Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Courses

This course will focus on LGBTQ+ activism and resistance today, mostly in the US, across a variety of sectors. Each week will bring an in person or online activist speaker one day and provide active discussion in the following class exploring the presentation and readings assigned from that week. Course topics will vary year to year due to presenters but topics likely to include Art/Performance, QTPOC & BLM, Trans resilience, Asexual, Muslim/Faith, Fundraising, Intersex, Bisexual+, Bridging Movements, Running for Office etc. Presenters will be invited to speak in person but will also take place on zoom or pre-recording for accessibility and travel purposes. Students will gain awareness of the breadth and depth of LGBTQ+ activism and resistance in formal and informal organizations.
 

A survey of women in the United States from the seventeenth century to the present, emphasizing women's changing social, economic, and political positions. Topics will include: work, politics and reform movements, education, sexuality, and family life. This course will also consider how race and ethnicity, region, class, and gender have shaped women's experience in diverse ways.

This course explores the concept of gender and the lived experiences of individuals along the gender spectrum. Gender will be analyzed as both a social construct holding individuals to rigid gender norms and as an avenue for self-expression and exploration. Students will examine how people have made sense of their gender identity, current terminology, and challenges faced by those living outside of traditional notions of gender. Analysis will occur through an intersectional lens, which considers how race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other social identities affect understandings of gender. While the course focuses on personal narratives, literatures from gender and queer studies will be considered to trace the progression of traditional views on biology and gender to current day understandings, including discussions on terms such as “queer”, “trans”, and “gender queer”, which problematize essential notions of gender identity. Special consideration will be given to the global context, analyzing the various cultural differences in gender expression and non-binary gender identities.

This three-credit course will examine how anthropologists have analyzed social struggles and debates around reproduction and reproductive (in)justice both in the US and in a global context. Starting from the argument that reproduction as a biological process—"making babies”—is inseparable from broader concerns about the reproduction and transformation of culture and society, we will examine topics such as: the medicalization of childbirth, abortion, reproductive (in)justice, surrogacy and assisted reproduction, and transgender reproduction. The course will be taught in a blended in-person/online format. This is a mixed-resource class and there will be different reading/grading expectations for undergraduate and graduate students. Recommended prerequisites are AANT 108 (Intro to Cultural Anthropology) or an equivalent WGSS course. Students without such background should seek permission of the instructor.