Spring 2007 Courses
Please note that the registrar's website is the official listing of courses.
Core Courses
WMGS 5a Women and Gender in Culture and Society
S. Lanser, M/W 2:00-3:30 pm
This interdisciplinary course introduces central concepts and topics in the field of women's and gender studies. Explores the position of women in diverse settings and the impact of gender as a social, cultural, and intellectual category in the United States and around the globe. Asks how gendered institutions, behaviors, and representations have been configured in the past and function in the present, and also examines the ways in which gender intersects with many other vectors of identity and circumstance in forming human affairs.
WMGS 105b Feminist Theories in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective
N. Kim, N T/F 1:30-3:00 pm
Prerequisite: Students are encouraged, though not required, to take WMGS 5a prior to enrolling in this course.
Examines diverse theories of sex and gender within a multicultural framework, considering historical changes in feminist thought, the theoretical underpinnings of various feminist practices, and the implications of diverse and often conflicting theories for both academic inquiry and social change.
WMGS 106b Women in the Health Care System
Lorraine Klerman, Th 2:00-5:00 pm
Explores the position and roles of women in the U.S. health care system and how it defines and meets women's health needs. The implications for health care providers, health care management, and health policy are discussed.
WMGS 146a Gender, Technology, and the Body
C. Castaneda, M/W 5:00-6:30 pm
Explores the ways in which specific technologies are involved in establishing gender as a natural fact or in reshaping it through bodily manipulation. Investigates technologies ranging from photography, film, and anthropometry to bodybuilding and cosmetic surgery.
WMGS 205a Graduate Foundational Course in Women's and Gender Studies
M. Smiley, T 4:30-7:30 pm
(syllabus/book list)
An advanced interdisciplinary inquiry into the history, theories, concepts and practices that have formed women's and gender studies as a scholarly field, with particular attention to current intellectual trends and critical controversies.
Elective Courses
AAAS 133b - The Literature of the Caribbean
F. Smith, M/W 2:00-3:30 pm
Cultural Differences Elective
An exploration of the narrative strategies and themes of writers of the region who grapple with issues of colonialism, class, race, ethnicity, and gender in a context of often conflicting allegiances to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
AMST 102a Women, the Environment, and Social Justice
L. Goldin, T/F 1:30-3:00 pm
Focuses on the profound and unique roles women have played in preserving and enhancing the natural environment and protecting human health. Students explore a wide range of environmental issues from the perspective of women and examine how women have been a driving force in key efforts to improve our environment. Also further explores the legal, ethical, and social issues embodied in environmental racism and classism.
AMST 121a The American Jewish Woman: 1890-1990s
J. Antler, T/F 1:30-3:00 pm
History Elective
Surveys the experiences of American Jewish women in work, politics, religion, family life, the arts, and American culture generally over the last 100 years, examining how the dual heritage of female and Jewish "otherness" shaped their often conflicted identities.
AMST 142b Love, Law and Labor: Asian American Women and Literature
S. Dave, T/F 10:30-12:00 pm
Explores the intersection of ethnicity, race, class, gender, and sexualities in the lives and literatures of diverse Asian American women. Discussion of the historical, social, political, and economic forces shaping those lives and how they are reflected in literature.
AMST 144b Signs of Imagination: Construction of Gender and Race in Popular Culture
S. Dave, T 1:30-4:30 pm
Examines how men and women are represented and represent themselves in American popular culture. Discusses the cultural contexts of the terms "femininity" and "masculinity" and various examples of the visibility and marketability of these terms today.
ANTH 127a Medicine, Body and Culture
N. Kammerer, T/F 12:00-1:30 pm
Examines main areas of inquiry in medical anthropology, including medicine as a sociocultural construct, political and economic dimensions of suffering and health, patients and healers in comparative medical systems, and the medical construction of men's and women's bodies.
