Course Descriptions

CLHU U260 Pandora's children 3 crs.
This course examines the status of women in classical antiquity from the Bronze Age through the late Roman Empire. Readings include selections from a wide variety of ancient documents and contemporary scholarship. Archaeological and artistic evidence will also be considered.

CMMN A453 American Women Journalists 3 crs.
This course is an interdisciplinary study of the lives and writings of prominent American women who, through their talent and their commitment, have had a significant impact on both American culture and American journalism.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.

CMMN A455 Media and Gender 3crs.
This course examines the impact of media’s gender images on individuals, society, and culture. Participants will learn to be more critical consumers of media messages, specifically in terms of gender representations, to think and to write critically about their responses to and use of media products, and to develop different perspectives to interpret pop culture and media messages.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.

CRJU C280 Domestic Violence 3 crs.
Students examine the dynamics of violent relationships, theories of domestic violence, and reactions to domestic violence by the family, media, community and, more extensively, the criminal justice system. Although the course will be focused on intimate partner violence, special topics will also be covered including elder abuse, sexual assault, same sex partner violence, victimization in minority and immigrant populations, stalking, and lethal intimate partner violence.

ENGL U287 Martyrs, Minstrels, Mystics 3 crs.
This course introduces a vast body of literary and non-literary writings produced by women from Western Europe and Japan during the period 900-1500. Genres to be studied include drama, romance, diary, lyric, epistle, mystical narrative and political allegory. Students will explore issues of authority, patronage and gender, among others.

ENGL V274 Women Writers 3 crs.
This course is a historical study of literature focusing upon women’s struggle for equality. Readings include fiction, drama, poetry, and biography by and about women, and historical, sociological, and psychological essays.

ENGL V275 Black Women Novelists 3 crs.
The course focuses on black women as creative literary artists and evaluates the contributions of these women to the literary culture of their respective countries and to the world in general. It seeks to establish the common links and the divergent views of these writers on problems facing black people wherever they live.
Prerequisite: ENGL T122.

ENGL A410 Writing Gender 3 crs.
The course examines the impact of contemporary feminist thought on rhetorical theory and introduces students to writing practices resulting from that impact. Readings from Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigary, Julia Kristeva, Judith Butler, Bell Hooks, Rosi Braidotti, Nancy Mairs, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jeanette Winterson, and others provide a foundation for nonfiction writing assignments that combine personal experience with critical theory and encourage experimentation with voice and form.
Prerequisites: ENGL T122 or A205; junior standing.

ENGL A461 Contemporary Women's Literature 3 crs.
The course will introduce the major works by women writers which heavily influenced the development of the modernist and postmodernist movements in literature. The course will also explore the relationship of gender identity to the development of various literary techniques.
Prerequisites: ENGL T122 or A205; junior standing.

ENGL A466 Southern Women Writers 3 crs.

HIST X290 Women in American History 3 crs.
An exploration of the diverse historical experience of women in America from the colonial period to the present, the course will focus on changes in women’s work, legal and political status, education, religious experience, family life, and gender roles.

HIST A260 Modern European Women’s History 3 crs.
This course will examine the history of European women from the 18th century to the present. It will analyze the diversities of women’s experiences based on nationality, class, and religion and will focus on women’s work, political and legal rights, sexuality, and on the impact of wars, revolutions, and movements such as nazism and communism.

HIST A352 Women in African History 3 crs.
This course looks at women in African history from ancient times to the present, focusing on how religious practices, colonialism, and social class have impacted their lives. We will examine the construction of gender, social systems, reproduction, women’s exercise of power, and the attempt to control of the bodies of women and girls.

HIST W240 Between Eve & Mary: Women in Medieval Europe 3 crs.
This class explores changes in women’s rights and roles in medieval society. Special emphasis is placed on the gap between prescription and reality, women’s contributions to medieval society, ideas and attitudes about women, and developments at the end of the medieval period to create a society tolerant of witchcraft persecutions.

HIST W255 Medieval Sex and Gender 3 crs.
Sex and gender are linked together throughout history as cultural constructs that evolve from a power relationship. In studying these aspects of a society, we are much better informed about its social mores, hierarchical relationships, even political strategies. Because many ideas about sex and gender developed in the Middle Ages, a study of these aspects will help students better appreciate modern values.

LAS V235 Women Writers of Spanish America 3 crs.
This course offers an overview of major women writers of 20th-century Spanish America.

MUGN J204 Women in Music 3 crs.
This course examines the role of women in music and musical life of the past and present, primarily in the West. It examines contributions of specific individuals and explores the role of gender in the creation, transmission, and reception of music. The portrayal of women on the stage, in writings about music, in music compositions, and in the media also will be discussed.

MUGN U271 Medieval Music and Mysticism 3 crs.
This course uses the twelfth-century abbess, composer, and visionary Hildegard of Bingen as a point of entry to the world of the high middle ages. Topics to be considered may include aspects of history, music, liturgy, drama, literacy and education, gender roles, science and medicine, mysticism, monastic organization, and manuscript production.

