WGSS 117-01 30081 |
Women, Health and Reproduction |
Days: M W F
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Time: 09:40 am-10:40 am
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Room: HUM 226
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Instructor: Elizabeth Jansen
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*First day attendance required; cross-listed with BIOL 117-01; ACTC students require permission of instructor*
Details
This course will deal with aspects of human anatomy and physiology of special interest to women and/or those who identify as women, especially relating to sexuality and reproduction. Biological topics covered will include menstruation and menopause, sexuality, conception, contraception, infertility, abortion, pregnancy, cancer, and AIDS. Advances in assisted reproductive technologies, hormone therapies, and genetic engineering technologies will be discussed. Three lecture hours each week.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics
Course Materials
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WGSS 194-02 30897 |
Bad Women: Portrayals of Female Villains in Japanese Popular Culture |
Days: M W F
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Time: 02:20 pm-03:20 pm
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Room: THEATR 204
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Instructor: Sachiko Dorsey
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*Cross-listed with ASIA 194-01 and JAPA 194-01*
Details
Akujo, or bad woman, has been a constant presence in cultural texts throughout history, and Japan is no exception. And they are bad, indeed. A woman burns her lover alive after turning into a serpent, another woman changes men into animals for no apparent reason, and yet another woman blows her breath onto men and freezes them to death. Beyond the evil acts and dastardly powers, however, it is the transgression of socially constructed gender boundaries that work to vilify these women from the start. In this course, we will investigate female villains from medieval folklore to anime, paying close attention to how these characters are portrayed, and what their portrayals reveal. By closely examining the traits that make these women “bad,” we will investigate to whom these characters pose a threat and what is really at stake. No prior knowledge of Japanese is necessary.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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WGSS 217-01 30787 |
Gender and Race Theory in Performance |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: THEATR 101
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Instructor: kt shorb
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*Cross-listed with THDA 217-01*
Details
This course introduces students to debates, methods, and conceptual frameworks in race and gender, as represented in performance. It engages students in an interdisciplinary exploration of key terms - such as corporeality, embodiment, intersectionality, and performativity - that remain central to the fields of gender and sexuality, critical race theory, and performance. Through drafts and revisions of written work, critical dialogues and oral presentations in small groups, peer feedback, and analytical reading, students will engage in questions around identity formation, structural inequality, and the politics of citizenship.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts
Course Materials
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WGSS 225-01 30591 |
Women and the Bible |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: MAIN 111
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Instructor: Susanna Drake
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*Cross-listed with RELI 225-01*
Details
In this course we will examine the roles, identities, and representations of women in the Tanakh/ Old Testament, New Testament, and Jewish and Christian apocrypha. We will explore how biblical writers used women "to think with," and we will consider how gender is co-constructed alongside religious, social, and sexual identities. We will ask the following sorts of questions: What opportunities for social advancement and leadership were open to women in ancient Israelite, early Jewish, and early Christian communities, and how did these opportunities differ from those open to women in other religious formations in the ancient Mediterranean? How did biblical regulations of bodies, sexuality, marriage, and family life shape women's lives? What are the social and material effects of biblical representations of women? And how might current feminist theories inform our interpretation of biblical texts about women?
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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WGSS 250-01 30352 |
Race, Gender, and Medicine |
Days: M
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Time: 07:00 pm-10:00 pm
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Room: THEATR 201
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Instructor: Amy Sullivan
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*Cross-listed with HIST 350-01*
Details
This seminar-style class examines the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality in the history of medicine and health in the U.S. Our diverse topics for study include eugenics, sexuality, midwifery, cultural/spiritual healing methods, pandemics, race- and gender-based ailments and medical experiments (such as the science and politics of the birth control pill and the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment), gender reassignment surgery, and sex-testing in the Olympics. This wide range of topics will prepare students to explore a research topic of their own choosing for a final paper.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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WGSS 264-01 30574 |
The Psychology of Gender |
Days: M W
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Time: 08:00 am-09:30 am
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Room: THEATR 206
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Instructor: Theresa Glaser
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*Cross-listed with PSYC 264-01*
Details
This class is an introduction to feminist psychological theory and research dedicated to understanding and critiquing biological, psychological, social, and cultural meanings and implications of gender and its intersections with class, race, physical ability, sexual orientation, etc. Examples of research and theory will come from a wide variety of areas in psychology and related disciplines, and will address such issues as socialization and social development, stereotypes, bodies and body image, social relationships, identity, language, violence, sexuality and sexual behavior, well-being, work, etc. We will also learn about the historical, cultural, and epistemological underpinnings of psychological research on gender. Counts as a UP3 course. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100 or permission of the instructor.