ANTH 178b Culture, Gender, and Power in East Asia
E. Schattschneider, T/F 9:00-10:30 am
Cultural Differences Elective
Explores the relevance of social theory to the dynamics of culture, gender, and power in East Asia. Topics include exchange, personhood, ideology, and historical consciousness. Students will read detailed ethnographic studies set in urban and rural East Asia and view several contemporary films.
COML 122b Writing Home and Abroad: Literature by Women of Color
H. Singh, T/F 12:00-1:30 pm
Cultural Differences Elective
Examines literature (prose, poetry, and memoirs) written by women of color across a wide spectrum of geographical and cultural sites. Literature written within the confines of the "home country" in the vernacular, as well as in English in immigrant locales, is read. The intersections of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and class as contained by the larger institutions of government, religion, nationalism, and sectarian politics are examined.
ECON 69a The Economics of Race and Gender
S. Lee, T/F 12:00-1:30 pm
Prerequisite: ECON 2a
The role of race and gender in economic decision making. Mainstream and alternative economic explanations for discrimination, and analysis of the economic status of women and minorities. Discussion of specific public policies related to race, class, and gender.
ENG 145b Jane Austen: Gender, Art, and History
S. Lanser, M/W 5:00-6:30 pm
Explores Austen's writings from multiple perspectives, with particular attention to the historical and aesthetic dimensions of her work. Considers divergent interpretations of her novels and the impact of gender, not only on her novels but on their reception.
ENG 157b American Women Poets
M. Campbell, T/F 1:30-3:00 pm
Prerequisite: ENG 10a or HUM 10a or ENG 11a
Students imagine meanings for terms like "American" and "women" in relation to poetry. After introductory study of Anne Bradstreet, Phillis Wheatley, and Emily Dickinson, readings of (and about) women whose work was circulated widely, especially among other women poets, will be selected from mainly 20th-century writers.
GECS 167a German Cinema: Vamps and Angels
S. Von Mering, M/W 2:00-3:30 pm, Film screening T 6:30-9:30pm
From silent film to Leni Riefenstahl and Nazi cinema, from postwar cinema in the East and West to new German film after unification, this course traces aesthetic strategies, reflections on history, memory, subjectivity, political, cultural, and film-historical contexts with an emphasis on gender issues.
HIST 55b The History of the Family
A. Kelikian, T/F 12:00-1:30 pm
History Elective
A social history of the family in Europe from early modern to contemporary times. Topical emphasis on changing patterns in kinship and household structure, child rearing, sex-role differentiation, employment, and marriage.
HIST 157a Americans at Work: American Labor History
J. Jones, M/W/Th 11:00-12:00 pm
History Elective
(syllabus/book list)
Throughout American history, the vast majority of adults (and many children too) have worked, although not always for pay. Beginning with the colonial period, we shall explore the idea that a job is never just a job; it is also a social signifier of great value. Topics include slavery and servitude, race and gender in the workplace, household labor and its meanings, technological innovation, working-class political movements, and the role of the state in shaping patterns of work.
HIST 173b Latin American Women: Heroines, Icons, and History
S. Arrom, W 2:00-5:00 pm
Cultural Differences Elective and History Elective
(syllabus/book list)
Explores Latin American women's history by focusing on female icons and heroines such as La Malinche, Sor Juana, Eva Peron, Carmen Miranda, and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Topics include conquest, mestizaje, religion, independence, tropical exoticism, dictatorship and social movements.
HIST 211a Seminar in Comparative History
A. Kelikian, T 9:00-12:00 pm
Designed for first- and second-year graduate students. The thematic focus of the class is gender and sexuality.
MUS 150a Women and Music, Past and Present: Style, Identity, Culture
L. Curtis, T/F 9:00-10:30 am
History Elective
(syllabus/book list)
Students will engage with some significant works by women composers (spanning the classical era through the 20th century) to consider these pieces and their creators in a broader social and cultural context; and to examine the forces that have shaped the traditional canon of "Western Art Music" and consider why music by women has historically been excluded. The influence of gender ideologies of various time periods has impacted women's participation in musical life; the process of studying these historical factors will challenge our own beliefs about music, talent, creativity, gender, and their relationship with musical culture.
