Courses of Study
Sections
An interdepartmental program in Women's and Gender Studies
Last updated: August 19, 2011 at 2:10 p.m.
Women's and gender studies draws on the humanities, arts, and social and biological sciences to explore the broad range of intellectual questions concerning both the social positions of women and the gendered constructions of knowledge, identity, and culture. Students in the program have the opportunity to study theories of feminism, gender, and sexuality; the diversity of women's experiences and representations past and present; and women's movements in the United States and around the globe. This curriculum brings students into contact with the extensive research on women, gender, and feminism that has burgeoned during the past thirty years, as well as with historical and cross-cultural knowledge that recognizes the intersections of gender with race, class, religion, sexuality, ethnicity, age, ability, and nationality.
Graduate Programs in Women's and Gender Studies
The Women's and Gender Studies Program (WGS) offers a stand-alone MA program as well as a number of joint master’s programs outlined below. WGS provides a strong grounding in discipline-specific studies along with an interdisciplinary education in the theories, methods, and scholarship of women's and gender studies. By introducing students to current research in a variety of fields, master’s degree programs generate cross-disciplinary dialogue and prepare students for positions and professions in women's and gender studies. Students enrolled in PhD programs in eight different fields are eligible to undertake the joint MA. Seven fields—five in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (anthropology, English, music, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, sociology) and two in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management (public policy, and sustainable international development)—offer a terminal master’s with women's and gender studies.
Women’s and Gender Studies draws upon the full range of the human arts and sciences to examine women’s past and present experiences; representations of women in diverse cultures; the diversity of gender and sexuality within and across cultures; and concepts, structures, and practices that underwrite gender and sexuality as social categories. Students in our program have the opportunity to study the global and historical range of women’s lives, works, and circumstances; to scrutinize different theoretical frameworks that seek to describe, explain, and remedy sexual inequalities and gender inequities; and to encounter current findings and debates within the field. As it engages students with the extensive research on women, gender, and sexuality that has burgeoned during the past thirty years, as well as with creative work focusing on gender and sexuality, our curriculum is particularly committed to addressing the intersections of gender with race, class, nation, religion, age, sexuality, and ethnicity, among other critical vectors of identity.
Knowledge:
Students completing the major in women’s and gender studies will be able to:
- Analyze women’s lives, roles and experience in contemporary and historical global contexts
- Understand gender as a dynamic component of human existence across cultures and academic disciplines
- Understand how gender and sexuality intersect with other complex categories, including race, class, ethnicity, disability, religion and age
- Understand and rethink gender’s impact on other disciplines
- Use gender and sexuality as categories of analysis in diverse fields of the academy and in the wider world
- Articulate an understanding of feminism in a national and global context
- Learn and apply feminist and other gender-based methodologies addressing distinct cultures and historical periods
Core Skills(Goals for the major):
- Read and interpret texts and/or data from a variety of disciplines, historical periods, and cultures
- Conceptualize, develop, and engage in complex research both orally and in writing
- Create scholarly research that questions assumptions about women, gender, and sexuality
- Analyze the situation of real individuals in the world and the understandings of gender within a range of global societies and historical periods
Social Justice:
Women’s and gender studies as a field is explicitly committed to fostering justice for all women, men, and gender non-conforming individuals world-wide. It is thus necessarily concerned with the structural inequalities wrought not only by sexism but by racism, economic exploitation, imperialism, global traffic, religious oppression, homophobia, and transphobia, among other instruments or expressions of inequality. Our Women’s and Gender Studies Program has pledged as a primary commitment to prepare students to analyze systems of power and privilege, to examine the causes, manifestations, and consequences of institutional discrimination of every kind, and to understand and respect a range of cultural perspectives. This commitment necessarily means learning about the different experiences and struggles of women both around the world and within the United States. Not only the topics in our curriculum but the writings, theories, and empirical research we assign are deliberately diverse in the ethnicity, race, sexuality, gender identity, and nationality of their authors. As a program we are committed to what has been recently identified as intersectionality: a theory that recognizes the interconnected nature of experience, discrimination, and privilege, and that explores the interactive ways in which identities intersect or converge to form patterns of dominance, subordination, exclusion and possibility.
Experiential Learning:
Because women’s and gender studies developed in conjunction with a wider movement for social justice and because studying women’s lives past and present necessarily means confronting social, political, economic and cultural inequalities, women’s studies tends to encourage students toward experiential and activist learning. (Sometimes the movement lies in the other direction: students already concerned about injustice are motivated to gain the intellectual background to act effectively.) Our program provides particular opportunities for service learning and is developing new ones. In the 1990s the Program established an annual internship course, When Violence Hits Home: Internship in Domestic Violence (WMNS 92a). This course provides students with a rigorous intellectual study of gender and violence as well as guidance through a semester-long internship. Many students have extended their internships into the full year, have drawn their senior projects from this field, and have gone on to related careers.
Upon Graduation:
The women's and gender studies curriculum prepares students for a wide range of careers. Graduates of our program are applying their skills and knowledge to academic and professional pursuits in medicine, law, education, government, social service, public policy, religion, counseling, international relations, journalism, publishing, business, and the arts.
As early as possible in their academic careers, students interested in women's and gender studies should take WMGS 5a (Women and Gender in Culture and Society), the required introduction to the field. In order to declare a major or minor, each student should meet with the women's and gender studies undergraduate advising head, who will help him or her select an adviser a faculty member well suited to the student's academic interests. The adviser will help to plan a course of study tailored to the student's intellectual and professional interests, while meeting the core and elective requirements for the degree.
The first option is a terminal master’s degree in women’s and gender studies. The MA program is a full-time, two semester program (8 courses) that offers students grounding in feminist and gender theory, knowledge, and methodologies.
Prospective students apply to the WGS program through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The general requirements for admission to the Graduate School apply to candidates for admission to graduate study in women’s and gender studies. Admission decisions are based primarily on the candidate's undergraduate academic record, letters of recommendation, Graduate Record Examination scores, writing sample, and the personal statement that is part of the application form.
The second option is a joint terminal master's degree in women's and gender studies in conjunction with one of the following seven fields: anthropology, English, music, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, public policy, sociology, or sustainable international development. This degree option may require one or two calendar years, depending on requirements in the affiliated program.
Prospective students apply to one of the seven home departments through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences or the Heller School. For specific admission requirements, see the Bulletin section of the home department in which there is interest in pursuing a joint degree.
The third option is a joint master's degree while in pursuit of a PhD in one of the following eight fields: anthropology, English, history, music, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, psychology, social policy (Heller School), or sociology. This degree option replaces a master's degree in the student's program.
Current Brandeis PhD students may pursue the joint MA at any time during their graduate career with the approval of their adviser and the women's and gender studies program. Prospective PhD students interested in pursuing a joint MA must apply directly to the PhD program through the home department, but should note their interest in the joint program in their statement of purpose.
Students pursuing the joint MA are encouraged to enroll in courses offered by the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies at MIT.
