|
MAJOR REQUIREMENTS
The B.A. in women’s studies requires a minimum of 33 credits (at least 18 in courses numbered 300 and above) selected from courses listed in the undergraduate course catalogue. Although the major is granted and administered under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences, students are able, and in some cases encouraged, to take elective courses in the professional schools. Requirements for the major include four core courses (WSP 101, 201, 301 and 310), and one senior seminar (WSP 410); three courses from the course grouping Power, Privilege, and Exclusion in Feminist Thought; and three electives selected from a list of approved cross-listed courses – at least one course from the social sciences and one from the humanities. In the senior year, majors complete a independent project that can be a research project, creative work, or activism project.
MINOR REQUIREMENTS
The minor in women’s studies requires 21 credits of coursework (at least 15 in courses numbered 300 and above). In keeping with the guidelines for the major, the concentration requires the students to take the four core courses (WSP 101, 201, 301, and 310) and three electives chosen from an approved list of cross-listed courses.
Women’s and Gender Studies Department
FALL 2008 Course Descriptions
WSP 101 Introduction to Women’s StudiesTTh 2:00-3:20 or TTh3:30-4:50, Vivian May
MW 3:45-5:05, Nisha Gupta
Gender as a critical inquiry relating to race, class, and sexuality. (*Note: No longer fulfills Writing Intensive requirement)
WSP/ETS 192 Gender and Literary Texts
MW 2:15-3:35 Jolynn Parker
Construction and representation of “gender” especially as it affects the production and reception of literary and other cultural texts.
WSP/SOC 230 Intergroup Dialogues Guided intergroup communication skills. Cycle of socialization; social identities and social structures that create and maintain inequality; power dynamics of racism, sexism and other systems of oppression. Students explore conflict and enact collaboration to deepen understanding. (apply online at http://intergroupdialogue.syr.edu)
T 3:30-6:30, Th 3:30-6:30, M 3:45-6:45, W 3:45-6:45
WSP/SOC 248 Ethnic Inequalities and Intergroup Relations
MW 3:45-5:05 or MW 12:45-2:05
Identification of individuals and groups by self and others as members of ethnic categories. Consequences of ethnic identifications for individual, group, and societal interaction. Emphasizing ethnic inequalities, group interactions, social movements and change, racism, prejudice, and discrimination.
WSP/SOC 281 Sociology of Families
TTh 2:00-3:20 or TTh 11:00-12:20, Margaret Usdansky
Families and their connections to other social and economic institutions. Diversity of family forms and experiences. Formation and dissolution of relationships. Trends and changes.
WSP 300 Selected Topics
Sec. 001 Gender, Militarism and War (WSP 354 – new course)
MW 3:45-5:05 Robin Riley
Militarism and war are examined by focusing on their relationship to gender. What does gender have to do with war? How do masculinity and femininity along with race work to create soldiers and enemies?
Sec. 002 Queer Families
TTh 2:00-3:20 Lorraine Herbst
What is often implied by the term “family” is not the norm. A reframing, or queering, of how we study and understand families is therefore in order. Throughout this course, students will primarily explore questions of sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression as they intersect with race, ethnicity, class, and other identity markers in the context of family life, identity, institutions, and globalization.
Sec. 003 Women’s Rights in America History
MWF 9:30-10:25, Carol Faulkner
WSP 301 Feminist Theory
T 12:30-3:15 Minnie Bruce Pratt
Advanced critical inquiry into frameworks of meaning that organize contemporary issues on the politics of gender emphasizing history of feminism, global perspectives, psychology of women and feminist philosophy.
WSP 303 Black Women Writers
TTh 12:30-1:50 Janis Mayes
Literature and ideologies of leading black women writers, eighteenth century to present. Continuities and discontinuities in ideas and literary strategies. Terry, Harper, Hurston, Morrison, Marshall, Naylor, and Walker.
WSP/SOC 305 Sociology of Sex and Gender
MW 5:15-6:35, Lorraine Herbst or TTh 9:30-10:50, Yingyi Ma
Social forces shaping women’s and men’s lives in contemporary societies. Changing gender expectations. Intersections of gender with race and ethnicity, class, and age. Social movements for women’s and men’s liberation.
WSP 309 Race, Gender & Sexuality in African Diaspora
TTh 12:30-1:50 Linda Carty
To introduce students to the reality of how racism informs the “common sense” understanding of black sexuality.
WSP 310 Feminist Inquires
T 3:30-6:15, Robin Riley
Develops competency in interrogating a plurality of feminist research views across disciplines. Students critique, write from feminist perspectives in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, and other disciplines.
WSP 317/SOC 319 Qualitative Methods in Sociology
MW 12:45-2:05 Marjorie DeVault or WF 12:45-2:05, Peter Ibarra
Field research methods including participant observation, unstructured interviewing, life histories, and case studies. Preparation and analysis of field notes and interview data.
