 2200 - Race, Gender, and the Ethics of Health Care

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course uses a multidisciplinary perspective to examine unequal access to and treatment by the health care system in the U.S. Without discounting other social identities, we will focus on race/ethnicity and gender as major determinants of people's disparate experiences with health care. The course will analyze aspects of the health care system that routinely give rise to these experiences, and examine how they help produce and perpetuate racial and gender inequality. The course will also raise questions about what counts as justice and individual rights, and discuss current policies and conditions through an ethical lens. (Offered occasionally)

WGST 2201X - Cultural Anthropology

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course provides an introduction to the theoretical foundations and methodological approaches of Cultural Anthropology. It focuses on the concept of culture and how it relates to various topics, including ethnicity, language, adaptive strategies, kinship, political systems, gender, and religion. The purpose of the course is to give students a broad perspective on the types of anthropological research and discuss how the work of anthropologists is relevant to understanding the human condition.

Restrictions:

Enrollment limited to students in the following campuses:

  • 1818 Partnership High School
  • Internet Based / Online
  • Madrid, Spain
  • North Campus (Main Campus)

Attributes: Global Citizenship (CAS), International Studies, International Studies-General, Sociology Elective, Social Science Req (A&S), UUC:Global Interdependence, UUC:Social & Behavioral Sci

WGST 2400 - Gender and Popular Culture

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Popular culture provides the stories and images that enable us to imagine and practice femininities and masculinities. This course explores popular culture's influence on understandings of gender and its intersections with other identity markers and focuses on how feminist concepts raise awareness of discrimination and oppression in pop culture.

Attributes: UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture, UUC:Identities in Context, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 2401X - Immigration in U.S. History and Culture

Credit(s): 0 or 3 Credits

This class will introduce students to U.S. immigration history, focusing on immigration flows, policies, and debates from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of immigration in U.S. culture, using a variety of sources—including photography, film, poetry, memoir, and a board game—to examine how ideas, policies, and practices regarding immigration have been tied to key concepts such as race, gender, sexuality, disease, and empire. Students will read scholarly essays and primary sources, and conclude with a short, primary-source-based independent research project.

Attributes: American Studies Identities, Educ American History, UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture, UUC:Global Interdependence, Diversity in the US (A&S)

WGST 2550X - Gender, Identity & Literature

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course introduces literary study within the context and theme of Gender and Identity. Through the reading of a wide variety of genres - including drama, poetry, and fiction - the course engages students in literary ways of knowing. Methods include close reading, comparative textual analysis, and argumentative writing.

Attributes: Literature Requirement (A&S), Catholic Studies-English, Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture, UUC:Identities in Context, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 2700 - Feminisms in the U.S.: Intersectional Approaches

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course introduces students to different interpretations of feminism across ethnicities, cultures, and nationalities in the U.S. We take as our starting point the intersection of major systems of oppression such as gender, race, sexuality, social class, colonialism and nation, and examine how different racial and ethnic communities respond to those systems when developing feminist consciousness. This survey of intellectual work, activist movements, and worldmaking places the work of women of color and indigenous women at the center of efforts for gender justice.

Attributes: UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture, UUC:Identities in Context, UUC:Reflection-in-Action, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 2710X - Theories of Justice

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This class exposes students to various ways political theorists have attempted to answer the question: “What is justice?” The course covers a variety of theories of justice, including utilitarian, liberal, feminist, and socialist perspectives. The course also applies theories of justice to actual political issues.

Attributes: Global Local Justice-Theory, Law, Religion and Politics, Social Science Req (A&S), UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc, Urban Poverty - Social Justice, Diversity in the US (A&S)

WGST 2800 - Men and Masculinities

Credit(s): 3 Credits

The course introduces research on men and masculinity, and gender more generally, and explores from a feminist perspective the personal and political issues this research – and the current state of our world – raise for men and women. Topics include socialization, college life, media, personal relations, politics, sports, and war.

Attributes: UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 2930 - Special Topics

Credit(s): 0 or 3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 2980 - Independent Study

Credit(s): 1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3010X - Women in Art

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Examines the role of women in art from multiple perspectives, including their role as symbols, artists, and patrons.