General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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WGSS 294-01 30758 |
LGBTQ+ Politics and Policy |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: MAIN 009
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Instructor: Ashley Sorensen
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*Cross-listed with POLI 294-06*
Details
The advancement of LGBTQ rights in the United States has experienced unprecedented success over the last twenty years, shifting both public attitude towards and legal protection for LGBTQ Americans. This course will provide an in-depth analysis of current LGBTQ policy achievements in the United States, including the recognition of marriage equality in all 50- states, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and increased anti-discrimination protections. Emphasis will be placed on how these victories were achieved, including background on the strategies and tactics used to generate results. We will also take a critical look at such milestones and examine what they mean for the entire LGBTQ population, including queer people of color, transgender and gender nonconforming individuals, the disabled, and economically disadvantaged. Incorporated into this analysis will be readings from queer liberation scholars to help us evaluate the pros and cons of existing LGBTQ policy gains. The course will explore what full equality might look like for LGBTQ people in the United States with an examination of what can and cannot be achieved through policy. Practical application on how policy is made will be intertwined throughout the course. Topics to be covered include the meaning and measurement of LGBTQ identity; estimates of those who identify as LGBTQ; the measurement of Americans’ attitudes on LGBTQ issues and how these attitudes have changed over the past few decades; assessment of changes in law and policies at the national, state and local levels; and the implications of these changes for the lived experience of LGBTQ people and their families, including health, well-being, stigma and discrimination.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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WGSS 294-03 30834 |
Women in Science |
Days: M W F
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Time: 10:50 am-11:50 am
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Room: OLRI 301
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Instructor: Maria Fedorova
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*Cross-listed with HIST 294-05 and RUSS 294-02*
Details
How did gender beliefs influence the development of modern science? How did science construct social conceptions of gender and sexuality? How did women shape modern science? This course explores the intersection of gender and science from the early modern period to the late twentieth century. It focuses on the Western scientific tradition, with special attention to Russian and Soviet experiences. In this course, we will examine the following topics: early modern beliefs about nature, science, and gender; women’s participation in early modern sciences; 18-20th-century scientific writings on the “nature” of men, women, and other genders; the development of modern scientific institutions; and biographies of women participating in the sciences.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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WGSS 294-04 30901 |
Playing the Part: Identity, Performance, and Gender |
Days: T R
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Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: HUM 216
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Instructor: Frenchy Lunning
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*Cross-listed with ASIA 294-03 and JAPA 294-01*
Details
This course will delve into the roles and the many role models, of recognized and unrecognized identities that are learned, projected, imagined, scripted, and performed from the late 19th century to the present in various cultures in the West and East, including the southern hemispheres. These roles include, but are in no way are limited: to the familial roles such as mother, daughter, sister; to occupational roles such as housewife, maid, and dominatrix; to fictional or imaginative -- but also aspirational – roles, such as are found in myths and fairytales, fashion, fetish, and other imagined or fictional modes of existence. We will study visual and textual images from three positions: 1) Discursive: using visual and narrative “texts” of roles – such as Lolita or New Woman -- of both “real” and fictional source —such as advertising, magazines and art; 2) Performative: in particular, the performative cultures of fetish, cosplay, fashion, and other fanbased costume communities; and finally, 3) Intersectionality: using categories of sexual and gendered identities in examining sexual, gendered, racial, and class distinctions through of women through the violence, isolation, religious demands, and rape cultures – identity politics under contemporary critical investigation; through the tactics of visual analysis, textual research, and individual and community discussion. We will also use interviews with women from various countries and cultures as key tactics to inform our exploration.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Course Materials
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WGSS 354-01 30467 |
Gender and Music |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: MUSIC 228
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Instructor: Victoria Malawey
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*Cross-listed with MUSI 354-01*
Details
In this course, students will explore how gender is constructed in a variety of American and European musical styles and contexts, with an emphasis on popular genres. Learning objectives include for students to: (1) better understand the intersectional ways in which gender relates to and is informed by other aspects of identity formation, including class, race, and sexuality, (2) investigate issues that have affected women's participation in musical life, such as musical canons, gendered musical discourse, and gender stereotypes, (3) explore contributions of trans and non-binary musicians, as well as issues that affect their musical lives, (4) interrogate constructions of gender, masculinity, and femininity as they relate to music, and (5) to develop reading comprehension, critical thinking skills, and argumentative writing skills.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts
Course Materials
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WGSS 355-01 30717 |
Abolition Feminism: Race, Gender, Sexuality and Critical Prison Studies |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: MAIN 010
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Instructor: Myrl Beam
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*Cross-listed with AMST 355-01*
Details
This course explores the history and politics of, and theoretical approaches to, gender and sexuality in relation to the racial politics of mass incarceration, or what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls the "carceral geography" of the United States. By engaging recent work in queer and trans studies, feminist studies, and critical prison studies, we will consider how prisons and policing have shaped the making and remaking of race, gender, and sexuality from slavery and conquest to the contemporary period. We will examine how police and prisons have regulated the body, identity, and populations, and the larger social, political, and cultural changes connected to these processes. While we will focus on the carceral system itself, we will also think of policing in a more expansive way by analyzing the racialized regulation of gender and sexuality on the plantation, in the colony, at the border, in the welfare office, and in the hospital, among other spaces, historical periods, and places.
