How do film and literature inform our understanding of the evolving concepts of art, ideology and material conditions in modern China? How have literary and cinematic representations changed over the last century to accommodate and facilitate social transformations? What are the characteristics of the cultural productions from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? This course helps students develop a critical sense and appreciation for Chinese cinema and literature. Taught in English.
A study of the Canterbury Tales and other poems by Chaucer. A term paper is usually expected.
A study of several plays written before 1600.
A study of the major sixteenth-century genres, with emphasis on sources, developments, and defining concerns. Readings include the sonnets of Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare; the mythological verse narratives of Marlowe and Shakespeare; the pastoral poems of Spenser; and Books I and III of Spenser's Faerie Queene.
A study of twentieth-century literature written in English from Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean, concentrating on colonial and post-colonial themes, as well as issues of gender, politics, and nationalism. Possible authors include Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, J. M. Coetzee, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, V. S. Naipaul, and Derek Walcott.
A survey of the major changes in American women's lives since the end of the last century, including increased access to education, movement into the labor market, and changes in reproductive behavior and in their role within the family. Special consideration will be given to the movements for women's rights.
An analysis of the role of gender in American politics, specifically how gender affects the political activities of American residents, political candidates, and elected officeholders. Students evaluate differences in men's and women's political participation, party affiliations, and campaign strategies and styles. They also examine reasons for women's political underrepresentation and implications of gender inequality in political office holding.
This course will be an examination of gender differences and similarities in behavior, major theories of gender, and the role that gender plays in interacting with others. Students will design, implement, analyze, and present original research in the area of gender.
Draws on an archive of American religion and culture to study gender and religion with an intersectional eye toward historical and contemporary dynamics of power. Introduces students to feminist, womanist, transgender, and queer scholarship in study of religion.
Selected readings from Spanish women authors who represent various genres and time periods. In relation to each period, the course examines how selected writers portray gender, sexuality, social class, and other issues in their work. The course uses primary and secondary texts related to the authors and/or the period under consideration.
This course explores and analyzes a selection of contemporary Spanish and Latin American films directed by men and women. The course provides a panoramic view of current trends in cinema along with basic analytical and theoretical tools to better understand the film text. The course is organized thematically around topics of politics of memory, gender and sexuality, and social and global issues.
In this introductory course, students will read widely in the interdisciplinary field of women’s and gender studies to explore how gender is created and maintained in society and how social categories, including race, sexuality, class, disability, and age, structure the formation and experience of gender. Coursework will emphasize critical awareness of how gender manifests and operates in political, social, economic, and cultural spheres. Students will also practice the critical thinking, writing, and dialogue skills fundamental to feminist inquiry.
This interdisciplinary course approaches the study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and queer rights from a humanistic social science perspective. Topics include U.S. cultural politics and LGBTQ+ social movements; visual culture, social action, and social change; the politics of queer identity; law and public policy of concern to diverse LGBTQ+ communities; and LGBTQ+ rights from international and global perspectives.
An interdisciplinary research seminar required of all seniors majoring in women's and gender studies. Students engage in research on a topic of interest, culminating in a substantial thesis. The thesis must advance a lucid research question and interrogate a range of sources that bridge disciplinary boundaries and reflect feminist theory and/or methodology. Students take this course in the fall of the senior year. The course serves as the writing intensive credit within the major as well as providing the basis for an oral presentation and defense in the spring of the senior year.