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COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
FALL 2020
Gender &
Women’s
Studies
Academic Programs Gender and Women’s Studies is an Interdisciplinary program that examines the role of gender in the human experience and seeks to involve students in a dynamic process of integrating the quest for knowledge with their own personal experiences. GWS courses span many academic disciplines making it easy to double-major or minor. Because gender and sexuality are so important to the ways individuals understand themselves, a major or minor in GWS can enhance practically any other field of study. It is an interdisciplinary filed that continually asks us to rethink history, culture, and identity. In the twenty-first century, it continues to transform scholarship and fundamental assumptions in all areas of the humanities, social and natural sciences, and the professions. More intellectually dynamic than almost any other field, GWS provides a life-changing experience that helps its graduates become uniquely powerful and understanding leaders in the work force they are preparing to enter.
Gender and Women’s Studies Major Requirements The major consists of ten courses, including four required courses: Introduction to Gender Studies (GWS 2050), Introduction to Global Studies (GIS 2000), a seminar in feminist theory and methodology (typically The Philosophy of Women), and the Capstone Seminar (GWS 5000). The remaining six courses are electives, two of which should be in the social sciences and two in the humanities. Each semester, the GWS Academic Director will work with you to chart out the best possible schedule for your particular goals.
Gender and Women’s Studies Minor Requirements The minor consists of six courses. Students will take two required courses, Introduction to Gender Studies (GWS 2050) and the Capstone Seminar (GWS 5000), and four electives of their choice.
Gender and Women’s Studies Graduate Certificate The graduate certificate can be pursued as an independent program or in conjunction with a graduate degree. It consists of five courses: one required course (GWS 8000) and four electives.
Gender and Women’s Studies at Villanova University Saint Augustine Center (SAC) 488 [email protected] www.villanova.edu/artsci/gws
Academic Director Programming Director
Dr. Travis Foster Dr. Shauna MacDonald [email protected] [email protected]
Gender and Women’s Studies Fall 2020 Course Descriptions
GWS 2050 – 001: Introduction to Gender Studies (CRN: 23224) TR from 1:00 pm to 2:15 pm Dr. Bess Rowen This course will provide an introduction to gender studies by examining foundational texts in this discipline as well as important texts from the overlapping fields of feminist studies, gender studies, and queer studies. Our approach will be grounded in intersectionality, meaning that we will look at all of the issues raised about sex, gender, and sexuality by also examining how these forces interact with other attributes of identity, such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, disability, and immigration status. Together we will interrogate various societies’ assumptions about gender and sexuality in order to form a more expansive view of what these categories mean in a contemporary, global world. Additional Attributes: Core Social Science, Diversity Requirement 2
GWS 2050 – 002: Introduction to Gender Studies (CRN: 24717) MW from 4:30 pm to 5:45 pm Dr. Kelly-Anne K. Diamond This course will provide an introduction to gender studies by examining foundational texts in this discipline as well as important texts from the overlapping fields of feminist studies, gender studies, and queer studies. Our approach will be grounded in intersectionality, meaning that we will look at all of the issues raised about sex, gender, and sexuality by also examining how these forces interact with other attributes of identity, such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, disability, and immigration status. Together we will interrogate various societies’ assumptions about gender and sexuality in order to form a more expansive view of what these categories mean in a contemporary, global world. Additional Attributes: Core Social Science, Diversity Requirement 2
ENG 5000: Jane Austen: Then and Now (CRN: 23044) TR from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm Dr. Joseph W. Drury Jane Austen’s novels have never been more popular nor more widely read than they are today. Hardly a month goes by without a new film, TV show, book, or event that revisits and pays tribute to her life and work. In this course, students will study the nature and sources of Austen’s enduring appeal. In addition to reading at least three of her novels, we will explore the historical context of their original composition and reception in the early nineteenth century, several influential modern critical interpretations, and the most interesting recent movie adaptations of her work (e.g. Clueless, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). We will ask: what was Austen’s response