Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies

• CAS WS 101: Gender and Sexuality I: An Interdisciplinary Introduction
  Introduction to women's, gender, and sexuality studies, integrating approaches from the natural and social sciences and humanities, focused on the origins, diversity, and expression of gendered and sexed individuals. Topics include the evolutionary origin of sexes; evolution, development, and social construction of sex differences; sexual differences, similarities, and diversity in bodies, brains, behavior, and artistic and intellectual expressions. Team-taught. Students who complete both halves of the two-semester sequence WS 101/102 receive divisional studies credit for two courses, from two different divisions: Natural Science (without lab), Social Science, and/or Humanities. Neither WS 101 nor WS 102 alone carries divisional studies credit.
• CAS WS 102: Gender and Sexuality II: An Interdisciplinary Introduction
  Introduction to women's, gender, and sexuality studies, focused on communities and institutions. Integrates approaches from the natural and social sciences and humanities, including evolutionary, historical, and cross-cultural analyses, feminist and queer theory. Topics include human reproductive biology; patriarchy and sexual violence; parenting, kinship structures, and forms of intimacy; sexual selection; the construction of gender identity and sexual orientation; evolutionary medicine; and the relationship of academic research to social activism. Team-taught. Students who complete both halves of the two-semester sequence WS 101/102 receive divisional studies credit for two courses, from two different divisions: Natural Science (without lab), Social Science, and/or Humanities. Neither WS 101 nor WS 102 alone carries divisional studies credit.
• CAS WS 213: Sexism in the Twenty-First Century
  Examines the dynamics of contemporary institutions as they affect women's and men's lives, particularly in the United States-- the economy, politics, mass media and culture, the beautification industry, sex industries, and hook-up culture-- through the intersections of race, class, ethnicity, and sexual identity. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Cannot be taken for credit in addition to CAS WS 113.
• CAS WS 214: Creating Women: Gendering Literature, Art, and Music
  Considers how gender shapes the creative work of women writers, artists, and musicians and how women's artistic work contributes to understanding the social, cultural, and political history of women. Attention also to sexuality, race, ethnicity, class. Carries CAS Humanities divisional credit. Cannot be taken for credit in addition to CAS WS 114.
• CAS WS 241: Sociology of Gender
  An introduction to the social construction of sex and gender with a focus on the economic, political, social, and cultural forces that shape gender relations. Examines gender as a social structure that patterns institutional inequalities and everyday interactions on society. Also offered as CAS SO 241.
• CAS WS 305: Critical Issues in Women's Studies
  Two topics are offered Fall 2014. Students may take one or both for credit. Sections A1 and B1: Women and Comedy. From Mae West and 1930s screwball comediennes to Tina Fey and female stand-up comics today, the course explores funny women, women's humor, what women find funny, and how women use humor as a tool for survival, resistance, and subversion. Section C1: 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 figures metaphors for feminism, gay rights, racial equality? Readings in sociology and psychology, science fiction and other pop genres.
• 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 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 309.
• CAS WS 352: American Masculinities
  Considers the biological and social organization of masculinities; the ways culture reproduces/articulates masculinities, particularly with regard to race and class; how masculine identities are expressed; male privilege; alternative masculinities; and what is at stake in negotiating contemporary masculinities. Also offered as CAS SO 352.
• CAS WS 360: Global Feminism: Race and Gender in International Perspectives
  (Meets with CAS IR 358 E.) 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.

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