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2021-2022 Undergraduate Bulletin [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]
Women’s Studies (WST) Courses
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Women’s Studies
WST 001D - (IS) Women, Sex and Power Semester Hours: 3
Fall, Spring
An interdisciplinary course that introduces concepts central to women’s studies through the study of a variety of gender-related issues. Students learn about the historical roots of women’s inequality, the impact of changing gender roles on the lives of women and men, and the relationship of gender and sexuality to other forms of human diversity such as race and ethnicity, social class, nationality, and physical ability. This course prepares students for more discipline-specific courses in other departments with special focus on women, as well as for further course work in women’s studies. Students engage course materials both in written assignments and in collaborative discussions of issues and texts.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
[Formerly (IS) Introduction to Women’s Studies.]
WST 008 - (IS) Female Identity Through Art and Literature Semester Hours: 3
Once a Year
This course will explore the theme of female identity as expressed in both literary and visual texts. What societal factors contribute to the shaping of one’s identity? What cultural stereotypes have been attached to women? How have these stereotypes been upheld–or rejected–in Western art and literature? Through our reading of critical essays, short fiction, drama, and poetry and our examination of visual texts (paintings, photographs, advertisements, films) we will explore these issues. We will also consider the correlation between the literary and visual arts–how they speak to and inform each other.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
WST 010 - (AA) Women Artists Semester Hours: 3
Periodically
This course focuses on several women artists from the Renaissance through the emergence of feminism in the late 20th century to the present. This course also concerns feminism as a critical approach to art, and the efforts of women artists to gain respect as professionals in Europe and America.
WST 012F - First-Year Seminar Semester Hours: 3
Fall
This course gives first-year students the opportunity to work in a seminar format with a member of the faculty in an area of the faculty member’s research interests.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
The course is open to first-year students only. Topics vary by semester. Consult the class schedule for proper category listing. Students may take only one 12F or 12S seminar.
WST 012S - First-Year Seminar Semester Hours: 1-3
Spring
This course gives first-year students the opportunity to work in a seminar format with a member of the faculty in an area of the faculty member’s research interests.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
The course is open to first-year students only. Topics vary by semester. Students may take only one 12F or 12S seminar.
WST 014F - First-Year Seminar Semester Hours: 3-4
Fall
This course gives first-year students the opportunity to work in a
seminar format with a member of the faculty in an area of the faculty
member’s research interests.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
The course is open to first-year students
only. Topics vary by semester. This course is offered for distribution
credit; consult Semester Planning Guide for proper category listing.
Students may take only one 14F/12F seminar and only one 14S/12S seminar.
WST 014S - First-Year Seminar Semester Hours: 3-4
Spring
This course gives first-year students the opportunity to work in a
seminar format with a member of the faculty in an area of the faculty
member’s research interests.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
The course is open to first-year students
only. Topics vary by semester. This course is offered for distribution
credit; consult Semester Planning Guide for proper category listing.
Students may take only one 14F/12F seminar and only one 14S/12S seminar.
WST 102 - (IS) Body Politics Semester Hours: 3
Once a Year
This course addresses the various ways that people imagine, represent, regulate, and discipline their own and others’ bodies. For instance, how do understandings of the human body vary across cultures or at different historical moments within a culture? Whose bodies are privileged and whose bodies are marginalized? How are our bodies marked by social practices? We will consider how science and medicine, law, philosophy, literature, and the media contribute to individual and shared understandings of our bodies. We will also explore how claims regarding the natural facts of the human body have been used to organize, justify, enforce, and resist unequal social relations.
WST 103 - Theories of Feminisms Semester Hours: 3
Once a Year
This course will examine some of the theories that exist within the field of feminism, focusing on their differences from each other and on the significance of their contributions to the concept of gender equality. This course serves as an in-depth introduction to the various theoretical frameworks that continue to inform scholarship in the field of women’s studies.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
WST 001D .
WST 150 A-Z - (IS) Topics in Women’s Studies Semester Hours: 3
This course will offer an in-depth study of major issues in Women’s and Gender Studies. Topics will reflect current developments in the field and will address issues such as women’s roles in work, family, sexuality, and reproduction; language, representation, and performance; feminist politics and policies; transnational and cross-cultural perspectives of gender; and the impact of science and technology on women’s lives.
Current Special Topics
WST 150 X (WI, IS) Radical Women and the Struggle for Social and Economic Justice in the US
“Well-behaved women seldom make history,” so the saying goes. This course will use the lens of biography + social movement studies to construct portraits of women who refused to behave well and explore how these women-led, challenged, and otherwise influenced movements for social and economic justice in various eras, up to, and including, the present.
