Feminist Sexual Ethics Project

Supported by a grant from the
Ford Foundation and Brandeis University

Contact the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project:

Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Brandeis University
Mailstop 054
P.O. Box 9110
Waltham, MA 02454

Phone 781.736.3228
Fax 781.736.2070
fse_project@brandeis.edu

Academic Programs and Research at Brandeis University

Students Working with the Project
Students enrolled in various academic programs at Brandeis University have the opportunity to become involved in the research of the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project. Our openings for graduate and undergraduate research assistants are listed here.

Academic Programs and Departments
Students enrolled at Brandeis have the opportunity to take courses related to the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project with the following programs and departments:

Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS) offers several courses in Women's Studies as well as a joint master's degree in NEJS and Women's Studies. (Read more.)
Women's Studies offers a Women and Gender Studies major; this program currently offers joint graduate degrees in several fields, including NEJS and Anthropology. (Read more.)

Related Research at Brandeis

The Women's Studies Research Center (WSRC) is an interdisciplinary think tank for scholars and artists in the field of women's studies. Programs include colloquia, lectures, conferences, art exhibits, performances, and recitals. The WSRC houses the Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women (HIRIJW); the Rebecca Clarke Society; Mistrabra: Israel-Diaspora Institute for Jewish Textual Activism; the Community, Families, and Work Program; and the Ernestine Rose Society. (Read more.)
The National Center on Women and Aging (NCWA) focuses attention on the special concerns of women as they age. NCWA develops solutions and strategies for dealing with these concerns and reaches out to women and organizations across the country, promoting the changes necessary to improve older women's lives. (Read more.)

Admissions Links

Undergraduate Admissions

Graduate Admissions

Complete Course Catalog

Spring 2007 (Usually offered every second year)

NEJS29A: Feminist Sexual Ethics in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Bernadette Brooten (MW 3:40-5:00)

Analyzes a variety of feminist critiques of religious texts and traditions and proposed innovations in theology and religious law. Examines biblical, rabbinic, and Qur'anic texts. Explores relation to US law and to the social, natural, and medical sciences.

View syllabus in Word format.

Spring 2009 (Usually offered every year)

WMGS 120B: Women and Gender in Religion

Bernadette Brooten and Amy P. Langenberg (MW 3:40-5:00)

An analysis of how gender is at the heart of religion and of how women, men, and transgendered persons are transforming religious communities today. The course will include: debates over religious leadership; religious discourse about gendered bodies; sacred texts and religious law; and images of the divine and religious ritual.

View syllabus in Word format.

Fall 2009

NEJS 29B: Slavery, Religion & Women

Bernadette Brooten (MWR 1:10-2)

Slavery is the most extreme form of power that one human being can exercise over another. Religion aims to express humanity’s highest ethical aspirations. How then does religion support slavery? Are enslaved women treated differently than enslaved men? Do slave-holding women exercise their power differently than slave-holding men? To answer these questions, female slave narratives, pro-slavery biblical interpretation, American slave religion, and biblical, early Christian, and early Rabbinic statutes and teachings are examined.

View syllabus in Word format.

Spring 2010

NEJS 148B: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Jews and Christians: Sources and Interpretations

Bernadette Brooten (MW 5:10-6:30)

Introduction to the classical Jewish and Christian sources on same-sex love and on gender ambiguity and to a variety of current interpretations of them, to the evidence for same-sex love and gender fluidity among Jews and Christians through the centuries, and to current religious and public policy debates about same-sex love and gender identity and expression.

View syllabus in Word format.