Course Descriptions

Nostalgic images of the nuclear family in the United States present us with the picture of a father, mother, and biologically conceived son and daughter all living in a single family home. As a social institution, the family has experienced many changes in contemporary U.S. society. This course is designed as an introduction to alternative family systems in the United States contextualized in a Post-WWII framework. Asian Americans will serve as our central focus to survey the development of alternative families. The course addresses the historic, more traditional forms of Asian immigration and quickly moves into the ways globalization, transnationalism, imperialism/occupation, mixed race, modern reproductive technologies, and transracial adoptions complicate our understanding of the contemporary family. Examples include transnational Filipino families and caregivers, surrogate motherhood, and South Korean adoption beginning in the Cold War stretching to more contemporary practices in China. This course will incorporate interdisciplinary texts, media sources, and documentary films. A major topic of this course will be to analyze how issues of race and ethnicity inform identity. Additionally, we will explore the ways family formation is situated in history, politics, military engagements, and imperialism. Throughout the course we will also investigate how gender, kinship, and transnationalism intersect and shape our understanding of transracial and transnational families. Many people have different experiences with family formation and this course will examine them through an analytical and critical lens.Throughout the semester this course raises many questions. Examples include but are not limited to: What does it mean to be an immigrant? How are family structures complicated by larger global issues? How does transracial adoption change our understanding of what it means to be “American” or “Asian America?” This class provides a space to examine questions, interpret materials, exchange ideas, and gain an increased understanding of contemporary alternative family formation.

This interdisciplinary course explores over two decades of work produced by and about queer subjects of African descent throughout the circum-Atlantic world. While providing an introduction to various artists and intellectuals of the black queer diaspora, this seminar examines the distinct socio-cultural, historical and geographical contexts in which same-sex desire and gender variance are embraced or contested in African diasporic communities. We will interrogate the transnational and transcultural mobility of specific aesthetics as well as racial, gender, and sexual identity categories more broadly. Our aim is to use artisitic experession to highlight the dynamic relationship between African Diaspora Studies and Queer Studies.

TEXTS:

Brand, Dionne. In Another Place, Not Here, New York: Grove Press, 1996

Glave, Thomas. Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from The Antilles, Durham: Duke University Press, 2008

Johnson, E. Patrick and Mae G. Henderson, Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005

Morgan, Ruth and Saskia Wieringa. Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men, and Ancestral Wives: Female Same-Sex Practicies in Africa, Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2005.

Murray, Stephen O. and Will Roscoe. Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

With the emergence of food studies as an academic discipline, it has become clear that food is not just an essential ingredient of human survival, it is fundamental to culture, human imagination and creative-aesthetic expression. Food is not just a private concern or a matter of personal taste, it has always been and continues to be a site of social power. This is especially true for Asian Americans. On the one hand, food has been used to racialize and stereotype Asian-Americans. On the other hand, food has become one of the most important cultural threads of Asian American literature, films and other popular cultural forms, and has gained increasing visibility in the mainstream publishing market and media in recent years. Most students have come across Asian food cultures within the cultural and culinary cultures of the United States. This class will enable them to understand that process and how that contributes to a diverse national food culture by examining cultural texts that deal explicitly with food and its relationship to cultural identities and social formations. All the readings for this class are devoted to the interactions between Asian-Americans with the dominant society through food and how such interactions contribute to complex social identities.

Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison and Tony award-winning playwright August Wilson are two of the most honored and prolific African American writers in recent history. They both make race (and particularly blackness) central to their work. Morrison, considered a "leading voice in current debates about constructions of race and gender in U.S. literature and culture...refuses to allow race to be relegated to the margins of literary discourse." Similarly, Wilson cautioned against a premature, post-racial vision of the world, especially considering the cultural politics of American theatre. During the term we will study how notions of race and power erupt in Morrison's "fantastic earthy realism" and Wilson's "dramatic vision." We will also trace African American cultural influences such as folktales, blues and jazz in their writing. Finally, we will measure their reach and authority as public intellectuals by discussing their essays, interviews, and speeches.

Texts:

By Toni Morrison

Beloved

Jazz

Sula

What Moves in the Margin: Selected Non-Fiction

By August Wilson:

Fences

Joe Turner's Come & Gone

Piano Lesson

Radio Golf

In the last two to three decades, African Gender Studies, as a focus of inquiry, have dominated socio-political, religious, moral, and academic discourses inside and outside of Africa. In the realm of African gender studies, the theory of African feminism is grounded in African historical and cultural experience in the sense that it highlights the African woman’s needs, hopes, and desires, and therefore, the terms ‘Africana Womanism’ or ‘African Womanism’.However, Western-based feminist theoretical concepts and analytical perspectives, including the womanist theory in the African Diaspora, have often been applied to most available body of works. If gender is a social construction, how applicable are Western concepts of gender to gender issues in Africa, and how valid are such concepts? These questions form the basic arguments for this course in which Yoruba women will be the focus of discussion.  The Yoruba of Nigeria, West Africa, have for the past five centuries a history of organized statehood, military, and political power before the European scramble for Africa, which was followed by re-organization of African peoples, cultures, and state boundaries for the purposes of colonization. Within this historical context, the course will explore the gender construction in Yoruba land. Also, through the analyses of religious, linguistic, and socio-political discourse and practices among the Yoruba, the course will also examine the variables between the realities of African gender perspectives and current gender theories.

This course will be oriented around your gaining an understanding of family relationships across the (relationship) life span, but with a particular focus on relationship development, maintenance, and parenting. As an introductory course, we will not spend much time on any particular topic, but rather will touch on many of the major areas of the field. Each of these topic areas could easily take entire summer sessions to cover in depth; my goal is for you to leave the class with a broad understanding of the field as well as an appreciation for the theories and research that guide our understanding of the topic. Throughout the course, I will stress the importance of utilizing sound research in the quest for understanding the development, maintenance, and dissolution of family relationships. You will be expected to learn numerous new concepts and be able to apply them to unique situations.

HDF 313 will survey both biological and environmental factors that shape the development of a child from conception through adolescence.  The specific areas to be covered include biological, cognitive, emotional, and social development."There is also a lab that they must be registered for if taking this class- HDF 113L. In this lab, they learn about and practice systamatic observation techniques of children.

