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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 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.
  • CAS WS 400: Gender and Healthcare
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASWR 120 or equivalent. - Focuses on strengthening students' knowledge, skills, and ability to construct a critical appraisal of all the determinants, distribution, causes, mechanisms, systems, and consequences of health inequities related to gender including how gender influences and is influenced by healthcare systems. Effective Summer 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS WS 412: Critical Death Studies
    Prerequisite: junior standing and above for undergraduate students. - This course examines how death reveals social inequalities, colonial legacies, and geopolitical forces. It analyzes the conditions shaping mourning and the creative, cultural, and political responses that follow, while drawing on interdisciplinary, academic, and popular materials from diverse geographic contexts. Effective Spring 2027, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: Research and Information Literacy, Social Inquiry 2, Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • 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. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • The Individual in Community
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • CAS WS 430: Global Maternal & Child Health
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: senior standing. - 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 431: Seminar: Genders, Sexualities, and Youth Cultures
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: senior standing or consent of instructor. - Investigates the social construction of gender and sexuality in adolescence. Engaging critical approaches to youth cultures, the course examines the structural conditions that shape gender and sexuality norms and the ways youth navigate and redefine their social worlds. Effective Fall 2023 this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS WS 432: Gender, Sexuality, and Buddhism
    Examines gender and sexuality in various Buddhist cultures from a broad range of time periods such as ancient India, medieval China, and modern America. Topics include: family, the body, lust, abortion, and menstruation. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration, Critical Thinking.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Critical Thinking
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS WS 434: Monarchy in Modern Britain
    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. 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.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS WS 442: Philosophy and Feminism
    Undergraduate pre-requisites: two courses in philosophy or consent of instructor. - An advanced survey course of historical and contemporary philosophical approaches to feminism. Topics include: methodology, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, black feminist thought, decolonial feminism, global feminism, philosophy of gender, and queer and trans philosophy.
  • CAS WS 445: Women, Gender, and Islam
    Undergraduate prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or 120). - Investigates the way Muslim religious discourse, norms, and practices create and sustain gender and hierarchy in religious, social, and familial life. Looks at historical and contemporary challenges posed to these structures. - Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS WS 451: Fashion as History
    This seminar treats clothing and other products of material culture as historical documents. Explores what clothing can tell us about key developments in the modern period relating to trade and commerce, empire, gender, class, industry, revolution, nation-building, identity politics, and globalization. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS WS 452: Contemporary Debates in Sexualities Research
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASSO 241 or CASWS 200, First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120) - Engages sociological debates about sexual identities, politics, and practices. Students consider how sexualities are expressed and regulated through various institutions and how they intersect with race, class, gender, citizenship, and other domains of inequality. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Writing-Intensive, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS WS 453: Topics in Religion and Sexuality
    Exploration of key topics and themes in the study of religion and sexuality, especially as they intersect with gender, race, and politics. Historical periods and religious contexts vary according to instructor. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Historical Consciousness, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS WS 456: Neurobiology of Sex and Aggression
    Examines neurobiological and genetic factors that influence sex and violence. Students review primary literature from the past century that highlights major scientific discoveries that have reconceptualized our understanding of the origins of sexual-determination, -attraction and - aggression. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Historical Consciousness, Scientific Inquiry II.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Scientific Inquiry II
  • CAS WS 458: The Nonbinary Nineteenth Century
    Undergraduate prerequisite: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120). - Examines fictional and non fictional works from nineteenth-century France on themes of sexual and gender identity, contextualized through contemporary queer, trans, and feminist theory. Effective Spring 2026, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS WS 460: Topics in LGBTQ History
    Undergrad prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120). - Seminar examines topics in the history of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) people and cultural or political movements. May be repeated for credit if topics vary. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Oral and Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS WS 465: Intersectionalities: Theories, Methods, and Praxis
    Undergraduate pre-requisites: junior standing or consent of instructor. - "Intersectionality," is one of the prominent contributions made by critical race feminist scholars that now broadly extend across disciplines. This course takes stock of the multiple ways that intersectional scholars and activists conceptualize intersectionality in relation to sociological theory, research problems, design, and praxis.

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