*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 96-ABL (formerly *Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1215). Off the Page and Into the World: Feminist Praxis in the Community
Catalog Number: 3232 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Caroline Light and Staff
Half course (spring term). M., 2–5. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
This course will involve students in experiential learning in community agencies that serve women, girls, and/or gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. The course will require students to apply feminist theory to the challenges of organized social change. Internship placements of 8 hours a week in a community agency or non-profit organization must be approved by the instructors, in projects that advance students’ knowledge of the intersection of identities, feminist ideologies, and feminist praxis.
Note: Interested students are strongly encouraged to attend an information session in December detailing the requirements for the course (contact the WGS office for meeting details). Student enrollment in this course is contingent upon placement at one of the approved internship sites. The placement process will begin during the first week of the course.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 97. Tutorial-Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 7217 Enrollment: Limited to concentrators.
Robin M. Bernstein
Half course (spring term). W., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
An introduction to foundational concepts and analytical tools in the study of gender and sexuality. Focus on the ways in which diverse people have understood gender, sexuality, race, and nationhood as categories of knowledge. Case studies of activists and theorists forging complex alliances across unstable differences. Readings include Gloria Anzaldúa, Adrienne Rich, Simone de Beauvoir, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Donna Haraway, Patricia Hill Collins, Inderpal Grewal, Judith Butler, Monique Wittig, Alison Bechdel, and Michel Foucault.
Note: Required of, and limited to, Women, Gender, and Sexuality concentrators in their first year in the concentration.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 98r. Tutorial — Junior Year
Catalog Number: 8094
Director of Studies and staff
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Ordinarily taken by concentrators for one term in the second term of the junior year. Concentrators planning to study abroad in the second term should take WGS 98r in the first term of the junior year.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 99a. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 6763
Linda Schlossberg
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Both WGS 99a and 99b are required of all concentrators in their senior year.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 99b. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 5847
Linda Schlossberg
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Both WGS 99a and 99b are required of all concentrators in their senior year.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1125. Gender and Health
Catalog Number: 4563
Mary Ruggie (Kennedy School)
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 1 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 15
Based on theoretical debates between feminism and science and different understandings of health, illness, and healing, we explore the role of women, the medical profession, and various social institutions in constructing knowledge about gender and health. Among the issues we discuss are health behaviors, reproductive health, STDs, mental health, cancer, and aging. Throughout, we identify differences among women and men of different class, race, and ethnic groups.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1142. Sex and the Bible - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 93884
Cameron Elliot Partridge
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 11 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
Two questions that animate U.S. religious debate in the twenty-first century are how to understand human sexuality and what the Bible says about it. This course explores these questions in a critical historical context. By focusing on particular texts (e.g. Genesis, the New Testament, early Christian writings) and themes (e.g. women, asceticism, marriage, Incarnation) we will observe how conceptions of embodiment, sex/gender/sexuality, and the human, have shifted and continue to change within Christian thought.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1154. I Like Ike, But I Love Lucy: Women, Popular Culture, and the 1950s
Catalog Number: 6855 Enrollment: Limited to 30.
Alice Jardine
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 12, and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 14
A diagnosis and analysis of this formative decade for the US babyboomer. Taught from a cultural studies perspective, the course focuses on gender politics in print media, film, television, and rock of the early cold war era. Topics include: the bomb and TV, the Rosenberg trial, early civil rights movement, beat generation, Hollywood dreams of true love, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Jack Kerouac, Joe McCarthy, Rosa Parks, and others.
Note: This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts C.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1168. Education, Race, and Gender in the United States - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 72986
Chiwen Bao
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 1. EXAM GROUP: 15
Education in the United States often appears as democratizing and a means of upward mobility, an idea complicated by issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality, all of which shape students’ and teachers’ experiences. This class examines theoretical and empirical studies on various schooling spaces and practices and explores how intersecting constructs of identity — such as girl, boy, black, Latino/a, Asian, white — become meaningful in schools and bear implications for individuals and society.
Note: This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Social Analysis.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1200fh. Feminism in Historical Contexts
Catalog Number: 3042 Enrollment: Limited to 35.
Caroline Light
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1-3 and a one-hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Like any ideology, feminism has a history, one that is neither linear nor steadily progressive, and an uneven past full of paradoxes, contestation, and ambivalence. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to feminist theoretical conceptions of the social, political, economic, and the human. We will explore texts from different cultures and interrogate the rise of gender-based discourses and social movements in the context of the broader considerations of modernity, democracy, and liberal humanism.
[Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1200qh. Transgender History ]
Catalog Number: 5244
Instructor to be determined
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
[Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1210ft. Feminist Theory]
Catalog Number: 5590
Instructor to be determined
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
The course explores feminism’s long and contentious relationship with psychoanalysis. From its inception, women were intensely involved in the psychoanalytic enterprise as- patients, analysts, and critics. Sexuality is at the core of psychoanalysis, and as a result the status of men and women, maleness and femaleness, masculinity and femininity, have been subject to continual debate. Through historical exploration of these issues we ask if, how, and why psychoanalysis matters to feminist theory and practice today.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1210qt (formerly Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1003). Queer Theory
Catalog Number: 9232 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Bradley S. Epps
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Examines the possibilities and pitfalls of a specifically "queer" understanding of gender, sexuality, culture, history, and politics. Special attention will be given to the international sweep and limits of queerness as conceptual category and identity (and anti-identity) formation in relation to questions of race, ethnicity, nationality, and class as well as artistic production and activism. Works by Butler, Sedgwick, Foucault, Rubin, Halperin, Warner, Wittig, Bersani, Cohen, Lorde, Halberstam, Califia, Stryker, Quiroga, Najmabadi, and many others.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1232. Postcolonial Women’s Writing
Catalog Number: 8406 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Katherine Stanton
Half course (fall term). Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Rejecting what Anne McClintock calls "bogus universals" like "the postcolonial woman," this course will examine how postcolonial women’s writing represents and resists local and imperial power, developing a more complex understanding of agency. But our readings of literary and critical texts will also ask us to scrutinize the very suitability of the term "postcolonial." Our authors will include Michelle Cliff, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Jessica Hagedorn, and Arundhati Roy, among others.
[Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1233. Gender, Sexual Violence, and Empire]
Catalog Number: 4121 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Katherine Stanton
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Making the case for what Deepika Bahri identifies as the "constitutive" role of gender in colonial formations, this course will examine the feminization of colonized peoples and crises in European masculinity, the myth of the black male sexual threat, and the notion of European women’s moral authority. Yet we will also consider the importance of gender to national projects and postcolonial theorizations. We will read cultural history, literary theory, and literary works in this course.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
[Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1238. Consuming Passions]
Catalog Number: 5605 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Caroline Light
Half course (fall term). W., 1-3, and a weekly section to be arranged.
In what ways do sexuality and desire frame our contemporary experiences of consumption, and how do unequal distributions of global power influence the relationship between producers of globally marketed goods and services and those who consume them? Topics include sex tourism, migrant domestic labor, international adoption and surrogacy, and the commercialization of same-sex desire.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1240. Intersections of Identity in African American Communities: Theory and Practice
Catalog Number: 3484
Laurie A. Nsiah-Jefferson
Half course (fall term). Th., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
To address the challenges facing communities of color, it is important to understand how race, gender, social class, nationality, and other identities intersect with each other, as well as with social structural forces and policies. We will examine intersectional theories and applications in public policy and research. The advantages of utilizing intersectional analysis to elucidate policy discourse on education, health and health care, welfare, and other key issues in African-American communities will be highlighted.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1254. Sex and the Brain - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 99089
Gillian Einstein
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 1 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6
Critical exploration of the scientific literature underlying the idea that female/male, gay/straight, and transgendered behaviors are based on fundamental differences in brain physiology. Includes a close reading of original scientific papers, to analyze theoretical presuppositions and interpretation of experimental data. Goal is to understand the science underlying sex/gender and popular conceptions of sex. Topics include: making sex, hormone action, brain and sexual behaviors, sex and cognition, and sex and sexuality/gender identification.
Note: This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Science B.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1300. Approaches to Research and Writing in WGS
Catalog Number: 4429 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Linda Ellison
Half course (fall term). M., 12–3. EXAM GROUP: 5, 6, 7
The objective of the course is to provide a feminist analysis of methods and methodologies as intellectual frameworks within the social sciences, sciences, and humanities. We will focus on how feminist scholars challenge dominant theories of knowledge, engage feminist epistemologies, and employ feminist methodologies in working on a research project over the course of the semester in each student’s area of interest.
Note: Required of all full and primary concentrators. Strongly recommended for joint concentrators with WGS as the allied field.
[*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1407. Harlots, Dandies, Bluestockings: Sexuality, Gender, and Feminism in the 18th and 19th Centuries]
Catalog Number: 0730 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Linda Schlossberg
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
How did social forces in the 18th and 19th centuries shape (and contest) new theories of womanhood, sexuality, and political equality? Readings from a variety of literary and political sources, including "Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," "Moll Flanders," "The Picture of Dorian Gray," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "A Vindication of the Rights of Women." Areas of inquiry: prostitution, the suffrage movement, motherhood, property rights, psychology, manliness, sexology, Victorian pornography.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1436 (formerly Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1136). Body Image
Catalog Number: 1391 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Linda Schlossberg
Half course (fall term). W., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
This seminar examines body image issues from a variety of historical, literary, and philosophical perspectives. Topics include the historical emergence of anorexia and other eating disorders, the influence of the popular media, feminist critiques of the diet industry, body image activism, and hunger as metaphor.
Note: Not open to students previously enrolled in WGS 1136.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1451. Women’s Lives, Women’s Struggles in Africa - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 46063 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Sharon Alane Abramowitz
Half course (fall term). W., 3–5.
This seminar applies a social science perspective to the examination of women’s lives and women’s struggles across Africa. Using memoirs, narratives, and ethnographies as our primary materials, we will use a critical feminist gaze to examine frameworks of international development, humanitarianism, and the African state. We will address women’s local experiences in political participation, urbanization, work and gender, familial roles, and health and illness; and consider controversial topics including genital excision, and conflict and displacement.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1458. Global Bodies - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 47567 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Gillian Einstein
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Study of Female Genital Circumcision/Mutilation/Cutting (FGC) as an occasion to consider multi-methodological issues involved in understanding women’s health/bodies. Special emphasis on the impact of different kinds of accounts on our understanding of women’s bodies, including social, anthropological, and biomedical, from first-, second- and third-person perspectives. Topics include: FGC, bodies in context, dis(ease) in Diaspora, embodiment, physicality of the mental, and new directions for women’s health.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1462. Hollywood and Radical Political Movements of the 1960s - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 21972 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Michael Bronski
Half course (spring term). M., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
We examine Hollywood’s and Independent cinema’s response to the radical social movements of the 1960s, in particular, black power, women’s liberation, and gay liberation movements. We look at a variety of primary source materials - films, movement literature, novels, and film reception literature- and use them to understand, historically and methodologically, the complex interactions between social change movements and popular culture. Films include "Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore," "Boys in the Band," "Shaft" and others
Note: Film screenings to be held outside of class time.