James Mandrell, Chair
(Romance Studies)
Joyce Antler
(American Studies)
Silvia Arrom
(History)
Sarita Bhalotra
(Heller School)
Elizabeth Brainerd
(Economics)
Bernadette Brooten, Joint MA Adviser, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Dian Fox, Undergraduate Advising Head
(Romance Studies)
ChaeRan Freeze, Director of Graduate Studies
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Karen Hansen, Joint MA Adviser, Sociology
(Sociology)
Anita Hill, Joint MA Adviser, Social Policy and Management
(Heller School)
Jane Kamensky, Joint MA Adviser, History
(History)
Thomas King
(English)
Ann Koloski-Ostrow
(Classical Studies)
Sarah Lamb, Joint MA Adviser, Anthropology
(Anthropology)
Susan Lanser, Joint MA Adviser, English
(English; Comparative Literature)
Ellen Schattschneider
(Anthropology)
Harleen Singh
(German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
Marion Smiley
(Philosophy)
Faith Smith
(African and Afro-American Studies; English)
Sabine von Mering
(German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman
(English)
Marc Brettler
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Olga Broumas
(English)
Wendy Cadge
(Sociology)
Mary Campbell
(English)
Shilpa Davé
(American Studies)
Susan Dibble
(Theater Arts)
Christina Espinosa
(Heller School)
Gordon Fellman
(Sociology)
Elizabeth Ferry
(Anthropology)
Sylvia Fishman
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Matthew Fraleigh
(German, Russian, and East Asian Languages and Literature)
David Gil
(Heller School)
Laura Goldin
(American Studies)
Jill Greenlee
(Politics)
Jane Hale
(Romance Studies)
Deirdre Hunter
(Women's and Gender Studies)
Caren Irr
(English)
Alice Kelikian
(History)
Jytte Klausen
(Politics)
Adrianne Krstansky
(Theater Arts)
Nidhiya Menon
(Economics)
Robin Feuer Miller
(German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
Paul Morrison
(English)
Nancy Scott
(Fine Arts)
Mitra Shavarini
(Women's and Gender Studies)
Sara Shostak
(Sociology)
Ilana Szobel
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Eva Thorne
(Politics)
Judith Tsipis
(Biology)
Lawrence Wangh
(Biology)
(Psychology)
B. Four additional semester courses that carry the WMGS designation or are approved as women's and gender studies electives. No more than two of these courses may come from a single department or program.
No course with a final grade below C- can count toward fulfilling the requirements for the minor in women’s and gender studies. No course counting for the minor may be taken on a pass/fail basis.
All minors are encouraged to submit a senior paper on women's and gender studies to be considered for the Giller-Sagan Prize.
A. Three core courses are required: WMGS 5a (Women and Gender in Culture and Society), WMGS 105b (Feminist Theories in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective), and WMGS 198a (Research Seminar). Ordinarily, WMGS 198a will be offered each fall, WMGS 105b each spring, and WMGS 5a typically in both semesters. With permission of the undergraduate advising head, students may be allowed to substitute another feminist theory course for WMGS 105b.
B. Six additional courses that either carry the WMGS designation or are approved as women's and gender studies electives. These six courses must meet the following additional requirements:
1. At least one course must have a historical focus encompassing a period before 1945. Courses that fulfill this requirement include but are not limited to: AMST 40a, AMST 118a, AMST 121a, AMST 124b, AMST/SOC 125a, CLAS 140a, ENG 28b, ENG 46a, ENG 64b, ENG 114b, ENG 144b, ENG 145b, ENG 234a, FA 69b, FA 157a, GECS 150a, HISP 125b, HIST 55b, HIST 153a, HIST 154b, HIST 157a, HIST 173b, HIST 179a, MUS 150a, NEJS 29b, NEJS 115b, NEJS 128b, NEJS 148b, NEJS 175a, RECS 137a, SAS 170b.
2. At least one course must engage in a systematic and comprehensive exploration of cultural differences, including racial, class and/or ethnic difference within or across cultures. These courses include but are not limited to: AAAS 125b, AAAS 133b, AMST 144b, ANTH 144a, ANTH 145a, ANTH 178b, COML 122b, ENG 87a, ENG 107a, ENG 197b, HISP 195a, HIST 173b, NEJS 29b, NEJS 196a, POL 130b, SAS 101a, SAS 110b, SOC 138a, WMGS 120b, WMGS 140a, WMGS 141a.
3. No more than three courses may be taken from any one department or program outside women's and gender studies.
4. Students are strongly encouraged to undertake an internship in women's and gender studies as one of their electives.
C. Completion of a senior essay or thesis. The research seminar (WMGS 198a) will guide students in designing and writing a senior paper. Students must receive a C or higher on their senior essay and two WGS core faculty members must sign off on the completed essay in order to fulfill the requirement.
Students are encouraged to revise the essay based on the comments of their core faculty readers and submit the revised copy to be considered for the Giller-Sagan Prize at the end of the spring term.
Courses that fulfill university requirements or requirements for another major may also count toward the major in women's and gender studies.
Students who wish to receive honors in women's and gender studies are required to complete a senior thesis. These students should enroll in the Research Seminar (WMGS 198a) during the fall semester and in Senior Thesis Research (WMGS 99b) during the spring. WMGS 99a and b do not count as one of the nine courses required for the major.
No course with a final grade below C- can count toward fulfilling the requirements for the major in women’s and gender studies.
No course counting for the major may be taken on a pass/fail basis. However, students who maintain a grade average of 3.3 or higher in their women's and gender studies courses will be permitted to count toward the major one credit-bearing peer assistantship in women's and gender studies.
Brandeis undergraduates who are NEJS or IMES majors with either a second major in WMGS or a minor in WMGS are invited in their senior year to apply for admission to the BA/MA joint degree in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies & Women's and Gender Studies. Students must complete all requirements and earn the BA, including the successful completion of the major in NEJS or IMES prior to the start of the one-year master's program.
Program of Study
Fourteen courses are required:
A. Internal transfer credit: seven Brandeis undergraduate courses (NEJS, IMES, WMGS, and/or approved cross-listed courses) numbered 100 or above for which grades of B- or higher have been earned.
B. Seven courses taken in the fifth year: four approved NEJS electives and three WMGS courses approved by the program adviser. Between the BA and the MA the following WMGS courses must be completed: a course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the feminist inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies, or an alternate), WMGS 205a and two elective courses in WMGS, one inside and one outside the NEJS department.
C. Successful completion of one of the following: a comprehensive examination, a culminating project or a master’s thesis. If a master’s thesis encompasses both a NEJS and a WMGS component it will satisfy requirement E below.
D. Participation in a year-long noncredit Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Proseminar.
E. Joint MA paper requirement: Completion of a master’s research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department, and one of whom is a member of the women’s and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
Resident Requirement
One year of full-time residence (the fifth year) is required subsequent to completing the BA.
Language Requirement
All candidates are required to demonstrate proficiency in Biblical or Modern Hebrew or in Arabic.
Program of Study
Candidates for the degree of masters of arts in women’s and gender studies must fulfill the residence requirement of one full year of coursework (eight semester courses), and successfully complete the following course requirements:
A. WMGS 205a, the graduate foundational course in women’s and gender studies.
B. A course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the Feminist Inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies).
C. Six elective graduate courses, four of which must be cross listed with WGS. Students must complete a coherent course of study that is approved by a faculty advisor.
D. Participation in a year-long noncredit women’s and gender studies graduate proseminar that meets six times each semester.
E. Joint MA Paper Requirement: Completion of a master’s research paper of professional quality and length (normally 25-40 pages) on a topic related to the course of study. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom must be a member of the women’s and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
Program of Study
Candidates for the joint degree of Master of Arts in anthropology & women's and gender studies fulfill the residence requirement of one full year of course work (eight semester courses), and complete the following course requirements:
A. The graduate foundational course in the history of anthropology (ANTH 201a).
B. Anthropology of Gender (ANTH 144a).
C. WMGS 205a or another course designated as a graduate foundational course in women's and gender studies.
D. A course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the feminist inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies.