HDF 313 will survey both biological and environmental factors that shape the development of a child from conception through adolescence.  The specific areas to be covered include biological, cognitive, emotional, and social development."There is also a lab that they must be registered for if taking this class- HDF 113L. In this lab, they learn about and practice systamatic observation techniques of children.

HDF 313 will survey both biological and environmental factors that shape the development of a child from conception through adolescence.  The specific areas to be covered include biological, cognitive, emotional, and social development."There is also a lab that they must be registered for if taking this class- HDF 113L. In this lab, they learn about and practice systamatic observation techniques of children.

The purpose of this course is to examine the various experiences, perspectives, and expressions of Chicanas in the United States. This involves examining the meaning and history of the term, "Chicana" as it was applied to and incorporated by Mexican American women during the Chicano Movement in areas of the Southwest U.S., such as Texas and California. We will also explore what it means to be Chicana in the United States today. The course will begin with a historical overview of Mexican American women's experiences in the U.S., including the emergence of Chicana feminism. We will discuss central concepts of Chicana feminism and attempt to understand how those concepts link to everyday lived experiences. Specifically, the relationship between gender, race/ethnicity, and class will be key as we discuss issues that have been significant in the experiences and self-identification of Chicanas, such as: family, gender, sexuality, religion/spirituality, education, language, labor, and political engagement. We will be engaging in interdisciplinary analysis not only concerning cultural traditions, values, belief systems, and symbols but also in relation to the expressive culture of Chicanas, including folk and religious practices, literature and poetry, the visual arts, and music. Finally, we will examine media representations of Chicanas through critical analyses of film and television portrayals.

Instructor:  Rosen, S            Areas:  -- / A

Unique #:  34753            Flags:  Cultural Diversity, Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  AFR 317F            Computer Instruction:  Yes

Prerequisites: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: In 2010, Dan Savage began a viral video campaign when he and his partner posted a video to YouTube promising a viewing audience of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual kids that life “gets better.” The project’s uncritical positive attitude has received critique from some queer intellectuals and kids, but it has also inspired videos from prominent LGBT people and allies, and given some viewers suffering from discrimination and heartbreak a sense of community and hope.

Before YouTube, queer people read books. In fact, reading, writing, and critiquing literary works has long been an occupation of queer-identified people. Literature can build community and offer hope, but it can also reflect the complexities of queer lives and relationships, transform transgressive pleasures into art, and analyze the histories and ideologies that often keep things from simply getting better, in spite of Savage’s promise.

In this course, we will examine the specific features of literary works that enable them to do all this, and that have long made them an important part of queer culture. Students will develop skills — close analytic reading and creative critical writing — that will help them succeed in upper-division courses across campus. This class is therefore recommended for English majors and non-majors alike. Readings include canonical and popular literatures, as well as some music, film and new media, and scholarly articles that will inform our approach.

Texts: Readings will include works by Gloria Anzaldúa, Langston Hughes, Frank O’Hara, Sappho, Shakespeare, Eve Sedgwick, Sandy Soto, Michel Foucault, Oscar Wilde. Readings will be provided in a coursepack available for purchase.

Requirements & Grading: Students will write three 2-page papers, revise two of these papers, and write one longer 5-7-page paper. Students will write regularly in an online forum.

Grades in this class will be determined using the Learning Record, a nontraditional, evidence-based system for assessing student progress and achievement.

In this course, you will:

 become familiar with key terms within and authors of feminist analysis

 use WGS terms and concepts to analyze texts (archives, films, a novel, a public event)

 think for yourself and put your life and surroundings in conversation with our readings

 practice looking for and learning from transnational grassroots feminist activists

 journal about change and challenges created by a human rights framework for gender justice

 take part in our ongoing discussion about what WGS is and what possibilities it creates

Description

Population studies or demography is an interdisciplinary field, encompassing the study of the size, distribution, and composition of human populations, and the processes of fertility, mortality, and migration through which populations’ change. These processes are closely connected to many of the pressing problems facing contemporary societies. For instance, the funding of health care in developed countries is a major issue because of declining fertility and population aging. Civil unrest in parts of Africa and the Middle East are, in part, a function of persistently high fertility rates. These processes are also important drivers of many contemporary environmental problems. Finally, a grasp of population processes is important for a deeper understanding of the population explosion in urban areas and the higher transmission and impact of AIDS in the developing world. 

This course provides an overview of the field of population studies. A sociological approach is emphasized, but economic, geographic, anthropological, and biological perspectives will also be used. Attention will be given to a) the demographic concepts needed to objectively evaluate population issues and b) the substantive content of the population issues. Emphasis will be given to evaluating the evidence regarding debates on population topics. 

Reading Materials 

Required text: Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues, 10th edition, 

John R. Weeks. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co. ISBN-10: 0495096377 

On-line Readings: There are a number of short reading assignments, marked with an [EL]. These readings can be found in External Links section of the class Blackboard site and should be read prior to class period. 

Grading and Requirement:

You are expected to complete all readings for the day's class before coming to class. Read as actively as possible. Class time will be an opportunity to discuss and further explore the readings, so it is essential that everyone comes prepared to participate. Our class periods will be more productive and enjoyable when we all begin with the same materials. 

There will be TWO examinations during the semester, each worth 20% of your final grade. The exams will draw from both readings and class discussions. The exams are not cumulative. Each will include multiple choice and short answer questions. Make-up examinations will not be administered except in extreme circumstances and only if I am notified beforehand. All make-up examinations are 100% essay. 

You must also complete TWO assignments and ONE short paper during the semester. The assignments—on mortality and fertility—are designed to familiarize you with demographic data on the web, give you an overview of your country of choice, and help you identify your country’s population angle that most interests you and that you will explore in more detail in the short paper. Each assignment is worth 15% of your final grade. The short paper is worth 25% of your grade. 

The final 5% of your grade is based on attendance/class participation. I expect you to show up and engage (i.e., not text, sleep, or read the newspaper) with classmates, the TA, and me in the class. 

Cross listed with AFR 374/WGS 322

Note:  322V and SOC 321K Surveillance and Social Control cannot both be countes.

