Women's and Gender Studies (WGST)

WGST 501     Images of Women in Germany     3 Credit Hours

This course will focus on the position of women in Germany after WWII and up to and after the unification of East and West Germany. Particular attention will be given to the gendered history of working through the National Socialist past, the division and reconstruction of the two nation-states, and the terrorism in West Germany in the 1970's. Students will examine images of women in films and tie them to the ideologies of gender and status of women in these larger issues of German history. Course readings will be in English. This course will be distinguished from its undergraduate counterpart, WGST 401, by the inclusion of additional readings and assignments.

WGST 504     Dissed: Differ, Power, Discrim     3 Credit Hours

Have you ever been dissed? Why are some people targets of disrespect? This class examines the unequal distribution of power-social, economic and political in the United States and other countries that results in favor for privileged groups. We will examine a variety of institutional practices and individual beliefs that contribute to disrespect. We'll look at ways that beliefs and practices, like viewing inequality as consequence of a "natural order," obscure the processes that create and sustain social discrimination. We will engage in the intellectual examination of systems, behaviors and ideologies that maintain discrimination and the unequal distribution of power and resources. Student will not receive credit for both WGST 404 and WGST 504. This course is distinguished from its 400-level counterpart by the requirement of additional assignments, including a required additional paper.

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 505     Gender Roles     3 Credit Hours

This course will investigate the development of gender roles in childhood and adolescence due to either innate physiological differences or sociological patterning, the effect of gender roles upon male-female relationships within our society, and the possibility of transcending sociological gender roles in alternate modes of living. Additional reading assignments or projects will distinguish this course from its undergraduate version SOC 443. Students cannot receive credit for both SOC 443 and SOC 543. (YR).

Prerequisite(s): PSYC 170 or PSYC 171 or SOC 200 or SOC 201

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 506     Sexuality and Culture     4 Credit Hours

This course surveys distinct ways in which sex and gender roles, ideologies, expectations and relationships are socially constructed in cross-cultural contexts from an anthropological perspective. A principal focal point of exploration in the course will be the investigation of diversity and fluidity of sex, sexual orientation and gender roles found in cultures throughout the world. Reading assignments or projects will distinguish this course from its undergraduate version ANTH 406. Students cannot receive credit for both ANTH 406 and ANTH 506. (W, YR).

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 509     Feminist Theories     3 Credit Hours

This course examines the different perspectives that feminist theorists have offered to analyze the unequal conditions of women's and men's lives. Students taking this course will develop an understanding of how theory functions as a way to know, understand and change the world. They will also be provided with a lens for comparing the assumptions and implications of alternative theoretical perspectives. A particular emphasis of this course is on theorizing the interrelationships among gender, race, class, sexuality and nationality. Course material includes applications of feminist theory to issues such as gender identity formation; sexuality; gender, law and citizenship; women and work; and the history and politics of social movements. Students will not receive credit for both WGST 409 and WGST 509. Additional reading assignments or projects will distinguish this course from its undergraduate version.

WGST 516     Ptgs & Prints Early Mod Japan     3 Credit Hours

Painting and woodblock prints of the Edo/Tokugawa (1600-1868) and Meiji II (1868-1912) periods are considered in light of competing developments that on the one hand looked to Japan's classical tradition and on the other to the influence of arts and artists from China and the West. Special attention is given to female artists and images of women.

Prerequisite(s): ARTH 101 or ARTH 102 or ARTH 103 or ARTH 106 or ARTH 241

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 520     Kinship and Marriage     4 Credit Hours

This course draws from some of the best ethnographies of kinship and marriage to introduce students to a diverse range of kinship practices across the world. Topics include procreation, adoption, making kinship through land, houses, or food, LGBTQI families, spiritual kinship, new reproductive technologies, and transnational families. Beginning with the cultural logic of the Euro-American family, this course will spark debate about definitions of kinship and marriage, nature and nurture, and the biological and the social. It will query how and to what extent kinship matters in the 21st century. Additional reading assignments or projects will distinguish this course from its undergraduate version ANTH 415. Students cannot receive credit for both ANTH 420 and ANTH 520. (F).

Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is
Can enroll if Level is Rackham or Graduate

WGST 533     Writing Women in Renaissance     3 Credit Hours

This course will be taught in English, and will focus on the influence of Italian literary models for the construction of female literary types as well as female voices in France and Italy from 1300 to about 1600. Italian authors studied include three very influential Florentines, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, as well as Castiglione and Ariosto. We will read women poets, patrons, prostitutes and queens from Italy and France such as Veronica Gambara, Isabella di Morra, Vittoria Colonna, Christine de Pizan, Louise Labe and Marguerite de Navarre. At issue will be women's roles and women's images in city and court culture during the early modern period and the interaction of their writings with the literary canons of Italy and France.

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 545     20C/21C Women Authors     3 Credit Hours

An analysis of selected works of significant and emerging 20th and 21st century women authors writing in English, with special emphasis on issues of gender and social and cultural identity. Additional assignments will distinguish this course from its undergraduate version.

Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107 or COMP 220 or COMP 280 or COMP 270) and (ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 239 or ENGL 200)

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 546     Marriage and Family Problems     3 Credit Hours

Sociological analysis of problems encountered within the institution of marriage with particular reference to such issues as choosing a marriage partner, sexual adjustment, occupational involvement, conflict resolution, child rearing, divorce and readjustment. Students cannot receive credit for both WGST 446 and WGST 546. Additional reading assignments or projects will distinguish this course from its undergraduate version.

Prerequisite(s): SOC 200 or SOC 201 or WGST 275 or WST 275 or PSYC 275 or SOC 275 or ANTH 275 or HUM 275 or WGST 303 or PSYC 303 or SOC 303 or ANTH 303 or HUM 303

WGST 547     Family Violence     3 Credit Hours

Sociological analyses of various forms of family violence which occur disproportionately in the lives of girls and women. Topics such as incest, sexual abuse, date rape, wife battering, and elder abuse will be situated within the social and cultural context of contemporary gender relationships. Social and political responses to the phenomena will be examined. Additional reading assignments or projects will distinguish this course from its undergraduate version SOC 447. Students cannot receive credit for both SOC 447 and SOC 547. (F).

Prerequisite(s): SOC 200 or SOC 201 or SOC 301 or SOC 443 or PSYC 405 or WST 405 or PSYC 505 or WST 505 or SOC 543

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 5505     Feminism & Mod. Mid. East     3 Credit Hours

This course provides an analysis of the history, historiography, and sources for the study of feminism in the Middle East since 1800. Additional assignments will distinguish the graduate version of this course from the undergraduate version.

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 555     Gender and Media Studies     3 Credit Hours

The course will focus on several feminist approaches used in understanding the media and attempting to create social change through the media. The role of media in the definition and reproduction of gender-based hierarchies and in the renegotiation of gender boundaries will both be explored. To this end, both mainstream and women's media will be examined. The course will take a multicultural and international perspective, incorporating concerns of class, race, ethnicity and nation as these intersect with the study of gender and media. Mainstream and alternative media will be analyzed through readings, films, case studies, in-class collaborative exercises and longer term projects. News, entertainment and advertising genres will be examined in a variety of media such as the printed press, television, video film and the Internet. (W).

Prerequisite(s): WGST 275 or WGST 303

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 5555     Immigrant Cultures and Gender     3 Credit Hours

The history and culture of immigration since 1850, including: (1) formation and perseverance of immigrant communities and interethnic boundaries; (2) relations between the homeland and the immigrant; and (3) impact of migration on family life and gender roles. Prerequisite and junior or senior standing. Students may not receive credit for both WGST 4555 and WGST 5555. For graduate credit take WGST 5555. This course is distinguished from its 400-level counterpart by the requirement of additional assignments.

Prerequisite(s): LIBS 560

Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 571     LGBTQ Literature     3 Credit Hours

This course surveys primarily contemporary literature by writers who identify as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender, or queer. By studying the self-representation and culturally unique perspective of this emerging canon of writers, students in this course understand the emergence of LGBTQ literary traditions and understand the cultural diversity within these traditions. Students learn to identify the aesthetic qualities (such as camp, performativity, coded subtexts, homoeroticism, and the relationship between creativity and sexuality), and historical, political, and social concerns that characterize LGBTQ literary and cultural production. Topics covered include the struggle for civil rights before and after Stonewall, coming out narratives, the negotiation of homophobic cultures, post-colonial writers, and memoirs of the LGBTQ experience, as well as the historical emergence of sexual categories and the literary critique of heteronormativity. This course counts toward the English discipline diversity requirement.

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 573     Arab American Women Writers     3 Credit Hours

Examines the literary and cultural contributions of Arab and Arab American women novelists, poets, and artists to the development and consolidation of the cultures of understanding and coexistence; explores the tensions between citizenship and belonging, race and the politics of fear, gender and geographical mobility, and ethnic minorities and mainstream consciousness; discerns how Arab women writers and artists retool their various artistic endeavors to channel socio-political disenchantment, critique and civil disobedience; stresses how literary and artistic productions of heterogeneous number of Arab American women writers and artists can indeed foster alternative visions of socio-cultural coexistence, dialogue, and hospitality via artistic commitments to technical and stylistic experimentation and renovation. Additional reading assignments or projects will distinguish this course from its undergraduate version WGST 473. Students cannot receive credit for both WGST 473 and WGST 573.

WGST 581     Gender and Globalization     3 Credit Hours

Mass media, politics and academia are full of references to globalization, and a future "world without borders." This interdisciplinary course considers the implication of globalization for women's lives, gender relations and feminism. Topics covered include the global factory, cross-cultural consumption, human rights, global communications, economic restructuring, nationalism and environmental challenges. Rather than survey international women's movements, this course explores how globalization reformulates identities and locations and the political possibilities they create. Students cannot receive credit for both WGST 481 and WGST 581.

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 590     Topics in Women's Studies     3 Credit Hours

Examination of problems and issues related to Women and Gender Studies. Title as listed in Schedule of Classes will change according to specific content.

Prerequisite(s): WGST 275 or WST 275 or LIBS 580 or WGST 303

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate

WGST 599     Independent Studies     1 to 3 Credit Hours

Provides opportunity for qualified Women and Gender Studies students to pursue independent research under the direction of a qualified faculty member. Project must be defined in advance, in writing and must be in a subject not currently offered in the regular curriculum.

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Graduate