Spring 2010 Course Guide
GWS 100: Intro to Gender Women’s Studies
Same as HDFS 140 and SOC 130
Zwilling AE1 CRN 52480 R 2-2:50 p.m.
Campbell AE2 CRN 52485 R 11-11:50 p.m.
Campbell AE3 CRN 52489 R 10-10:50 a.m.
Zwilling AE4 CRN 52493 R 12-12:50 p.m.
Türkkan AE5 CRN 52498 F 12-12:50 p.m.
Türkkan AE6 CRN 52501 F 10-10:50 a.m. (AE6 Restricted to Residential Learning Community Students Only)
Gill AL1 CRN 52469 MW 11-11:50 a.m.
This introductory multi-disciplinary course surveys the diverse experiences of women and girls, explores important factors affecting the status of women in contemporary U.S. society and in a transnational context, and examines the role of gender and sexuality in everyday life. Throughout the course, we will examine the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, nationality, ability, and age (among other issues) in order to understand the experience of being a "gendered" person. In the first part of the course, we will draw on feminist scholarship and knowledge created to explain the experiences of marginalized people to better understand the theories, concepts, and interventions that demonstrate how and why gender matters in our lives. Focusing primarily on the lives of women and girls attention will be given to the various socio-economic, historical, cultural, and political processes and institutions that produce gendered power relations and systemic inequalities. In the second part of the course, we will look closely at various ways gender politics affect our lives and bodies, addressing such topics as reproduction, hip hop, education, music, health, violence, work, and religion. This course is intended to strengthen students' critical awareness of how gender operates in institutional and cultural contexts and in their own lives. As such, students must approach this course with an open mind and a willingness to actively participate. A group project is required to give students an opportunity to imagine participating in social change, so everyone should be prepared to teach and learn from each other. This course fulfills a general education requirement in social sciences and for the Gender and Women's Studies major and minor.
GWS 103: Black Women in the Diaspora
Same as AFRO 103 and AFST 103
Flynn CRN 44763 TR 12:30-1:50 p.m.
This comparative introductory course explores the historical, social, economic, cultural and political realities of black women in the Diaspora with an emphasis on the U.S. Canada, Britain, Africa and the English speaking Caribbean. To provide a context in which to describe, analyze and synthesize the experiences of black women means drawing first on black feminist theorizing. The goal is to situate the relevant themes, such as identity, family, and work, discussed throughout the semester within a particular framework. Relying on an interdisciplinary methodology, which essentially means drawing on contemporary scholarship in women’s studies, history, sociology, and music, we will examine how macro structures such as: slavery, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and globalization shaped and continue to circumscribe the lives of black women across various geographic regions. Simultaneously, attention will be paid to the multiple strategies/efforts that black women employ both in the past and present to ensure the survival of “Self” and community. The objective of the course is to demonstrate how black feminist thought and black women have challenged and complicated traditional understandings of race and gender.
GWS 150: Contemporary Women’s Issues
Morey CRN 34971 TR 9:30-10:50 a.m.
This course explores the most recent debates and research related to contemporary issues that primarily affect women. Review issues related to sexual and domestic violence, gender socialization, feminization of poverty, women’s health, sexual harassment, work and family, politics, and media influences from a multi-discipline and multicultural perspective.
GWS 199 PC: Undergraduate Open Seminar
Topic: Popular TV and Movies: Gender, Girls, and Sports.
Meets w/MS 100 (Screening Lab on Wednesdays - 7:30-9:30 p.m. - 101 Armory)
Cole & Projansky CRN 52907 TR 12:30-1:50 p.m.
In this course, students will learn to analyze three related areas in media studies: the concept of "the popular," film, and television. We will ask questions such as: What does it mean to call something popular? Does a TV show or film qualify as popular if its primary audience comes from a subset of the population, such as Spanish-speaking immigrants, or children under the age of 10? Were silent films ever popular? What was TV like in the 1960s? Is reality TV really popular? How can I better understand the ways in which I interact with film and television? What are different ways in which various audiences interact with and use film and television? How does the film and television industry work? Why are there so many movies based on comic book heroes right now? Why does TV appear in so many different places, such as on elevators and in doctor's offices? Is it still TV or film when I watch it on the internet? Does it still count as gaming when I watch a film based on a video game? Is watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart the same thing as watching the news?
In addition to addressing these kinds of general questions about popular film and TV, this semester the course will focus specifically on Gender, