Winter 2014

Reviewing publications on "manhood" or "manliness," one is struck by the fact how often changes in the understanding of the concepts are perceived as "crises of masculinity" rather than as symptoms of historical change. This course will elaborate on how notions of men, manhood, manliness, and masculinity have changed in response to economic, demographic, social, cultural, and territorial changes. We will discuss aspects such as the formation of manhood in America, constructions of the racialized male body, the functions of male femininity and female masculinity in the reconsideration of gender, and follow the debate on male violence in hip-­‐hop culture. Designed as a First Year Seminar, however, we will not only focus on "what masculinity is," but simultaneously scrutinize the strategies of scholarship in the development of masculinity studies. Dist: LIT; WCult: CI.

Professor Milich
3B 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 Aguado
10 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 Stewart
12 Hour

Learn how women and men have volunteered and worked for social justice throughout history—and how they contribute today. Gender, Activism, and the Common Good is a community-based learning course that encourages you to break outside of the Dartmouth "bubble" to learn and contribute. The course will feature speakers from the community and in-class interviews students conduct with them; community-based learning projects assisting agencies in telling their stories; and work in Dartmouth's archives to explore and write about the College's pivotal shift to coeducation. By the end of the course, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of gender, race, and class vis-a-vis volunteerism and activism; and to synthesize evidence from their reading and their work in the community to form and clarify their own views. Dist: SOC; WCult: CI.

Professor Damon-Moore
3A Hour

This course is a multi-cultural multi-media history of American women from the Civil War to the present. We will discuss race and class tensions in the woman suffrage movement; women, labor and radicalism from the 1910s through the 1940s; civil rights, welfare rights, the rebirth of feminism in the 1960s and 70s, and backlash politics from the 1950s to the 1980s. Dist: SOC; WCult: W.

Professor Orleck
2 Hour

This is a general course about gender and politics in which we will examine the roles of women and men as voters, activists, and politicians. We will begin by examining a wide range of relevant issues, including: how gender affects political participation and partisan preferences, how boys and girls are socialized differently into politics, how public opinion regarding domestic and foreign policy sometimes differs for women and men, and how a different gender balance among office holders might be expected to affect representation, policy, and governance. The course will then critically examine various barriers that women may face in the pursuit of elected office in the U.S., and we will also expand our view beyond politics, by analyzing women in non-political leadership positions in order to draw useful comparisons. Finally, the course will examine the role of gender in an international context, comparing gender dynamics in the U.S. with those of other countries in order to better understand the future of women in politics in the U.S. and in the world at large. This course is appropriate for all students, from all majors (there are no prerequisites). Dist: SOC; WCult: CI.

Professor D. Brooks
12 Hour

The family is an important social institution, a complex set of roles and rules that are organized to preserve and promote important functions in our society. The roles give rise to positions such as parent, child, spouse, stepfather, and so on. The rules offer us guidance about how to act in these roles and are regulated by social norms, public opinion, law, and religion. The important functions include public ones, like raising children, and caring for the elderly, and private functions, such as providing love, intimacy, and companionship to family members. In this course, we will learn about the family as both a social institution and as a set of private relationships. One theme underlying our learning is that the form, function, and definition of the family vary across historical and cultural contexts. Another key theme is that social class and gender intersect with family well-being. We explore contemporary debates and issues affecting the family, with an emphasis on utilizing research evidence to inform public policy. Dist: SOC; WCult: W. 

Professor Walton
2 Hour

This course examines what it means to be a woman, man, boy, or girl in everyday life. We will explore how gendered beliefs affect the expectations, experiences, and opportunities of women and men. This course includes discussion of a number of different perspectives, including several feminist perspectives. Possible topics include: are there only two genders?, gendered language, masculinity during young adulthood, the wage gap, work-family balance, media images, and hooking up. Dist: SOC.

Professor McCabe
2A Hour

This course explores urbanization as a gendered process, tracing the shifting intersections of gender, class, race, and sexuality in North American urban history. We'll question how women and men experienced an increasingly urban and industrial economy as workers, consumers, immigrants, radicals, reformers, consumers, and intellectuals. We'll also assess their roles in the political and cultural movements that defined 20th century urban life. Readings in urban studies, cultural history, and social history expose students to critical perspectives on these topics, and explore feminist approaches to architecture, city planning, and economic development. Dist: SOC; WCult: CI. 

