Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • CAS WR 415: Public Writing
    Prerequisites: at least sophomore standing, CAS WR 100 or CAS WR 120 or equivalent; and CAS WR 150 or CAS WR 151 or CAS WR 152 or equivalent; and consent of instructor. Students 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. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Writing-intensive Course, Oral and/or Signed Communication.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS WR 597: Tutoring Writing in the Disciplines
    Prerequisites: CAS WR 100 or CAS WR 120 or equivalent; and CAS WR 150 or CAS WR 151 or CAS WR 152 or equivalent; and consent of instructor. Provides instruction and support for department-based writing tutors. Students learn about disciplinary-specific writing practices, genres, and conventions; students explore features of writing and develop practical tutoring methods that transcend disciplinary boundaries to help peers become more independent writers.
  • 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
    This course is the first semester of a two-semester introduction to women's, gender, and sexuality studies, that considers the origins, diversity, and expression of gendered and sexed individuals. Topics include the evolutionary origin of sexes; evolution, development, and social construction of sex, gender, and sexuality; sexual difference, similarities and diversity in bodies, brains, and behavior. This interdisciplinary introduction is the required year-long gateway sequence for the minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. 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. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Scientific Inquiry I
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 102: Gender and Sexuality II: An Interdisciplinary Introduction
    This course is the second semester of a two-semester introduction to women's, gender, and sexuality studies, integrating approaches from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, with a focus on society and social relationships. We examine questions relating to violence, inequality, and family formation through an interdisciplinary gender lens. 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. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 200: Thinking Queerly: An Introduction to LGBTQ Studies
    Explores historical and contemporary debates regarding LGBTQ identity, community, and politics through the relevant interdisciplinary (and often, competing) theories and research. Students gain skills in digital/multimedia expression through the development of a collaborative LGBTQ online magazine. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • CAS WS 213: Resistance, Protest, and Empowerment: Global Women's Movements
    Explores how global expressions of sexism shape all of our lives, experiences, and life chances, with particular attention to how race, class, and sexuality intersect with gender to shape social inequalities. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS WS 233: The Evolutionary Biology of Human Variation
    Addresses human biological variation. An introduction to the fundamentals of comparative biology, evolutionary theory, and genetics and considers how research in these fields informs some of our most culturally-engaged identities: race, sex, gender, sexuality, and body type. Carries natural sciences divisional credit (without lab) in CAS. Also offered as CAS AN 233. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking.
    • Scientific Inquiry I
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 240: Sexuality and Social Life
    Introduction to sociological perspectives on sexuality. Historical and comparative analysis of sexuality, with a focus on the social and cultural institutions that shape sexuality in the contemporary U.S. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Also offered as CAS SO 240. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Critical Thinking
  • 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. Carries social sciences divisional credit in CAS. Also offered as CAS SO 241. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, The Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS WS 263: The Behavioral Biology of Women
    An exploration of female behavioral biology focusing on evolutionary, physiological, and biosocial aspects of women's lives from puberty through pregnancy, birth, lactation, menopause, and aging. Examples are drawn from traditional and industrialized societies, and data from nonhuman primates are considered. Also offered as CAS AN 263. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
    • Scientific Inquiry I
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 300: WGS Topics in Literature and the Humanities
    Topics in women's, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to literature and the humanities. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Fall 2019: Feminist Comics. Focusing on recent work, this course examines comics that interrogate the experience of being gendered female. We ask how the texts we read develop spaces of resistance against heterosexist violence and discrimination based on race, class, age, and perceived ability.
  • CAS WS 301: WGS Topics in the Natural Sciences
    Topics in women's, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to the natural sciences. May be repeated for credit as topics change.
  • CAS WS 302: WGS Topics in the Social Sciences
    Topics in women's, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to the social sciences. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Spring 2020: Gender and Crime. Examines social forces shaping gender discrepancies in crime. Using a feminist lens, students explore how cultural ideologies about masculinity and femininity shape criminalization, victimization, and offending. Topics include the gendered contexts of crime and punishment, gender-based violence, and intimate labor.
  • CAS WS 303: WGS Topics in Film and Media
    Topics in women's, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to film and media. May be repeated for credit as topics change. May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Topic for Spring 2020: Jane Campion: "A Girl's Own Story." In-depth study of Jane Campion, one of few women filmmakers with a large body of work, who regularly explores sexism and its effects in her films and TV series, important and timely given the current exposure of sexual harassment of women in the film industry.
  • CAS WS 304: WGS Topics in Global and Transnational Studies
    Topics in women's, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to global and transnational studies. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topics vary. May be taken multiple times for credit providing the topic is different. Two topics are offered Fall 2018. Section A1: Bombs and Bombshells: Gender and Political Violence. Delve into the world of Black Widows and Demon Lovers. Using empirical research, case studies, and drama, this course separates fact from fiction to examine gender and its intersections between recruitment, motivations, and conditions under which women behave violently. Also offered as CAS PO 300 A1. Section B1: Change and Continuity on the Silk Road. Focused on the Central Asian portion of the Silk Road from the border of China to Istanbul students explore written and visual texts to understand shifts in gender dynamics in societies caught between Islam, communism, and globalization. Also offered as CAS XL 381 A1.
  • CAS WS 305: Topics in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
    Four topics are offered Fall 2018. May be repeated for credit if topics are different. Section A1: Queer Theory. Surveys major texts and arguments in queer theory from Butler's Gender Trouble to contemporary discussions of cisnormativity, homonationalism, affect, pinkwashing, crip theory, and queer-of-color critique. Explores different uses of queer theory in legal debates, literary analysis, and cultural criticism. Also offered as CAS XL 470 A1. Section B1: Superwomen, Vampires, and Cyborgs: Bodily Transformations and Social Change. Examines popular figures that cross gender, sexual, racial, and human boundaries, challenging our ideas about these social categories. Are these figures metaphors for feminism, gay rights, racial equality? Readings in sociology and psychology, science fiction, and other pop genres, including movies and television. Section C1: Sex, Art, and the Sacred in Modern America. Traces heated debates over sex, art, and religion to reveal competing genealogies of the sacred and profane in the modern US. Looks at feminist and queer visual and performance art, literature, and memoir in the context of culture wars conservatism. Section D1: Queer Global Novel. Explores the relationship between gender, sexuality, and globalization in contemporary novels by Patricia Powell, Roxane Gay, Qui Miaojin, Monique Truong, and others. Theoretical readings by Gayle Rubin, Jeffrey Weeks, Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, and others.
  • 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 2019: 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. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, The Individual in Community.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • The Individual in Community
  • CAS WS 328: Madonnas, Martyrs, and MILFs: Gender and Motherhood
    Examines the ways that motherhood--the roles, expectations, and assumptions that shape what counts as both "good" and "bad" mothering--is currently understood. Three key questions drive our exploration: How does culture shape mothering practices? How do mothering practices shape culture? How do race, economic class, educational attainment, and sexual orientation impact how motherhood is constructed? Discussions of related topics such as fathering, maternal body image, celebrity profiles, mother blame, parenting roles, and the economic costs of motherhood are explored. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, The Individual in Community, Critical Thinking.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • The Individual in Community
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 329: LGBTQI+ Representation in Film
    Queer films challenge norms and undermine categories of gender and sex. Drawing on scholarship from a variety of disciplines the course explores sexual identity and representation in relation to history and other constituting experiences of race, class, gender, and nationality.

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