coreCoursesSpring2008

Core and Cross-listed Elective Course Offerings

Spring 2008 semester
Women's and Gender Studies

Each semester, the Women's and Gender Studies program offers its own core courses and cross-listed courses from other departments at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Descriptions for all of these courses appear below. At the undergraduate level, WGS 210 and WGS 304 are required for the WGS minor. They may also be taken as electives or be used to fulfill a general education requirement. At the graduate level, WGS 402 and WGS 404 are required for both the master's degree and the graduate certificate. Students in both these programs may take multiple sections of WGS 404, Topics in Feminist Theories, as electives. These courses are also available to any graduate student looking for a stimulating elective. Cross-listed courses count as electives for the WGS minor, master's degree, or graduate certificate.

WGS Core Course Offerings

WGS 304/404 (POS 327/427) Sexuality, Gender, and International Human Rights

Bethany Barratt Chicago Campus T 6-8:30 PM

Is it necessary to distinguish between "women's rights" and "men's rights" when we discuss human rights? Do women "innately" have different orientations towards political involvement than do men? If so, how are these orientations different? If not, why do women around the world participate in politics to such different degrees and in such different forms than do men? Are issues like AIDS, prostitution, and reproductive rights private issues or public ones? These are some of the questions we will try to engage and unravel, and ultimately use to generate our own, new questions, over the 14 weeks of this course.

WGS 404 Gender and Language

Suzanne McLaughlin Chicago Campus M 2-4:30 PM

How is gender reflected in communication and language? Do women and men use language differently? Are women and men spoken of differently? If so, how and to what degree are the differences universal or variable across cultures? Gender and Language is designed to explore how linguistic practices reflect and shape gender identity, and how gendered language impacts and reflects more global socio-cultural relationships between the sexes. This is a graduate-student only seminar. Open to graduate students in all disciplines.

Cross-listed Elective Course Offerings

AFS 317 The African-American Woman
Jacqueline Trussell Chicago campus T/Th 12:30-1:45 PM
The course explores the contributions of African American women in history and in contemporary life. Issues of race, class and gender in the community, family, work place and society concerning the status, identity and image of African American women are also examined.

ENG 341/441 Gender and the Artist in American Fiction
Priscilla Perkins Chicago campus T 6-8:30 PM
Course participants explore gender construction and sexual identities in canonical and popular narratives about visual artists, musicians, and writers in the U.S. Central questions include: how do gender ideologies about cultural production (or art) and biological reproduction inform each other? How do the life trajectories of fictional artists shape their creators' choices about narrative form? How do stories about artists illuminate specific historical moments in U.S. life? Texts may include Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark, Jack London's Martin Eden, Maxine Hong Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey, and Craig Thompson's Blankets.

HIST 383/483 History and Politics of Women in the United States
Deborah Cane Chicago campus T 6-8:30 PM
This course offers students an opportunity to examine the history and politics of U.S. women from pre-colonial times to the present. More than merely the study of famous women in history, this course will consider how notions of sex and gender are socially constructed at different times in history and by different classes, races, and ethnic groups. As the nation moved from an agrarian, family-centered economy in the eighteenth century to an urban, industrialized economy in the twentieth century, how did ideals of both masculinity and femininity change over time? We will examine how issues of gender have affected and been affected by significant transformations in American politics, economics and culture. We will also examine the several waves of feminist struggle throughout American history, how the notion of “feminism” itself has changed, and the legacy these movements have left behind.

HIST 450 Gender & Sexuality in the Nineteenth-Century U.S. & Europe
Sandra Frink Chicago campus W 6-8:30 PM
This graduate research seminar will examine how historians have explored issues of gender and sexuality during the long nineteenth century (1780s to WWI). We will read articles, monographs and primary sources that provide an introduction to the field and to the vast theories and methodologies that have shaped the historical literature. Each student will also conduct research on a topic related to the course with the goal of writing an article-length historical research paper. Throughout the semester, we will workshop drafts of the papers during class. For more information on the course, please feel free to email Professor Sandra Frink at sfrink@roosevelt.edu.

POS 312/412 The Politics of Lesbian and Gay Communities
Jeff Edwards Chicago campus M/W 9:30-10:45 AM
This course explores the specificities of sexual politics and the intersection of sexuality with class, gender, and race in contemporary US politics and culture; how queers have acted collectively to empower ourselves/themselves, and what this work has produced in terms of socio-political and policy change; the evolution of the organized backlash against LGBTQ citizenship claims and political empowerment; debates within LGBTQ communities and movements about social and political objectives, strategies, and tactics, and about the nature of power and social change; and class, gender, and racial dynamics within LGBTQ communities and movements.

POS 367/467 Social Movements
Jeff Edwards Chicago campus M/W 11 AM-12:15 PM
This course is an exploration into how, why, through what barriers, and to what effects, ordinary people set out with others to change the world largely through “extra-institutional” means (i.e., outside formal political institutions). We will survey the analytical problems and theoretical approaches in this field of study, and engage in case studies of the Southern civil rights movement, the radical feminist movement, and the global justice movement.

PSYC 108 Human Sexuality
Kyle Kittleson Chicago campus M/W 9:30-10:45 AM
Sexuality from youth to old age, including the development of gender identity, sexual orientation, and sex roles. Review of the physiology and psychology of sexual arousal, adult sexual behavior in its many manifestations, and a brief introduction to sexual dysfunction.

PSYC 345/445 Psychology of Women
Karen Conner Chicago campus T 2-4:30 PM
Psychological development of women viewed from social, cultural, and biological perspectives. Providing the fundamentals for study in the field of psychology of women, this course will address issues including, but not limited to, gender, abilities, work, ethnicity, women’s health sexuality, victimization, and mental health.

SOC 223 Sports and Society
Michael Maly Chicago campus M/W 12:30-1:45 PM
Sports are socio-cultural activities that both reflect and impact the social climate of society (e.g., issues of race, class, gender, sexuality). This course utilizes the sociological perspective to think critically about sports as cultural events that go beyond performance statistics and competitive outcomes. The course examines the social, political, cultural, and historical context of sport in the U.S. in effort to understand how sports and sport participation impact the lives of individuals and groups. Students will gain the skills to understand the "deeper game" existing with sports, and be equipped to make informed choices about sports and sport participation in connection with our lives and the lives of others in our families and communities. Close attention is given to how sports are gendered and gendering social events. In this regard, time will be spent exploring how various forms of masculinity are produced and reproduced through sports, with a critical examination of the impact of such masculine forms.

SOC 326/426 Race, Gender, and the Mass Media
Cherise Harris Chicago campus M 2-4:30 PM
The objectives of this course are to examine the relationship between U.S. media and the social construction of race and gender and to understand the media's role in perpetuating or challenging gender and racial stereotypes. Specifically, this course explores how women, racial minorities, and LGBTs are represented in media, as well as how these groups function as media consumers and creators. Topics include: women and minorities in classical Hollywood cinema, the representations of gender and race in advertising, images of women in hip-hop, women's programming on the Lifetime network and daytime soap operas, and images of LGBTs on primetime television.