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

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  • CAS WS 317: 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. Effective Spring 2023 this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, The Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS WS 319: Disability and Queerness in Speculative Fiction
    This course examines how LGBTQ2IA speculative fiction engages with disability and other intersecting frameworks of difference to present alternate, parallel, or invented worlds. This course provides opportunities for students to strengthen ethical reasoning, cultural analysis, and aesthetic exploration. Effective Fall 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Ethical Reasoning.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Ethical Reasoning
  • CAS WS 325: Bombs and Bombshells: Gender, Armed Conflict, and Political Violence
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: sophomore, junior, or senior standing. - 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. Effective Summer 2025 fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS WS 326: Arts of Gender
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: at least one prior literature course, or CASWS 101, or junior or senior standing. - Examines representations of gender and sexuality in diverse art forms, including drama, dance, film, and literature, and how art reflects historical constructions of gender. 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 327: Immigrant Women in Literature: Found in Translation'
    This course explores literature about migration created by women primarily from Eastern Europe. We read autobiographical narratives that focus on the shaping of transcultural identity with an eye to the problem of translation as a linguistic, cultural, and personal phenomenon. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS WS 329: LGBTQI Representation in Film
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: sophomore, junior, or senior standing. - 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.
  • CAS WS 330: Transforming Life: Anthropology of Gender and Medical Technologies
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120); recommend CAS AN1 01 and AN102 - 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. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing- Intensive Course. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, The Individual in Community, Writing- Intensive Course.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS WS 333: Queering Health
    This course is about the unique physical and mental health needs, health disparities, and resiliency within the LGBTQ community. Students will learn about the psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity, intersectionality in LGBTQ communities, gender identity and sexual orientation development models, queer families and relationships, minority stress, hetero/cis-sexism, and other relevant topics. Students will also learn about LGBTQ affirming therapies, healthcare, public policy, and legislation. This course will take a constructively critical lens to medicalized/pathologizing constructions of sexual and gender diversity and examine topics within historical and modern social context. This course will explore strategies for advocacy, improving the healthcare experience of LGBTQ people, and addressing barriers to accessing healthcare from local, national, and global perspectives. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Social Inquiry II.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS WS 335: Sociology of Race, Class & Gender
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: At least one prior 100- or 200-level sociology course, or CAS WS 101/1 02. - No one of us is one thing, one identity, nor motivated by one singular interest, nor privileged or subjugated by one singular form of power, but how do those multiple forms of ourselves affect how we are advantaged, disadvantaged, viewed, and understood by the social world' Our social world, is, by default, a vast web of social intersections between and across groups with shared, overlapping, and conflicting identities. Race, class and gender affect nearly all of our lived experiences and greatly complicate and nuance concepts of diversity and difference. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, The Individual in Community, Historical Consciousness.
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Historical Consciousness
    • The Individual in Community
  • CAS WS 345: Shariah Law
    Shariah Law looks behind the stereotypes and headlines--despotic rulers, barbaric punishments, women's oppression--to understand the origins, history, and structure of Islamic law. Explores its implementation in various times and places, modern transformations, and contemporary debates over legal reform. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Ethical Reasoning, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS WS 347: Feminist Inquiry
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: sophomore, junior, or senior standing. - 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. Effective Fall 2024 fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Creativity/Innovation, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Social Inquiry I.
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Social Inquiry I
  • CAS WS 352: American Masculinities
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: one 100- or 200-level course in either sociology or women's, gender, & sexuality. - This course will explore masculinity: as a historical, social construct and site of power and violence; as a facet of identity and system of oppression; as style, myth, and representation; as something perpetually in "crisis" and in need of recuperation; as a process that helps and harms; as a set of ideals, practices, and traditions; and as system that cuts across race, ethnicity, sexuality, social class, nation, geography and place, age, and other lines of difference. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Social Inquiry I
  • CAS WS 375: Growing Up in Korea
    Examining memoirs, biographies, prose fiction, poetry, films, television dramas, and graphic narratives asking: how have Korean women recounted women’s lives through media? What roles have gender and sexuality played in stories of ‘growing up' from the late 1800s to today? Effective Spring 2019, 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 377: Gender and Sexuality in Judaism
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Explores the role of gender and sexuality in Judaism and Jewish experience, historically and in the present. Subjects include constructions of masculinity and femininity, attitudes toward (and uses of) the body and sexuality, gendered nature of religious practice and authority. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS WS 380: Gender and Identity in Contemporary Middle Eastern Film
    An exploration of representations of gender and identity in contemporary Middle Eastern films by male and female directors reflecting on the impact of modernization, globalization, war and trauma through different visual genres. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • CAS WS 382: Women's Literary Cultures
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: one previous literature course or junior or senior standing. - Writings by women in diverse literary forms, including drama, poetry and prose. How does women's literary culture reflect historical constructions of gender and sexuality' How do writers engage with new literary forms, like the lyric, political treatise, or the novel' Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • The Individual in Community
  • CAS WS 393: Technoculture and Horizons of Gender and Race
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: one previous literature course or junior or senior standing. - 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. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • The Individual in Community
  • CAS WS 395: Inhuman Films: Genders, Animals, Machines
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 120). - This course explores what happens to the "human" at the intersection of feminist theory and cinematic representation. How and why do films assign humanity to some figures and withhold it from others on the basis of race, gender, "ability," etc.' Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS WS 396: Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality
    Analyzes gender and sexuality from an intersectional perspective. Focus on metaphysics, epistemology, and semantics to understand gender and sexuality as they exist within interlocking systems of oppression including racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and fatphobia. 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.
    • Critical Thinking
    • The Individual in Community
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • CAS WS 398: Feminist Political Theory
    Introduces students to key texts, problems, and debates in western feminist political theory. Students study major feminist thinkers, and explore diverse approaches to crucial topics in the field: such as 'white feminism,' marriage, disability, sex, and pornography.

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