Courses

• CAS WR 097: Academic Writing for ESL Students 1
  Study of academic conventions and effective strategies of academic reading and writing, along with needs-based review of grammar and mechanics. Emphasis on comprehension, summary, and critical analysis of a wide range of texts. Focus on improving both fluency and accuracy in writing and speaking. Frequent papers and in-class writing.
• CAS WR 098: Academic Writing for ESL Students 2
  Emphasis on critical reading and analytical writing in response to various theme-based texts. Review of grammar and mechanics in context. Intensive practice in the patterns of academic argumentation through multiple writing assignments of increasing complexity. Refinement of speaking skills through discussions and oral presentations.
• CAS WR 100: Writing Seminar
  Topic-based seminar in academic reading and writing. Attention to reading and analyzing primary and secondary sources, argumentation, prose style, revision, and citation. Significant writing and individual conferences.
• CAS WR 150: Writing and Research Seminar
  Topic-based seminar in academic reading, writing, and research. Continuing attention to argumentation, prose style, revision, and citation, with additional emphasis on college-level research. Significant writing and individual conferences.
• CAS WR 202: Children's Literature in the Elementary School
  An introduction to the world of children's literature. Classics and exemplary modern works are studied, with a particular focus on literary techniques, nonfiction text structures, cultural diversity, and gender. Covers children's literature recommended by Massachusetts English Language Arts Framework (2001).
• CAS WR 415: Public Writing
  Students will learn about the growing call for scholars to communicate their research to the public, study and practice several public genres, and rewrite a research project from a previous course to "translate" it for a public audience.
• CAS WR 598: Tutoring in ESL
  Prepares Writing Center tutors to work effectively with ESL and multilingual students. Modules balance theory and practice. Tutors gain knowledge about ESL writing and pedagogical ability to help students become independent writers. No familiarity with linguistics or language teaching required.
• 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 305: Topics in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
  Five topics are offered Fall 2016. May be repeated for credit if topics are different. Section A1: Boys and Girls in Japan. The "girl" (shoujo) and the "boy" (shounen) as important figures in Japanese modernity. Theories of gender and sexuality. Literature for and about youth, including coming-of-age novels, manga, and contemporary criticism on youth culture. Also offered as CAS LJ 481 A1. Section B1: Why Marry?: The History, Fantasy, and Reality of Married Sexuality. This interdisciplinary course explores marriage as an idea and institution that continuously shifts over time. Creative and theoretical materials include films and novels; television shows, advertisements, and magazines; cultural studies by anthropologists, historians, psychologists, philosophers; contemporary news articles and op-eds. Section C1: Gender, War, and Revolution in the Middle East. A gendered examination of wars and revolutions that have shaped borders and societies in the Middle East from WW I to the present. Texts include films, Nobel prize-winning literature, graphic novels. Topics include colonialism, modernization, and proliferation of technology. Also offered as CAS CI 390 B1 and CAS XL 381 A1. Section D1: Cultural Constructions of Motherhood. Examines how motherhood is currently understood. How does culture shape mothering practices? How do race, economic class, education, and sexual orientation impact motherhood? Related topics such as fathering, maternal body image, parenting, and celebrity profiles are also explored. Section E1: Gender and Religion in the Graphic Novel. Examines the aesthetics of comic art and the graphic novel as they emphasize gendered, religious, and cultural identities. We focus on Judaism and Islam, two storytelling traditions that use graphic novels to transport readers in time and space. Also offered as CAS RN 337 A1.
• CAS WS 326: Arts of Gender
  Examines representations of gender and sexuality in diverse art forms, including drama, dance, film, and literature, and how art reflects historical constructions of gender. Topic for Spring 2016: Gender Trouble, Genre Trouble. Through readings of plays, poetry, novels and graphic novels, as well as film, television and other media, examines how various genres have been used to explore, challenge and reimagine gender over centuries. Theoretical perspectives include feminist, queer, transgender, and intersex. Also offered as CAS EN 326.
• 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. Also offered as CAS CI 373.
• 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 356: Women and Comedy in America
  Considers how comedy is marked by gender and allows women to defy the expectations of femininity and transmute aggression into humor; what women find funny; and how women use the power of humor for survival, resistance, subversion, and truth-telling.
• 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.

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