This course will provide an overview of theories in the emerging field of Surveillance Studies, with a focus on race, gender, power. We will examine transformations in social control and the distributions of power in U.S. and global contexts, with a focus on populations within the African diaspora. As such, this is a Black Studies course.

Course topics include: the Trans-Atlantic slave trade; prisons and punishment; the gaze, voyeurism and reality television watching; the Internet; airports and state borders; biometrics and the body.

Students will be encouraged to develop critical reading and analytical skills. Through the use of films, the Internet and other visual media, students will be challenged to better understand how surveillance practices inform modern life.

Students who acquire six or more unexcused absences will receive a failing grade.

Your participation grade will be based upon your informed participation and not solely on your attendance. You are expected to contribute informed opinions based on a close reading of the assigned materials and engagement with the themes of the course. Sharing your personal opinions, while important, will not solely constitute informed discussion.

Required Texts:

Christian Parenti. 2003. The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America From Slave Passes to the War on Terror. New York: Basic Books.

All other required readings will be available for purchase as a course kit.

Grading Policy:

Participation and Journal:       20%

Mid-Term Test:                     25%

Research Project:                   20%

Film Review                           15%

Final Test:                             20%

Description:

This course examines the social and cultural construction of gender, focusing on women and men in U.S. society.  We will explore how gender is experienced by different groups of men and women, with a focus on race/ethnicity, sexuality, class, and nationality.  The course begins with description of current gender stereotypes in popular culture, and differences in the socialization and education of girls and boys.  Next we will examine gender differences in the workplace, exploring the reasons for the persistent gap in pay between employed men and women.  The third part of the course examines women’s changing relationship to the home and work, including changes in the meanings of marriage and motherhood, with a focus on the lives of impoverished women.  This section also reviews public policy responses to women’s poverty.  The final part of the course examines the impact of globalization on men and women around the world.

Texts:

C.J. Pascoe, Dude, You’re a Fag, Univ. of California Press, 2007.

Kristen Schilt, Just one of the guys?, University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Susan Thistle, From Marriage to the Market, Univ. of California Press, 2006.

Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas, Promises I can keep, Univ. of California Press, 2005.

Carolina Bank‐Mu.oz, Transnational Tortillas: Race, Gender, and Shop‐Floor Politics in Mexico

and the United States. ILR Press, 2008.

The Education of Shelby Knox (DVD).

Grading and Requirement:

Grades in the class will be based on three examinations and four homework assignments. The

first two exams are worth 30 percent, and the third is worth 20 percent of the final grade. All

examinations will have an essay format (Blue Books are required). Make‐up examinations will

be given only to those absent for university‐approved reasons. The final 20 percent of the grade

is based on written homework assignments. The assignments require students to write 2‐page

essays. Essay questions will be distributed in class and posted on Blackboard. They will be due

the following class period. No late assignments will be accepted. Evaluations (letter grades) are based on mastery of the material and quality of the writing.

This course focuses on the study of primate social behavior. It explores the basic theoretical principles that guide primatologists. Topics covered include: evolutionary theory, primate diversity, social and mating systems, sexual selection, life history, cooperation, competition, intelligence, communication, and human behavior.

This course examines 20th century approaches to Marxism through the black liberation tradition. It focuses on the works of key theorists and writers from Africa and the diaspora, with an emphasis on expanding existing theories to incorporate analyses of gender/sexuality. The course explores political economies and libidinal economies from nineteenth century enslavement to twenty-first century mass incarceration. 

Possible Texts:

Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism

Amilcal Cabral, Revolutionary Leadership and People’s War

C.L.R. James, American Civilization

Robin Kelley, Hamer and Hoe

Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery

Saidiya Hartman, Scenes of Subjection

Cedric Robinson, Black Marxism

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States (excerpts); Black Reconstruction (excerpts) (Project Guttenberg)

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (Project Guttenberg)

Angela Y. Davis, “Women and Capitalism: Dialectics of Oppression and Liberation”

Walter Rodney, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Africa

Carole Boyce Davies, Left of Karl Marx: Claudia Jones

Frank Wilderson, “Prison Slave as Hegemony’s Silent Scandal”

Women's experiences in different cultures. Some topics partially fulfill legislative requirement for American history; these are identified in the Course Schedule.

This course is a survey of the development of Islamic art (inclusive of most expressive, and creative art forms) in the Muslim societies from the earliest to the present time with a focus on gender and contemporary artistic issues. Topics will include: gender and gender identities; art patronage, Orientalism, themes of power; and their influential roles in form and express formation, the dominant artistic traditions before and after 1900, the loss of traditional aesthetics due to Western influence, and the re-emergence of calligraphic art as an expression of “Universal Muslim Identity”, and themes of artistic expressions as it is related to current world events (war, occupation of land, and religious resurgence). Discussions incorporate analysis of historical, political, social & economical factors that gave rise to aesthetic changes in the regional cultures. Selected biographical data on some of the most influential traditional & modern Muslim artists will be discussed, to provide a basis for the appreciation of the artistic works and the important roles played by the artists in regards to the theme of “Gender”, in both the traditional & the contemporary Muslim societies.

Text: Reader Packets

Requirements: Upper Division Standing

Description:

The course is devoted to the study of gender politics in the Islamic world. It is designed to help students gain a better knowledge of the Islamic world and, at the same time, increase their understanding of major sociological concepts such as gender, social organization, culture, and politics. It shows how culture is mediated by politics, resulting in diverse interpretations of the cultural tradition and in different policies with respect to gender. We start by examining the themes and issues that are part of the common denominator of the Islamic tradition. We then consider how the diversity can be explained and what factors contribute to it. The focus is on women’s rights, which have been a key political issue in several countries and internationally.

Texts:

E.W. Fernea, Guests of The Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village. Anchor, (GS) 1965.

M. M. Charrad, States and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and

Morocco. Berkeley: Univ of California Press, 2001 (SWR)

Fadela Amara, Breaking the Silence: French Voices from the Ghetto. Berkeley: UC Press 2006 (BTS).

Joni Seager, The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World. 4th ed. Penguin. 2009. (Atlas).

Articles will be placed on Blackboard.

Grading and Requirements:

Students are encouraged to take an active role in discussing readings and raising questions. I expect students to attend class and to complete the assigned readings prior to coming to class.