E. Four elective graduate courses, including one in women's and gender studies, from a field other than anthropology, selected with the approval of the student's faculty adviser.
F. Participation in a year-long noncredit women's and gender studies graduate proseminar.
G. Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the anthropology department and one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
Language Requirement
There is no foreign language requirement for the joint master's degree.
Program of Study
A. WMGS 205a, the foundational course in women's and gender studies.
B. One course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the Feminist Inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies).
C. Five additional courses in the English department selected from 100-level courses and graduate seminars (200-level courses). At least three of these courses must be at the 200 level. One of these courses must be listed as an elective with the women's and gender studies program.
D. One women's and gender studies course in a department other than the English department.
E. Participation in a year-long noncredit women's and gender studies graduate proseminar.
F. Language requirement: A reading knowledge of a major foreign language (normally modern European or classical Greek or Latin) must be demonstrated by passing a written translation examination. The completion of the language requirement at another university does not exempt the student from the Brandeis requirement.
G. Joint MA paper requirement: Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, at least one of whom is a member of the English department, and at least one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
Program of Study
During the course of their work toward the PhD, students in history may earn a joint MA with women's and gender studies by completing the following requirements in conjunction with program requirements for the MA.
A. WMGS 205a, the foundational course in women's and gender studies.
B. One course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the feminist inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies).
C. Two elective courses in women's and gender studies, one inside and one outside the history department.
D. Participation in a year-long noncredit women's and gender studies graduate proseminar.
E. Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the history department and one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
A. WMGS 205a, the foundational course in women's and gender studies.
B. One course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a, or the feminist inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies).
C. Two courses at the graduate level listed as electives in women's and gender studies, one in music and one from another department.
D. Two courses at the graduate level in the music department.
E. Participation in the year-long women's and gender studies graduate proseminar.
F. Attendance at all departmental colloquia.
G. Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the music department and one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
Language Requirement
There is no foreign language requirement for the joint master's degree.
Residence Requirement
One year.
Requirements for the Joint Degree of Master of Arts in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies & Women's and Gender Studies
Program of Study
Courses must include:
A. WMGS 205a, the foundational course in women's and gender studies.
B. A course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the feminist inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies).
C. Two elective courses in women’s and gender studies, one inside and one outside the NEJS department.
D. The remaining courses must be jointly approved by each student's NEJS adviser and by the NEJS women's and gender studies adviser.
E. Participation in a year-long noncredit women's and gender studies graduate proseminar.
F. Successful completion of one of the following: a comprehensive examination, a culminating project or a master’s thesis. If a master’s thesis encompasses both a NEJS and a WGS component it will satisfy requirement G below.
G. Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department and one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
H. All candidates are required to demonstrate language proficiency, normally in biblical or modern Hebrew or Arabic. The language requirement for Hebrew or Arabic may be fulfilled in one of two ways:
1. By enrolling in and receiving a grade of B- or higher in a 40-level or higher Hebrew or Arabic course, or by passing a classical Hebrew text course, or modern Hebrew literature course taught in Hebrew;
2. By passing the language examination offered by the advisor or by the Hebrew faculty or Arabic faculty.
I. All candidates for the Master of Arts degree are required to pass a comprehensive examination.
Residence Requirement
Ordinarily, two years of full-time residence are required at the normal course rate of seven courses each academic year. Students who enter with graduate credit from other recognized institutions may apply for transfer credit for up to four courses, or, with prior approval of the MA adviser, candidates may receive transfer credit for up to four courses at a university abroad.
Interested students must first be admitted to the PhD program.
A. PSYC 210a and b (Advanced Psychological Statistics I and II).
B. PSYC 211a (Graduate Research Methods in Psychology).
C. PSYC 300a and 302a (Proseminar in Brain, Body and Behavior I and II).
D. A PSYC course numbered PSYC 220 through PSYC 240 with successful completion of first-year research project in psychology, reported in APA manuscript format. This project must be on an issue relevant to women's and gender studies, and will be read, and must be accepted by two faculty members from the psychology department, one of whom should be a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty. If neither faculty member is associated with women's and gender studies, then a third faculty member from the women's and gender studies program must be included on the review committee. This paper will serve as the master's research paper.
E. A course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the Feminist Inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies.
F. One additional course from 100-level courses in psychology.
G. WMGS 205a, the foundational course in women's and gender studies.
H. Two elective courses in women's and gender studies.
I. Participation in a year-long noncredit women's and gender studies graduate proseminar.
J. Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the psychology department and one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
Students must fulfill all core requirements for the MPP as described in the Heller School section found elsewhere in this Bulletin as well as the following:
A. WMGS 205a, the foundational course in women's and gender studies.
B. One course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the Feminist Inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies).
C. Two elective graduate courses in women’s and gender studies (one inside the Heller School and one outside the Heller School)
D. Participation in a year-long noncredit women’s and gender studies graduate proseminar.
E. Completion of a master’s research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The MPP Capstone policy paper can fulfill this requirement as long as it is on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, at least one of whom is a member of the Heller School faculty, and at least one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
F. Courses in both programs will be reviewed to determine which would satisfy the requirements for both programs.
Please refer to the Heller School section found elsewhere in this Bulletin for complete information on MPP policies and procedures.
Program of Study
Interested students myst first be admitted to the PhD program.
A. WMGS 205a, the foundational course in women's and gender studies.
B. A course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the feminist inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies).
C. Two courses cross-listed with women's and gender studies (one inside the Heller School and one in any department other than the Heller School).
D. Participation in a year-long noncredit women's and gender studies graduate proseminar.
E. Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the Heller School faculty and one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
Please refer to the Heller School section found elsewhere in this Bulletin for complete information on PhD policies and procedures as this MA is open only to PhD students in social policy.
A. WMGS 205a, the foundational course in women's and gender studies.
B. One course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the feminist inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies).
C. Two elective graduate courses in women's and gender studies, one inside and one outside the sociology department.
D. Three graduate sociology courses (one theory, one outside the area of gender, and one elective, which could be a directed reading).
E. Participation in the year-long noncredit women's and gender studies graduate proseminar.
F. Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members one of whom is a member of the Sociology department, and one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
Language Requirement
There is no foreign language requirement for the joint master's degree.
Residence Requirement
One year.
Requirements for the Joint Degree of Master of Arts in Sustainable International Development & Women's and Gender Studies
Program of Study
Students must fulfill all first-year requirements for the MA in Sustainable International Development as described in the Heller School section found elsewhere in this Bulletin as well as the following:
A. WMGS 205a, the foundational course in women's and gender studies..
B. A course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 198a or the Feminist Inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies).
C. Two elective graduate courses in women's and gender studies (one inside the Heller School and one outside the Heller School).
D. Participation in a year-long noncredit women's and gender studies graduate proseminar.
E. Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the Heller core or adjunct faculty and one of whom is a member of the women's and gender studies core or affiliate faculty.
F. Participation in the SID/MA Capstone Week
G. Courses in both programs will be reviewed to determine which would satisfy the requirements for both programs.
Please refer to the Heller School section found elsewhere in this Bulletin for complete information on MA policies and procedures.
Courses of Instruction
(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
WMGS
5a
Women and Gender in Culture and Society
[
ss
]
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. Usually offered every fall and spring.
Ms. Fox, Ms. Freeze, Ms. Lanser, or Ms. Singh
WMGS
6b
Sexuality and Queer Studies
[
hum
ss
]
Examines cross-cultural and historical perspectives on sexual meanings, experiences, representations, and activist movements within a framework forged by contemporary critical theories of gender and sexuality. Usually offered every year.