Cross-listed with RHET 189A and LABR 155A.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
Subjects will change from semester to semester and the course may be repeated for credit when topics vary. Specific titles and course descriptions for special topics courses are available in the online class schedule.
WST 151 A-Z - Special Topics in Women’s Studies Semester Hours: 1-4
Periodically
Studies in special topics in the field of women’s and gender studies. Topics vary by semester. May be cross-listed with courses in other departments or disciplines.
Current Special Topics
WST 151E Women Writers in America
A course on American women writers raises the question of what difference if any, the gender of a writer makes. From the colonial era to the present, women writers have contributed to American literature, but how those contributions have been valued (and whether they have been considered worthy of study) has varied over time. Moreover, some women writers have imagined themselves writing for women readers and contributing to a female-authored literary tradition, while others have resisted this idea. According to literary critic Elaine Showalter, “the female tradition in American literature is not the result of biology, anatomy, or psychology. It comes from women’s relation to the literary marketplace and from literary influence rather than essential sexual difference. It comes from pressures on women to lead private rather than public lives, and to conform to cultural norms and expectations” (Jury of her Peers xv). In this class, we’ll study some well-known and some lesser known women writers, and we’ll discuss their audiences and the popular and critical reception of their work, the emergence of writing as a vocation for women, and the obstacles and opportunities women writers have faced at different historical moments. We’ll read fiction and poetry and address the relationship of the literary texts we read to significant events in U.S. history and literary traditions.
Cross-listed with ENG124A.
WST 151K – Gender: A Policed State
This class will explore how Mass Incarceration uniquely impacts Womxn and the need for gender-responsive criminal justice reform efforts. Historically, Criminal Justice reform, research, and rhetoric have focused on the experiences of men, assuming that whatever reforms are beneficial to men will extend to their womxn counterparts – data and research confirm that this has been a huge mistake. Yet, while Womxn today are the fastest-growing correctional population in the United States, there is surprisingly little research on the causes of this trend. Exploring the epidemic of mass incarceration for Womxn through feminist frameworks and theories will lead the course to critique gender as a policed state and imagine alternatives outside of a patriarchal carceral system.
This course can be substituted for the Feminist Theory (WST 103) requirement in the WST major.
WST 151L – Psychology of Women and Gender
This course will examine the social construction of being female in American society, focusing on how growing up female impacts lifespan development and mental health. We will consider the impact of male power and privilege on the psychological development of women; discuss genes, sex hormones, and the brain; explore our current understanding of gender differences and our appreciation of sex/gender beyond the binary, and learn about the intersection of gender and ethnicity.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
May be repeated for credit when topics vary. As individual subjects are selected, each is assigned a letter (A-Z) which is affixed to the course number. Specific titles and course descriptions for special topics courses are available in the online class schedule.
WST 180 - Women’s Studies Seminar Semester Hours: 3
Periodically
An examination of the interdisciplinary research methods and techniques used in women’s studies. Students will choose and pursue a semester-long research project on a related women’s studies and/or gender topic. The research project will culminate in an oral presentation to the class and a written paper.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
WST 001D . Restricted to WST majors and minors with at least junior standing. May not be taken on a Pass/D+/D/Fail basis.
WST 197 - Departmental Honors Candidacy: Essay Semester Hours: 3
Fall, Spring
Research for and writing of a substantial essay in women’s studies. Open only to women’s studies majors who are eligible and desire to graduate with departmental honors. Interested students must secure, before registration, written permission of the instructor who will supervise the essay.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
Minimum overall GPA of 3.6. May be repeated for credit up to a maximum of 6 s.h., if taken in both fall and spring of senior year. May not be taken on a Pass/D+/D/Fail basis.
WST 198 - Independent Study in Women’s Studies Semester Hours: 1-4
Fall, Spring
Individualized course of readings or plan of study prepared by student in consultation with and under the guidance of a faculty instructor. Written and/or other requirements for completion are established by the faculty instructor.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
Permission of instructor and of the director of Women’s Studies. May be used in partial fulfillment of requirements for a minor in Women’s Studies . May be repeated for credit up to a maximum of 6 s.h.
WST 199 - Internship in Women’s Studies Semester Hours: 1-6
Periodically
This internship program provides students with an opportunity to apply academic and theoretical knowledge to practical situations. A minimum of 28 to 168 hours of work in an approved academic, government, non-government, or research institution is combined with academic work including an in-depth term paper that situates the internship experience within the broader framework of theoretical women’s studies scholarship.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
Successful completion of at least 18 semester hours of women’s studies courses , including WST 001D . May not be taken on a Pass/D+/D/Fail basis. May be repeated for credit up to a maximum of 6 s.h.
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