to the debates about gender, class, and race in her own time? In particular, how did she engage the ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft and the first stirrings of modern feminist thought? How we might we read “against the grain” of Austen’s own narration and discover ideas about women, sex, and politics that her original readers might never have imagined? And what do modern adaptations and re-imaginings of her novels tell us about how her work speaks to the social issues and gender politics of today? As this is a Senior Seminar, the ultimate goal will be to complete a research paper on a topic of your choice. Passionate Janeites are welcome, but no prior knowledge of her work is required! Additional Attributes: Writing Intensive Requirement
PSC 4275: Gender, War and Peace (CRN:23931) MW from 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm Dr. Cera E. Murtagh In this course students will learn about global conflict and peace through the lens of gender. The course will explore the theoretical intersection of gender, conflict and peace, before examining the impact of war on women, men and non-binary genders, their respective roles in peace processes, and, finally, in post-conflict democracy. The course will confront contemporary topics such as masculinity and war, sexual and gender-based violence, post-conflict democratization and LGBT politics. It will take a comparative approach with a particular focus on the critical case study of Northern Ireland. Additional Attributes: Irish Studies, Peace and Justice
PHI 2420: Philosophy of Women (CRN: 23796) MWF from 8:30 am to 9:20 am MWF from 11:30 am to 12:20 pm Dr. Jingchao Ma In this course, we will explore the various schools, perspectives, and ideas of contemporary feminist thinkers. We will start with some concepts in contemporary feminist socio-political writings that will serve as a toolkit for our understanding of gender and intersectional issues today; we then go into more detailed discussions of women’s experiences and how does society shapes gender as we know it. The theme of knowledge and politics will weave through our readings, as we continue to think about how we get to know something about ourselves and other people, and the risks and opportunities of feminist politics in its various forms.
In this course, you will learn to: Read major texts from different fields of contemporary feminist philosophy and locate them in their theoretical context and background; Develop your understanding of intersectional feminism and understand how race, gender, sexuality, class, disability, etc. are systematically at work in oppression; Apply feminist philosophical theories to your own life experiences and a series of contemporary issues; Develop your research and writing skills and engage with feminist philosophical concepts and contemporary issues. Additional Attributes: Cultural Studies, Diversity Requirement 2, Writing
Enriched Requirement
SOC 2300: Sociology of the Family (CRN: 24071) TR from 10:00 am to 11:15 am Dr. Melissa Hodges Exploration of family as institution and social construct and how social forces
affect partner selection, cohabitation, and marriage, and parenting; focus on
stratification both within and among families related to social inequalities of
gender, race, class, and sexuality.
Additional Attributes: Core Social Science, Diversity Requirement 2
PJ 2800 – 001; 002: Race, Class, & Gender (CRN: 23889) MWF from 10:30 am to 11:20 am MWF from 11:30 am to 12:20 pm Dr. Miranda Pilipchuk This course critically analyses the inequalities that exist in the U.S. as a result of differences based on race, class, and gender. We will explore how privilege and oppression in the U.S. function, their historical legacy, and their ongoing presence in our daily lives. We will examine how race, class, and gender shape the experiences individuals and communities have and the resources, power, and opportunities available to them. This course explicitly acknowledges that race, class, and gender do not exist in isolation from each other, but intersect with each other in crucial ways. Throughout the course we will pay special attention to the ways in which race, class, and gender work together to shape the very nature of privilege and oppression. Additional Attributes: Cultural Studies, Diversity Requirement 1, Diversity Requirement 2, Public Policy & Ethics, Africana Studies, Writing Enriched Requirement
COM 3341: Gender and Film (CRN: 22604)
TR from 4:00 pm to 5:15 pm Dr. Susan B. Mackey-Kallis This course attends to the role of cinematic images in the cultural production of
gender in contemporary societies. Students analyze images of gender in a variety
of films, as well as the work of film makers who have been marginalized because
of gender. This analysis of specific films is grounded in course readings taken from
primary sources in feminist film theory and criticism, gender theory and media
studies. Students will have the opportunity to propose and explore analytic,
creative, and/or theoretical projects within the purview of the course theme.