Staff
WMGS
89a
When Violence Hits Home: Internship in Domestic Violence
This is an experiential learning course.
Combines fieldwork in domestic and sexual violence prevention programs with a fortnightly seminar exploring cultural and interpersonal facets of violence from a feminist perspective. Topics include theories, causes and prevention of rape, battering, child abuse, and animal abuse. Internships provide practical experience in local organizations such as rape crisis, battered women's violence prevention, and child abuse prevention programs. Usually offered every fall.
Ms. Hunter
WMGS
92a
Internship and Analysis
Usually offered every semester.
Staff
WMGS
98a
Independent Study
Independent readings, research, and writing on a subject of the student's interest under the direction of a faculty adviser. Usually offered every year.
Staff
WMGS
98b
Independent Study
See WMGS 98a for special notes and course description. Usually offered every year.
Staff
WMGS
99a
Senior Research Project
Independent research and writing under faculty direction, for the purpose of completion of the women's and gender studies senior honors thesis. Usually offered every year.
Staff
WMGS
99b
Senior Research
See WMGS 99a for special notes and course description. Usually offered every year.
Staff
(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students
WMGS
105b
Feminist Theories in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective
[
ss
]
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. Usually offered every spring.
Ms. Smith
WMGS
106b
Women in the Health Care System
[
ss
]
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. Usually offered every spring.
Ms. Klerman or Ms. Bhalotra
WMGS
120b
Women and Gender in Religion
[
hum
]
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. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Brooten and Ms. Langenberg
WMGS
140a
Diversity of Muslim Women's Experience
[
ss
]
A broad introduction to the multidimensional nature of women's experiences in the Muslim world. As both a cultural and religious element in this vast region, understanding Islam in relation to lives of women has become increasingly imperative. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Shavarini
WMGS
141a
Gender in Iranian Cinema
[
hum
nw
]
With a primary focus on gender, this class explores post-Revolutionary Iranian cinema. Topics include politics; family relationships; women's social, economic, and political roles; and Iran's religious structure. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Mandrell and Ms. Shavarini
WMGS
198a
Women's and Gender Studies Research Seminar
[
ss
]
This is an experiential learning course.
Examines theories and practices of feminist scholarship and introduces interdisciplinary methodologies in order to guide students in designing and completing an independent research project. Usually offered every year in the fall.
Ms. Antler and Mr. Mandrell
(200 and above) Primarily for Graduate Students
WMGS
205a
Graduate Foundational Course in Women's and Gender Studies
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. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Singh or Ms. Smiley
WMGS
292a
Graduate Internship
Staff
WMGS
298a
Independent Study
Staff
WMGS
299a
Directed Readings in Women's and Gender Studies
Usually offered every year.
Staff
WMGS
299b
Directed Readings in Women's and Gender Studies
Usually offered every year.
Staff
Women's and Gender Studies Elective Courses
The following courses are approved for the program. Not all are given in any one year. Please consult the Schedule of Classes each semester.
AMST
102a
Environment, Social Justice, and the Role of Women
[
oc
ss
wi
]
This is an experiential learning course. Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.
This community-engaged course involves students first-hand in the legal, policy, science, history and social impacts of current environmental health issues challenging individuals and families and communities today, with a particular focus on low-income, immigrant communities and the profound and unique roles played by women. Students will engage directly in the topics through field trips, visiting speakers and discussions with stakeholders themselves. They also will address the issues by collaborating in projects with local organizations, and assisting low income residents in Waltham at the Tenant Advocacy Clinic.Usually offered every semester.
Ms. Goldin
AMST
102aj
Environment, Social Justice, and Empowerment
[
oc
ss
wi
]
Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.
This community-engaged course involves students first-hand in the legal, policy, science, history and social impacts of current environmental health issues challenging individuals and families and communities today, with a particular focus on low-income, immigrant communities and the profound and unique roles played by women. Students will engage directly in the topics through field trips, visiting speakers and discussions with stakeholders themselves. They also will address the issues by assisting low income residents in Waltham at the Tenant Advocacy Clinic, and collaborating in projects with EPA, DEP and local organizations such as Healthy Waltham, the Waltham Family School, Waltham Family YMCA, Jewish Family and Children's Service, Joseph Smith Community Health Center and others. Offered ast part of JBS program.
Ms. Goldin
AMST
127b
Women and American Popular Culture
[
ss
]
Examines women's diverse representations and participation in the popular culture of the United States. Using historical studies, advertising, film, television, music, and literature, discusses how constructions of race, gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, and religion have shaped women's encounters with popular and mass culture. Topics include women and modernity, leisure and work, women's roles in the rise of consumer culture and relation to technology, representations of sexuality, and the impact of feminism. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Davé
AMST
139b
Race and Gender in the News
[
ss
]
Examines the ways in which news coverage of women and minorities has both shaped our understanding of gender and race in the United States and influenced the tone and content of public discourse on such policy matters as gay marriage, pay equity, and racial profiling. We will consider the implications of the historical under-representation of women and minorities in the nation's newsrooms for efforts to combat cultural stereotyping of blacks, women, ethnic minorities and the GLBT community. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. McNamara
AMST
142b
Love, Law, and Labor: Asian American Women and Literature
[
ss
]
Explores the intersection of ethnicity, race, class, gender, and sexualities in the lives and literatures of diverse Asian American women. Discusses the historical, social, political, and economic forces shaping those lives and how they are reflected in literature. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Davé
ANTH
127a
Medicine, Body, and Culture
[
nw
ss
]
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. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Lamb, Ms. Kammerer or Ms. McCullough
BIOL
160b
Human Reproductive and Developmental Biology
[
sn
]
Prerequisites: BIOL 22a and b.
Course deals with hormonal, cellular, and molecular aspects of gametogenesis, fertilization, pregnancy, and birth. Pathological and abnormal variations that occur and the available medical technologies for intervention, correction, and facilitation of these processes are discussed. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Jackson
ECON
69a
The Economics of Race and Gender
[
ss
]
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. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brainerd
ENG
16a
Slavery and Self-Making in African American Literature
[
hum
]
Critical investigation of African American writing as it engages slavery, freedom, and literary self-fashioning. We will read autobiographies, uplift novels, protest fiction and neo-slave narratives. Particular attention will be paid to issues of identity, sexuality, and social status; textual modes of representation and liberatory politics; the literary culture of sentiment; and African American constructions and contestations of race, gender, nation, and expressive culture since the antebellum period. Authors may include Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Gayl Jones, Harriet Wilson, William Wells Brown, Frances E. W. Harper, Pauline Hopkins, and Toni Morrison. Contemporary films may include Sankofa, Amistad, and Daughters of the Dust. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman or Ms. Smith
ENG
78a
Virginia Woolf
[
hum
]
An immersion in Woolf's astonishing body of writing. How did her fiction and non-fiction re-imagine the self in the changing social worlds of the early twentieth century? How did her experiments with narrative open new understandings of gender, sexuality, war, the knowing subject, the dimensions of space and time> A chronological survey of her diverse forms of writing that energized, all at once, modernist aesthetics, feminist politics, and philosophical speculation. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sherman
ENG
87b
Queer Readings: Beyond Stonewall
[
hum
]
How have LGBTQ writers explored the consolidation, diaspora, and contestation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer personhoods since the 1960s? Texts include fiction, poetry, drama, memoirs, and film. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. King
ENG
121a
Sex and Culture
[
hum
]
An exploration of the virtually unlimited explanatory power attributed to sexuality in the modern world. "Texts" include examples from literature, film, television, pornography, sexology, and theory. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Morrison
ENG
127b
Migrating Bodies, Migrating Texts
[
hum
]
Beginning with the region's representation as a tabula rasa, examines the textual and visual constructions of the Caribbean as colony, homeland, backyard, paradise, and Babylon, and how the region's migrations have prompted ideas about evolution, hedonism, imperialism, nationalism, and diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith
ENG
128a
Alternative Worlds: Modern Utopian Texts
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: ENG 1a or ENG 11a.