NEJS 29a Feminist Sexual Ethics in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
B. Brooten, M/W 3:30-5:00 pm
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 U.S. law, and to the social, natural, and medical sciences.
PSYC 160b Seminar on Sex Differences
E. Wright, T 6:30-9:30 pm
Prerequisite: PSYC 1a, 51a, 52a (formerly 152a) or permission of the instructor.
Considers research evidence bearing on sex differences in the cognitive domain and in the social domain, evaluating this evidence in light of biological, cultural, and social-cognitive theories as well as methodological issues.
SOC 130a Families
R. Zincavage, T/F 12:00-1:30 pm
Investigates changes in the character of American families over the last two centuries. A central concern will be the dynamic interactions between economic, cultural, political, and social forces and how they shape and are reshaped by families over time. Particular attention is paid to how experiences of men and women vary by class, race, and ethnicity.
SOC 138a Sociology of Gender and Race
N. Kim, T/F 10:30-12:00 pm
Cultural Differences Elective
Examines gender and race as intersecting and interacting principles that sort people into separate but unequal social groups. Analyzes how gender and race create and recreate forms of domination and subordination in labor markets, family structures, in terms of cultural representation (eg. media), and social movements.
SOC 169b Issues in Sexuality
W. Cadge, T/F 10:30-12:00
(syllabus/book list)
Explores dimensions of human sexuality. This course will take as its central tenet that humans are sexual beings and their sexuality is shaped by gender, class, race, culture, and history. It will explore the contradictory ways of understanding sexual behavior and relationships. The course intends to teach students about the social nature of sexual expression.
SPAN 195a Latinos in the
M. Negron, T/F 10:30-12:00
Cultural Differences Elective
Comparative overview of Latino literatures and film in the
Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies
Please visit web.mit.edu/gcws for additional information about GCWS.
Gender, Politics, and Nationalism
Thursdays, 5:30 - 8:30 pm
February 1 - May 10, 2007
Building 4 Room 253, MIT campus
This course will investigate the myriad ways that religion, race, and color affect women's lives within national and transnational contexts. Specifically, this course explores the contested relationship between women and nationalist, religious, and racial/color politics in the context of South Asia and the Caribbean. It will investigate ways in which gender, religious and racial identities intersect with ethnic and national ones in the emergence of social movements. Further, the course will examine the multiple ways religiosity, nationality, feminism, and political perspective are constructed, experienced, and practiced, and highlight the complex ways in which they inform one another. It seeks to examine ways in which nationalist politics has created opportunities for women's activism while simultaneously undermining their autonomy, and to complicate and explore how nation-states define and use women and how these citizens/agents negotiate these definitions and uses.
Specific topics addressed include: the relationship of gender to nationalism and formation of nation-states, and nationalist movements, women's participation in national movements and anti-colonial struggles, effects of globalization, development, and transnational institutions; and the interrelation of race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and religion in national identity constructions.
Faculty:
ELORA H. CHOWDHURY is an Assistant Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her areas of interest include critical development studies, Third World/transnational feminisms, gender and social movements in South Asia, and feminist ethnography.
RHONDA FREDERICK (Associate Professor, English) teaches Caribbean and African American literatures at Boston College. She is also interested in American literatures, particularly 20th Century women's fiction, science fiction and fantasy, detective/mystery fiction, and literatures of the African Diaspora. Her research interests include Caribbean and Post-colonial Studies, Cultural Studies, and narratives of migration. Through a research fellowship funded by the NEH/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Harlem, New York), she completed a manuscript that examines Caribbean literature's recurrent figure of the Panamá Canal worker, entitled "Colón Man a Come": Mythographies of Panamá Canal Migration (Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).