Outside viewing required. (Pre-requisites will be waived for Women's Studies
concentrators or minors).
Additional Attributes: Fine Arts Requirement, Gender and Women's Studies
ENG 3350: Milton: Gender, Genre, Genesis (CRN: 23034) MW from 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm Dr. Lauren E. Shohet
This course will explore the writing of John Milton (1608-1674) and also “Milton” as a cultural and literary institution. We will consider both what is unique and what is representative about his beautiful poetry, his political pamphlets, and his influential writing on gender, sex, knowledge, marriage, and divorce. We also will consider how later revolutionaries, reactionaries, and artists engage Miltonic ideas. Focusing on Paradise Lost, we will read additional portions of Milton’s poetry and prose: early lyrics, some of the divorce tracts, and the anti-censorship pamphlet Areopagitica. Additionally, we’ll work with writing that engages Miltonic texts and traditions, both contemporary with Milton (the seventeenth-century poet Lucy Hutchinson) and afterwards (Mary Shelley, William Blake, C. S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Homer Simpson).
We’ll start by carefully reading Milton’s early poetry in ways that aim to help students unfamiliar with the Renaissance and/or with poetry to become comfortable with both. The bulk of our time, in the middle of the semester, will be spent with Paradise Lost. We will study a few critical articles about Miltonic texts and their historical context. At the end of the course, we’ll examine some of Milton’s other late poetry as well as novels and films that respond to Paradise Lost.
Requirements: class participation, frequent journal writing, three papers (in successive drafts), debates, staged reading of a portion of Paradise Lost, oral midterm, breakout final group project on a Paradise Lost adaptation.
Additional Attributes: Diversity Requirement 2, Writing Enriched Requirement
ECO 3118: Women and the Economy (CRN: 22875)
MW from 4:30 pm to 5:45 pm
Dr. Cheryl J. Carleton
The role of women in today’s economy is both extensive and limited. This course will examine the role of women in the U.S. economy, present and past, including labor force participation, occupations, wages, and leadership positions. We will
examine women across the economic spectrum and across races. We will explore the reasons for differences in these areas over time, as well as the implications for individuals, for families, for firms, and the overall economy. Finally, the course will examine what can be done by individuals, firms, and the government to increase
women’s roles throughout the economy. As a Women’s Studies course it will be more inter-disciplinary than other strictly economics courses. While we will be using economic texts and analysis to examine the issues of Women and Work, we will also be examining the issues from other perspectives, as there are several factors beyond economics (for example legal factors and socialization) which impact, have impacted, and continue to impact the decisions that women make with regards to their and their families lives. It is hoped that by the end of the course the student will have a firm understanding of the role of women in the U.S. today, what factors have influenced this role and have an understanding of what factors and issues will have the largest influence on the future role of women in the U.S. economy.
