WST 151 A-Z - Special Topics in Women’s Studies

Semester Hours: 1-4

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. 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 in the U.S. We’ll read fiction, poetry, autobiography, and scholarship, and we’ll address the relationship of the literary texts we read to significant events in U.S. history, to literary traditions, and to shifting ideas about gender.

Same as ENGL 124A  

WST 151J - Gender and Sexuality in Manga, Anime, and Japanese Popular Culture

This course examines the representations of gender and sexuality in Japanese pop culture, by tracing both heteronormative and queer representations (shojo, shonen, cross-dressing, gender-benders, boys’ love, girls’ love, trans, etc.) in Japanese graphic novels (manga), anime, film, theater, and other popular media. This course will take us to discussions about how these cultural practices conform or challenge socially-given identity practices, and to examinations of the complexities of gender, sex, and sexuality in Japanese society and culture.

Same as LGBT 180X , LIT 097  

WST 151Q - Me Too Movement

The course, taught in English, explores narratives centered around the idea of consent in French literature, film and media. It explores the ideological climate that led to the #MeToo movement in France and in the world. No knowledge of French is necessary for this distribution course.

Same as FRLT 120  

WST 151R - Major Authors: Toni Morrison

This writing intensive (WI) seminar examines the life and work of one of America’s most important writers. Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, becoming the eighth woman, the first African American, and the first Black woman to win the prestigious literary prize. In this seminar, we will critically engage with Toni Morrison’s fiction. In addition to reading Morrison’s fiction, we will read Morrison’s own criticism, as well as critical essays by scholars which will assist with our understanding of her literary and cultural impact. Morrison’s success as a senior editor, critic, and novelist presented her with opportunities to express her views on a host of subjects including education, censorship, gender, leadership, friendship, ethics, morality, and spirituality. Her imaginative and cultural work has chronicled the African American experience from slavery to the twenty-first century. This course will explore the ways Morrison constructs discourses that expand and complicate historical narratives and ideologies about Black life.

Same as ENGL 151B , AFST 187Q  

WST 151S - Witchcraft and the Occult

Course explores the cultural role of witchcraft, paying attention to its paradoxical role as, on one hand, a dangerous accusation in some cultures and historical periods; and on the other hand, as a form of self-identification as in contemporary Wicca. We will also explore the history of the occult in the West as a key site for experiments with gender and sexual nonconformity, before focusing in more depth on contemporary manifestations of witchcraft in America.

Same as RELI 90G , LGBT 181E  

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.

View Course Offering(s):

Fall 2026

January 2027

Spring 2027