British, European, and American works depicting alternate, often "better" worlds, including More's Utopia, Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World, Voltaire's Candide, Casanova's Icosameron, selections from Charles Fourier, Alexander Bogdanov's Red Star, Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis: Dawn, Wolfgang Becker's Goodbye Lenin! Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Campbell
ENG
131b
Feminist Theory
[
hum
]
Introduces students to critical feminist thought by focusing closely each year on a different specific "problem," for example: nineteenth- and twentieth-century modernity as manifested in the development of globalizing capitalism, the racialized democratic citizen and wage work; our understanding of cultural production; debates about the nature, applications, and constitution of feminist theory. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
ENG
138a
Making Modern Subjects: Empire, Citizenship, Intimacy
[
hum
]
Considers inflections of "the modern" across the Americas, allowing us to compare models and strategies at a historical moment when shifts from slavery to "freedom" and from Europe to the U.S.A., frame anxieties about empire, citizenship, technology, vernaculars, and aesthetics. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith
ENG
151a
Queer Studies
[
hum
]
Recommended preparation: An introductory course in gender/sexuality and/or a course in critical theory.
Historical, literary, and theoretical perspectives on the construction and performance of queer subjectivities. How do queer bodies and queer representations challenge heteronormativity? How might we imagine public spaces and queer citizenship? Usually offered every second year.
Mr. King
ENG
157b
American Women Poets
[
hum
wi
]
Prerequisite: ENG 1a, ENG 10a, 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 twentieth-century writers. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Skorczewski
ENG
181a
Making Sex, Performing Gender
[
hum
]
Recommended preparation: An introductory course in gender/sexuality and/or a course in critical theory.
Gender and sexuality studied as sets of performed traits and cues for interactions among social actors. Readings explore the possibility that differently organized gender and sexual practices are possible for men and women. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. King
ENG
201a
Gender Studies
Investigates sex assignment, genders, and sexualities as categories of social knowledge and modes of social production. Reading recent critical discussions and crossing disciplinary boundaries, analyzes how gender is performed in domains of cultural production including, but not limited to, the "textual." Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. King
ENG
207a
Race, Desire, and the Literary Imagination
An examination of the interlocking constructions of race, sexuality, and gender in United States culture. Probes the relation among embodiment, racial and sexual ideologies, the formation of identity, and U.S. literary production. Readings include critical works of African American studies, performance studies, queer theory and gender studies alongside key texts of twentieth-century U.S. literature. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman
ENG
213b
Alternative Worlds: Utopia, Science, and Gender
This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken it as part of the Radcliffe Women's Consortium.
Explores the intersections between two early modern developments: the new genre of utopia and the new ideas about the goals and methods of natural inquiry identified with the "Scientific Revolution." Authors include Christine de Pizan, Raleigh, Bacon, Campanella, Catalina de Erauso, Cyrano de Bergerac, Margaret Cavendish, Octavia Butler, Thomas More, Francis Godwin. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Campbell
ENG
230b
Feminist Theory
This course, primarily devoted to literary theory, will also pay some attention to feminist scholarship in related disciplines, including history, anthropology, and legal studies. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
FA
88b
Lives of the Artists
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 19b in prior years.
Integrates the study of works of art with the literature of artists' lives, which serves as the foundation to understanding the genesis of human creativity. Diverse historical periods and varying levels of fame will be reflected in the choice of artists to be studied. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Scott
FA
131b
Center Stage: Women in Contemporary Art
[
ca
]
Prerequisite: FA 18b or FA 61b.
Ever since the woman's "Liberation" Movement of the 1970s, women have been increasingly prominent in the international art world. A survey pf contemporary art in all media includes artists much as Chicago, Wilke, Mendieta, Rothenberg, and Hatoum. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Allara
FA
178a
Frida Kahlo: Art, Life and Legacy
[
ca
nw
]
Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) has become an international cultural icon. Her innovative paintings brilliantly re-envision identity, gender and the female body, inspiring celebrities from Madonna to Salma Hayek. This course explores the art and life of Frida Kahlo, as well as her immense influence on contemporary art, film and popular culture. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ankori
GECS
167a
German Cinema: Vamps and Angels
[
hum
]
Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English translation.
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, and political, cultural, and film-historical contexts with an emphasis on gender issues. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. von Mering
HS
223f
Gender and Development in the Context of Neoliberalism and Globalization
Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit. May not be repeated by students who have taken HS 259f with this topic in previous years.
This course will review the connections between gender and macroeconomics before exploring main changes brought by globalization and neoliberal policies as they affect social policies, livelihoods, families and gender. Relying on recent critical scholarship, this course aims to provide a framework to understand the role of gender within development in times of neoliberal globalization, when deep transformation have altered the relations between the state, markets and civil society and the material and subjective contexts for gender identities and practices. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Espinosa
HS
224f
Gender and the Environment
Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit. May not be repeated by students who have taken HS 259f with this topic in previous years.
This module introduces students to the field of gender and the environment, examining the relevance of gender for environmental conservation that includes social sustainability, and the different ways gender has been conceptualized and integrated within environmental conservation and within sustainable development interventions. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Espinosa
HS
283f
Gender and Development
Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.
Gender, as a social construct, is explored in diverse cultures and societies. Examines gender's major influence on the development process. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Espinosa and Ms. Ready
HS
284f
Gender Analysis in Development Planning
Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.
Examines recent concepts and methods for gender analysis as an integral factor in program planning across cultures. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Ready
HS
308f
Masculinities and Gender Relations in Sustainable Development
Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit. This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken HS 259f with this same topic in previous years.
This course seeks to expand the understanding of the relational nature of gender by focusing on the implications of incorporating men and masculinities in gender mainstreaming practices. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HS
515a
Race/Ethnicity and Gender in Health and Human Services Research
Explores theoretical and empirical approaches to race/ethnicity and gender as factors in health and human services practices, programs, and policies in the United States. Begins by examining current data on racial/ethnic and gender differences in health, mental health, functional status, and lifestyle. Attention then turns to alternative accounts of the causes of these differences. Although primary focus is on patterns of race/ethnicity and gender differences in health outcomes and services that have received the most comprehensive attention, the course offers perspectives on research methods and analytic frameworks that can be applied to other issues. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Nsiah-Jefferson
HS
527a
Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Public Policy
Students will examine framing in public policy in general, and its relationship to challenges faced by communities of color. Further, we will address the topics of race and gender in health and health care; education, welfare policy, immigration, housing, and other issues. Students will hone their skills in policy analysis, political advocacy, communication, coalition building and networking as they relate to the policy process. Class discussion, essays/case studies, and in-class assignments are used. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Nsiah-Jefferson
LGLS
120a
Sex Discrimination and the Law
[
ss
]
Traces the evolution of women's rights in the family, in employment, and in the reproductive process, as well as constitutional doctrines. Examines gender inequalities and assesses if and how the law should address them. Legal cases studied emphasize how law reflects society. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
LGLS
126b
Marriage, Divorce, and Parenthood
[
ss
]
Examines recent developments in family law concerning cohabitation, open adoption, no-fault divorce, joint custody, and same-sex marriage. Explores social and political developments that bring about changes in law and impact of new law. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
NEJS
29a
Feminist Sexual Ethics in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
[
hum
]
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. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brooten
NEJS
141a
Russian Jews in the Twentieth Century
[
hum
]
Examines Russian Jewish history from 1917 to the present. Focuses on the tsarist legacy, Russian Revolution, the creation of a new socialist society, development of Yiddish culture, the "Great Turn" under Stalin, Holocaust, post war Judaism, anti-Semitism, emigration, and current events. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Freeze
NEJS
165b
Changing Roles of Women in American Jewish Societies
[
hum
]
Open to all students.
