WST 202 - Topics in Women’s and Gender Studies

Course unit(s): 1
Meets requirement: W
Prerequisite(s): One course included in the WST list of classes or permission of the instructor.
Engages the foundational and vigorously debated ideas within women’s studies, gender studies, and feminist thought. The scope of the class encompasses women’s studies, feminisms, sexuality studies, masculinity studies, and lesbian and queer studies within their historical contexts. The course explores what is at stake in the constructions of femaleness and maleness. The readings are interdisciplinary and cover gender and women’s studies theories from the nineteenth century to the present. Special attention will be given to the connections among gender, race (including Black Feminism and whiteness), ethnicity, and socioeconomic class. We explore how gender functions as an organizing system of power, privilege, and oppression and intersects with other identity markers. Our readings will be grounded in objects of inquiry such as bodies, modes of artistic representation, the state, and health and science. Professors from such diverse disciplines as Africana Studies, Art, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Theatre teach the class. Students considering the WST Minor should take soon after taking a first Women’s and Gender Studies course. This is an introductory course, designed for first and second year students.