Professor Rabig
10A hour

The status of Muslim women around the world and the notion of gender equality in Islam are highly debated topics with high stakes and real life consequences. This course is about issues of gender in Islamic and Muslim texts and their historical relevance. We will make critical study of the constructions of gender, femininity, masculinity, sexuality, gender relations, marriage and divorce in classical Islamic texts and the roles these texts have played in Muslim life. We will examine Muslim thought on gender relations in their historical contexts and in relation to one another. Through in-class discussions, readings and the final essay, students will strengthen their global literacy on issues of gender, demonstrate global historical trends in ideas on gender, recognize theoretical and historical similarities and differences, analyze the role of texts in society, and recognize, critique, and assess key themes related to marriage, divorce, sexuality, and gender relations across genres of Islamic texts. Dist: TMV; WCult: NW.

Professor Ayubi
2 Hour

Memoir has been a popular genre in the United States, Latin America and Europe for at least the last twenty years. That popularity does not seem to be abating, despite critics’ claims that most recent memoirs are shallow, repetitive and badly written. In this course we will review some of the history of life writing forms to parse out misogyny and elitism. We will also learn how experts today understand life writing subgenres in print and other media, paying particular attention to experimentation and the line between fiction and non-fiction. The focus of the course concerns how life writing is deployed in creating group identities, related to everything from addiction to victimhood, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality. Dist: LIT; WCult: CI.

Professor Kacandes
10A Hour

In this course, we will develop an understanding of masculinity as a construct which varies in time and space, and is constantly (re)shaped by such factors as race, class, and sexuality. The contexts of the colonial encounter and its postcolonial aftermath will set the stage for our examination of the ways in which social, political, economic, and cultural factors foster the production of specific masculinities. Texts include Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Lafferiere's How to Make Love to a Negro, and additional writings by Irish, Indian, and Australian authors. Our study will be organized around the questions of the production of hegemonic and subaltern masculinities, the representation of the colonial and postcolonial male body, the militarization of masculinity, and the relation between masculinity and nationalism. Theoretical material on masculinities will frame our readings. Dist: LIT.

Professor Coly
2A Hour

Women writers have transformed the field of journalism, from newspapers and magazines to television and the Internet. This course will examine the historic influence of women journalists, from Nellie Bly's turn-of-the-century undercover exposés to today's newspaper reporters, magazine writers and bloggers. How has the growing number of women journalists shaped the coverage of war, human rights, poverty, the environment, abortion, sexual assault, global feminism and LGBT issues? How do women deal with "objectivity" in covering these issues? We will also look at new styles in literary journalism pioneered by women. This course will involve critical reading, engaged discussion, original reporting and several feature-length articles. Students will be expected to produce a publishable, magazine-length article at term's end.

Professor Jetter
11 Hour

Images of subjugated veiled women and seductive harem dancers are arguably the pivotal figures of Western Orientalism. Stereotypes of Arab and Muslim women continue to proliferate today's media, U.S. film industry, and even the visual and performing arts. Studying the genealogy of such images becomes ever more crucial, especially as the Middle Eastern woman and representations of her body take center stage in contemporary debate and conflict between religions, cultures, and values. Therefore, this course will focus on unpacking the histories, cultures, politics, and ideologies performed through and around the Orient, the Oriental woman and her dancing body. Through mapping the larger political economy of Oriental dance, its appropriation and circulation from the east to the west and the reverse, we will pay particular attention on the histories of race, sexuality, identity, class, nation, and gender formations that the dance tells. We will also focus on the ways in which Islam and Arab Eastern cultures have fostered their own responses and stereotypes towards female performers with a take on their rationalizations of morality, gender roles and sexuality. Topics such as self-exoticism and self-Orientalism in relation to identity and nation building politics will be discussed. Lastly, we will be asking whether and how dance, arts, and the humanities can shape, alter, and deconstruct such perceptions. Through examining and analyzing a number of theoretical texts, travelers' accounts, and cultural productions—such as photography, theater, concert dance, and cinema—this course will explore how and why archetypal representations of the Orient have been created and continue to shape western understandings of the Middle East and its women. Dist: INT; WCult: NW.

Professor Yessayan
12 Hour

The seminar will look into the cultural history of queer aesthetics. The subjects are mostly moving images (cinema, TV and Video), activist performances and some aspects of visual art. The starting-point is the simultaneous 'invention', disease mongering (pathologization) and 'emancipation' of homosexuality in the European fin de siècle and how it is negotiated in educational and feature films. The syllabus moves then to figurations of queerness in popular (and queer) imagination, for instance the 'Drag Queen' or the 'Vampire' with special attention on the AIDS-Crisis and will finally focus on gender-ambivalence, transgender, and gender-bending performances such Butch-Femme aesthetic or Glam-Rock. A general tension will be observed between 'The Epistemology of the Closet' (Sedgewick), Mainstreaming Queerness and an effort on part of activists to use queer visual culture as a tool for political intervention. Dist: ART; WCult: CI.

Professor Dietze (Visiting Harris Professor)
2A Hour

Professor Ohnuma

University of Hyderabad Staff

University of Hyderabad Staff