The lives of American Jews, and especially American Jewish women, have been radically transformed by demographic changes and by American Jewish feminism. These dramatic transformations affect secular and Jewish education for women, personal options and the formation of Jewish families, a growing participation of women in public Jewish life, and a new awareness of women's issues. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman
NEJS
166a
Carnal Israel: Exploring Jewish Sexuality from Talmudic Times to the Present
[
hum
]
Explores the construction of Jewish sexuality from Talmudic times to the present. Themes include rabbinic views of sex, niddah, illicit relations, masculinity, medieval erotic poetry, Ashkenazi and Sephardic sexual practices, and sexual symbolism in mystic literature; the discourse on sex, race, and nationalism in Europe; debates about masculinity, sexual orientation, and stereotypes in America and Israel. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Freeze
NEJS
172a
Women in American Jewish Literature
[
hum
]
Examines portrayals of women in American Jewish literature from a hybrid viewpoint. Using close textual analysis, explores changing American Jewish mores and values and the changing role of women as revealed by portrayals of women in American Jewish fiction. The development of critical reading skills enhances our understanding of the author's intent. The fiction and memoirs read are approached both as literature and as a form of social history. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman
NEJS
174b
Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: HBRW 141a, 143a, 144a, 146a, or permission of the instructor. Course is taught in Hebrew.
An exploration of nationalism and gender in Modern Hebrew literature. By discussing various Hebrew texts and Israeli works of art and film, this course explores women's relationship to Zionism, war, peace, the state, politics, and processes of cultural production. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Szobel
NEJS
178a
Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
[
hum
]
Taught in Hebrew. Prerequisite: HBRW 141a, 143a, 144a, or 146a or permission of the instructor.
Explores questions of romance, gender, marriage, and jealousy in the Israeli context by offering a feminist and psychoanalytic reading of Hebrew texts, works of art, and film. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Szobel
NEJS
178b
Masculinity and Femininity in Israeli Film, Literature, and Culture
[
hum
]
Taught in English.
Focuses on Israeli film, literature, and culture, exploring how film and literature represent and establish masculinity and femininity. Examines the ways in which film and literature reflect the politics, religions, conflicts, and ideologies of Israeli society. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Szobel
NEJS
233a
Gender and Jewish Studies
Uses gender as a prism to enhance understanding of topics in Judaic studies such as Jewish history and classical Jewish texts, psychology, sexuality and gender role definition, literature and film, contemporary cultures, and religion. Undergraduates may enroll by permission of the instructor. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Fishman
PHIL
108a
Philosophy and Gender
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: PHIL 1a or PHIL 17a.
Explores the place of gender in the works of particular Western philosophers (e.g., Kant, Hume, and Rousseau) and uses the tools of contemporary analytic philosophy to address questions about gender equality, sexual objectification, and the nature of masculinity. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smiley
POL
125a
Women in American Politics
[
ss
]
Addresses three major dimensions of women's political participation: social reform and women-identified issues; women's organizations and institutions; and women politicians, electoral politics, and party identification. Covers historical context and contemporary developments in women's political activity. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Greenlee
PSYC
160b
Seminar on Sex Differences
[
ss
wi
]
This is an experiential learning course. Prerequisite: PSYC 1a, 51a, 52a 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. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Wright and Ms. Zebrowitz
SOC
105a
Feminist Critiques of Sexuality and Work in America
[
ss
]
An intermediate-level course which counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies.
Critically evaluates the predominant theoretical approaches to understanding the oppression of women and the dynamics of sexism, racism, and classism within the sex/gender system. Uses these perspectives to explore issues in women's lives--particularly sexuality and work. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Hansen
SOC
112b
Social Class and Social Change
[
ss
]
This is an experiential learning course.
Presents the role of social class in determining life chances, lifestyles, income, occupation, and power; theories of class, inequality, and globalization; selected social psychological aspects of social class and inequality; and connections of class, race, and gender. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Fellman
SOC
115a
Masculinities
[
ss
]
Men's experiences of masculinity have only recently emerged as complex and problematic. This course inquires into concepts, literature, and phenomenology of many framings of masculinity. The analytic schemes are historical, sociological, and social-psychological. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Fellman
SOC
117a
Sociology of Work and Gender
[
ss
]
Focuses on the transformation of contemporary workplaces in the United States. How gender shapes inequality in the labor force, as well as idioms of skill, worth, care, and service. How women and men combine care for families with paid work. Strategies for empowerment, equity, and flexibility (comparable worth, family leave, flexible working-time options, affirmative action, employee participation, new union strategies, grass-roots organizing). Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Villalobos
SOC
130a
Families, Caregiving and Kinship
[
ss
]
Counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in Sociology & Women's and Gender Studies. This is an experiential learning course.
Investigates changes in the character of American families over the last two centuries. A central concern will be the dynamic interactions among 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. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Hansen
SOC
131b
Biography, Gender, and Society
[
ss
]
This course counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in sociology & women's and gender studies.
Through reading biographies of intellectuals, political leaders, artists and "ordinary" people and exploring the biographical method, this seminar investigates the relationship between everyday life, history, social patterns of behavior, and the sex/gender system. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Hansen
SOC
132b
Social Perspectives on Parenting
[
ss
]
This course counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in sociology & women's and gender studies.
Explores how parenting, the seemingly most intimate and personal of experiences, is deeply influenced by economic structures and culture. Highlights gender: why childcare falls disproportionately to women, and how this affects the lives and outcomes of women and men, and society more broadly. Also addresses how racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, and class differences correspond to different parenting experiences. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Sharone
SOC
169b
Issues in Sexuality
[
oc
ss
]
This course counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in sociology & women's and gender studies.
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. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Cadge
SOC
189a
Sociology of Body and Health
[
ss
]
Explores theoretical considerations of the body as a cultural phenomenon intersecting with health, healing, illness, disease, and medicine. Focuses on how gender, race, class, religion, and other dimensions of social organization shape individual experiences and opportunities for agency and resistance. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Shostak
SOC
206b
Advanced Topics in Family Studies
This course counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in Sociology & Women's and Gender Studies.
Studies Western European and American families and the historical processes that have shaped them, especially industrial capitalism, slavery, and immigration. Explores various controversies regarding the family: the family as an economic unit vs. a group of individuals with varying experiences; the shift of activity from primarily production to consumption; increased privatization vs. increased public intervention; recent changes in family structure and fertility patterns; and resolution of the double burden associated with the second shift for women. The course will take a different topical focus each time it is taught. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Hansen
SOC
210b
Gender, Class, and Race
Examines primarily gender, class, and race, but also addresses inequality as structured by citizenship status and sexuality. Examines how U.S. and other societies distribute resources accordingly, shape discourse and ideology, and foster individual and group identities. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Hansen
THA
110a
Moving Women/Women Moving
[
ca
pe-1
]
Counts as one activity course toward the physical education requirement.