Additional Attributes: Diversity Requirement 2, Writing Enriched Requirement
ENG 2300: Women in Literature (CRN: 23026) MW from 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm Dr. Ellen Bonds In this course, we will examine the roles that women have played and continue to play in literature—as characters, as readers, and most importantly as writers. To commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote, we will read a number of texts about and by women who fought to win suffrage. We will read a diversity of women authors and consider how they explore not only women’s issues but also gender issues—relationships between men and women, the roles both men and women have played in history and society, as well as issues pertaining to race and class. Beginning with Sappho, we will trace women’s contributions to literature from antiquity to the present, examining how writers have represented and critiqued structures of power based on gender identity. Students will read poetry, fiction, essays, and drama from a range of authors such as Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf as well as Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison. We will also read writers essential to an understanding of feminist history and theory. Ultimately, students will explore how and in what ways women writers use their voices to expose marginalization, resist oppression, and deconstruct rigid binarisms, negotiating new possibilities for power dynamics in gender relationships. Additional Attributes: Writing Enriched Requirement
HIS 4090: Women in the Middle East and North Africa (CRN: 23261)
TR from 10:00 am to 11:15 am Dr. Hibba E. Abugideiri This course offers an introduction to the study of women in the Middle East and Arab North Africa (ME/NA) in the modern period. In taking an historical approach to this topic, much emphasis will be placed on the constructions of women and their prescriptive roles within key religious and political discourses. We will take a cursory glance at various topics, starting w/Islamic tradition and law as a historical base, then move into issues of modern history, focusing on how ME/NA women were affected by imperialism, nationalism, decolonization and the modern nation-state as well as discourses of “the veil.” Implicit to studying these topics is the overarching question of how women from “the East” are different from, or similar to, women of “the West,” and whether the same categories and conceptual tools of analysis used for studying women in the West can and should be used to study women in the Arab East. Additional Attributes: Arab and Islamic Studies, Diversity Requirement 1, Diversity
Requirement 3, Peace & Justice
ENG 3580: Irish Literature: Gender and History (CRN: 23035)
TR from 2:30 pm to 3:45 pm Dr. Mary L. Mullen
How does gender shape Irish writing? And how does Irish writing help us better understand gender? In this class, we will read nineteenth-century Irish and Anglo-Irish literature alongside feminist, queer, and gender theory to answer these questions. We will consider why Ireland is represented as a woman and what effects the trope of ‘Mother Ireland’ has on women’s experiences; the gendered accounts of the Irish Famine; the relationship between the family, the nation, the church, and the state in Ireland; the intersections between gender and colonialism; and queer performance. We will cover work by Maria Edgeworth, Anna Maria Hall, Lady Gregory & W. B. Yeats, Emily Lawless, George Moore, and Oscar Wilde, among others. Additional Attributes: Diversity Requirement 2, Irish Studies, Writing Enriched
Requirement
THE 3030: Murderinos: Gender, Performance & True Crime (CRN: 24207) TR from 2:30 pm to 3:45 pm Dr. Bess Rowen
Do you still wonder who killed the Black Dahlia or Jon-Benet Ramsey? Do you still think about whether or not Steven Avery and Adnan Syed are guilty? You are not alone! From memes to news stories, discussions about the phenomenon of true crime interests abound. It is especially noteworthy that true crime fans are generally female, but what do the gender dynamics present in true crime really say about our culture? How do the stories we tell about victims, law enforcement, and fans influence our culture? We will study true crime podcasts, news coverage, and a few documentaries to look at the
performances of gender dynamics in the actual crimes, the coverage of those crimes, and the general public’s responses to that coverage. Students will be able to bring in their own favorite podcasts and media coverage to class discussions so that a range of approaches and views can be heard. This course will focus on performance not in terms of “acting” but rather in the way that performances of gender in and around true crime stories intersect with narratives created by/in popular culture.