Exam 1 25%

Exam  2 40%

Exam 3 20%

Team presentation 10%

Class participation 5%

Southern Africa is one of the continent's rich and varied regions, a region that holds cradle of humanity, historical sites as well as thriving modern cities and everything in-between. Designed to both introduce students to the history of the region and give an in-depth understanding of particular countries as case studies, the course is both challenging and rewarding in the readings and writing assignments expected of students. Each year, the country case studies may change, and this year, 2011-12, the case countries will be Namibia and Botswana. We will particularly focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, analyzing how historical events and figures from that time- period inform what is going in those countries and that region of Africa today.

The events of the Holocaust changed Western culture in fundamental ways. Not only was a great part of Jewish culture in Europe destroyed, the circumstances of the Nazi genocide as a modern, highly rationalized, efficient form of mass murder which took place in the heart of civilized Europe changed the conception of the progress of modernity and the Enlightenment in fundamental ways. This course explores the historical, political, psychological, theological, and cultural fall-out, as well as literary and cinematic responses in Europe and the U.S. to these events as they first became known, and as one moved further away from it in time and came to understand its pronounced and often problematic after effects. Central to our inquiry is the realization that the events of the Holocaust have left indelible traces in European and U.S. culture and culture production, of which a closer look (first, decade by decade, then moving on to a number of themes and questions), reveals profound insights into current day culture, politics, and society.

With the use of technical approaches and ideological positions that demonstrate the challenges and opportunities of femininity, black women in indigenous African societies have made important contributions to the arts of painting, ceramics, textiles, mixed media installations, and performance arts for hundreds of years. Their creativity continues into contemporary times in the works by women artists who combine international techniques, modern technologies, and feminist ideas to project individual and collective experiences.  By investigating analytical matters such as sexuality, class, religion, race, and ethnic  multiplicities, this course will investigate works by African women within the continent and also in the diasporas, including Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and North America.

What does music have to do with gender?

Scholars who study gender have shown that gender constitutes a fundamental factor in social and cultural life. In addition, they claim that cultural practices such as musical sound, visual images and other forms not only reflect but also constitute gendered identities. While it is possible to posit that gender distinctions have been a universal geographic and temporal constant in human societies, it has only been since the 1980s that scholarsbegan to theorize gender and sexuality in music. That is, if gender and sexuality is culturally constructed, what is the role of musical practices in constituting gender differences? Further, how do gender identities intersect with other categories such as race, ethnicity, and class? This course will survey a range of readings, approaches, and writing styles in considering the relationship between musical practice and gender identification.           

We will use musical and visual portrayals of gender from a variety of cultural areas---ranging from American pop genres to North African, Arabic, Turkish genres and beyond. This course will also be cross-listed with Middle Eastern Studies, and we will use case studies (at least 30%) from Middle Eastern communities as well as explore Western European/US musical expressions of gender through orientalism and colonialism. Non-music majors are welcome; while we will analyze the use of musical signs, specific knowledge of music or notation is not required. The class will use a reader, blackboard postings,listening and viewing examples; there will be no single text book.

This course analyzes the relationships between representation, race and national identity. Issues of gender power are also important to how this course deals with national identity and race. This course focuses on contemporary mass media, but also covers historical issues such as late-1800s advertising and early-1900s anti-immigration cartoons. The United States will be central, but not the only nation-state discussed in this course.

In this course, we will study the religion of Islam through its sacred text, the Qur’an. To this end, this course will entail extensive reading of the Qur’an itself, as well as of other texts. In our studies, we will focus on the following themes of the Qur’an: cosmology and theology, ethical principles, ritual prescriptions, and legal injunctions. We will also examine some of the prominent symbols, images and rhetorical structures of the Qur’an. Through reading the prophetic narratives, we will have an opportunity to compare Qur’anic and Biblical accounts of the major prophets shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The syllabus also includes an inquiry into role of the Qur’an in Muslim devotion and as a medium for artistic expression. We will also discuss the tradition of interpretation (or “exegesis”), especially as it pertains to those verses that engender the most debate today: those surrounding politics, intercommunal (i.e. interreligious) relations, and women/gender. Prior knowledge of Islam is helpful but not required for this course.

Instructor:  Woodard, H            Areas:  III / G

Unique #:  35665            Flags:  Cultural diversity, Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  AFR 374F; WGS 340            Computer Instruction:  n/a

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: This course proposes two primary objectives rooted in past and present literary representations of slavery. Thematizing “the trope of the talking book,” (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s The Signifying Monkey), the course first examines seminal slave narratives, e.g. the literature of the enslaved as discursive strategies, from self-actualization and resistance to early formations of a black literary discourse. The course then explores how slavery is (re)written, controversially in a presentist context by contemporary authors, particularly in historical fiction or neo-slave narratives that seek to restore agency and reclaim subjectivity for enslaved individuals. Ultimately, the course engages larger issues about the different venues that writings about slavery offer for academic disciplines, literary instruction and/or pedagogy.

Required Readings: Elizabeth Alexander, The Venus Hottentot: Poems; Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Classic Slave Narratives; Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition; Suzan-Lori Parks, The America Play and Other Works; Marlene Nourbise Philip, Zong!; Fred D’Aguiar, Feeding the Ghosts; Edward P. Jones, The Known World; Course Pak (Speedway on Dobie).

Requirements & Grading: .75: Three critical essays (25% each; 4-5 pages per essay, typed, double spaced) and one major rewrite of essay I or II (includes peer evaluation; see revision instruction handout); .15: Response papers based on course reading (1-2 pages), reading quizzes, class participation; .10: Oral group presentations, accompanied by one-page written report

Attendance: Regular attendance is required. More than four absences will be sufficient grounds for failure in the course. The four allowed absences will include illness, deaths of relatives, and other emergencies. If you are more than five minutes late or leave before class ends (without permission), you will be counted absent for that class. You are responsible for all work covered in your absence.

A (94-100); A- (90-93); B+ (87-89); B (84-86); B- (80-83); C+ (77-79); C (74-76); C- (70-73); D+ (67-69); D (64-66); D- (60-63); F (0-59).

Plus/minus grades will be assigned for the final grade. This is a writing-intensive course. No final exam is given.

