 |
| GWSS
1001 Introduction to Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies |
|
| Description:
The philosopher Simone de Beauvoir once wrote, "One is
not born a woman," suggesting that gender is made in
culture. This class, which welcomes students of all genders,
focuses both on ideas about gender difference in general and
on the effects of those ideas on women in particular. We study
not only the differences between men and women but among women
of different eras, nations, classes, and ethnicities. The
texts we use range from the U.N. Beijing Platform for Women,
written by women delegates from around the world, naming problems
and suggesting solutions. We also read and discuss studies
by social scientists and historians, essays by feminist philosophers,
and literary texts. Our analysis of gender includes an examination
of the experience that each of brings to the classroom as
a gendered individual. Topics include: Theories of gender,
including how gender is learned through language, in the family,
via popular culture, and in school and other social institutions;
Gender in relation to race and class; Gender and the body:
ideal body types, gender and sexuality, motherhood; Women
and education; Violence against women; Women and work; Women's
creativity; How women come together to work on bettering their
own lives and those of others.
|
|
| GWSS
1003W Women Write the World |
|
Description:
This course will introduce students to basic concepts in literary
studies, including genre, canon, theme, plot, metaphor, representation,
narrative, and point of view. We will read a variety of literature
by women from different parts of the world and from a r ange
of time periods and cultures. Texts are chosen for thematic
focus on lives, experiences, and literary expressions of women,
enabling as well an explorationof some of the basic concepts
of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies: gender as a category of analysis; women's
subjectivity; and
gender as it interacts with other categories of social location
such as race; nationality; and class. The class will also explore
the ways in which gender relates to nature, art, activity, and
forms of creative writing. |
|
| GWSS
1902 Freshman Seminar: Nosy Females in Detective Fiction |
|
Description:
Fictional detectives are powerful characters, who see what others
have missed and figure out what leaves others baffled, and whose
perspectives on the world help to set things right. Oddly, most
fictional detectives aren't people who would be expected to
have so much power in their world: Even if they're high-ranking
police officers, they're not stereotypically suited for the
job; or they were kicked off the force and are working as private
investigators; or they're wealthy amateurs resented by the real
detectives; or, whoever they are, they drink too much, have
messy personal lives, or write poetry. And some of them, a
surprisingly large number, are women. So one thing we'll think
about is what happens when the eyes through which we're being
led to see the world--the eyes that see things as they really
are when everyone else sees things wrong-are female. How are
female detectives characterized: as women, and as detectives?
How do we understand their power to see truly? Most of the books
we'll read are set in the U. S., and are chosen partly for the
differencesnotably
of race and class-among their protagonists, and among the settings
for the mysteries. We'll discuss how those differences, along
with gender, figure into how someone is portrayed as the person
in a privileged position to know things. Students will write
several short papers and actively participate in discussion,
including by suggesting books for us to read, as well as movies
or TV shows for us to watch. |
|
| GWSS
3002 Gender, Race, and Class: Women's Lives in the United States |
|
| Description:
Comparative study of women/gender, race, class, sexuality in
two or more U.S. ethnic cultures.
|
|
| GWSS
3002H Honors: Gender, Race, and Class: Women's Lives in the
United States |
|
| Description: Comparative
study of women/gender, race, class, sexuality in two or more
U.S. ethnic cultures. Includes honors recitation. |
|
| GWSS
3102V Honors: Feminist Thought and Theory |
|
Description: What
is theory? What is feminist theory? How do different feminist
theories help create alternative ways of understanding reality
and our experiences in the world? What is gender and how do
feminist theories "materialize" gender and our understanding
of how gender and other social categories, such as race, class,
sexuality, disability, age, and nationality, are constructed
within and through each other? Of what use is feminist theory?
