The following courses are offered on a regular basis in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. With the exception of the Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, all courses are cross-listed with departmental offerings. In addition to these regular courses, special topics courses have included Romantic Women’s Novels; American Women Poets; Psychoanalysis, Gender and Film;

WSGS 200, Intro to Women's and Gender Studies
This course will introduce students to the major concepts, approaches, methodologies, and content informing women’s studies and gender studies across the disciplines. Paying particular attention to the impact of these areas of study on the liberal arts and social sciences, the course will consider how scholarship about women and gender has: influenced academic study; recovered the accomplishments of women; introduced new conceptual categories for the study of knowledge; and fostered interdisciplinary connections. To help introduce the multiple approaches and concerns within women’s and gender studies, professors teaching in various departments throughout the College will be invited to the class to discuss their work. *Required course for the Women's and Gender Studies minor.

WSGS / ARTHY 390, Women & Art
This course will examine the cultural attitudes towards women artists in England and Europe, their training, their professional commitment, exhibitions in which they participated, and critical evaluations of their work.

WSGS / COMM 421, Communication & Gender
This course focuses on interactive relationships between gender and communication in contemporary American society. We will explore these relationships in four ways, sometimes simultaneously. First, we will look at the multiple ways communication in families, schools, media, and society in general crates and perpetuates gender roles. Second, we will consider how we enact socially created gender differences in public and private settings and how this enactment affects our success, satisfaction, and self-esteem. Third, we will examine the role of mass media in reinforcing or changing gender stereotypes. Fourth, we will connect theory and research to questions and observations about gender roles.

WSGS / HISTY 433, American Women: Historical Perspectives
The past quarter of a century has seen a veritable explosion in the interest in and knowledge of women. This course will examine the historical experiences of women in the United States since the European settlement. It will focus on the roles that women have played in the social, economic, cultural, and political life of the nation, and will attempt to understand the changes that have occurred in women’s status and the underlying reasons for these changes. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which women themselves sought to gain for themselves the rights they believed to be theirs by virtue of their membership in the American polity.

WSGS / PHIL 285, Introduction to Feminist Philosophy
Why have the experiences and voices of women traditionally been neglected or devalued both in society at large and in the academy? Can women’s oppression be theorized wholly in terms of social, psychological, political, and economic forces or do we also need to consider the role of language and of philosophical conceptions of the nature of selfhood, knowledge, and even reality? Is one born a woman or is one made into a woman? Can "woman" be given a single, fixed definition, and can its meaning be determined independently of its opposition to the term "man"? How are the issues which most deeply affect women as women shaped by the intersection of gender with race, class, age, and sexual orientation?

This course will examine philosophical approaches to some of the most important topics within feminist theory, looking at historical and contemporary analyses of the oppression and marginalization of women; contemporary theories of sex and gender; and intersections of feminism with issues of race, class, agism, and sexual orientation.

WSGS / PSYCH 453, Psychology of Gender
The primary aim of this course is to explore the ways in which gender is socially constructed in our historical time period through a variety of power relationships or institutions (e.g., marriage) and cultural artificts (e.g., media). The psychology of gender then involves how we as individuals experience ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, as consumers of these gender constructions, and the effects these constructions have on us at individual, interpersonal and societal levels.

Although the focus of the course is on our daily performances of gender as constitutive of our identity, we will also recognize how our gendered identity is inextricably connected to other identity markers such as race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and so forth.

WSGS / THEOL 345, Women & Christianity
This course provides a survey of the Old and New Testament views of women and a history of the status of women in the Roman Catholic and Major Protestant traditions with emphasis on the contemporary role and spirituality of women in Christianity.

The course will examine attitudes about gender and perspectives on women as influenced by the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, major Christian theologians, Christian mystics, and women who have made important contributions to the Christian tradition or have been instrumental in transformations that promote the full dignity of women and men.

WSGS / ENGL 457, African-American Literature and Gender
This course will look at 19th and 20th-century poetry, fiction, and non-fiction prose by African-American writers, exploring the ways in which issues of racial identity intertwine with issues of gender in these works to question, critique, and reflect upon American literature, history, and society.

Throughout the course, we will be interested in the relationship between literary texts and various non-literary areas, such as the visual arts, film, music, and popular culture in general, and discourses developed within scientific, religious, and other realms. We will explore genres specific to African-American written and oral traditions, such as the slave narrative and the folktale, and we will pay close attention to historical contexts shaping works from the early 19th-century to the present.

WSGS / MLGSP 468W, Women's Voices in Hispanic Literature
This course will introduce students to the largely overlooked works of women writers both in Spain and Spanish America. It will examine the role of women in the socio-religious and historical context of their worlds determined and controlled by men. Note will be taken of the social and legal obstacles which impeded publication of the writings of Hispanic women. While the course readings will focus on the works of twentieth-century authors, sufficient attention will be given to the writings of earlier women to afford the student a historical perspective of the field.

