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 WS 330: Transforming Life: Anthropology of New Medical Technologies
    Seminar anthropologically compares the role of science and medicine in society and troubles what is natural and moral, e.g., about gender, person hood, kinship, and community, using case studies of new reproductive technologies in Asia, the Middle East, and North America. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Ethical Reasoning, Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS WS 335: Sociology of Race, Class & Gender
    Examines race, class, gender, and sexuality as intersecting axes of stratification, identity, and experience. Draws heavily from feminist theories in both sociology and history in order to analyze how these intersections can be applied to understanding social problems and structures. Also offered as CAS AA 335 and CAS SO 335.
  • 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 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 347: Feminist Inquiry
    A survey of feminist theories and development of strands of feminist inquiry in the academy, movements, and politics. Considers the commonalities and contrast in gender relations across cultures and tensions between major feminist schools of thought.
  • 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 375: Growing Up in Korea
    Examining memoirs, prose fiction, film, television dramas, and graphic narratives to ask: how have the conventions of Korean coming-of-age narratives evolved? What does this say about changes in Korean identity? What roles have gender and sexuality played in Korean stories of growing up? Also offered as CAS LK 375 A1. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS WS 393: Technoculture and Horizons of Gender and Race
    Explores new media theory, postmodernist thought, social media, and video games to confront gender, race, and sexuality. Through critical reading, writing, and hands-on digital technology use, students consider how race, sexuality, and gender live in virtual worlds. Also offered as CAS EN 393. Effective Fall 2019, 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 396: Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality
    Analyzes notions of gender and sexuality. Questions include: Are gender and sexual identity natural, or are they social constructions? How are they related to love and desire? Also offered as CAS PH 256 and CAS PO 396. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, The Individual in Community, Critical Thinking.
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • The Individual in Community
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 420: 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.
  • CAS WS 430: Global Maternal & Child Health
    Provides a global perspective on maternal and child health. Major topics include early life influences on later life health, maternity care practices worldwide, and the role of both human evolutionary history and sociopolitical structures in shaping health outcomes for women and children.
  • CAS WS 434: Monarchy in Modern Britain
    A seminar probing seminal moments in the history of modern British sovereignty, when the politics of the court intersected with the politics of the people. Particular consideration is given to how monarchy has survived as an institution. Also offered as CAS HI 434. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 450: Internships: Women, Gender, and Social Change
    A seminar which introduces students to the practices/ideas of social change organizations through local internships and weekly discussions related to class, race, sexuality, women and gender.
  • CAS WS 451: Fashion as History
    This course covers the history of Switzerland through its art and architecture, from the Romans to the twentieth century, setting the country's development in a wider European context and covering the main movements in art and architecture over that period. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 452: Contemporary Debates in Sexualities Research
    Engages debates about sexual identities, practices, and communities, conceptualizing sexuality as both a social construct and an institution. Students consider how sexualities operate across social contexts, their effects on systems of inequalities, and their intersections with race, class, and gender. Also offered as CAS SO 452.
  • CAS WS 454: Sexuality and Religion in the U.S.
    Religion and sexuality in the U.S., including theoretical and historical approaches to religious and sexual desire, identity, ritual, and regulation. Possible topics include religious and sexual freedom, plural marriage, the Sexual Revolution, reproductive justice, sex and secularism, and LGBTQ rights. Also offered as CAS RN 454.
  • CAS WS 516: Gender and Politics
    Analyzes the relationship between gender and politics, law and policy primarily in the United States. Considers inequalities based on gender and sexuality, women's changing political, gender- and sexuality-based political action and social movements. Also offered as CAS PO 516.
  • CAS WS 530: Global Intimacies: Sex, Gender, and Contemporary Sexualities
    Explores theoretical and ethnographic approaches to gender, sex, and sexuality as linked to globalizing discourses and transnational mobilities. Readings and discussion emphasize intersections of sex, gender, labor, love, and marriage in a globalized world. Also offered as CAS AN 530.
  • CAS WS 558: Human Sex Differences: Behavior, Biology, and Ecology
    Why are men and women different? Adopts an evolutionary, adaptive approach to investigate sex differences in human behavior, physiology, and cognition from developmental, mechanistic, and phylogenetic perspectives. Topics include sex differences in aggression, mate choice, parenting, affiliation, and cognition. Also offered as CAS AN 558.
  • CAS WS 594: Historical Traditions of Feminist Theory
    Explore selected writing from the history of feminist theory, 18th century to the rise of the late-20th century feminist movement, to understand the richness of that history and the varieties of approaches theorists took in understanding and resisting gender-based oppression. Also offered as CAS PO 594.

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