How can theory change your mind and your life? How does theory
inform feminist activism? This course will provide you with
a comparative overview of recent genealogies and frameworks
for a variety of feminist theories. Our goal is to offer students
a broadly based understanding of contemporary feminist theory
and a specialized focus on selected issues that inform current
theoretical debates in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, feminist political movements,
and the politics of everyday life. This course will not only
expand your comprehension of different
feminist theories and bring you up to contemporary speed, but
it will also improve your general theoretical skills: how to
read theory, how to use theoretical language, how to write analytically
and critically about social and personal issues, and how to
dump a bad argument. Students at all levels of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
coursework are welcome in this course. Special recitation sections
are available for Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies majors and honors students. |
|
| GWSS
3207 Gender and the Global Politics of Health |
|
| Description: This
course will examine the politics, global processes, and social
relations that shape health and disease patterns worldwide.
By looking at several case studies including HIV/AIDS in Africa,
health care in the U.S., discourses around fertility particularly
of poor women, variable infant mortalities, and access to food,
we will explore how gender, poverty, geographic and social location,
citizenship, sexuality, and other factors intersect to shape
the degree of vulnerability to disease or the right to health. |
|
| GWSS
3306 Pop Culture Women |
|
| Description: Contemporary
U.S. feminism as political/intellectual movement; ways in which
movement has been represented in popular culture. |
|
| GWSS
3307 Feminist Film Studies |
|
| Description: Construction
of different notions of gender in film, social uses of these
portrayals, Lectures on film criticism, film viewings, class
discussions. |
|
| GWSS
3308W Women's Contemporary Fiction |
|
| Description: Themes
and features of style and content related to changes in women’s
roles in novels and short stories b English-language women writers
of the late 20th century. Significance of race, sexual orientation,
class and age in the conditions of women’s lives and their
portrayal in literature. |
|
| GWSS
3403W Jewish Women in the United States |
|
Description: Jewish
women came to the United States over the past three centuries
as immigrants and religious outsiders from most of the world.
How they became Americans, reshaped Judaism, and challenged
ideas about what an American woman was are key themes of the
class. In understanding this process, students will learn how
class, race, sexuality, religion and gender interact in different
historical periods. Key themes include: immigration,
acculturation, work and the labor movement, politics, family
and sexuality and Judaism and women. Students will read historical,
literary and autobiographical works in addition to primary sources,
as well as viewing films. |
|
| GWSS
3404 International Lesbian and Queer Studies |
|
| |
|
| GWSS
3407 Women in Early and Victorian America: 1600-1890 |
|
| Description: Introduction
to the varied experiences of American women and the dynamics
of gender and race in American history, 1600-1880. For any student;
no background knowledge assumed. Topics include women's involvement
in-and the impact on women of-European colonization and the
dispossession of native peoples, slavery, revolution and reform,
economic and technological change, westward expansion, and transformations
in politics, family life, gender roles, and sexuality. Course
organized primarily as lecture with occasional films, large-group
student discussion, in-class exercises. Students may also choose
to enhance their experience in the course by registering for
an additional small-group discussion section, graded separately,
for additional credit. |
|
| GWSS
3410 La Chicana |
|
| Description: This
interdisciplinary examination of Chicanas in the US emphasizes
the importance of historical context and cultural process to
any discussion of Chicana experience. Readings, discussions,
and lectures will address the historical presence of Chicanas
in the US, patriarchy, labor issues, immigration, political
involvement, feminist vision and the role of culture as an influence
on gender roles. |
|
| GWSS
3414 Women in Medieval Europe |
|
Description: This
class will look at women's role in the family, politics, religion,
work, and social movements in Europe from about 500-1500. We
will look at how women are represented in various kinds of historical
sources, including religious texts, art, literature, scientific
studies, and law. We will discuss problems and opportunities
in working with these different kinds of historical evidence.
