WMST 200: Introduction to Women and Gender Studies

WMST 200-001: Intro to Women/Gender Studies
(Fall 2015)

03:00 PM to 04:15 PM MW

Section Information for Fall 2015

Women and Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary program that seeks to address the
impact of gender and sexuality on the world around us and on the inequalities that shape
it. This course will offer an introduction to some of the current debates taking place
within the interdisciplinary field of women’s and gender studies. During the course of the
semester, we will grapple with historical as well as contemporary feminist concerns,
paying close attention to both local and global issues. We will consider a wide variety of
texts—from personal narratives and historical documents to films and cultural
criticism—across a range of disciplines, including political science, media studies,
anthropology, and sociology, to name but a few. In doing so, some of the goals of the
course will be:

(1) To get a sense of both historical and contemporary debates taking place within
the field of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and become familiar with
their language, theories, and methods of critical engagement
(2) To consider the ways in which race, class, gender, and sexuality are linked and
how such intersections have been articulated
(3) To look for connections between local and global feminisms, while also keeping
in mind that differences matter
(4) To begin to grapple with some of the uneven effects of globalization
(5) To think more about our own self-positioning in an increasingly globalized world,
and the extent to which identity is never simply a question of “us” and “them”
(6) To explore some of the ways in which feminism both interacts with and helps to
bring about social change

science.

Course Information from the University Catalog