Winter 2009

This course explores competing definitions of masculinity in Latin America from the 19th to the 21st centuries. We will focus on post-Independence political rhetoric and its masculinist assumptions about good governance and strong national identities. We will also explore how some literary texts critique those assumptions. Readings include political and cultural essays by authors from a range of countries (Sarmiento, Martí, Díaz, Castro, Chávez, Rama, Paz, Franco, Monsiváis); novels and short stories (by Altamirano, Gómez de Avellaneda, Borges, Arenas, Puig, Garro); sociological, psychoanalytic, and feminist theories of masculinity; and critical essays on individual narratives, authors and contexts. Dist: LIT, CI

Professor Biron
2A-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.

Professor Sprague
10A-hour

This course will examine pre-twentieth century texts and historical events that set important precedents for the development of contemporary feminist theories and practices. We will survey some of the writings that consolidate legitimated patriarchal/misogynist ideologies in Western worlds (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, the fathers of the Church, the philosophers of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, Rousseau). We will analyze different ways in which women historically have articulated strategies of contestation and/or resistance to systems of power based on gender differentiation. Readings may include works by French medieval thinker Christine de Pizan; sixteenth-century Spanish cross-dresser Catalina de Erauso; seventeenth-century Mexican intellectual and nun Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz; Mary Wollstonecraft; Maria Stewart, the first African-American political woman writer; the nineteenth-century American suffragists; and anarchist leader Emma Goldman. Open to all students. Dist: SOC; WCult: CI.

Professor Beasley
11-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 g/l/b/t 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
2A-hour

This course examines the history of men and women from the period of colonial settlement to the achievement of woman’s suffrage. We will explore the construction of gender particularly as it relates to social, political, economic, and cultural power. Topics will include: the role of gender in political thought and practice, the intersection of gender with categories of class and race; gender in the debate over slavery and the Civil War; and the rise and evolution of the woman’s rights movement.Open to sophomores, juniors and seniors. Dist: SOC; WCult: W. Open to sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Professor Butler
12-hour

This course traces the history of American women from 1920 to the 1980s. Topics to be discussed include: the breakup of the suffrage alliance during the 1920s; women in the radical social movements of the 1930s; women and war work in the 1940s; women in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s; the ‘second wave’ of American feminism; institutionalization of feminism in the 1970s; and the rise of an anti-feminist women’s movement in the 1980s. The course will also examine the ways gender definitions have changed in the U.S. during this century, and the ways that race and class have shaped American ideas about gender. Open to all students. Dist: SOC; WCult: W.

Professor Orleck
2A-hour

Black Feminism/Womanism in Contemporary U.S. Popular Culture (Identical to African and African American Studies 85 in 09W). In this course we will explore the emergence of Black feminism(s)/womanism(s) in twentieth- and twenty-first-century U.S. popular culture. We will specifically address how the work of African-American women artists-scholars critiques sexism, racism, classicism, ethnocentrism and heterosexism within the U.S. context. In order to examine Black feminism(s) and womanism(s) in popular culture from myriad perspectives, the required readings for this course reflect a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, as well as a range of genres. Open to all students. Dist: SOC; WCult: CI.

Professor Naylor
12-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.

Professor Boose
2A-hour

This course examines the relationship between feminism and philosophy. The focus is on such questions as: Is the Western philosophical canon inherently sexist? How should feminist philosophers read the canon? Are Western philosophical concepts such as objectivity, reason, and impartiality inherently masculinist concepts? The course may focus on either the ways in which feminists have interpreted great figures in the history of philosophy (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche), or on the ways in which feminists have rethought basic concepts in core areas of philosophy (e.g., epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, political philosophy, philosophy of science), or both. Open to all students. Dist: TMV; WCult: CI.

Professor Brison
10A-hour

Through an engagement of narratives mediated by recordings, literature, visual art and performances for, by and about Latinas, this course examines the highly contested and still-evolving site of Latina feminist practices. Students will be introduced to foundational writings in Latina feminist theory. We will pay particular attention to how the shared—and the divergent—experiences of Latinas in the US are produced, reflected, and resisted in cultural expression. Our central task will be to analyze how these women-centered texts redefine sexuality, gender, race and class. Several questions frame our studies in the course, including: How do we theorize a Latina feminist tradition? How has Latina feminism reshaped the field of ethnic and gender studies? Topics include, but are not limited to: triple oppressions theory, identity politics, mestiza consciousness, Latina subjectivity, and lesbian identities. Dist: SOC; WCult: CI.

Professor Herrera
10A-hour

Professor Schweitzer
10-hour

Professor Zeiger
11-hour

Professor Bardenstein
10A-hour

Professor Colbert
3B-hour 

Professor Sundar
2A-hour

Professor Martin
12-hour