Description

In 1682, the first American bestseller was published. Audiences in the American colonies and in England devoured Mary Rowlandson’s breathless account of her harrowing experiences as a captive of the Narragansett and Nipmunk Indians during King Philip’s War in The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.  Taking a long, historical view, this course explores the evolution of American popular culture and its relationship to national consolidation (and at times, disunion) over the last 330 years. Starting with oral, religious, print, and live performance traditions during the colonial, early national, and antebellum periods, this course will consider the cultural impact of new technologies such as steam power, the railroad, photography, recorded sound, celluloid, the electronic transmission of moving images (i.e. television), and the internet.  Throughout the semester, we will stress the centrality of race, gender, and class in shaping the production and content of popular culture, modes of popular representation, the composition of popular audiences, and types of reception.

Requirements

Creative Think Piece:                                     10%

5 Short Papers (1-2 pages each):                   20%

First Draft of Final Paper (10-15 pgs):             5%

In-Class Presentation of Final Project:             10%

Final Paper (10-15 pages):                             35%

Discussion:                                                    20%

Possible Texts

Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola, ed., Women’s Indian Captivity Narratives 

P.T. Barnum, The Life of P.T. Barnum, Written by Himself

Ken Emerson, Doo-dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture

W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk

Paula Marantz Cohen, Silent Film and the Triumph of the American Myth

Tiny Kline, Circus Queen and Tinker Bell: The Life of Tiny Kline

Susan Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination

Angela Davis, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday

Aniko Bodroghkozy, Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion

Upper-division standing required. Partially fulfills legislative requirement in American History.  Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

A tutorial and seminar course designed to enable each student to undertake intensive study of selected aspects of social welfare practice. Topics include child abuse and neglect, chemical dependency, African American family, gerontology, and social work and the law.

What do I mean by the Face of Justice? In our democracy, justice concerns certaininalienable rights: liberty, due process, equality. And it concerns freedom fromgovernmental intrusion on the right to speak, to assemble, to be secure in our homes, topractice or not practice any religion we choose. Certainly justice includes some notion offairness. These fundamental values are expressed in the Declaration of Independence andthe Bill of Rights. The Face of Justice reflects the individuals whose rights are beingprotected (and those whose rights are being overlooked) by our operating system ofjustice at given time. But these rights have little meaning without a political structure that enforces them. OurConstitution establishes a unique form of government, characterized by a separation ofpowers and an independent.judiciary. The Face of Justice also reflects the individualswho are allowed to fully participate (and those who are excluded) in the civic andpolitical society that enforces our individual rights.Women are not the only individuals whose rights have been overlooked even under ourConstitution, even under our Bill of Rights. Women are not the only actors who havebeen formally excluded from voting, running for office, holding and managing theirproperty, serving on juries, obtaining the education they seek, entering the professionsthey desire, and receiving equal pay for the work they perform. By focusing on the ways that women have been excluded from political, educational and professional opportunities, and their struggles to redefine their rights and their roles, we learn that justice is never fully attained and is never fully secure. It is my hope that by observing some of the faces once excluded from the tent of justice, we can learn to recognize those who are still excluded. It is my hope that by studying the persistence and doggedness of those who were once excluded, that we may find the courage to further extend thepromises of justice and to shore up the institutions that enforce it. This is a small class and it will only work if you do the readings and participate in the discussions. Attendence is required.

In this course we will examine representative works from 19th and 20th-century French literature, from Balzac’s Realism of the 1830s to Duras’s post-modern novel of the 1980s.  We will consider literature in its relation to history, with special attention both to form and style in the development of narrative, prose poetry and avant-garde theatre.  All students will be expected to give one in-class presentation on an aspect of French culture and history related to one of the works we are reading, and this presentation will be turned into a brief (5-7 page) paper.  A final paper on a French novel from this period not included on the syllabus will be due the last day of class.

Instructor:  Heinzelman, S            Areas:  V / G

Unique #:  35615            Flags:  n/a

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  WGS 345            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:

“Torture has been widely viewed in the past in terms of pain and suffering inflicted on a person – usually assumed to be male – in the custody of the state. However, this narrow understanding excludes many forms of severe pain and suffering deliberately inflicted on women and girls. . . and denies [them] protection from the many egregious forms of severe pain and suffering deliberately inflicted . . . in an assertion of power and control by the state or with its acquiescence.”

-- Amnesty International October 2011, Gender and Torture Conference report

This course examines the various ways in which torture has been defined in the late 20th and 21st centuries with a special focus on issues related to violence against women. The course will assess national and international responses to those acts conventionally regarded as torture, as well as to the many ways in which forms of violence against women—such as rape, domestic violence, and the denial of reproductive rights—take on the characteristics of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. We will ask what happens to state accountability and the state’s responsibility both to prevent harm and to provide remedies to victims when the definition of torture is expanded to include forms of harm that are disproportionally endured by women.

We will examine legal documents, national and international reports, philosophical essays, drama, film, and fiction to reach tentative conclusions about the crisis of state power in relation to the widespread use of torture against women.

Texts: Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, Octavia Butler, the “torture memos” (Bush Administration); The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo (A film by Lisa F. Jackson).

Requirements & Grading: In-class (group) presentation: 30%; Brief response papers: 40%; Final research paper: 30%.

This upper-division seminar class will investigate various aspects and/or movements of feminism in the United States.  Although we will look at issues of women’s equality in the colonial period, we will spend most of our time studying 19th and 20th century feminist or female advocacy activity including women in the anti-slavery movement, mid-19th century women’s rights advocates, the 19th and early 20th century woman suffrage movement, late 19th century women’s advocacy groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, post World War II women’s rights activism and the Women’s Liberation Movement, as well as what is being tentatively called “Third Wave Feminism.” 

        Students will be expected to read several book length publications over the course of the semester, and students will be expected to participate in weekly class discussion.

Course Number and Title: WGS 345 Queer Visual Culture

Semester and Year: Fall 2012

Instructor’s Name and Academic Rank: Peter Rehberg, Adjunct Assoc Professor

Previous Title and/or Course #: New Course

QUEER VISUAL CULTURE

The New Queer Cinema of the early 1990s performed a critical interventions at two fronts at once: While objecting to stereotypical representations of queer sexualities within straight storytelling that often times portrayed queer characters as pitiable if not suicidal, it also offered an alternative to mainstream gay and lesbian movies and their assimilated identity politics. This coming into being of a new genre of film that was both self-confident and aesthetically challenging was historically paralleled by the international emergence of lesbian and gay film festivals.