Attributes: Art Produced After 1800, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3230 - Gender & Society

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Examination of the impact of large-scale forces on how gender roles are structured and enacted in our society. Particular attention to be paid to the different experiences of men and women in the labor force, politics and the family.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3240X - Reading the Female Bildungsroman

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Although as a genre the Bildungsroman has traditionally focused on the intellectual, social, and moral education of a male hero, women have variously employed this genre to tell alternate stories focused upon female intellectual, social, and sexual development. This course provides a critical examination of the American Female Bildungsroman. Students will consider American novels, films and television shows that depict a girl’s emergence into an often hostile national and social order to consider how gender affects selfhood, citizenship, and authorship.

Restrictions:

Enrollment limited to students in the Internet Based / Online, Madrid, Spain or North Campus (Main Campus) campuses.

Attributes: Educ American Literature, English Form & Genre, Film Studies, Literature BS Requirement(CAS), UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture, UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc, Diversity in the US (A&S), UUC:Writing Intensive, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3300X - Intercultural Communication

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Introduces the role of culture in the process of human interaction and encourages in-depth analysis of the unique challenges posed by inter-cultural encounters. Develops a better understanding of culture and the many ways in which it influences interaction between individuals and groups.

Attributes: African American Studies, CMM Studies Explorations, CMM Studies Foundations, Global Local Justice-Global, International Studies, International Studies-Arts, UUC:Identities in Context, UUC:Social & Behavioral Sci, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3310X - Intercultural Communication

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Introduces the role of culture in the process of human interaction and encourages in-depth analysis of the unique challenges posed by inter-cultural encounters. Develops a better understanding of culture and the many ways in which it influences interaction between individuals and groups.

Prerequisite(s): Minimum Earned Credits of 15

Attributes: African American Studies, CMM Studies Foundations, Global Local Justice-Global, International Studies, International Studies-Arts, UUC:Identities in Context, UUC:Social & Behavioral Sci, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3320 - Mary and Her Sisters

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course looks at a series of important female figures from the scriptural roots of Christianity, especially the multiple Marys of the New Testament. We will read the primary canonical and apocryphal texts describing these women and examine their depiction in art, literature and music throughout history.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3350 - Women and Gender in Global Film

Credit(s): 3 Credits

An introduction to the diverse production of women and minority filmmakers from around the world. Focus on issues of social justice, gender inequality, and LGBTQ rights.

Attributes: Film & Media - Critical Study, Global Citizenship (CAS), Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture, UUC:Global Interdependence, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3420X - Women and God: Feminist Theology

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course is designed to offer a broad understanding of the issues and implications of contemporary feminist thought relative to religious traditions, especially the Christian tradition. It will critique theology and anthropology as well as offer constructive visioning of the new ways of living in relationships. The course is oriented toward personal and social transformation.

Attributes: Theology BA Requirement (A&S)

WGST 3430 - Marriage and the Family

Credit(s): 3 Credits

An examination of theories and data on different types of families, role assignments, and definitions, pertaining to various types of societies through space and time. Addresses modern aspects of family institutions and problems, with an emphasis on the issue of equality of marriage.

Attributes: Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3500X - Literature of the Postcolonial World

Credit(s): 0 or 3 Credits

Examines representative works and major literary, historical, and cultural developments in the postcolonial literatures of Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Strongly recommended for majors. Offered regularly.

Attributes: Educ World Literature, English Culture & Critique, Film Studies, Global Citizenship (CAS), International Studies, International Studies-Arts, British Lit after 1800, Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc, UUC:Global Interdependence, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3510 - The Structure of Poverty, Globally and Locally

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course examines the structural causes of poverty at the global and local levels from a multidisciplinary perspective. The course focuses on the social, political, and economic structures that produce and perpetuate poverty. The global dimension of the course focuses on developing countries, while the local dimension focuses especially in the St. Louis area.

Prerequisite(s): CORE 1000; CORE 1500*

* Concurrent enrollment allowed.

Attributes: UUC:Collaborative Inquiry, UUC:Reflection-in-Action, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3550 - Women in the United States to 1900

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course investigates the history of women in the United States from the period surrounding European settlement to the turn of the twentieth century. Themes examined include: ideal of gender and sexuality; family life; class, racial, and ethnic diversity; labor; national expansion and empire; and social and political movements.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3600X - Women in Literature

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Analyzes works authored by and about women; studied from a feminist perspective.

