Spring 2013
(in parenthesis GSS requirement each course fullfills)
GSS 201 Introduction to the Study of Gender (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Daniel W. Rivers TTh 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
This course will introduce students to some of the key concepts in gender studies. We will look at current debates in gender studies, explore the history and theory of feminist movements for social justice, both in the United States and globally, and explore the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in the United States. Students will be asked to think through the see topics with an intersectional lens, asking how categories such as race, class, sexuality, and gender operate in conjunction with one another in people’s lives and through shared cultural beliefs and structures.
GSS 306/VIS 341 Women and Film (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Gaetana Marrone-Puglia Th 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm and M 7:30 pm – 9:50 pm (film)
This course will explore the role of women filmmakers in European cinema from World War II to the present. We will examine the way film artists (directors, editors, set designers, etc.) have identified with the visual image specific to the art of cinema and national cultures. It will include Varda, Cavani, Wertmuller, Potter, Campion, and Holland among others. Emphasis will be on cinematic, socio-ideological perspectives on the role of women in film.
GSS 315/THR 374 Sex on Stage (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Brian E. Herrera T 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm
This course examines theatrical performance as a mode of theorizing about gender, sex, sexuality and embodiment. Through lecture, discussion and performance workshops, this course draws upon contemporary U.S. dramatic literature as it undertakes a multinational, historical survey of theories of performance. The course considers such topics as gender as performance, cross-gender performance, performances of sexual identity, and the explicit body in performance.
GSS 385 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States, 1940-2003 (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Daniel W. Rivers F 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm
This course will offer an overview of LGBT culture and history in the United States from 1945 to 2003. We will use a variety of historical and literary sources, including films and sound clips, to examine changes in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered lives and experiences during the last half of the twentieth century. The course will encourage students to think about intersections of race, sexuality, and class, and how these categories have affected sexual minority communities. The course will also explore the impact that sexual minority communities have had on the law and culture in the United States since World War II.
GSS 403/THR 403/ENG 426/AMS 403 For Your Viewing Pleasure: Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary American Theatre, Film, and Popular Culture (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Jill S. Dolan M 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm
For Your Viewing Pleasure considers what it means to be an ideologically invested spectator of popular culture in the contemporary U.S. Contrary to common stereotypes, viewers can consider politics, as well as gender, sexuality, race, and other identities in theatre, film, and television, and still enjoy themselves, as analysis and pleasure are not mutually exclusive. These forms both reflect and shape who we are as citizens. The course will sharpen students’ instincts as fans and spectators, and provide tools to deepen the analytic skills they bring to their cultural consumption.
GSS 420/SOC 420 Born in the U.S.A.: Culture and Reproduction in Modern America (Science, Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Elizabeth M. Armstrong W 1:30 – 4:20 pm
Reproduction is a basic biological process, as well as a fundamental one for all societies. While the biology of human reproduction is universal across time and place, cultural norms and social institutions powerfully inflect and shape the experience of pregnancy and childbirth in every society. This course investigates the history and sociology of reproduction, focusing on the contemporary United States, but with an eye toward other societies for comparison. How, why, and for whom does birth matter? How do reproductive practices reflect gender, race, and class? The course examines the culture, politics, and economics of reproduction.
EEB 301/GSS 301 Evolution and the Behavior of the Sexes (Science, Social Science and Humanities)
Staff TTh 1:30 – 2:50 pm
ENROLLMENT BY APPLICATION OR INTERVIEW. DEPARTMENTAL PERMISSION REQUIRED.
This course, designed to capitalize on diverse student backgrounds, will use principles of evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology to examine mating strategies and their effect on social systems. We will draw examples from vertebrates, with an emphasis on group-living mammals, particularly primates and elephants. Topics will include mate selection, ontogeny of sex differences, sexual diversity, social bonds and cooperation, and intersexual conflict.
SOC 310/LAS 310/GSS 312 Gender and Development in the Americas (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Ana M. Goldani MW 1:30 – 2:20 pm
This course examines gender as an integral component of socio-economic development in the United States and areas of Latin America. We give attention to processes of industrial restructuring on a global scale that have increased the participation of women in the labor force and transformed men's employment alternatives. The relationship between gender inequality and social order is a central focus. We give special attention to liberal and Marxian approaches in economics.
