Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minor

How do the experiences of women reflect broader structures of power? What is gender? How does sexuality inform the construction of identity and relationships of power? How do gender, gender identity, and sexuality function in intersection with other categories of difference such as race, ethnicity, class, nationality, and ability? How have scholars, authors, and artists made sense of of these questions in their own work? In answering these questions, this course will introduce students to the interdisciplinary academic field of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

This course will explore how difference is socially constructed along gender lines and will explore the intersections of gender, identity, power and media representation.

A close reading and analysis of poetry written by women from a historical as well as a contemporary feminist perspective.

Writing by women from colonized and formerly colonized countries on local and global issues shaping women's lives and creative expression.

Overview of women's health issues: women in the health marketplace, a woman's right to control her body, media images and illness, eating disorders, therapy, alcohol, aging and the women's health movement.

Focus on the need for and understanding of sex education, along with the process of implementing sexuality education, with emphasis upon teacher preparation.

The history of sexuality and gender in America. Includes investigations of lesbian and gay histories; transgender histories; attempts to regulate and define sexuality; practices of birth control; the intersections of race, class, and gender; the social construction of gender; and the challenges of doing hidden histories.

Examines the roles of women in diverse societies including Mexico, Brazil and Caribbean nations. Emphasis on the modern period.

Examines Indian women from the time of European contact to the modern era. Emphasizes culture, community and arenas of power.

A survey of the role of women in music, particularly the great composers from Medieval to Contemporary times.

Investigates the concept of "woman" from ancient Greece to the present.

Investigates the concepts of love and sex and structural and discursive factors contributing to our daily experiences of these phenomena.

Investigates the theoretical underpinnings of women's movements for equal rights around the globe.

Examines the development of feminist ideas and movements from the 18th century to the present, in the US and, particularly in recent decades, globally. A close analysis of Second Wave, Postmodern, and Black Feminist ideas are studied as a basis for writings and social action that attends to issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality, using intersectional methodologies and critiques to address issues of reproduction and health, labor and economic power, violence, and state power.

Sexuality as a foundation of personality. The wide range of human sexuality is explored; sexual development, roles, attitudes and behaviors.

This course introduces the sociologist study of gender and sexuality. This course examines how social institutions and cultural norms construct particular gender roles and sexual identities within society.