HIS 1150-002: Gender and Conquest in the Atlantic World, 1500-1800 (CRN: 23233) TR from 8:30 am to 9:45 am Dr. Catherine Kerrison This course will study the varieties of women’s experiences in the New World colonies as well as the gendered concepts that allowed European men to conquer and subdue the Americas’ indigenous populations with impunity. We will consider Native American Indian women who moved across cultural boundaries; African women forcibly removed from their home farms to till rice, sugar, and tobacco; as well as the necessary assistance of European women to the project of “civilizing” the wilderness: French nuns in New France and English women in the Chesapeake. But more than the experiences of women, we will look more deeply into the concepts of gender: the construction of ideas of masculinity and femininity and the ways in which those concepts became increasingly racialized; and how gender concepts were used to rationalize European control of the Americas. With the establishment of creole societies and the intricate legal codes to prop them up, Europeans thought their conquest complete. But throughout, we will document resistance and contests for control. We will explore this period through the voices of those who were there, including: conquistadors, Native Americans, missionaries, nuns, captives, enslaved men and women, and indentured servants; law codes that constructed systems of race and slavery; and John Rolfe’s petition to marry Pocahontas. We will also read two terrific books that give us a view of colonial America that you’ve never seen before: Malintzin’s Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico and Suspect Relations: Sex, Race, and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina. Additional Attributes: Core History, Peace & Justice
HIS 2296: History of American Women (CRN: 23254) TR from 2:30 to 3:45 pm Dr. Catherine Kerrison “Are women people?” poet Alice Duer Miller asked in 1917. This class is designed to explore the ways in which the concept of ‘woman’ has been understood, defined, and contested in American history. In particular, the course will look at the links between women’s status at law and the different expressions of that status at home, in the workplace, and in the polity. Beginning with a look at Indian culture before European settlement, the course will treat topics such as Indian gender relations, colonial housewives as deputy husbands, laws of property and marriage, the creation of racialized slavery and its impact on African women, Revolutionary- era changes, separate spheres, the Civil War for both white and black women, reform movements, suffrage, ERA, women in the work force, civil rights, and the backlash against feminism, examining each in the context of how women’s lives were shaped, and by whom. Throughout, a major thread of the course is an examination not only of the experiences of black women, but the ways in race operated to define white and black womanhood differently. While the course will touch broadly upon main themes through secondary sources, primary source selections will provide an opportunity to probe individual women’s experiences in more depth. Additional Attributes: Cultural Studies, Diversity Requirement 2, Peace & Justice
PHI 2410 – 100: Philosophy of Sex & Love (CRN: 23795)
W from 6:10 pm to 8:50 pm
Dr. Heather A. Coletti
In this course, we will question the roles of sex, gender, pleasure, and power in
multiple areas of life, as well as the importance of relationships for having a fully
human life. We will look at the difference between sex and gender and analyze
how and by whom gender is performed, and we will use epistemology,
phenomenology, and ethics to help us explore numerous subtopics: We’ll analyze
college hookup culture and how gender determines who reaps the greatest
benefits from participation; we’ll examine the “orgasm gap” and its place within
hookup culture and beyond college campuses; we’ll investigate women’s
relationships (or lack thereof) with their own bodies; we’ll ask if anyone is
obligated to have children; we’ll examine the realities of running a household and
navigating the relationships rooted inside them, romantic and otherwise; and
we’ll ask why caring labor is so emotionally challenging, why it is not valued by
society, and why women still do the overwhelming bulk of this work. In the end,
we will build a bridge between each module to create a far bigger picture about
the connection between sex and love: Love and self; sex and self; and the
foundational role that sex and love have in holding together or tearing apart the
greater community. Contemporary feminist philosophy will comprise the bulk of
the reading with some sociology and interdisciplinary Women’s Studies materials.
Additional Attributes: Cultural Studies, Diversity Requirement 2
GWS 2993: GWS Internship (CRN: 23225)
Dr. Travis Foster
Students interested in receiving credit for a GWS-related internship should
contact Travis Foster at [email protected].
Prerequisites: GWS 2050
GIS 5011: Global Feminist Politics & The Novel (CRN: 23217)
MW from 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm
Dr. Jaira J. Harrington and Dr. Travis M. Foster
This course examines transnational, Third Wave, and Third World feminist approaches to global politics, incorporating the work of activists, theorists, scholars, novelists, and filmmakers. We will consider historical and contemporary perspectives with a particular emphasis on the late 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. The course will be jointly taught by two professors, one of us trained as a political scientist and the other trained as a literary critic. This means that we’ll be covering not only a broad range of materials but also multiple different ways feminists have produced new knowledge for understanding gender and power. Readings will include work by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, bell hooks, Sara Ahmed, Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Claidia Jones, Jamaica Kincaid, and Jennifer C. Nash, among many others.