Among the influential women leaders in America are choreographers who shaped the history of modern dance in the twentieth century. This course will focus on the work and lives of these women. Students will learn dance techniques and investigate the twists and turns in the lives of these extraordinary artists. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Dibble
WMGS
89a
When Violence Hits Home: Internship in Domestic Violence
This is an experiential learning course.
Combines fieldwork in domestic and sexual violence prevention programs with a fortnightly seminar exploring cultural and interpersonal facets of violence from a feminist perspective. Topics include theories, causes and prevention of rape, battering, child abuse, and animal abuse. Internships provide practical experience in local organizations such as rape crisis, battered women's violence prevention, and child abuse prevention programs. Usually offered every fall.
Ms. Hunter
WMGS
106b
Women in the Health Care System
[
ss
]
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. Usually offered every spring.
Ms. Klerman or Ms. Bhalotra
Women's and Gender Studies Elective Courses: Historical Focus
AMST
40a
Women in American History
[
ss
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 123b in prior years.
Examines the private and public experiences of women-family life, sexuality, work, and activism-as reflected in historical and autobiographical sources, fiction, and many films. The diverse experiences of women of different races, ethnicities, and classes are highlighted. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler
AMST
118a
Gender and the Professions
[
ss
]
This is an experiential learning course.
Explores gender distinctions as a key element in the organization of professions, analyzing the connections among sex roles, occupational structure, and American social life. Topics include work culture, pay equity, the "mommy" and "daddy" tracks, sexual discrimination and harassment, and dual-career families. Among the professions examined are law, medicine, teaching, social work, nursing, journalism, business, and politics. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler
AMST
121a
The American Jewish Woman: 1890-1990s
[
ss
]
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 often-conflicted identities. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler
AMST
124b
American Love and Marriage
[
ss
]
Ideas and behavior relating to love and marriage are used as lenses to view broader social patterns such as family organization, generational conflict, and the creation of professional and national identity. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler
AMST/SOC
125a
History of United States Feminisms
[
ss
]
Formerly offered as AMST 125a. This is an experiential learning course.
An investigation of the development and politics of women's rights in the United States. Explores the internal and external coalitions and conflicts at the nexus of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and religion. Examines the transnational shift to organizing for human rights. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Antler and Ms. Hansen
CLAS
140a
Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Greek and Roman Art and Text
[
ca
hum
]
May not be taken for credit by students to who took CLAS 145b in fall 2009.
An exploration of women, gender, and sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome as the ideological bases of Western attitudes toward sex and gender. Includes, in some fashion, Greek and Roman myth, literature, art, architecture, and archaeological artifacts. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Koloski-Ostrow
ENG
28b
Queer Readings: Before Stonewall
[
hum
]
Students read texts as artifacts of social beliefs, desires, and anxieties about sexed bodies and their pleasures. Readings may include Plato, Virgil, Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Phillips, Behn, Gray, Tennyson, Lister, Whitman, Dickinson, Wilde, Freud, Woolf, Barnes, Stein, Larsen, Genet, and Baldwin. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. King
ENG
46a
Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers
[
hum
]
How did American women writers engage with the social, political, and economic changes of the nineteenth century? Focuses on gendered rhetorics of industrialization, imperialism, immigration, and abolition, as well as concepts of national identity. Examines how these writers related themselves to literary movements of the period. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
ENG
64b
From Libertinism to Sensibility: Pleasure and the Theater, 1660-1800
[
hum
wi
]
Investigates the exchange between performance texts and contemporaneous discussions of class, nationality, and political party. Emphasizes the emergence of modern gender and sexual roles and the impact of the first professional women actors. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. King
ENG
114b
Gender and the Rise of the Novel in England and France
[
hum
]
Explores the emergence of the novel as a modern genre in the eighteenth century, asking why the novel arises first in England and France, and what the new genre's preoccupations with women and gender can teach us about European society, culture, and literature. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Lanser
ENG
144b
The Body as Text
[
hum
wi
]
How are our bodies the material for our presentations of self and our interactions with others? Examines contemporary theories and histories of the body against literary, philosophical, political, and performance texts of the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. King
ENG
145b
Jane Austen: Gender, Art, and History
[
hum
wi
]
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. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Lanser
ENG
234a
Writing British Women, 1660-1800: Critical Inquiries
Through an engagement with women's writing, with social configurations of gender, and with twenty-first-century practices, explores new issues in eighteenth-century literary and cultural studies and grapples with thorny problems in feminist theory and scholarship. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Lanser
FA
69b
Inventing Tradition: Women as Artists, Women as Art
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 61b in prior years.
The role of women in the history of art, as creators of art, and as the subject of it. Issues of gender and representation will be discussed, using the lives and art of women from the Renaissance to contemporary periods. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ankori
FA
157a
Georgia O'Keeffe and Stieglitz Circle
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 173a in prior years.
The focus of this lecture course will be the art of Georgia O'Keeffe, her stylistic evolution, sources, and collaboration with contemporaries, especially Stieglitz, Strand, Dove, Demuth, Marin, and Hartley. Their collective aesthetic aspirations will be set against early twentieth-century modernism and important recent trends from Europe. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Scott
GECS
150a
From Rapunzel to Riefenstahl: Real and Imaginary Women in German Culture
[
hum
]
Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English translation.
Exploring German cultural representations of women and real women's responses. From fairy-tale princess to Nazi filmmaker, from eighteenth-century infanticide to twentieth-century femme fatale, from beautiful soul to feminist dramatist, from revolutionary to minority writer. Readings include major literary works, feminist criticism, and film. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. von Mering
HISP
125b
Literary Women in Early Modern Spain
[
fl
hum
]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Examines works by and about women in early modern Spain, with particular attention to engagements with and subversions of patriarchal culture in theater, prose, and poetry. Writers include Caro, Zayas, Cervantes, and Calderón. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fox
HIST
55b
The History of the Family
[
ss
]
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. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Kelikian
HIST
153a
Americans at Home: Families and Domestic Environments, 1600 to the Present
[
ss
]
This survey of nonpublic life in the United States explores the changing nature of families and the material environments that have shaped and reflected American domestic ideals during the last four centuries. Major topics include gender roles and sexuality; production, reproduction, and material culture in the home; conceptions of the life course; racial, ethnic, and regional variations on the family; the evolution of "public" and "private" life; and the relationship between the family and the state. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Kamensky
HIST
154b
Women in American History, 1600-1865
[
ss
]
An introductory survey exploring the lives of women in Anglo America from European settlement through the Civil War. Topics include the "history of women's history"; the role of gender in Native American, African, and European cultures; women's religion, work, and sexuality; and the changing possibilities for female education and expression from the colonial period through the nineteenth century. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Kamensky
HIST
157a
Americans at Work: American Labor History
[
ss
]
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. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff
HIST
173b
Latin American Women: Heroines, Icons, and History
[
nw
ss
wi
]
Graduate students who wish to take this course for credit must complete additional assignments.
Explores Latin American women's history by focusing on female icons and heroines such as La Malinche, Sor Juana, Eva Perón, Carmen Miranda, and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Topics include conquest, mestizaje, religion, independence, tropical exoticism, dictatorship, and social movements. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Arrom
HIST
179a
Labor, Gender, and Exchange in the Atlantic World, 1600-1850
[
ss
]
An examination of the interaction of cultures in the Atlantic World against a backdrop of violence, conquest, and empire-building. Particular attention is paid to the structure and function of power relations, gender orders, labor systems, and exchange networks. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sreenivasan
MUS
150a
Women and Music, Past and Present: Style, Identity, Culture
[
ca
]
Examines the interaction between gender and culture in shaping music and musical life. Topics will vary; refer to the Schedule of Classes. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff
NEJS
29b
Slavery, Women, and Religion
[
hum
]
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. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brooten
NEJS
115b
Gender and the Bible
[
hum
]
Open to all students.
