Fall 2012
GWST 1112: Introduction to Gender and Women's Studies (CRN 3336)
Tuesday/Thursday, 10-11:50, 4 credits, Lindsey Feitz
This course provides an introduction to the discipline of Gender and Women's Studies. All cultures engage in a complex process of assigning cultural values and social roles which vary according to the cultural environment in which human interaction occurs. Among these, the process of translating biological differences into a complex system of gender remains one of the most important. Gender and Women's Studies aims to understand how this process of 'gendering' occurs. This course also explores how this system of meaning relates to other systems of allocating power, including socioeconomic class, social status, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and nationality. Using this lens, this course explores contemporary social developments and problems. This class presents students with a variety of texts from sociological articles to literary fictions, and documentary and fictional cinema to explore gender from many directions.
GWST 2981: Victim Advocacy and Activism in a Multicultural Context (CRN 3337)
Monday, 4-5:50, 2 credits, Lisa Ingarfield
Given the prevalence of interpersonal violence (sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking) in society, this course provides students with the intellectual, philosophical, and practical skills to understand advocacy for survivors of interpersonal violence in a multicultural context. The course explores victim advocacy, the focus areas of interpersonal violence, cultural considerations, students' own philosophy of victim advocacy, and the experience of survivors. The class challenges students to consider how their own social identities influence the advocacy relationship. While the focus of the class is on interpersonal violence, the discussions will provide skills for any kind of crime victim advocacy.
GWST 2700: Narratives about Gender: Digital Storytelling
Tuesday/Thursday, 2-3:50, 4 credits, Kate Burns and Ruth Hickerson
This course explores the use of narrative as both a sense‐making and self‐presentation tool. Throughout the quarter students will work on their own digital narratives related to gender created through editing software found on their laptops. Each student will produce a compelling creative treatment of their story through activities that include writing exercises, discovering the story, storyboarding, scripting, digitizing images and video, recording a voiceover and soundtrack, and editing the project. As they build their narratives, students will study the elements of digital storytelling, including point of view, dramatic questions, emotional content, voice, soundtrack, economy, and pacing. Further, their own work on a personal narrative will inform their examination of meta-narratives and resistant narratives related to gender and intersecting identities.
Courses with GWST Attribute:
SOCI 2210: The Family (CRN 2279)
Tuesday/Thursday, 12-1:50, 4 credits, Christine Sheikh
This course explores the family, with emphasis on different kinds of families and on contemporary issues of changing gender roles, intimacy, childbearing, family breakup and reconstitution, and family relationships with other social institutions.
SOCI 2420: Social Inequality (CRN 2210)
Monday/Wednesday, 8-9:50, 4 credits, Lisa Martinez
This course focuses on dimensions of social class and its effect on economic, political and social institutions as well as style of life.
MFJS 3203: Women & Film (CRN 4272)
Monday/Wednesday, 12-1:50, 4 credits, Diane Waldman
This course explores representations of women in film, both in the dominant Hollywood cinema and in alternative filmmaking practices (experimental film, documentary, etc.).
ANTH 2061: Gender, Change, Globalization (CRN 3778)
Tuesday/Thursday, 4-5:50, 4 credits, Ermitte St. Jacques
This course introduces students to anthropological approaches to the study of gender and globalization with a focus on social and cultural change. The course presents a survey of cross-cultural variations in gender identities and practices and analyzes how men and women are affected differently by the economic and cultural changes brought about by globalization, such as international development policies, migration, and media productions are emphasized. Contemporary social issues are discussed to explore these transformations and the effects they have on people's everyday lives.