Women’s Studies

Faculty of the Committee on Degrees in Women’s Studies

Affiliated Members of the Committee on Women’s Studies

Other Faculty Offering Instruction in Women’s Studies

Primarily for Undergraduates

*Women’s Studies 97. Tutorial — Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 7217
Kath Weston and staff
Half course (fall term). M., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
Introduction to the intellectual history of feminism through classic texts from the early modern period to the late 20th century.
Note: Required of, and limited to, Women’s Studies concentrators in the fall of their sophomore year.

*Women’s Studies 98r. Tutorial — Junior Year
Catalog Number: 8094
Kath Weston and staff
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Ordinarily taken by concentrators for one term in the second semester of the junior year.

*Women’s Studies 99a. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 6763
Kath Weston and staff
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Both Women’s Studies 99a and 99b are required of all concentrators in their senior year.

*Women’s Studies 99b. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 5847
Kath Weston and staff
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: Spring: 18, 19
Note: Both Women’s Studies 99a and 99b are required of all concentrators in their senior year.

For Undergraduates and Graduates

[Women’s Studies 103. Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies]
Catalog Number: 4778
Bradley S. Epps
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This course provides an intensive overview of the major texts, concepts, and issues on and about homosexuality. Although the field typically privileges the late 20th century and the West, we will also examine works from various cultures and historical periods. Materials will be drawn from literature, visual arts, film, anthropology, psychoanalysis, religion, politics, philosophy, and contemporary theory, Queer and otherwise.
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.

Women’s Studies 110a. Bodies and Boundaries: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 1730 Enrollment: Limited to 25.
Katharine Park
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 11–12:30. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
The history of the body, with particular attention to gender, from late Middle Ages to present. Focusing on Europe and the United States, course examines ways in which the body has been used to construct boundaries: between male/female, human/non-human, between races, between the “normal” and the “abnormal,” between the healthy and the sick. It considers techniques used to enforce those boundaries, from social discipline to surgery to eugenics, and ways in which those boundaries were continually challenged by people who refused to accept them or whose bodies refused to conform.

Women’s Studies 110b. Current Problems in Feminist Theory: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 5590 Enrollment: Limited to 25.
Verena A. Conley
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
A consideration of debates surrounding gender as a category of knowledge in the arts and humanities, particularly with regard to fiction, film, and TV, literary criticism, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and cultural theory. Provides historical frameworks for understanding what is at stake in current controversies surrounding essentialism, ethnocentrism, and “the straight mind.” Explores recent struggles over both the intellectual histories and future potentials of poststructuralism, postmodernism, and avant-garde practice.

Women’s Studies 110c. Borders and Betrayals: Engendering Cultural Identities
Catalog Number: 7763
Kath Weston
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 1 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6
Gender occurs in many different renditions as it combines with race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, and various cultural identities. This course demonstrates how to “think” gender together with other identities by examining how such identities are constituted, the difference that culture makes, the imagined communities people create based on intersecting identities, and the effort required to maintain the borders involved. It also considers the conflicts and betrayals generated when people appear to “cross the line.”

Women’s Studies 125. Gender and Health
Catalog Number: 4563
Mary Ruggie (Kennedy School)
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 2 and one-hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 7
Using theoretical perspectives on the body and the self and debates between feminism and science, this course explores the role of women, the medical profession and various social institutions in constructing discourse and knowledge about gender and health. Among the issues we will discuss are health behaviors, reproductive health, STDs, mental health, cancer, and aging, and differences among women and men of different class, race, and ethnic groups.

Women’s Studies 131. Women, Violence, and the Law
Catalog Number: 1401 Enrollment: Limited to 30.
Diane L. Rosenfeld
Half course (spring term). M., W., 2:30–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
What makes violence against women different from other types of violence? How do law and society interact in the perpetuation or eradication of violence against women? How do we, as a society, address the gender bias that underlies intimate-partner violence? This course will be devoted primarily to an examination of these questions in the context of contemporary American culture. Students will be introduced to feminist legal theory. The readings will include works of Catharine MacKinnon, Kimberle Crenshaw, bell hooks, Duncan Kennedy and Angela Browne.