Ever since visual culture has been highly influential for the discussion and constitution of queer subject positions, as it has also been reflected in the critical and academic writing on queer visual representations over the past 20 years.

This course traces back the evolution from New Queer Cinema to contemporary Post Porn, a development that by no means has been restricted to narrative film but materialized itself as much in the medium of photography or in genres like the music video or online pornography. At the intersection of sexuality, gender, and race, this course will raise issues of identification, desire, fantasy, and fetishism in the ways they manifest themselves within the realm of the queer visual since 1990.

In a transnational context that will link works from the cultural spaces of the U.S. and Europe, Germany in particular, we will discuss films by Todd Haynes, Cheryl Dunye, Monika Treut, Rosa von Praunheim, and Gus van Sant, photographs by Nan Goldin, Jack Pierson, and Wolfgang Tillmans, and writings by Thomas Waugh, Richard Dyer, Ellis Hanson, Judith Butler, Judith Jack Halberstam, and Teresa de Lauretis.

Literature

Bad Object-Choices: How Do I Look?

Judith Butler: Gender Trouble

Corey K. Creekmur, Alexander Coty: Out In Culture

Teresa de Lauretis: The Practice Of Love

Richard Dyer: Now You See It

Richard Dyer: Only Entertainment

Martha Gever et al.: Queer Looks

Judith Halberstam: Female Masculinity

Ellis Hanson (ed.): Out Takes

Alice Kuzniar: Queer German Cinema

Vito Russo: The Celluloid Closet

Tim Stuettgen (ed.): Post Porn Politics

Thomas Waugh: The Fruit Machine

Films

Gregg Araki: The Living End

Cheryl Dunye: The Watermelon Woman

Todd Haynes: Poison

Tom Kalin: Swoon

Jenny Livingston: Paris Is Burning

Gus van Sant: My Own Private Idaho

Monika Treut: Virgin Machine

Rosa von Praunheim: Silence = Death

Photographers

Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency

Nan Goldin: I’ll be your mirror

Jack Pierson: All Of A Sudden

Wolfgang Tillmans: Burg

Wolfgang Tillmans: Soldiers: The Nineties

Description:

In this course we will analyze the family as a social institution, using sociological perspectives.

Studying the family can be tricky in that we all have our own experiences being part of families. It is

important, then, to go beyond our own experiences to explore both the private aspects of the family as

well as public aspects of the family using various kinds of empirical data. Shifting definitions of the

family provide a starting point for an exploration of the history of “the family”. Throughout the course

we will explore if and how the family is declining and changing using conservative, liberal, centrist and

feminist perspectives. Specific topics will include parental and child roles; gender, race and social class as

stratification systems which influence families; how the family intersects with, is shaped by, and shapes

other social institutions, with particular attention to the economy and the world of work as well as state

and social policies; and cohabitation, divorce and stepfamilies as three important changes in the US

family over the last several decades.

The primary objectives for this course are:

• To use a sociological perspective in studying families, with an emphasis on diversity within and

between families.

• To think about families in societal context.

• To sharpen critical thinking skills by participating in class discussions and other group activities and completing writing assignments that require analysis and revision.

Questions we will address include:

• What is the definition of family? (Why is this a complicated question?)

• What social-structural forces shape family processes?

• How is the family a gendered institution?

• How does government attempt to shape families? Support families?

Texts:

! Ferguson, Susan J. (ed.). 2010. Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families, Fourth Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

! Bogle, Kathleen. 2008. Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus. NYU Press.

! Coontz, Stephanie. 2006. Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage. New York: Penguin.

! Lareau, Annette. 2011. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Second Edition with an Update a Decade Later. Berkeley: University of California Press.

! Stone, Pamela. 2007. Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home. Berkeley: University of California Press.

(All books available for purchase at the Co-op on Guadalupe.)

! Additional readings may be posted to our BlackBoard course site.

Grading and Requirements:

Literature Review (30% total)

Select a topic of interest to you. The literature review will form the basis for the group presentation.

There will be peer review (worth 5%) as well as instructor comments on this assignment. You will

submit a memo detailing your revisions with the final draft. More details on a handout.

Group Presentation and Class Discussion (20%)

Students will be put into groups based on topics selected for the literature review. Each group will have responsibility for leading a class session on a specific topic relating to the sociology of education.

This will include: presenting materials from outside the course readings drawing connections with relevant course readings posing discussion questions The presentation should tie together thematically, and use guiding questions. This is up to the group to decide in consultation with the instructor. Each group member is responsible for contributing academic articles for integration into the final presentation. Groups should use some sort of visual aid and handout in their presentation.

Thematic synthesis (10%)

Each student will find a news article and write a two-page essay, using themes and material encountered during the course. Be prepared to discuss during class.

Other indicators of participation (40%)

Reading Journal: (22.5%) Total of six entries. 6 one-page single-spaced entries related to required course reading. More details on a handout.

Discussion leading (5%): Each student will lead discussion once during the semester.

Other assessment: (12.5%) Excessive absences will negatively affect your grade. Merely

showing up to class, however, is not sufficient participation. Ways that I assess participation

include contributions during class discussions and the level of preparedness for presentations.

Grades: The final grades will be computed as follows:

Literature Review 120 points 30%

Literature review 100 points

Peer review 20 points

Group Presentation 80 points 20%

Thematic Synthesis 40 points 10%

Participation 160 points 40%

Reading Journal 90 points

Discussion Leading 20 points

Other assessment 50 points

TOTAL 400 points 100%

A 94-100% 400 – 376 C+ 77-79% 319 – 308

A- 90-93% 375 – 360 C 74-76% 307 – 296

B+ 87-89% 359 – 348 C- 70-73% 295 – 280

B 84-86% 347 – 336 D 60-69% 279 – 240

B- 80-83% 335 – 320 F 59% or less 239 - 0

CR 70% or more 280 +

Description:

 The Danish author Karen Blixen (1885-1962) is one of the most enigmatic and famous literary personalities in the 20th century. Her privileged but unhappy childhood, her marriage to Baron Blixen and their immigration to Africa on the eve of World War I, and her passionate affair with Denys Finch Hatton are among the distinctive events in a life that was full of tragedy and triumph.