PHIL J241 Philosophical Perspective on Woman 3 crs.
This course covers the philosophical development of three feminist theories–liberal, Marxist, and radical feminism. Various philosophical frameworks that have served as the basis of feminist critiques, such as positivism, liberalism, Marxism, functionalism, existentialism, and Freudism are discussed. Students will address critically a number of women’s issues, including women’s self-concept, their biology, their place in the public sphere, and their representation in language and culture.
Prerequisite: PHIL T122.

PHIL U254 Postmodernism and Feminism 3 crs.
Masculinity and femininity are no longer accepted as fixed positions within ontologies mapped out by man’s objectifying look. Postmodernist deconstruction of traditional engendered representations discloses the exchangeability of genders and thus works toward a liberation of the "engendered subject" in the multitudinous affinities between beings.
Prerequisites: PHIL T122, ENGL T122.

PSYC A327 Studies in Psychology of Women 3 crs.
This course investigates the life span development of women. The predominant focus concerns the ways in which class, gender, race, and cultural background affect the individual. Also addressed are issues and factors related to societal stereotypes of women.
Prerequisite: PSYC A100.

RELS A417 Women, Religion, Culture 3 crs.
This course is an investigation of the mutual impact of religious belief and gender roles. Special topics include the origin of patriarchy, structures of patriarchy, function of shamanism in women’s lives, women in patriarchal religions, violence perpetuated against women in patriarchal cultures/religions, and women creating women’s religion.
Prerequisites: RELS T122 or RELS H233; junior standing.

RELS J243 Women in Christianity 3 crs.
This course is an examination in historical terms of the tension between the significant religious opportunities available to women in the Christian tradition, and the subordination of women in Christian institutions. This historical examination will begin with women in the scriptures, trace women in European Christian history through the Reformation, and then focus on Christian women in America.
Prerequisite: RELS T122 or RELS H233.
Replaces RELS U243

RELS J281 Women in Religions 3 crs.
This course is the historical and cultural study of the world religions in order to understand the ways that women’s roles in society and religious beliefs are interrelated and affect one another. Women’s roles and experiences in the religions are examined, as well as how the religions have regarded women as evidenced in scriptures, myths, and theologies.
Prerequisite: RELS T122 or RELS H233.
Replaces RELS U281

SOCI A240 Sociology of the Family 3 crs.
This course explores the impact of social changes on family structures. Throughout the course, the sociological perspective is employed to focus on the link between larger social forces and their impact on intimate relationships. An emphasis is placed on the interactive relationships which exist between gender, race, social class, age, and sexual orientation and the constraints they impose on individuals and families.

SOCI A250 The Sociology of Gender 3 crs.
This course focuses on the constraints that the social construction of gender imposes on both men and women in our gender-stratified society. The emphasis of this course will be on developing a critical, empirically-based understanding of the structural and historical foundations affecting males and females in society.

SOCI A255 Sociology of Sexualities 3 crs.
This course will examine the social, psychological, and biological dimensions that are reflected in the expression of human sexuality. Included topics will be the development of gender roles, reproductive facts, psychological implications, and value structures involved in decision-making about sexual behavior and life style.

SOCI A260 Women in Latin America 3 crs.
This course examines the social-structural context, daily realities, and contributions of Latin American women in the economy, politics, and the arts, with an emphasis on the 20th century. In so doing, the course also aims to convey a more thorough understanding of contemporary Latin American societies.

SOCI A305 Social/Political Inequality 3 crs.
The unequal distribution of wealth and power, both globally and within the U.S., are examined. This course covers such topics as Third World underdevelopment, the social and political consequences of economic globalization, class conflict, and racial and gender inequality.

SOCI A321 Body, Society, Health 3 crs.
Students are introduced to intellectual debates of the social body and body-related processes in the field of sociology. Particularly, this course focuses on the role social institutions of family, religion, medicine, sports, and popular culture play in shaping our bodily experiences centered around health ailments (for example, cancers, AIDS, heart diseases) and social problems of sexism, racism, classism, and heterosexism.

SOCI X416 Gender, Law, Social Control 3 crs.
This course offers a critical examination of the relationships between law, social control, and gender inequality in the U.S. While a number of theoretical approaches are discussed in this course, we primarily examine the various substantive issues of law and gender from a feminist perspective. Gender is the primary organizing variable for the course materials, but at each stage we consider the intersections between gender, class, and race. Topics covered include: core concepts of law, legal systems, crime, social control, the social construction of gender, feminist theory and feminist jurisprudence, gendered patters of criminal offending and victimization (with particular attention to intimate partner violence, rape, and child sex abuse), issues in family law, reproduction, and gendered patterns of sentencing and punishment.

VISA J236 Women in Art 3 crs.
This course will present the role and image of women in visual arts as portrayed by men and women, from antiquity to the present, in the light of sociopolitical, cultural, and moral conditions and values. The work of women artists will be central.
Replaces VISA U236