WSGS / PHIL 492 , The Philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir
This class concentrates on various selected contemporary interpretations of Simone de Beauvoir's philosophy, especially her position in The Second Sex. Other works of Beauvoir, including The Ethics of Ambiguity and some of her novels and parts of her autobiography, will be discussed in relation to The Second Sex. Our primary purpose will be to articulate and understand Beauvoir's philosophy, to trace at least some of its origin in the history of philosophy, and to consider its importance for contemporary philosophy and contemporary feminism.

WSGS / SOC 210, Sociology of Sex and Gender
This course will explore the domain of sexual identity, the concomitant notion of the social construction of gender, and the concept of deviance. While our point of departure is distinctively sociological, we will attempt to examine the issues in a broader context. Consequently, we will be drawing from diverse fields such as philosophy, cultural anthropology, psychology, literature, and popular culture.

The readings will focus on power, addressing the conditions under which the gender system intersects with other factors to create various kinds of power and powerlessness. We will analyze contemporary films for what they can tell us about the popular conceptions of sex and gender identities, relations, and constructions. The readings will also address how people empower themselves, both personally and collectively. We will have numerous guest speakers, and although it will be a standard lecture course, active student participation will be highly encouraged.

WSGS / ENGL 373W: Women Writers & the Novel
This course will give students the opportunity to explore the novel as it has been practiced by Anglo-American women writers as well as the specific contributions they have made to the novel. It is particularly appropriate to study women writers in the context of the novel form,since historically the rise of the novel occurs concurrently with the emergence of women writers in Britain and other English speaking nations such as the United States and Canada. Readings will include texts by authors such as Virginia Woolf, Mary Wollstonecraft, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Bronte, Kate Chopin, Margaret Atwood, Linda Brent, Alice Walker, and Amy Tan (the reading list has not yet been finalized). This course has no pre-requisites besides an interest in and enthusiasm about reading and discussing novels.

WSGS / SOC 440, Family Policy
This course offers students a survey of the wide range of policy analyses and proposals from various perspectives concerning modern family life. We subject the views of feminists, centrist "family values" advocates, liberals, evangelical Christians to critical evaluation. What are the theoretical and conceptual foundations for their proposals? What is the empirical basis for their claims? What consequences flow from their proposed policies — intended and unintended? What ideologies and interests are served by these policies?

WSGS / HIST 478, American Family History
This course will examine the development of the American family from its origins in colonial society to its current configuration at the end of the 20th century. We shall examine the family structures that the early settlers imported from Europe and the impact of migration on social organization. We shall study the influence of economic and demographic forces, religion, the rise of democratic ideas, the emergence of capitalism, the importance of industrialization and urbanization, and the structure and role of immigrant families. We shall look at the special circumstances of the African American family both under slavery and in a racist society. Finally, we shall examine the changes that the twentieth century has brought to the American family with emphasis on events like war and depression and on social forces like the rise of the professional expert, the emergence of a consumer society, and the emphasis on individual fulfillment as a primary goal in life.

WSGS / ENGL 568, Feminist Theory
This course will introduce students to feminist methodologies and offer students an opportunity to explore how these methodologies might be useful to the readings and analysis of literary texts as well as other kinds of texts and situations. The course will begin with a brief historical survey of primarily Anglo-American feminist thought since the Enlightenment and trace various strains or traditions such as cultural, Marxist, Existential, Freudian, and radical feminisms. The early feminist texts will establish the historical and intellectual context within which second wave and more recent feminist theory has been produced during the past forty years. Although the course will focus on Anglo- American feminist theory (because of time and availability of texts), some attention will be given to French feminist theory since it has had a great impact on all feminist theory. Essays published during the last forty years will be organized around major issues in contemporary feminism. The course is interdisciplinary in that readings come from all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, and students will have the opportunity to focus their semester project in their particular disciplines. Class meetings will be spent discussing critical/ theoretical essays, seminar style, and will require active intellectual engagement and exchange among all participants .

WSGS / JMA 521, Sex, Myth, and Media
This course will examine the role of mass media in reinforcing or challenging common cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity and power relationships between the sexes.   In analyzing various mass media--including print, television, Internet publishing, electronic games, and film--we will apply gender theory and connect these artifacts to their historical moment.   Students' own experiences, insights, questions, and ideas are a key part of this course.   Throughout the term, we will consider not only what is in terms of gender roles but also what might be.

WSGS 524, Women and Politics
This course is an examination of the political socialization and behavior of women in the U.S. political culture; their role in elections; their impact as an interest group; and the public policies particularly affecting women or affected by women.

WSGS 533W, Gender in American History
In this course, we will explore how both how American women's lives, challenges, and opportunities, and social perceptions of appropriate gender roles changed along with the growth of the United States from the colonial era to the present day. Because we are taking such a large period into consideration, the survey will not be comprehensive. Rather, we will focus in on particularly significant historical figures, ideas, and events. Throughout the class, we will be interested in how gender experiences and expectations were mediated by race, class, and region. We will also frequently consider how gender roles and ideals have changed over time; what factors have driven these changes? How much of a role have women themselves had in shaping ideas of "womanhood"?