Fall 2010

In this course, we will study Asian American women’s literary strategies and forms as expressions of their history, culture and gender roles. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which literature serves as a mode of resistance and a way of recuperating collective memory while asserting individual identity for Asian American women. Readings will include feminist treatises, creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry and drama and may include such authors as Hisaye Yamamoto, Joy Kogawa, Wang Ping, Bharatee Mukherjee, Chitra Divakaruni, Le Thi Diem Thuy, Kimiko Hahn and Denise Uehara.

Professor Chin
10A-hour

This course will investigate the roles of women and men in society from an interdisciplinary 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 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 development? What is the effect of gender on participation in the work force and politics, on language, 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; WCult: CI.

Section 1: Professor Munafo
10A-hour

Section 2: Professor Aguado
12-hour

This course will examine the ways in which “deviant” sexual and gender behavior and identities, and the political movements that emerge from them, have been conceptualized in U.S. culture. We will cover basic LGBT cultural and political history and the interplay between sexuality, gender, race, class, ethnicity, and economics. Classes will be a mix of lecture and discussion. Students will be expected to work with primary documents (including novels and film), recent work in queer theory and historical analysis. Open to all students. Dist: SOC; WCult: CI.

Professor Bronski
10A-hour

This course will explore the nature, extent, and consequences of gender inequality in society. Changing gender roles will be examined in relation to class and race, the socialization process, the experience of women in the family, and the experience of women as paid and unpaid workers under both capitalism and socialism. Finally, we shall analyze work and family conflict, looking at gender inequality, consequences for families and employers, policy, and implications for social structural change. 

Professor Smith
2A-hour

As contemporary Jewish and Christian communities of faith face the question of the role of women within their traditions, many turn to the Bible for answers. Yet the biblical materials are multivalent, and their position on the role of women unclear. This course intends to take a close look at the biblical tradition, both the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament, to ask what the Bible does—and does not—say about women. Yet the course is called "Women and the Bible," not "Women in the Bible," and implicit in this title is a second goal of the course: not only to look at the Bible to see what it actually says about women but also to look at differing ways that modern feminist biblical scholars have engaged in the enterprise of interpreting the biblical text. Dist: TMV; WCult: CI.

Professor Ackerman
2A-Hour

This course will examine the traditions of humor in Jewish women's writing and performance. We will be looking at questions such as : What is Jewish humor? What is feminist humor? How have Jewish women influenced American popular culture? What is the relationship between Jewish male humor and Jewish female humor? How do cultural stereotypes function? And we will discuss how Jewish humor, and specifically, Jewish women's humor, is the basis for much of what we call American humor today. We will be reading, listening to, and watching a wide range of materials. The readings will include essays on Jewish humor, Jewish American history, humor theory, feminist humor, as well as writings by Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, Gertrude Berg, Grace Paley, Bel Kaufman, Sarah Schulman, Roseanne Barr, Fran Lebowitz and others. Films and television shows screened will range from classics of the Yiddish cinema to contemporary film such as Outrageous Fortune, Jesus is Magic, and television shows such as The Nanny. Dist: LIT; WCult: CI.

Professor Bronski
2A-hour

We define ourselves through stories. In this community-based learning course, student will alternate studying narratives of prison, addiction, and recovery in the traditional classroom with travel to Valley Vista, a substance abuse rehabilitation center in Bradford, Vermont, where they will participate in a program for women patients whose goal is the creation and performance of an original production that will facilitate the patients' voices. Written work for the course will combine critical analysis and self-reflection. Enrollment Note: As of 9/1, space is available in the course, but it is by instructor permission only. Please contact the WGST Office to be added to the list of interested students.  Dist: LIT; WCult: CI.

Professors Hernandez and Huntington
2A-hour

We will be studying and debating the relations between love and space through the lens of literary, film, and feminist philosophical analysis. While we work through the ways writers and filmmakers have given literary or cinematic expression to the shape that love (or the quest for love) takes within spaces, we will also consider how feminist thinking and scholarship allows us to better critique these texts and the circumstances surrounding love. Permission of the instructor is required. Dist: SOC; WCult: CI.

Professor Martin
Monday 3-6 p.m.

Professor Tine
9L-hour

Professor Biron
2A-hour