Graduate Course Descriptions

The following directory lists the graduate courses which the University expects to offer, although the University in no way guarantees that all such courses will be offered in any given academic year, and reserves the right to alter the list if conditions warrant. Click on the links below for a list of courses in that subject area. You may then click “View Classes” to see scheduled classes for individual courses.

5119. Historical Women Political Thinkers

Also offered as: POLS 5119

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: POLS 5100. Not open to students who have passed POLS/WGSS 3027/W.

Grading Basis: Graded

Critical study of the writings of several historical women political thinkers.

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5315. Gender and Culture

Also offered as: ANTH 5315

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Anthropological perspectives on the analysis of gender with special focus on dynamics of gender, culture, and power.

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5333. Topics in the History of American Women

Also offered as: HIST 5555

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5341. Analysis of Rituals

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: ANTH 5311.

Grading Basis: Graded

Examines various theoretical contributions to the anthropological study of ritual. Controversies and ambiguities surrounding the social and symbolic significance of the ritual act for both men's and women's experiences and participation are addressed.

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5365. Feminist Epistemologies and Methodologies

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Theoretical underpinnings of diverse feminist methodologies and interdisciplinary scholarship. Contemporary debates in the field and ethical dilemmas faced by researchers using feminist, interdisciplinary and intersectional epistemologies. Relationship to critical race, indigenous, and queer methodologies. Guided experience in designing and producing feminist scholarship.

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5366. Feminist Pedagogy

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Overview of feminist and critical epistemologies and pedagogical tools for use in interdisciplinary classrooms in varied academic contexts.

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5371. Genders, Sexualities, and Theories

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Genders and sexualities with special attention given to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues.

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5390. Independent Study for Graduate Students

1.00 - 6.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 24 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5395. Special Topics Seminar in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Topics of current interest from a feminist perspective.

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5398. Variable Topics in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

With a change in topics, may be repeated for credit.

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5410. Black Feminist Theory and Politics

Also offered as: POLS 5410

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Major debates at the core of black feminist theory, emphasizing the ways in which interlocking systems of oppression uphold and sustain each other in contemporary U.S. politics.

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5602. Gender in Global Perspective

Also offered as: SOCI 5602

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Instructor consent.

Grading Basis: Graded

Debates surrounding "established" concepts such as gender, feminism, intersectionality, and postcolonial, as well as the situated contexts within which these concepts are redefined, debated, and institutionalized. Analysis of literature from Africa, Latin America, and South Asia on the politics of knowledge, violence, development and human rights.

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5604. Sociology of Sexualities

Also offered as: SOCI 5604

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Instructor consent.

Grading Basis: Graded

Explores social organization, construction, and politics of sexualities with a particular focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) experiences and the intersection of sexualities, gender, race, age, and class. How institutions, identities, and discourses interact with, are regulated by, and produce sexual meanings and social and political inequalities.

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5612. Feminist Theory and Social Science

Also offered as: SOCI 5612

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Examines intellectual background and contemporary context for feminist theoretical debates in the social sciences. Explores these debates with reference to feminist perspectives on political theory, science, economics, postmodernism, postcolonialism, globalization, socialization, and sexuality.

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5613. Theories of Intersectionality

Also offered as: SOCI 5613

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Analyses of theories that simultaneously take into account dynamics of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, ability, and other dimensions of social inequality and difference. How scholars research intersectionality, the limits and possibilities of different approaches, and the types of methodologies that are most effective for intersectional analysis.

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5614. Sexual Citizenship

Also offered as: SOCI 5614

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Sexuality as an axis of citizenship in diverse national and international contexts. Analysis of access to citizenship, relationship recognition, marriage rights, heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality, trans citizenship claims, immigration, asylum, sex work, reproductive rights, sex education, racism and racialization, colonialism, and social justice.

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5661. Feminist Approaches to Disability, Illness, and Care

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

An examination of care and caregiving across different threads of feminist scholarship in sociology, science and technology studies (STS), and disability studies. Key topics include how care is raced and gendered, disability as an axis of inequality, and how approaches to care have evolved, particularly in feminist disability studies/disability justice.

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