We will also discuss the meaning of "gender" and its
role in history, and what the study of the Middle Ages can contribute
to the field of women's
history. When you complete this course you can expect improve
skills in analysis of historical issues and evidence, and a
better understanding of the role of women in past societies. |
|
GWSS
3490 Topics: Political Economy and Global Studies: Feminist
Fairy
Tales |
|
Description: This
course will explore the history of the Grimms' fairy tales and
investigate how various gender stereotypes developed and became
classical models for children and adults. Included in the reading
will be Italian and French tales from the 16th,17th and 18th
centuries by Straparola, Basile, Perrault and d'Aulnoy whose
stories served as models for the Grimms.In addition to analyzing
the Grimms' fairy tales,there will be an indepth focus on different
cinematic and literary versions of "Little Red Riding Hood,"
"Cinderella," "Beauty
and the Beast," "Bluebeard," and others. Why
have they become our classical fairy tales? Why have numerous
writers, artists, and filmmakers altered the classics? The different
literary and film versions will be studied in order to examine
how various authors have used the Grimms' tales to question
gender stereotypes, aesthetics, and ideology. Though the focus
will be on the formation of gender types and ideology in the
tales, other approaches to the study of fairy tales such as
the psychoanalytical, sociological, semiotic, and structuralist
approaches will be investigated, and contemporary authors such
as Angela Carter, Olga Broumas, Robert Coover, Francesa Lia
Block, Emma Donoghue, and Tanith Lee, who have created their
own feminist and subversive versions, part of a Grimm counter-tradition,
will be discussed in class sessions along with fairy-tale films
and illustrations. Historical and biographical background information
will be provided in lectures. |
|
| GWSS
3980 Directed Instruction |
|
| Please contact department for information. |
|
| GWSS
3993 Directed Study |
|
| Please contact department for information. |
|
| GWSS
3994 Directed Research |
|
| Please contact department for information. |
|
| GWSS
4401 Chicana/Latina Cultural Studies |
|
Description: Diversity
of cultures called “Hispanic”; women in these cultures.
Chicanas/Latinas living in United States or migrating from their
home nations to United States. |
|
| GWSS
4504 Women and the Legislative Process |
|
| Description: This
course offers a unique introduction to lawmaking and the workings
of state government. Students will learn how Minnesota laws
are actually made and explore current and historical influence
of women as legislators, constituents, and professional or citizen
lobbyists in state or national legislative arenas. Emphasis
is on understanding what unique contributions, issues, and challenges
women experience in legislative arenas. Opportunities are provided
for direct contact with local women legislators, lobbyists and
citizen/community organizers in the classroom and at the State
Capitol. This course can be used as a prerequisite for the Women's
Studies Internship Program (Legislative Session 2003). Contact
the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies undergraduate office (612) 624-6809 or email
GWSSadv@umn.edu for more details and a brochure describing the
internship program. |
|
| GWSS
4980 Directed Instruction |
|
| Please contact department for information. |
|
| GWSS
4993 Directed Study |
|
| Please contact department for information. |
|
| GWSS
4994 Directed Research |
|
| Please contact department for information. |
|
| GWSS
5103 Feminist Pedagogies |
|
| Description: Theory
and practice of feminist pedagogies by comparing and evaluating
various multicultural feminist theories of education/teaching
and the application of specific theories, techniques, and teaching
strategies. |
|
| GWSS
5490 Topics: Political Economy and Global Studies : Gender in
Medieval Culture |
|
Description: In
this graduate course, open to undergraduates by permission,
we will read and discuss some of the recent scholarship on women,
men, and gender in medieval Western Europe. We will spend substantial
time focusing of women, because the feminine is the "marked"
gender, but in addition to studying women's history, this course
will consider how medieval culture constructed both masculinity
and femininity, and how useful gender is as a
category of analysis of medieval culture. Topics to be considered
include: family; religious life; the body; sexuality; work;
political power; violence; the connection between literary representations
and social practice. Students will write a research paper on
a subject of their choice. Students should have some background
either in medieval studies or in women's history/feminist theory;
they need not have both. |
|
