Home

Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies

View courses in

  • 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
    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.
  • 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.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Critical Thinking
  • 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. 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 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. 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 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
    This course analyzes gender and sexuality from an intersectional perspective. We 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. 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 400: Gender and Healthcare
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS WR 120; or equivalent.
    This course 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. Also offered as SAR HS 400 A1. 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 403: Seminar: Gender Stratification
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and at least two previous sociology courses; or consent of instructor.
    Considers how the social production of gender contributes to various forms of gendered inequalities in employment, the family, dating markets, media representation, etc., with a special emphasis on how race, class, sexuality, and disability mediate the process.
  • CAS WS 405: Topics in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
    May be repeated for credit as topics change.
  • 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.
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • The Individual in Community
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 425: Sex and the City
    An exploration of sexualities and place from an interdisciplinary perspective. Examines a broad range of places to consider how sexual lives and identities and place-related processes -- from gentrification to suburbanization -- interact. Considers the emplaced lives of a variety of actors, from transgender individuals to sex workers and cisgender heterosexual patrons of gay bars. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: The Individual in Community.
    • The Individual in Community
  • 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
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • 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
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing; or two prior WGS electives; or consent of instructor.
    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 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.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS WS 452: Contemporary Debates in Sexualities Research
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS SO 241 or CAS WS 200.
    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.

Related Bulletin Pages

Beyond the Bulletin