[Women’s Studies 153 (formerly Women’s Studies 122). Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Sexuality]
Catalog Number: 7950 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Mari Ruti
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Ever since Freud’s by now infamous question, “What does the woman want?”, psychoanalysis has been preoccupied by the riddle of feminine desire. While Freud developed the clinical practice of psychoanalysis around the desirous discourse of the hysterical woman, Lacan went as far as to link feminine pleasure to the divine. Drawing on psychoanalysis, and on recent feminist and queer theory, this course will explore questions of love, desire, pleasure, masculinity/femininity, sexual orientation, and the divine. Authors considered include Freud, Lacan, Klein, Horney, Riviere, Kristeva, Irigaray, Butler, Halberstam, Nabokov, Jeanette Winterson, Kate Bornstein, and St. Theresa.
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.

[Women’s Studies 154 (formerly Women’s Studies 111). I Like Ike, But I Love Lucy: Women, Popular Culture, and the 1950s: Conference Course]
Catalog Number: 6855
Alice Jardine
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
A diagnosis and analysis of this formative decade for the U.S. babyboomer. Taught from a cultural studies perspective, the course will focus on gender politics in print media, film, television, and rock of the early cold war era. Parks, McCarthy, Monroe, Kerouac, and many others.
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.

Women’s Studies 160. Black Feminisms: Seminar Course
Catalog Number: 7936 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Naomi Pabst
Half course (fall term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Course examines an array of black feminist writings, African American and diasporic, within socio-historical context. Course also addresses how representations of black feminism and black womanhood overlap and diverge in relation to one another. With an emphasis on black/female identity as mitigated by “difference” along lines of race, class, gender, ethnicity, color, nationality, generation, etc., we will negotiate the personal and political stakes in black feminism. Authors include: Lorde, hooks, Carby, Mirza, Collins, Smith, Morgan.

Women’s Studies 161. On Love: Gender, Sexuality, Identity: Seminar Course
Catalog Number: 4147 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Mari Ruti
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Is love a threat to the integrity of the self? Or a form of psychic, corporeal, and spiritual rebirth? This course examines literary, psychoanalytic, and mystical discourses on love, passion, and desire from a feminist/queer perspective. The emphasis throughout is on love as a potentially dangerous, yet also self-affirming and ecstatic, affective adventure. Authors considered include Freud, Lacan, Kristeva, Stendhal, Jane Austin, Alice Walker, Jeanette Winterson, bell hooks, St. Teresa, Hadewijch of Antwerp, and Rumi.

Women’s Studies 162. Feminist Research in the Social Sciences: Seminar Course
Catalog Number: 4429 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Cameron Macdonald (University of Conneticut)
Half course (fall term). Th., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Is there a feminist social science? If so, what does it look like? Do woman-centered epistemologies lead to different kinds of knowledge claims? Do feminist researchers uncover previously silenced perspectives? These questions have stimulated lively debates for decades. We will explore the philosophical and ethical foundations of feminist research, discussing research strategies with prominent feminist scholars. Readings by Dorothy Smith, Patricia Hill Collins, Trin Minh-ha, Himmani Bannerji. Students will undertake individual research projects.
Note: Strongly recommended for all Women’s Studies students writing research-based theses.

Women’s Studies 164. Women, Citizenship, and Social Movements: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 7278 Enrollment: Limited to 20.
Kathy Coll
Half course (fall term). W., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
Examines how women in diverse contexts practice their politics. How does participation in social movements affect women’s sense of political identity, rights, entitlements? Which groups of women, excluded from full legal citizenship, actively challenge dominant notions of who should have full political rights? Feminist, cross-cultural, and international perspectives on citizenship complement US data. Readings include Aretxaga, Dagnino, Das, Hall, Ong, Rosaldo, Sapiro, Williams, others.
Note: Optional fieldwork projects in local community organizations count towards course work.

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