REL 328/GSS 328 Women and Gender in Islamic Societies (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Shaun E. Marmon W 1:30 – 4:20 pm
This seminar focuses on issues of gender and sexuality in Islamic societies, past and present. Readings are drawn from the fields of history, religious studies, anthropology and sociology. Readings also include a wide range of texts in translation, including novels and poetry. Films are an integral part of the course. Topics include: women's lives; women's writings; female piety; marriage and divorce; sexuality and the body; and women and Islamic fundamentalism.
ENG 343/GSS 343 The New Woman in British Drama, 1890-1915 (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Tamsen O. Wolff F 1:30 – 4:20 pm
This course will look at a sample of the more ambitious turn-of-the-century British drama that addresses the changing political and social roles for women and the arrival of the so-called New Woman. We will locate the plays in their immediate culture of performance, theatre-going, production, reviewing, response and promotion, as well as among the cultural assumptions and issues of politics and society in the time.
FRE 367/GSS 305 Topics in 19th- and 20th-Century French Literature and Culture - Feminist Thought in Twentieth-Century French Literature and Art (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Christy N. Wampole T Th 11:00 am – 12:20 pm
This course surveys the canonical theoretical writings on feminism in 20th-century France and Francophone countries, including texts by Beauvoir, Cixous, Kristeva, Irigaray, Condé, Wittig, and Tiqqun. Some topics addressed: pornography for women, debates on the veil and the burqa in the public space, the Dominique Strauss-Kahn incident, le manifeste des 343, cosmetics, parity laws, street harassment, maternity politics, queer politics, ecofeminism. We will explore these themes in texts, music, photos, films, and other visual media by Cahun, Nothomb, Darrieussecq, Denis, Djebar, Calle, Ernaux, and others.
CHV 390/PHI 390/GSS 391 The Ethics of Love and Sex (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Elizabeth Harman T Th 1:30 – 2:50 pm
An examination of the moral principles governing love and sex. Questions to be addressed include: Do we ever owe it to someone to love him or her? Do we owe different things to those we love? Do we owe it to a loved one to believe better of him than our evidence warrants? What is consent, and why is it morally significant? Is sex between consenting adults always permissible, and if not, why not? Are there good reasons for prohibiting prostitution and pornography? Everyone has opinions about these matters. The aim of the course is to subject those opinions to scrutiny.
COM 401/GSS 401/ENG 419 Seminar: Types of Ideology and Literary Form – Pornography, Gender and the Rise of the Novel in Europe (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor April Alliston Th 1:30 – 4:20 pm
Open to graduate and undergraduate students interested in understanding the origins of the modern novel, this seminar examines the profound historical, theoretical and formal connections between the development of pornography as a distinct category of representation and the development of the novel as a literary genre during the Enlightenment. We will also explore the continuing resonances of those connections today. Readings in current criticism, history and theory of the novel and pornography will accompany primary readings.
EAS 460/GSS 460 Gendered Identities in Contemporary Korea (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Joy S. Kim Th 1:30 – 4:20 pm
This course explores gender and gendered identities as produced and performed in different disciplinary frameworks and historical contexts in contemporary Korea. The relationship between gender formation and 20th century Korean history will be examined through the study of both texts (popular, journalistic, and scholarly) and visual media (films, television shows, and magazines). We will analyze the construction of masculinity and femininity in specific institutions and cultural practices such as military service, the sex industry, and marriage, as well as sports, cinema, and popular culture.
SOC 540/GSS 540 Topics in Economic and Organizational Sociology (Half-Term) – Gender and Economic Activity (Social Science and Humanities)
Professor Viviana A. Zelizer W 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Introduction to a gendered analysis of economic processes and institutions. Course investigates when, why, and in what ways gender shapes production, consumption, distribution, and transfer of assets. After a general discussion of gender theories, it surveys how gender works in a variety of settings and activities, such as labor markets, intimate economies, and caring labor. We end with an overview of strategies aimed at reducing gendered economic inequalities. Overall, the course attempts to strengthen intellectual bridges between economic sociology and gender scholarship.