Attributes: English Culture & Critique, Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3630 - Sex, Gender, & Christian Ethic

Credit(s): 3 Credits

An introduction to contemporary Christian thinking on sexuality. Students are encouraged to understand the diversity of the Christian tradition, debate the available alternatives, and come to their own well-reasoned positions. Issues covered include premarital sex, gender, contraception, and homosexuality.

Prerequisite(s): 1 Course from THEO 2000-2999

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3650 - Women's Lives

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course examines women's lives in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century United States. Looking at a wide range of different kinds of texts, including novels, photographs, essays, speeches, letters, short stories, autobiographies, and slave narratives, we will examine how women from diverse social positions produced, promoted, and challenged representations of womanhood.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3720 - Ren & Mod Political Theories

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Examines the works of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Taylor, and Mill, among others, focusing on different notions of justice, law, freedom, and community. Particular attention is paid to the public and private contexts and gendered political roles associated with modern political thought.

Attributes: Global Local Justice-Theory, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3775 - Feminist Theory-Gender Justice

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Feminist Theory: Gender Justice examines the various ways of understanding gender by looking at a variety of theories and philosophical perspectives within feminist thought, especially as it is formed by political philosophy including liberal, radical, Marxist and postmodern feminism. Sub-field in political science is Political Thought.

Attributes: UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc, UUC:Identities in Context, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3775X - Feminist Theory: Gender Justice

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Feminist Theory: Gender Justice examines the various ways of understanding gender by looking at a variety of theories and philosophical perspectives within feminist thought, especially as it is formed by political philosophy including liberal, radical, Marxist and postmodern feminism. Sub-field in political science is Political Thought.

Attributes: Global Local Justice-Theory, UG Pol Sci Thought, Social Science Req (A&S), UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc, UUC:Identities in Context, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3800 - Violence Against Women

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course focuses on the causes, effects, and institutional responses to several types of gender-based violence, including sexual assault, intimate partner violence, sexual harassment, and sex trafficking. Includes examination of the psychological, legal, sociological, and political discourse surrounding these issues. Cross-listed with CCJ 3800 and POLS 3880.

Attributes: UG Pol Sci Public Law Elective, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3840X - Analysis of Popular Culture

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Discusses methodologies used to study popular symbols, rituals, and artifacts in everyday culture, such as those in television, radio, film, print, and sport, and the social practices by which such artifacts are produced and consumed. Readings draw on literature in rhetorical criticism, critical studies, and cultural studies.

Attributes: CMM JAMS Foundations, CMM Studies Explorations, CMM Studies Foundations, UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture

WGST 3850 - Feminism in Action

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course addresses feminist activism on a wide range of issues (including domestic violence, rape, education, and health care), and in a variety of forms (including writing, theater, public protests and coalition building). It gives students the opportunity to study the scholarship of activism and to participate in feminist action.

Attributes: Catholic Studies-Elective, Global Local Justice-Service, Service Learning, UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc, UUC:Reflection-in-Action, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3910 - Internship

Credit(s): 1-6 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: UUC:Reflection-in-Action, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3930 - Special Topics

Credit(s): 3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 3980 - Independent Study

Credit(s): 1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4010 - Research Strategies in Women's and Gender Studies

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course examines the different ways in which research is conducted and how these methodologies help advance or impede feminist goals. Attention will be given to how gender theory and feminist politics can shape the kinds of research questions we ask, the types of information we use, and our relationship to the sources of our data.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4100 - Sex, Culture, and Power: Advanced Topics in Sexuality Studies

Credit(s): 3 Credits

The subject of sex is at once taken for granted—treated as self-evident and natural—and zealously scrutinized as a mysterious and potentially disruptive force. This advanced-level class will undertake a critical inquiry into this complicated terrain by examining theoretical interventions into the lived practices, social meanings, and cultural representations of human sexuality. Our examination of scholarship in the interdisciplinary field of sexuality studies will provide insight into sexuality as a source of personal and community identity as well as a site of political and cultural contestation.

Prerequisite(s): 1 Course from WGST 2100-2999

WGST 4200 - Psychology of Women

Credit(s): 3 Credits

The study of girls' and women's development, including gender roles, gender role stereotyping, the biology of being female, psychological theories about gender, violence against women, women in families, in relationships, and in the workplace. The course addresses women's diversity by race, ethnicity, culture, age, nationality, sexual orientation, and economic condition.

Attributes: Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4300X - Gender and Communication

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course explores the construction and performance of gender and identity within the context of communication.

Attributes: CMM Studies Explorations, CMM Studies Foundations, UUC:Identities in Context, UUC:Social & Behavioral Sci, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4330 - Psychology of Oppression

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course uses a family-centered approach to the study of the health care needs of women, infants, children, and adolescents. Emphasis is placed on theoretical knowledge and research findings as the basis for exploring strategies to promote, maintain, and restore health. Priority is given to significant health care issues within these populations.

Attributes: Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4330X - Psychology of Oppression

Credit(s): 3 Credits

The course teaches students how to understand the mechanisms that undermine the appreciation of multiculturalism and other forms of diversity in society. The perspective emphasizes how socially constructed definitions of various groups are used to distinguish sameness and difference among people. Topics include micro- and macro-level theories of oppression, the importance of ideology in oppressive systems, and theories of social change and liberation. (Cross-listed with WGST-4330X)

Prerequisite(s): PSY 1010

Attributes: Global Local Justice-Elective, International Studies, Psychology BA Elective, Psychology Advanced Elec, Social Science Req (A&S), Urban Poverty - Social Justice, Diversity in the US (A&S)

WGST 4350X - Stereotyping and Bias in the Mass Media

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Examines debates over stereotyping and bias in the mass media. Considers the types of materials that have aroused charges of bias and surveys the historical, economic, political, and sociological perspectives that help explain stereotyping as a cultural practice.

Attributes: CMM JAMS Foundations, UUC:Global Interdependence, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4360X - Women's Literature in Latin America

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course introduces students to the work of Latin American women writers from the Colonial period through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The discussion will focus on the history of women's education, concepts of beauty, the role of women in society, and the construction of women's identity. Taught in Spanish.

Attributes: Foreign Language BA Req (CAS), Foreign Language BS Req (CAS), IAS-Latin Am Lit & Portuguese, IAS - Spanish Literature, International Studies-Arts, Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), Spanish Electives

WGST 4390X - Contemporary Spanish Women Writers

Credit(s): 2-3 Credits

On the edges of the canon. Introduction to a century of women’s writings from the “Generation of ‘27” to present-day authors. Analysis of novels and short stories by contemporary women writers of Spain. Taught in Spanish.

Attributes: Foreign Language BA Req (CAS), Foreign Language BS Req (CAS), IAS - Spanish Literature, International Studies, International Studies-Europe, Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), Spanish Electives

WGST 4400 - Em(body)ing Inequity: Marginalized in the Medical Sciences

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course examines the existing forms of systemic sexism and racism in the medical sciences from multiple perspectives including the patient experience, healthcare worker perspectives, prescription drug trials, and the medical research—through a historical and sociological lens. Taking an intersectional approach, we will discover the history between medical sciences with racism and eugenics, male-centeredness, and heteronormativity. The course will also take a close look at the history of women's reproductive healthcare as it relates racism, such as the birth control pill, maternal mortality rates, forced sterilizations, perceptions of pain, and access to healthcare.

Attributes: Social Science Req (A&S), UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc, UUC:Social & Behavioral Sci, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4490 - 18th and 19th Century Women Writers

Credit(s): 3 Credits

An examination of the woman writer and literary tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries, including such writers as Eliza Haywood, Fanny Burney, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and Christina Rossetti.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4500 - Madonnas, Witches, Rebels: Women and Gender in Italy

Credit(s): 3 Credits

An introduction to the work of Italian women writers, thinkers, filmmakers, and artists through the lens of gender and feminist theory. Emphasis on the study of women's changing roles and experiences in Italian history, and of class, ethnic, and racial differences within Italian women.

Attributes: Film Studies, Global Citizenship (CAS), International Studies, Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4580 - Studies in 19th Century Lit

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Focus on women writers in the Nineteenth Century. Explore the evolution of the women writer's role in the emerging marketplace of mass culture; changing perceptions of gender and sexuality and women writers' responses to the rise of industrial capitalism and political reform.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4750 - American Political Thought

Credit(s): 3 Credits

From 1765 to the present. Eighteenth century consensus, nationalism versus sectionalism, nineteenth century reform movements, pragmatism and progressivism, current liberalism and conservatism.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4770 - Spanish Women Poets

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Historical analysis and literary interpretation of a representative selection of modern and contemporary Spanish women poetry. Discussion of the topics and preoccupations present in their work, and analysis of their contribution to reformulating the male canon in general. Authors: Carolina Coronado, Rosalia de Castro, Concha Zardoya, Gloria Fuertes, and Maria Victoria Atencia.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4800 - Black Women in Society

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course is designed to provide an interdisciplinary approach for the study of African women in the context of a changing society and the impact of the context from social, historical, cultural, political and economic perspectives. Attention will be devoted to the examination of relationships that have emerged between systems and societal conditions.

Attributes: African American Studies, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4810X - Philosophy of Feminism

Credit(s): 3 Credits

A critical examination of the feminist challenge to traditional conceptions of law, morality and epistemology. The philosophical and methodological assumptions underlying the feminist challenge will be explored.

Prerequisite(s): (PHIL 1050, PHIL 1700, or PHIL 1707)

Attributes: Catholic Studies-Philosophy, Global Local Justice-Elective, Philosophy Requirement (A&S), Philosophy Elective, Moral/Social Philosophy, UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc, UUC:Identities in Context, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4860 - Global & Transnational Feminism

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course offers an advanced survey of the field of theory and political activism referred to as transnational feminism. Students are introduced to the history of feminist work in international political and economic forums (e.g. the UN and World Bank), as well as to on-going feminist efforts in the context of current social movements around the globe. Cross-listed with POLS 3860.

Attributes: Global Citizenship (CAS), International Studies-Arts, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4890X - Language and Black Womanhood

Credit(s): 3 Credits

A Black feminist examination of language and Black womens' lived experiences with specific attention to intersectional identities and strategies addressing disparities, the mandate for Black womens' strength, and language use by and about Black women across communicative contexts.

Attributes: African American Studies, CMM Studies Foundations, Urban Poverty - Cycles Exclusn, Diversity in the US (A&S), Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4919 - Women's and Gender Studies Internship

Credit(s): 1-6 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

This experiential learning course challenges students to expand their knowledge by performing off-campus work. At a site chosen by the student in consultation with a faculty mentor, interns will aim to apply the insights of Women's and Gender Studies coursework to practical and intellectual challenges encountered outside of the classroom. Cross-listed with POLS 3919.

Attributes: UUC:Reflection-in-Action, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4930 - Special Topics

Credit(s): 1 or 3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4960 - Women's and Gender Studies Capstone

Credit(s): 3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Students complete an independent study, research paper or practicum in a synthesis of WGS coursework.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 4980 - Advanced Independent Study

Credit(s): 1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5010 - Feminist Theories

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course examines developments in feminist thought at the turn of the twenty-first century, highlighting core concepts and tensions accompanying the growth of the field of women’s studies. Using an intersectional range of theoretical texts and cultural criticism, it explores both historical and recent perspectives on gender, sexuality.

Attributes: Grad Pol Sci Elective, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5020 - Feminist Epistemologies

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Examination of how feminist scholarship has recontextualized epistemological issues in the philosophy of science, eco-feminism, hermeneutics, mysticism, and phenomenology. Students will write and present papers to demonstrate their integration of feminist theory and feminist epistemological issues within their own major fields of study.

Attributes: Grad Pol Sci Elective, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5030 - Feminist Research Design

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course critically interrogates the methodologies commonly used in the interdisciplinary study of women, gender, and sexuality. While honing graduate-level research skills, students will investigate the politics, ethics, and epistemological premises employed in the production of knowledge in academic and activist contexts.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5040 - Current Feminist Issues

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course examines historical and contemporary debates about controversial issues involving women, gender, social change for equality, and sexuality. Students learn to locate, express, and evaluate arguments on multiple sides of the controversies.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5050 - Program Evaluation

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course provides students with a basic understanding of the approaches and techniques used to evaluate human service programs. Course material also examines the degree to which systematic inequalities (gender, etc.) affect decisions about what is to be evaluated, the development of evaluation questions, and the collection, analysis, interpretation, and utilization of data. During the course, students gain practical experience by developing an evaluation plan for a local human service or educational program.

Attributes: Grad Pol Sci Elective, Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5150 - Gender and American Politics

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course examines the ways in which women shape, and are shaped by, American politics and public policy. We explore the history, approaches, findings and controversy in research about women in American politics and political science from a range of theoretical and methodological approaches.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5290 - Women and Global Issues

Credit(s): 3 Credits

In this class, we will explore how globalization is bringing to the fore issues that are affecting and shaping women’s lives throughout the world. Through essays, various literary pieces and films, we will examine how dichotomies that are usually identified in feminist discourse take on a renewed life as increased interconnectedness that comes with globalization shapes religious, economic, cultural and political issues.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5716 - Dismantling Oppression: Exploring Equity & Inclusion

Credit(s): 3 Credits

The course is an examination of social justice activities that seek to expose barriers created towards a realization of a more equal and just society, The focus is on differences and similarities in the experiences, needs and beliefs of people and includes perspectives on discrimination and oppression based on race, gender, class, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, mental and physical disability, and/or spiritual orientation. This course focuses on human diversity within the context of anti-oppression framework in social work. Course also addresses how group membership affects access to resources, services and opportunities and relates to risk factors for specific population groups. (Offered in Fall)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5720 - Citizenship and Social Difference

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course will examine several aspects of the embodied nature of citizenship. Looking specifically at the interplay between citizenship (as an identity, legal status, and practice) and socially constructed identities predicated upon perceived bodily differences (gender, race, and disability), we will examine the following preliminary questions: Historically, how and why has the American state denied women, people of color, and people with disabilities citizenship status? Should civil, social, and political rights, which are contingent upon citizenship status, be universal rights, or group-differentiated rights? How should we expand/amend conventional definitions of citizenship and political participation to account for the lived experiences of women, people of color, and people with disabilities? How do social constructed and maintained inequalities- via sexism, racism, and ableism- influence the practice of citizenship? Overall, this course will attempt to integrate the insights from feminist theory, critical race theory, and disability studies into an analysis of what it means to be an American citizen.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5910 - Graduate Internship

Credit(s): 3-6 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

This experiential learning course challenges students to expand their knowledge by performing dedicated work in an internship setting. At a site chosen by the student in consultation with a faculty mentor, interns will aim to apply the insights of Women's and Gender Studies coursework to practical and intellectual challenges encountered outside of the classroom.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5930 - Special Topics

Credit(s): 3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 5980 - Graduate Reading Course

Credit(s): 1-3 Credits

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 6270 - Middle English Literature

Credit(s): 3 Credits (Repeatable up to 6 credits)

Selected issues or representative figures in Middle English literature.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 6500 - Romanticism

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Selected writers and works of the Romantic period in British literature.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 6590 - 19th Century English Literature

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Studies in particular issues and developments in British literature of the nineteenth century.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 6650 - 20th Century Postcolonial Literature

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course will focus on postcolonial literature and film with attention to current critical theories and approaches. We will examine how novels, poetry, drama and films from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean have impacted postmodern culture as a whole. We will look at the various approaches that have been used to study postcolonial literature and film, including Marxist, feminist and post-structuralist. We will discuss such questions as: how have postcolonial writers and filmmakers used literature and film as tools for social change? How have they chosen to represent their identities?.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 6700 - American Political Thought

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course focuses on selected ideas, issues, and institutions that have been central to the U.S. Constitution and the practice of American constitutionalism, from the founding era to the present. Readings emphasize seminal works in American political thought, which are supplemented by historical accounts, illustrative literature, and contemporary analyses.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 6790X - Feminist Approaches to Social Work Practice

Credit(s): 3 Credits

The course is designed to clarify feminist issues and to illustrate how a feminist perspective in social work practice can facilitate individual and social change. Characteristics, values, techniques and areas of feminist practice are explored and distinguished from other theoretical models.

WGST 6833 - Employment Discrimination

Credit(s): 3 Credits

This course will provide an in-depth study of current problems win employment discrimination, including theories of discrimination, order and allocation of the burden of proof and other related issues; emphasis on the use of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and amendments, and on the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Grade will be based on a final exam.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 6875 - Family Law

Credit(s): 3 Credits

Legal relations of husband and wife with respect to person and property; conflict of laws; ante nuptial agreements; legal consequences of annulment, separation and divorce; separation agreements; division of property; alimony and maintenance; child support; child custody.

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 6930 - Special Topics: Women Studies

Credit(s): 3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies

WGST 6980 - Independent Study

Credit(s): 1 or 3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)

Attributes: Women's & Gender Studies