Women’s Studies

The Women’s Studies Program fosters understanding of forces that have influenced and continue to shape the unique social, political, and economic positions of women in all cultures, as well as women’s achievements and life experiences. The various disciplines encompassed by the women’s studies curriculum offer starting points for interpreting these experiences, and the interdisciplinary minor forms a basis of understanding on which to build a better future for women and men. In addition to the undergraduate minor, the program sponsors public lectures and panel discussions on topics of general interest. Boston University is a member of the Boston-area Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies (GCWS). The courses offered through the GCWS are open to all Boston University graduate students.

Minor in Women’s Studies

The interdisciplinary minor in women’s studies introduces students to scholarship relating to women and gender in diverse fields and enhances their understanding of traditional academic disciplines. In consultation with the directors of undergraduate studies, students develop a minor that complements their major and is suited to their individual needs. Students must complete six women’s studies courses with a grade of C or higher. These six are to include the introductory core courses, CAS WS 113 and 114; one additional WS course; and three other courses, two of which must be at the 300 level or higher, from Women’s Studies and departmental offerings listed below.

Consult departmental listings or the department director for women’s studies courses in American & New England studies, anthropology, art history, biology, classics, economics, English, history, modern foreign languages and literature, philosophy, psychology, religion, and sociology. Some women’s studies courses may be taught as departmental seminars. Courses offered by Metropolitan College or other University schools and colleges may be taken as electives with the permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Check departmental listings to ascertain that specific courses are being offered in the current year.

The Women’s Studies Program also sponsors lectures on topics related to women’s studies in its own series and in other departments and symposia.

For further information, contact Professor Deborah Belle, Director of Women’s Studies, at 704 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 101.

Courses that may be selected for the minor include:

Women’s Studies

• †CAS WS 113 Women, Society, and Culture: Social Sciences
• †CAS WS 114 Women, Society, and Culture: Humanities
• CAS WS 305 Critical Issues in Women’s Studies
• CAS WS 340 Women, Race, and Gender in Mass Media
• CAS WS 342 Law and Gender in the United States
• CAS WS 344 Images of Women in Popular Fiction
• CAS WS 346 Women and Film
• CAS WS 348 Gender and International Development
• CAS WS 350 Seminar: Women and Politics
• CAS WS 360 Global Feminism: Race and Gender in International Perspectives
• CAS WS 491, 492 Directed Study: Women’s and Gender Studies

Other courses (offered intermittently):

African American Studies

• CAS AA 304 Introduction to African American Women Writers (meets with CAS EN 370)
• CAS AA 504 African American and Asian American Women Writers (meets with CAS EN 371)
• CAS AA 588 Women, Power, and Culture in Africa (meets with CAS HI 588)

Anthropology

• CAS AN 260 Sex and Gender in Anthropological Perspective
• CAS AN 290 Children and Culture
• CAS AN 305 Comparative Family Systems in Asia (meets with CAS SO 305)
• CAS AN 320 Women in the Muslim World
• CAS AN 344 Modern Japanese Society: Family, School, and Workplace
• CAS AN 505 Asian Development: The Case of Women
• CAS AN 519 Kinship
• CAS AN 554 Human Reproductive Ecology

Archaeology

• CAS AR 262 Asian Gods and Goddesses

Biology

• CAS BI 442 Physiology and Biochemistry of Reproduction

Classics

• CAS CL 206 Women in Antiquity
• CAS CL 314 Women in Ancient Rome

English

• CAS EN 326 Voices of Women (meets with CAS WS 305)
• CAS EN 370 Introduction to African American Women Writers (meets with CAS AA 304)
• CAS EN 371 African American and Asian American Women Writers (meets with CAS AA 504)
• CAS EN 476 Critical Studies in Literature and Gender
• CAS EN 576 Studies in Literature and Gender

History

• CAS HI 216 Women and Gender in European History
• CAS HI 375 A History of Women in the United States
• CAS HI 425 Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe
• CAS HI 488 Life Histories of African Women
• CAS HI 588 Women, Power, and Culture in Africa (meets with AA 588)

Modern Languages & Comparative Literature

• CAS LC 284 Introduction to Chinese Women’s Writing (in English translation)
• CAS LJ 451 Topics in Japanese Literature
• CAS LJ 480 Japanese Women Writers (in English translation)
• CAS LL 381 Topics in Gender and Literature (in English translation) (meets with CAS WS 305)
• CAS LY 281 Contemporary Arab Literature: Subversion, Censorship, and Exile (in English translation)
• CAS LY 282 Qur’anic Negotiations: Contemporary Muslim Writers and The Holy Book (in English translation)
• CAS LY 283 Contemporary Arab Women Writers (in English translation)

Philosophy

• CAS PH 256 Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality

Political Science

• CAS PO 342 Women and Politics (meets with CAS WS 350)

Psychology

• CAS PS 352 Women and the Life Cycle
• CAS PS 361 Racism, Sexism, and Prejudice
• CAS PS 370 Psychology of the Family
• CAS PS 472 Family Violence: Theories and Research
• CAS PS 552 Topics in Family Research
• CAS PS 572 Psychology of Women

Religion

• CAS RN 224 Women and Religion
• CAS RN 302 Early Christian Women
• CAS RN 337 Gender and Judaism
• CAS RN 413 Gender in Medieval Christian Mysticism

Sociology

• CAS SO 205 The American Family
• CAS SO 240 Sexuality and Social Life
• CAS SO 403 Seminar: Gender Stratification
• CAS SO 404 Seminar: The Family
• CAS SO 420 Seminar: Women and Social Change in the Developing World