The Hebrew Bible, a complex work, reflects a wide range of attitudes toward gender. This course examines these attitudes as they are reflected in issues such as the legal status of women, women in myths, leadership, prostitution, masculinity, and the gender of ancient Israel's deity. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Brettler
NEJS
128b
History of Jewish and Christian Women in the Roman Empire
[
hum
]
Social, cultural, and religious history of Jewish and Christian women under Roman rule until Constantine ("first century" BCE-"fourth century" CE), using the methods of feminist historiography. Examination of the inter-relationships between Jewish and Christian women in different parts of the Roman Empire. Focus on women's history, rather than on Jewish and Christian teachings about women. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Brooten
NEJS
148b
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Jews and Christians: Sources and Interpretations
[
hum
]
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. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Brooten
NEJS
175a
Jewish Women in Eastern Europe: Tradition and Transformation
[
hum
]
Examines women's roles in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Eastern European Jewish culture, with a focus on transformation in gender relations, education, and religious practices. Readings are drawn from Yiddish prose, poetry, and women's memoirs, with secondary sources in cultural history. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Kellman
RECS
137a
Women in Russian Literature
[
hum
]
Open to all students. Conducted in English. Students may choose to do readings either in English translation or in Russian.
Examines questions of female representation and identity and of female authorship. Readings include portrayals of women by men and women authors. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
SAS
170b
South Asia in the Colonial Archive
[
hum
]
Looks at colonial constructions of gender and race through a historical and literary investigation of British colonialism in South Asia. Examines intersections and constructions of gender, race, class, and sexuality in literature, public culture, and film within the parameters of British colonialism. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Singh
Women's and Gender Studies Elective Courses: Cultural Differences
AAAS
125b
Caribbean Women and Globalization: Sexuality, Citizenship, Work
[
ss
wi
]
Utilizing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, fiction, and music to examine the relationship between women's sexuality and conceptions of labor, citizenship, and sovereignty. The course considers these alongside conceptions of masculinity, contending feminisms, and the global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith
AAAS
133b
The Literature of the Caribbean
[
hum
nw
ss
wi
]
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. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith
AMST
144b
Signs of Imagination: Gender and Race in Mass Media
[
ss
]
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. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Davé
ANTH
144a
The Anthropology of Gender
[
nw
ss
wi
]
Anthropology majors have priority for enrollment.
An examination of gender constructs, sexuality, and cultural systems from a comparative perspective. Topics include the division of labor, rituals of masculinity and femininity, the vexing question of the universality of women's subordination, cross-cultural perspectives on same-sex sexualities and transsexuality, the impact of globalization on systems, and the history of feminist anthropology. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Lamb or Ms. Schattschneider
ANTH
145a
Anthropology of the Body
[
ss
]
Explores a range of theories that use the body to understand society, culture, and gender. Topics include how social values and hierarchies are written in, on, and through the body; the relationship between body and gender identity; and experiences and images of the body cross-culturally. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Lamb or Ms. Schattschneider
ANTH
178b
Culture, Gender, and Power in East Asia
[
nw
ss
]
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. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Schattschneider
COML
122b
Writing Home and Abroad: Literature by Women of Color
[
hum
nw
]
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. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Singh
ENG
87a
Sex and Race in the American Novel
[
hum
]
Depictions of racial and sexual others abound in American literature of the twentieth century. Reading texts across racial, geographical, and temporal divides, this course investigates the representation of non-normative sexualities as signaled, haunted, or repaired by an appeal to race. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman
ENG
107a
Women Writing Desire: Caribbean Fiction and Film
[
hum
]
About eight novels of the last two decades (by Cliff, Cruz, Danticat, Garcia, Kempadoo, Kincaid, Mittoo, Nunez, Pineau, Powell, or Rosario), drawn from across the region, and read in dialogue with popular culture, theory, and earlier generations of male and female writers of the region. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith
ENG
197b
Within the Veil: African-American and Muslim Women's Writing
[
hum
]
In twentieth-century United States culture, the veil has become a powerful metaphor, signifying initially the interior of African-American community and the lives of Muslims globally. This course investigates issues of identity, imperialism, cultural loyalty, and spirituality by looking at and linking contemporary writing by African-American and Muslim women. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman
HISP
195a
Latinos in the United States: Perspectives from Literature, Film, and Performance
[
hum
]
Open to all students; conducted in English.
Comparative overview of Latino literature and film in the United States. Particular attention paid to how race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and concepts of "nation" become intertwined within texts. Topics include explorations of language, autobiography and memory, and intertexuality. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Reyes
HIST
173b
Latin American Women: Heroines, Icons, and History
[
nw
ss
wi
]
Graduate students who wish to take this course for credit must complete additional assignments.
Explores Latin American women's history by focusing on female icons and heroines such as La Malinche, Sor Juana, Eva Perón, Carmen Miranda, and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Topics include conquest, mestizaje, religion, independence, tropical exoticism, dictatorship, and social movements. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Arrom
NEJS
29b
Slavery, Women, and Religion
[
hum
]
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. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brooten
NEJS
196a
Marriage, Divorce, and Sexual Ethics in Islamic Law
[
hum
nw
]
Using law to understand Islamic gender discourses and Muslim women's lives, the class addresses broad areas where law and gender intersect jurisprudential method and classical doctrines; women's use of courts to settle disputes; and contemporary debates over legal reforms. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff
POL
130b
Women in Latin American Politics
[
ss
]
Examines feminism in Latin America and the meaning and role of gender and gender ideology in the principal regime types in Latin America. Topics include the interaction between gender and class, ethnicity/race, regional solidarity, and national and international and politics. Special one-time offering, spring 2010.
Staff
SAS
101a
South Asian Women Writers
[
hum
nw
]
Includes literature by South Asian women writers such as Amrita Pritam, Ismat Chugtai, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kamila Shamsie, Tahmina Anam, and Chandini Lokuge. Some of the works were originally written in English, while others have been translated from the vernacular. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Singh
SAS
110b
South Asian Postcolonial Writers
[
hum
nw
]
Examines the postcolonial novel written in English within the shared history of colonialism, specifically British imperialism, for South Asia. Writers include R.K. Narayan, Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Mohsin Hamid, Romesh Gunesekera and Daniyal Mueenudin. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Singh
SOC
138a
Sociology of Gender and Race
[
ss
]
Examines gender as an individual and institutional factor that organizes societies. Uses a variety of media to analyze how gender and race (re)create forms of domination and subordination in labor markets, family structures, realms of cultural presentation (e.g., media), and social movements. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
WMGS
120b
Women and Gender in Religion
[
hum
]
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. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Brooten and Ms. Langenberg
WMGS
140a
Diversity of Muslim Women's Experience
[
ss
]
A broad introduction to the multidimensional nature of women's experiences in the Muslim world. As both a cultural and religious element in this vast region, understanding Islam in relation to lives of women has become increasingly imperative. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Shavarini
WMGS
141a
Gender in Iranian Cinema
[
hum
nw
]
With a primary focus on gender, this class explores post-Revolutionary Iranian cinema. Topics include politics; family relationships; women's social, economic, and political roles; and Iran's religious structure. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Mandrell and Ms. Shavarini