Summer 2007

WGST 10 Sex, Gender and Society

This course will investigate the roles of women and men in society from an interdiscipli nary point of view. We will analyze both the theoretical and practical aspects of gender attribution — how it shapes social roles within diverse cultures, and defines women’s and men’s personal sense of identity. We will discuss the following questions: What are the actual differences between the sexes in the areas of biology, psychology, and moral devel opment? What is the effect of gender on participation in the work force and politics, on lan guage, and on artistic expression? We will also explore the changing patterns of relationships between the sexes and possibilities for the future. Open to all students. Dist: SOC. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: CI.

Professor Fluri
10-hour

WGST 20 Queer Poetries

This course will explore the poetics and politics of queerness in the work of modern and contemporary American poets; we will consider not only explicit dissidence, but also the politics of forms and modes ordinarily seen as "only" aesthetic. Among the readings will be work by HD, Ginsberg, O'Hara, Ashbery, Bishop, Rich, Swenson, Rukeyser, Gunn, Lorde, Broumas, Doty, Hacker, Harjo, Hemphill, Koestenbaum, Mootoo, and Chin, as well as a selection of brief theoretical texts in queer theory. Open to all students. Dist. LIT. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: CI.

Professor Zeiger
10A-hour

WGST 32.1/GOV 68 Gender and the Law

This course examines how gender and law in the United States are used to confer rights, create obligations, and define identities. We explore the theoretical, historical, and empirical basis for gender in law, and pay particular attention to how and when gender-based laws have changed over time. Specific topics covered include, for example, federal legislation on educational and workplace equity, constitutional doctrines of equality and privacy, and state policies on family law, criminal responsibility, and domestic violence. We analyze the relationship between gender politics, legal theory, legal doctrine, and social policy. We also ask whether the gender of legal actors (litigants, lawyers, judges) makes a difference in their reasoning or decision-making. Prerequisite: Government 3 or a law course strongly recommended. Open to all students. Dist: SOC. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: NA. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W.

Professor Bohmer
2A-hour

WGST 53.5/English 62.1 The Poetry and Rhetoric of Love: From Petrarch to Nerve.com

What we call "love poetry" has generally been a way of expressing much more than the emotional and erotic fascination of one person with another. Often it seems to bypass the love-object altogether, and more eagerly examines power relations or poetic achievement. Beginning with early examples, and moving on to contemporary and modern poems, our course will place love poems by men and women in the context of an ongoing poetic tradition, recent feminist criticism and theory, and talk about love and sex in recent popular culture. This last will include: excerpts from recent books about dating and seduction, film , contemporary song lyrics, dating websites, and Blitzmail. Dist: LIT; Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Course Group III. Concentration area tags Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities.

Professor Zeiger
12 hour

Associated WGST Courses:

GEOG 48 Geographies of the Middle East

This course examines the geography and geopolitics of the Middle East by identifying the physical and ideological borders of this region. We will discuss the linkages between the physical geography and the social, political, economic, and cultural geographies of this region and how economic and political interests in and outside the region complicate these geographies. Analyzing gender relations as they intersect with social, political, religious, and economic systems are also central to this course. Dist: INT. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: CI.

Professor Fluri
12-hour