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Women’s Studies Courses
Fall 2008

Dr. Carroll

WMST 4980 Feminist Theory

What is feminist theory and what role does it play in Women's Studies as a discipline? This Women's Studies capstone course approaches feminism as a multiplicity of perspectives and approaches to the understanding of women's position in culture. Readings then will be as diverse as feminism itself and should give you a broad and deep understanding of the diversity of feminist thought and the historical and critical role feminist thought has played in a variety of disciplinary approaches to the study of women and culture. Readings will focus on intersections between race, class, sexual orientation, and gender in feminist thought and will include an investigation of paradigms such as the technology of gender, gender as performance, domestic ideology, gendered discourses in commodity culture (women and shopping), the environment as a feminist issue (ecofeminism), and the racing of feminism in English and American feminist theory. After a semester of reading a variety of feminist theories by authors such as Judith Butler (Gender Trouble) and Val Plumwood (Feminism and the Mastery of Nature), you should understand how such issues as essentialism, globalization, exclusivism, and classism have piqued feminist debates. In class you will become comfortable applying feminist paradigms to culture, allowing us to explore representations of current or historical events. Several short response papers to theoretical readings and one longer final project and presentation will be required, as well as a midterm and final exam.

 

 

T/TH 11-12:15
Haley Center 3319

Dr. Morris WMST 2100 *01 Introduction to Women's Studies

T/TH 11-12:15
Haley Center 2116

Dr. Wyss

WMST 2100 *02 Introduction to Women's Studies

T/TH 2-3:15
Haley Center
2124

Dr. Summerfield FLIT 3510
MAFIA-Machismo, Membership, Money

M 5:00-8:00 HALEY 3195

Dr. Riehl ENGL 4330
Early Shakespeare: Women and Power in Shakespeare's Plays

We will examine the plays written in the last decade of sixteenth century, learning to recognize and interpret Shakespeare’s treatment of the dominant cultural concerns of the early modern England. We will pay particular attention to the female characters, examining how Shakespeare portrayal of women works along and against the conventions of the period. In Shakespeare’s world, are women empowered or devoid of power? How do they act in relation to the power of the state, monarchy, patriarchy? What societal and cultural forces allow or disallow women to assert themselves? Along with these questions, we will consider many additional issues, using students’ individual interests as an important factor in class discussion and research projects.

MWF 12:00-12:50 HALEY 3206
Dr. Riehl ENGL 7740
British Literature and Culture

T 3:30-6:10 HALEY 3198
Dr. Zugazaga SOWO 2000
Introduction to Social Work

MWF 10:00-10:50 HALEY 3203
Dr. Davis-Maye SOWO 3800
Human Behavior in the Social Environment I

TR 12:30-1:45 HALEY 2218
Dr. Davis-Maye SOWO 3850
Human Behavior in the Social Environment II

TR 2:00-3:15 HALEY 2218

Dr. Brown POLI 5970
Race and Politics
*Research topics may focus on gender as well as race and politics

MWF 9:00-9:50 HALEY 2454
Dr. Brown POLI 6970
Race and Politics

MWF
9:00-9:50 HALEY 2454

Dr. Crocker HIST 3600
Issues in Women's and Gender History

TR 9:30-10:45 LOWDR 126
Dr. Thomas-Woodard HIST 7630
Graduate seminar on Modern Latin America

M 1:00-3:50 THACH 312A