Women’s Studies

• CAS WS 113: Women, Society, and Culture: Social Sciences
  Women's economic, political, and familial situation in contemporary American society. Examination of work by feminist scholars in various disciplines, including psychology, biology, and history.
• CAS WS 114: Women, Society, and Culture: Humanities
  Voices and visions of women writers, artists, and filmmakers. Considers how women's artistic productions contribute to understanding the social, cultural, and political history of women.
• CAS WS 305: Critical Issues in Women's Studies
  An interdisciplinary exploration of current topics in women's studies. Three topics are offered 2010/2011. Students may take one, two, or three sections for credit. Topics for Fall 2010: Section A1: Superwomen, Cyborgs, Vampires: Bodily Transformations and Social Change. Examines popular figures that cross gender, sexual, racial, and human boundaries, challenging our ideas about those social categories. Are these figures metaphors for feminism, gay rights, racial equality? Readings in sociology and psychology, science fiction, and other pop genres. Section B1: Performing Gender: Drama, Dance, Film, and Feminism. History of women as performers and representations of gender on stages from antiquity to the present. Also offered as CAS EN 326. Topic for Spring 2011: Middle Eastern Women Write. Exploration of feminist movements in the Middle East through works of literature. The impact on gender of colonialism, revolution, and migration.
• CAS WS 340: Women, Race, and Gender in Mass Media
  Develops students' media literacy through hands-on analysis of media and pop culture representations of women, femininity, and race; their relation to women's lived experience; and the place of "feminine" values in contemporary culture.
• CAS WS 342: Law and Gender in the United States
  Combines legal, historical, and sociological studies of women's evolving legal status. Discussions cover constitutional law, family law (including same-sex marriage), reproductive rights/technologies, sex as crime--statutory rape, prostitution, sodomy--and how law shapes gender relations for men and women.
• CAS WS 344: Images of Women in Popular Fiction
  Formulaic genres--fairy tales, romance fiction, detective novels, horror stories, and science fiction--offer a medium for tracing the development of representations of women. Course analyzes women's roles and functions in these genres, focusing on novels by American authors.
• CAS WS 346: Women and Film
  Study of principally American films, exploring how the medium has shaped and been shaped by cultural perceptions of women. Readings provide background for interpretation of films ranging from screwball comedy to film noir, "women's films," and films by women directors.
• CAS WS 348: Gender and International Development
  Analysis of significant gender disparities worldwide in education, livelihoods, crisis settings, and political voice. Interdisciplinary approach combines discussion of novels, films, research on development, and lessons from field experience. Ideas on the advancement of gender equality and women's socio-economic empowerment.
• CAS WS 350: Women and Politics
  Readings, discussion, and field research on issues of women’s relationship to the processes of political influence, change, and empowerment. Analysis of public policy related to women and children. Also offered as CAS PO 342.
• CAS WS 360: Global Feminism: Race and Gender in International Perspectives
  Exploration of critical issues concerning women, gender, and race throughout the world. Topics include women and the global economy, health care, reproduction, the dynamics of sex industries, violence against women, international women's movements, and political/institutional change.
• CAS WS 491: Directed Study: Women's and Gender Studies
  Individual instruction and supervised study project in women's or gender studies. Application form available in program office.
• CAS WS 492: Directed Study: Women's and Gender Studies
  Individual instruction and supervised study project in women's or gender studies. Application form available in program office.

Note that this information may change at any time.

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