Explores ways women are portrayed in advertising, television, film, photographs, cartoons, performance arts, literature, religious texts, and news media from various worldwide sources. Through interdisciplinary study students will evaluate the powerful effects these representations have on the political, economic, and social lives of women throughout the world.

Interdisciplinary introduction to women's studies, encompassing key concepts in the field, history of women's movements and women's studies in America, cross-cultural constructions of gender, and a thematic emphasis on the diversity of women's experience across class, race, and cultural lines.

Study of selected topics central to contemporary women and gender studies. Topics vary but include subjects such as women and violence, women and international development, women's myth and ritual, LGBTQ topics, the history and politics of sexuality, psychoanalysis, and religion.

Changing conceptions of sex roles, both female and male, in contemporary society. Using historical and comparative data, course considers the differential socialization of males and females in relation to the changing social structure in which it takes place.

Introductory survey of cultural, literary, and theoretical constructions of sexuality that seeks to complicate traditionally fixed categories of identity. Examination of various representatives of human sexuality, with particular attention to its intersections with gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, and class.

Behavior and attitudes of women, influence of sex chromosomes and sex hormones on behavior, influence of culture on sex role differentiation, and theories of sex role development.

Introduction to the concepts of the power and influence of the mass media. Allows students to see themselves as products of media influence and gives them a sense of women's roles as media professionals, as well as consumers.

An exploration of the experience of women as both authors of and subjects in imaginative literature.

Exploration of selected topics involving gender and communication. Topics may include women in media, women as rhetors, male/female communication, and communication and sex roles. Specific interests are examined in a seminar setting.

Historical and contemporary accounts of women's participation in paid and unpaid labor. Analyzes the nature of women's work through the divisions in the labor market due to gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, and class. Provides a detailed look at occupational sex segregation, sexual harassment, the glass ceiling, and the role of religion, culture, and education in determining women's opportunities and their value as workers and as family providers.

Explores major events in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, and queer culture and history in the United States and throughout the world to understand how identities, experiences, and movements have been socially constructed and have changed in different times and places, often as a result of race, class, and gender inequities.

Examines racialized gendered conceptions of popular culture, violence, and the legal system and their role in structuring systems of segregation, discrimination and exclusion. Looks at the gendered strategies and conflicts of organizations that arose to combat racial violence and overturn legal and social barriers to equal opportunity and citizenship rights.

Explores the changing concepts of women's psychology, sexuality, and relationships in different social and cultural contexts. Demonstrates the ways women's "psychological self" has been the source of humor, malignment and curiosity throughout history. Discussion-based classroom explores the intersections of self, race, gender and relationship.

Explores the complex relationship between the body, sexuality and the spirit. Investigates sacred texts, novels, short stories, poetry and film that engage with a variety of cultural embodiments of sexualities and of the sacred, international in scope. Teaches students to formulate critical perspectives at the intersection of the erotic and sacred.

Explores the experience of emotional trauma, the process of recovery and the etiology of healing in contemporary North American culture.  Investigates memoir, poetry, film, and novel as case studies of trauma and examines the effect of gender on traumatic experiences.  Applies psychological and feminist theoretical perspectives.

Questions the assumptions that women are nonviolent by nature and commit acts of violence only in response to abuse. Explores the complexity of human interactions through popular culture, literature and film and through theoretical works that attempt to explain female violence (compared to male violence) and as it is seen by others.

Examines global human rights issues through memoir, poetry and fiction. Explores the ways women use literary expression to voice their dissent and to struggle against human rights violations.

Examines the general experiences of enslaved women and nominally free women. Includes the lives of female reformers involved in the public arena as orators, writers, preachers, abolitionists and women's rights activists. Explores the effect of gender, class, and race on the development of ideologies concerning abolition, colonization, women's rights, and enslavement.

Gendered Pan-Africanism. Explores the writings and activism of African Americans who traveled to Africa in search of a shared cultural past and present or an opportunity to build pan-African allegiances. Examines these encounters within the context of the Cold War, US civil rights and African anti-colonial movements, and racial and gender ideologies of the time.

Examination of feminist and queer critiques and transformations of the theories, methods, and methodologies of the sciences and humanities.