Gender, Armed Conflict, and Peacemaking
Wednesdays, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
January 31 - May 9, 2007
Building 4 Room 253, MIT campus
Peace Keeping operations involving both military and civilian personnel have been deployed in a number of countries such as Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan. These interventions have come about following intense levels of violence, breakdown in law and order, systems of governance and social systems as well as violations of human rights. This course is designed to review the phenomena of conflict, forced migration and militarization from a gender perspective to highlight the policy and operational implications that arise from this analysis.
The gendered nature of conflict and intervention will be explored from a multi-disciplinary framework involving anthropology, sociology, policy analysis, philosophy and the arts. Presenters will utilize literature, poetry, film, witness testimonies from the field, ethnographic narratives and other resources to explore the complex ways in which women and men experience, manage and respond to violence and situations of protracted crisis.
Faculty:
CAROL COHN is the Director of the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security, and Human Rights. Her research and writing has focused on gender and international security, ranging from work on discourse of civilian defense intellectuals, gender integration issues in the US military, and, most extensively, weapons of mass destruction. Her most recent research examines gender mainstreaming in international peace and security institutions; a central focus is the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and the on-going efforts to ensure its implementation at the international and grassroots levels.
GORDANA RABRENOVIC is Associate Professor of Sociology and Education and Associate Director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University. Her substantive specialties include community studies, urban education and inter group conflict and violence. Her most recent book is Why We Hate (2004) co-authored with Jack Levin.
LISA RIVERA is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her areas of specialization are moral and political theory, feminist philosophy and ethics in international affairs. Her recent work defends transnational rights to subsistence and considers moral responsibility in war.
Gender, Race, and the Construction of the American West, 1880 - 1945
Thursdays, 5:30 - 8:30 pm
February 1 - May 10, 2007
Building 32, Room 124, MIT campus
This course explores the historical experiences and cultural productions of women in the North American West during the time it was being explored, settled, and imagined. Challenging the myths of western expansion as an exclusively male endeavor, and the formation of western myth and enterprise as exclusively male domains, the course pays particular attention to the roles of women in promoting, resisting, transforming, and constructing the trans-Mississippi West as reality and imaginary.
The North American West of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provides a fascinating case study of the shifting meanings of gender, race, citizenship, and power in border societies. As the site of migration, settlement, and displacement, it spawned contests over land, labor disputes, inter-ethnic conflicts and peaceful relations, and many kinds of cultural productions.
Faculty:
KAREN V. HANSEN is Professor of Sociology & Women's and Gender Studies at Brandeis University. She teaches courses on feminist theory, historical methods, and families. Her research on the upper Great Plains analyzes the relationships between Scandinavian immigrants and the Dakota people at the turn of the twentieth century. She has published Not-So-Nuclear Families: Class, Gender, and Networks of Care for Children and A Very Social Time: Crafting Community in Antebellum New England , and co-edited two anthologies, Families in the U.S.: Kinship and Domestic Politics and Women, Class, and the Feminist Imagination .
MARILYNN S. JOHNSON is Professor of History at Boston College where she teaches modern U.S. social history and the history of the American West. She is the author of The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II and Street Justice: A History of Police Violence in New York City . In 2002 she was co-curator of "Cowboys, Indians and the Big Picture," an exhibition of western art at the McMullen Museum at Boston College. She is currently completing an edited collection entitled Violence in the American West: The Mining and Range Wars .
LOIS RUDNICK is Professor of English and American Studies, and director of the American Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she teaches courses on Immigration and Multi-Ethnic History and Literature, and on Modern American Literature and Culture. She has published widely on modern American culture, on the literature and arts of New Mexico, and on American Studies pedagogy. Her books include American Identities: An Introductory Textbook ; Ma bel Dodge Luhan: New Woman New Worlds ; Utopian Vistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and the American Counterculture , and 1915, the Cultural Moment: the New Politics, the New Woman, the New Psychology, the New Art, and the New Theatre in America , edited with Adele Heller.