WSP/SWK 326 Persons in Social Context
MW 3:45-5:05, TTh 12:30-1:50 or TTh 5:00-6:20
Assessment of behavior of diverse individuals, groups, and social systems. Applying concepts from the biological, behavioral, and social sciences in identifying and understanding forms and causes of behavior.
WSP/PSY 329 Biopsychological Perspectives on Women’s Health
TTh 9:30-10:50 Catherine Cornwell
Psychoanalytical and evolutionary theories of gender and adaptive fitness; Psychoneuroimmunological perspectives on sexually influenced disease processes, aging, and biopsychological influences on women’s health.
WSP/PSC 356 Political Conflict
TTH 12:30-1:50, Gavan Duffy
Theory and practice of political conflict and peacemaking. Issues may include class, race, gender and ethnicity, war, terrorism, and protest.
WSP/ETS360 Reading Gender and Sexualities
Sec. 001 Cinema and Sexual Difference
MW 2:15-3:35 with Film Screening W 7:00-9:50, Steven Cohan
Film noir refers to a cycle of films that addressed, through the convoluted narrative terms of the thriller, some of the pressing cultural problems facing American society after World War II, not the least of which were questions about the stability of gender as a regulation of sexualities and social identities. Examples of film noir are Double Indemnity, Laura , The Big Sleep ,Mildred Pierce , Gilda , and Crossfire . This cycle of thrillers, moreover, inspired a revival of noir beginning in the mid-1970s: films such as Chinatown, Klute , Body Heat, and Black Widow . This course will study postwar film noir as well as its later revival from the linked perspectives of cultural studies and feminist and queer theory. We will examine film noir 's representations of masculinity and femininity in their historical contexts while considering how these narratives about gender instability refer to other social tensions and historical changes, such as those concerning class, race, and homosexuality. Film noir continues to attract the notice of scholars, and the assigned reading will draw on this criticism. Attendance at the film screenings is required.
WSP/SOC 364 Aging and Society
TTh 9:30-10:50, Madonna Harrington Meyer
Current policy issues in an aging society. Health care, end-of-life, social security, productive aging, and generational equity. Special problems facing elderly women and minorities.
WSP/HST/LAS 371 Gender in Latin American History
MW 12:45-2:05
History of women and gender relations from colonial period to the present. Influence of race, class, and ethnicity on gender. Relation of gender to labor, family, sexuality, and politics.
WSP 400 Selected Topics
Sec. 001 Feminisms and PostColonial Studies
TBA Chandra Talpade Mohanty
Course objectives include an in-depth understanding of the field of postcolonial studies and its history in the US academy, wide-ranging knowledge of cross-cultural feminist theoretical and epistemological perspectives on multiple colonialisms, neo-colonialism, decolonialization, and postcolonialism; understanding of the theoretical paradigms of orientalism, racism/racialization, ethnocentrism, subaltern studies, and materialist feminist analysis; development of epistemologically and ethically grounded research methodologies attentive to multiple histories; and familiarity with questions of voice, agency, subjectivity and representation.
WSPSOC 425 Feminist Organizations
TBA Diane Swords
Women’s movement history in the United States and internationally. Successes and problems of organizations built by feminist activism. Implications for a new generation of feminist (and other) activism.
WSP/AAS/SOC 427 NYC: Black Women Domestic Workers
TTh 5:00-6:20 Linda Carty
A political economy approach to educating students about the human and capital costs of tourism to the Caribbean. The integral relationship between sex work and Caribbean tourism exposes the region’s development that has resulted in its current configuration. Permission of instructor.
WSP/CFE 444 Schooling and Diversity
W 3:45-6:45 Barbar Applebaum or W 5:15-8:00 Zaline Roy-Campbell
Construction of diversity (race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, class, disability, sexual orientation) in schools. Emergence of inequalities based on difference in pedagogy and curriculum. Student resistance in relation to cultural diversity. Teaching for empowerment.
WSP/REL 465 Gender in Islam
WF 12:45-2:05 Svetlana Peshkova
Roles, representations, and realities of women in Muslim societies in historical and cultural context. Gender in scriptural, legal, and theological texts. Politics of gender and religious identity in contemporary Islam.
WSP 470 Experience Credit/Internship Internships are available at several local community agencies. Please discuss with your advisor or WSP director.
WSP 490 Independent Study In-depth exploration of a problem or problems. Individual independent study upon a plan submitted by the student. Admission by consent of supervising instructor or instructors and the department. May be repeated for credit.
WSP/FIA 494 Music and Gender
MW 3:45-5:05 Amada Winkler
The impact of gender ideology and behavior on the performing arts and the role of performance in maintaining and subverting gender identities and relations.
WSP/ECN 500 Topics in Economics and Gender
MW 12:45-2:05 Susan Gensemer
Recent research in the area of economics and gender: economics of the family, including intrahousehold bargaining and the economics of domestic violence; labor markets, including discrimination and sexual harassment; and the interplay between these two spheres. The course culminates with student projects in areas of their interests.
|