Her literary career began in earnest with the undisputed masterpiece, Seven Gothic Tales, which was first published in the U.S. in 1934 under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, a pseudonym she chose – of course – to ensure that her works in a male-dominated world were accepted by publishers and the public. Her second book, now the best known of her works, was Out of Africa, published in 1937, and its success firmly established her reputation as an author. Later followed books such as Winter´s tales, Anecdotes of destiny and Last tales that made her one of the most talked about authors of her day. The two movies Out of Africa (1985) and the adaptation of a story from Anecdotes of destiny, Babette´s feast (1987), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture, further increased the public awareness about Karen Blixen as did Judith Thurman´s biography, Isak Dinesen – The life of a storyteller (1983).

In this course we will make close readings of Karen Blixen´s works in order to get a deeper understanding of her artistic means. Furthermore, we will look at Africa in a post-colonial context, sexuality as empowerment, Blixen´s occupation with destiny and the timelessness in her traditional storytelling. Lastly, we will examine Karen Blixen´s position within the literary tradition.

The course aims at increasing your ability to think and work analytically. This includes developing the ability to read and analyze literary and non-literary texts, to voice criticism through coherent argumentation, to reason by analogy, to pose interesting questions and to communicate your discoveries to others.

Course materials:

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Seven gothic tales

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Out of Africa / Shadows on the grass

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Winter’s tales

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Anecdotes of destiny / Ehrengaard

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Last tales

Grading:

Writing assignments/essays: 25%

Quizzes: 20%

Midterm: 15%

Participation: 20%

Final essay: 20%

Instructor:  Kimball, S            Areas:  IV / G

Unique #:  35580            Flags:  Cultural diversity, Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  WGS 345            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: Who talks more, men or women? Who interrupts more often? Which sex uses more proper speech? How do people signal social attitudes in choosing pronouns to refer to mixed-sex groups? How are gender and sexual orientation constructed in linguistic interaction. For thirty years, sex- and gender-related differences in language and communicative styles have been increasingly examined in linguistic studies. Such research indicates that the answers to these questions are more complicated than you might expect. In this course, we will examine some of the research that show how social expectations and power structures intersect to influence the speech women and men use in particular social situations. We will also look at and discuss current research on how people use language to construct social gender and at how historical, economic, and social situations have shaped the language women and men use.

Texts: Mary Talbot, Language and Gender (2nd ed.)

Readings Packet, possibly to include selections from:

• Bergvall, Victoria L., Janet M. Bing, and Alice F. Freed eds., Rethinking Language and Gender Research. New York: Longman, 1996.
• Mary Bucholtz, A.C. Lang, and Laurel A. Sutton, eds., Reinventing Identities. The Gendered Self in Discourse. Oxford/New York. Oxford University Press. 1999.
• Hall, Kira and Mary Bucholtz, eds., Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self. New York: Routledge. 1995.
• Johnson, Sally and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof, eds., Language and  Masculinity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 1997.

Roman, Camille, Suzanne Juhasz, and Cristine Miller, eds., The Women and Language Debate, A Sourcebook. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

Requirements & Grading: Three short (ca. 5-pages with drafts) papers related to the readings (30% each); Participation in class discussion, occasional informal writing assignments, (10%).

Class attendance is mandatory: If you accumulate more than four (4) unexcused absences your final grade will be lowered.

Description:

This course examines critical American social problems that threaten the very fabric of our collective life as a nation.  These include problems in the economy and political system, social class and income inequality, racial/ethnic inequality, gender inequality and heterosexism, problems in education, and problems of illness and health care.  The course has three main objectives.  One involves providing students with the theoretical and methodological tools needed to critically analyze these problems from a sociological perspective.  A second involves providing students with current data and other information documenting the seriousness of these problems.  The final objective focuses on evaluating social policies addressing these problems (e.g., welfare-to-work programs, pay equity legislation), with special reference to questions of social justice, the common good, as well as public and individual responsibility.  Class format will be a mixture of lecture and discussion, with a strong emphasis upon the latter.  This course carries a writing flag.

Required Readings: 

A packet of readings to be purchased from Paradigm at 407 W. 24th St.

Additional readings will be made available on Blackboard

Attendance Policy:

Regular attendance and punctuality are expected.  You’re allowed three absences without penalty during the semester (excluding our introductory class meeting).  The nonpenalized absences are intended to cover such situations as illness, family emergencies, university sponsored trips, etc.  Students who miss more than three classes, regardless of the reason, will have their semester grades reduced by one full percentage points for each absence beyond the three allowed.  The one exception to this policy concerns absences for religious reasons, assuming proper notification is given.

Grading Policy:

Four Short Papers (2-3 pages) 65%

Class Participation 20%

Pop Quizzes 15%

Our stereotypical image of an early modern woman is a witch - for some good reasons because thousands of witch trials took place. In this course, we will look beyond that perspective to explore the complex of material, political, and cultural factors that shaped experiences of gender and family and that shaped attitudes about gender and power in early modern Europe. The early modern centuries between about 1500 and 1800 were years of tremendous change in many ways - religious reformations, European governments became more powerful at home and established colonies world wide, economic transformation as people became consumers and production expanded exponentially. Some features were slower to change, however, especially with regard to family life. In this class, we will explore how women's experiences of these patterns compared to men's - whether as workers, consumers, criminals, political subjects and political actors, peasants or nobles, spouses or parents. Along the way, we will explore why some of these dynamics fed into a proliferation of "witches."

This course examines major issues in women’s physical and mental health within the context of adult psychological development. The course includes a broad definition of women’s health that, in addition to traditional reproductive issues, considers common health problems in women, such as depression and eating disorders, and the leading causes of death in women, such as coronary heart disease. In addition, the course addresses gender influences on health risk behaviors, such as smoking and physical inactivity, and societal influences on women’s health through a consideration of social norms and roles.