Study abroad under supervision of George Mason University faculty. Course topics, content and locations vary.

Community- or campus-based service or experiential learning related to women's or gender issues. Independent course in which students develop, in consultation with a faculty member, individual contracts defining the learning and competencies they plan to gain from the experience.  Includes a paper and/or portfolio component.

Community- or campus-based service or experiential learning as it relates to a specific WMST course, taken at the same time. Students develop, in consultation with faculty member, individual contracts defining learning and competencies they plan to gain from the experience.

Challenges rigid categories and definitions in order to create a space for marginalized voices. Examines the inconsistencies and erasures that often characterize notions of sex, gender, sexuality, and sexual desire. Explores categories that intersect with sexualized identities such as race, ethnicity, class, nationality, location, and age.

Introduction to feminist approaches to social research for advanced undergraduate students. Students learn the techniques for collecting, analyzing, and writing-up research data as they examine many of the central methodological issues and questions raised by feminist scholars undertaking social research. Because an understanding of how to conduct social research is best gained through experience in the social world, this course emphasizes a learning-by-doing approach.

Students work as part of a research team and undertake a semester-long project investigating the significance of gender to the social and academic life of students at Mason. Enhances understanding of techniques for collecting, analyzing, and writing up empirical material. Involves in-depth investigation of and critical engagement with ethical, interpretive, and representational considerations relating to feminist research.

Explores feminist political thought in historical context. Topics include feminist political movements, feminist critiques of political philosophy, and feminist contributions to political theory.

Reading or research on a specific topic related to women and/or gender issues, under the direction of a faculty member. May involve a combination of reading assignments, tutorials, papers, presentations, or off-campus activities.

Study of selected topics central to contemporary women and gender studies. Topics vary but include subjects such as women and violence, women and international development, women's myth and ritual, LGBTQ topics, the history and politics of sexuality, psychoanalysis, and religion.

An exploration of the experience of women as both authors of and subjects in imaginative literature.

Exploration of selected topics involving gender and communication. Topics may include women in media, women as rhetors, male/female communication, and communication and sex roles. Specific interests are examined in a seminar setting.

Study of selected topics central to contemporary women and gender studies. Topics vary but include representation and images, violence, public policy, international development, transmigration of labor, myth and ritual, history and politics of sexuality, psychoanalysis, and religion.

Provides an introduction to feminist approaches to social research. Students collect, analyze, and write-up research data as they examine many of the central methodological issues and questions raised by feminist scholars. These include feminist critiques of positivism, feminist standpoint theory, social action research models, and feminist engagements with ethical concerns in doing research with human subjects. Emphasizes a learning-by-doing approach to prepare students to conduct research.

Students work as part of a research team and undertake a semester-long project investigating the significance of gender to the social and academic life of students at Mason. Enhances understanding of techniques for collecting, analyzing, and writing up empirical material. Involves in-depth investigation of and critical engagement with ethical, interpretive, and representational considerations relating to feminist research.

Multidisciplinary course examines the central issues of feminist theory and explores the various strategies of feminist theorists. Analyzes the ways in which feminist theories have challenged established disciplinary boundaries and contested the traditional assumptions of the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences.

Multidisciplinary course explores the complex issues women face in different regions of the world. Addresses women's diverse and shared global concerns and provides students with the tools to analyze and understand women in a global context.

Advanced individualized study of gender through readings, discussion, research, and/or projects under the direction and supervision of a member of the women's studies faculty.

Community or campus-based service or experiential learning related to women's or gender issues.  Students develop, in consultation with a faculty member, individual contracts defining the learning and competencies they plan to gain from the experience.

Prior to graduation and in consultation with their advisor, students will reflect on and synthesize their work in the women and gender studies certificate program by selecting three items taken from their work in the program and discussing these items in a 7-10 page essay. Work selected may include course papers, videos of their performances, exhibit photos, music recordings, and other items as agreed upon by student and advisor.

Study of selected topics central to contemporary women and gender studies. Topics vary but include representation and images, violence, public policy, international development, transmigration of labor, myth and ritual, history and politics of sexuality, psychoanalysis, and religion.