General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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WGSS 368-01 30902 |
Psychology of/and Disability |
Days: T R
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Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: OLRI 370
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Instructor: Joan Ostrove
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*Cross-listed with PSYC 368-01*
Details
What is "disability" and what does an understanding of disability tell us about human experience more generally? What is a "disability identity" and what implications might claiming that identity have for psychological well-being and social change? How do stereotypes of disabled people and expectations of "normality" affect everyone's lives (not just those with disabilities)? Why don't many Deaf people consider themselves "disabled?" What might we learn from shifting the "problem" of disability from the individual person to the social environment? How do sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression influence how different bodies are viewed, treated, educated, and experienced? This course will explore questions that emerge from thinking about the experience of disability (and its intersection with identities based on gender, race, class, and sexuality). Our work together will be grounded in critical disability and Deaf studies frameworks that are themselves informed by and in conversation with feminist, queer, and critical race theories and perspectives. Through a consideration of the socially, culturally, linguistically, and historically constructed meanings of physical, sensory, and cognitive "impairments," the course will rely on theoretical and empirical readings from psychology and related disciplines, personal essays, film/video, and guest visitors as we explore the social and psychological meanings of disability. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100; and PSYC 201 or STAT 155
General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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WGSS 394-02 30696 |
Telling Trans Stories: Trans Oral History Project |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: CARN 206
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Instructor: Myrl Beam
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*Cross-listed with HIST 394-04*
Details
Much about mainstream narratives of queerness and gender transgression are determined by powerful, cis-dominated institutions, still even to this day: the media, schools, police, the law, doctors and psychiatrists. These are institutions structured by a racialized, heteronormative gender binary, and for whom trans people pose a problem to be managed. Oral history offers possibility for queer and trans people to tell their own stories, and, in doing so, give more nuanced, complex analysis of identity, activism, and of the intersectional operations of systems of power. Oral history also makes room for the complex interplay of joy, playfulness, grief, anxiety, and connection that makes queer and trans life so valuable. In this course, students will have hands on experience building an archive of queer and trans oral histories in the context of the pandemic and uprisings for racial justice. Working closely with the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota as well as with the Aliveness Project, a local HIV/AIDS organization, we will learn about oral history methodology, interview techniques, and then have the opportunity to conduct oral history interviews and contribute to an online archive of queer and trans oral history.
General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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WGSS 400-01 30697 |
Senior Seminar: Linking Theory and Practice |
Days: T R
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Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: MAIN 410
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Instructor: Myrl Beam
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Details
The relationship between academic theorizing and community organizing for positive social and political change is a vital, complex, and an ever-changing source of feminist inquiry. This course builds on that relationship by juxtaposing activist social work with theoretical writings on globalization, gender, race, class-relations, sexuality, community, democracy, and civil society, and exploring how these arenas inform and transform each other. The issues in this seminar are related ultimately to the student's "location," personally and professionally, at the threshold of the future, in search of a space of her/his own. One substantial research paper and a formal oral presentation on its ideas are the primary assignments. Prerequisite(s): At least three WGSS core courses and senior standing, or permission of instructor. Preferred: a working relationship with a local women's or minority organization, established the spring or summer prior to enrollment in the course.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Course Materials
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