Instructor:  Cvetkovich, A            Areas:  V / G

Unique #:  35620            Flags:  Cultural diversity, Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  WGS 345            Computer Instruction:  No

Only one of the following may be counted: Asian American Studies 320 (Topic: Gender, Sexuality, and Migration), E 370W (Topic 9), 370W (Topic: Cultures of Immigration and Dislocation).

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: Contemporary literature in the U.S. has been transformed by a new generation of writers who address the diverse cultures produced by histories of migration. We will consider how literature, with its attention to the relation between personal and historical experience, provides an especially valuable document of migration and intervenes in public discourse about it. We will read contemporary fiction, mostly by women of color, with particular attention to how migration is shaped by gender and sexuality. Regions and cultures to be explored include the Mexican borderlands; African diaspora in the Caribbean; indigenous cultures in Canada; Vietnamese and South Asian diaspora and exile in the context of war; and gay migration from the rural to the urban. Issues to explored include how personal narrative articulates the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, and nation; how diaspora transforms notions of home and ancestry; and how history and memory shape the present. We will also consider the role of the contemporary writer as public intellectual in contributing to cultural and historical understanding.

The course will also provide students with an opportunity to reflect critically on their own national identities as residents and/or citizens of the United States – what does it mean, and what can it mean, to be “American”? Through critical readings and written assignments that construct a range of archival sources (the personal, the historical, the ethnographic), students will be encouraged to situate their own experience within a broader historical and transnational context.

Texts: Sandra Cisneros, Caramelo; Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ; Monique Truong, The Book of Salt ; Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis I; Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach ; Carolyn Steedman, Landscape for a Good Woman.

Requirements & Grading: (Note: +/- grading will be used for portfolio assessment and for the longer paper and group presentation and the final grade will be averaged based on those grades.)

Writing Portfolio:            40%

1) Statement of Goals; Mid-term Self Assessment; Final Self-Assessment

2) Discussion Questions posted to BB every other week

3) 3 short writing assignments: Personal Narrative; History; Ethnography

Final Project: Personal/ Critical Essay            40%

            (includes rough draft, peer editing, group presentation)

Attendance and class participation            20%

This course seeks to explore the intersections of race, class, and culture in contemporary and historical discourses of sartorial and bodily practices and performances of fashion and beauty.  Reading through a body of contemporary feminist scholarship and methodologies, we will investigate how class and gender shape definitions of beauty and why beauty is mapped on to the racialized body. By examining practices of beautification and style in popular and visual culture such as beauty pageants, fashion trends, makeovers, and body modification, we will ask, for example, how are beauty ideals defined?  What systems of power are they a part of and how are these modes of power sustained?  We will study the ways in which feminists have grappled with these debates that reflect broader ideological, cultural, and social processes.  We will also analyze the political and cultural implications of fashion and beauty as industries on the global market.  What impact do these practices have on gender relations and feminist discourse? How have feminized practices of consumption responded to transforming flexible economies under globalization?  We will work toward theorizing fashion and beauty culture in our contemporary world.

Requirements

Attendance, in-class writing, quizzes, and discussion participation                  15%

20 thought-provoking discussion questions reflecting readings collected for entire semester                  15%

Take-home midterm exam                                    20%

Creative Group Assignment w Description/purpose paper component (5-7 pages)                                    20%

Final Research Project  (8-10 page paper)                   30%

Texts

Susan Douglas, The Rise of Enlightened Sexism:  How Pop Culture Took Us from Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild 

Thuy Linh Tu, The Beautiful Generation:  Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion 

Miliann Kang, The Managed Hand:  Race, Gender, and the Body in Beauty Service Work

Brenda Weber, Makeover TV:  Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity

Selections from

Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar:  The Making of America’s Beauty Culture

Geoffrey Jones, Imagined Beauty:  A History of the Global Beauty Industry

Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight:  Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body

Elizabeth Haiken, Venus Envy:  A History of Cosmetic Surgery

Peg Zeglin Brand, Beauty Matters

Bonnie Adrian, Framing the Bride:  Globalizing Beauty and Roman in Taiwan’s Bridal Industry

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

Supervised individual research on an issue in women's and gender studies.

An student pursing the B.A. in Women's & Gender Studies may choose between 3 hours from WGS 379L Internship in WGS or WGS 360 Research & Thesis in WGS.

A PDF form found on the CWGS website should be turned in before registering for the WGS 360 Research & Thesis course.

Please note that a second reader is not required for the undergraduate thesis.  The undergraduate thesis must also be completed in one semester.

For the PDF form and more information please follow this link:

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/cwgs/academics/thesis-report.php

• Internship courses are available as part of the class offerings at Women's and Gender Studies.  These are individual instruction courses and do not meet in the classroom as lectures do. 

• Students are responsible for finding their own internships.  Resources on campus such as Liberal Arts Career Services, LACS Internship Services, the Career Exploration Center, the CWGS blog, and the WGS email list serves may help to find an internship.

• After finding a place to work as an intern, students must also obtain a faculty supervisor for their internship.  CWGS can assist in matching a student with a faculty member based on research interests.  This faculty supervisor will be responsible for submitting a grade for the student. According to the Provost’s office - TAs, RAs, and GRAs are ineligible to serve as faculty supervisors.

• Once students have an internship and a faculty supervisor, they must fill out and turn in the Internship Proposal and Consent Form (PDF 62K) to the CWGS office in order to be cleared to register for the course.

• On the proposal form, the student and faculty member will explain how the student will be graded for the internship course.  Some students keep a work journal that they submit for a grade, some turn in a large paper at the end of their internship.  Other final grade assignments might include a presentation or a larger project that was done for the organization.

WGS 379L: Internship in Women's and Gender Studies. (Undergraduate)

Experience working in the community or for a nonprofit agency. Six to nine hours of work a week for one semester. Prerequisite: At least twelve semester hours of coursework in women's and gender studies and written consent of the supervising faculty member; consent forms are available in the Center for Women's and Gender Studies.

Follow this link to visit our Undergrad Internship CWGS page: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/cwgs/academics/internships.php

The equivalent of three lecture hours a week for two semesters. Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. Women's and Gender Studies 698A and Women's Studies 698A may not both be counted. Prerequisite: For 698A, graduate standing in women's and gender studies and consent of the graduate adviser; for 698B, Women's and Gender Studies 698A.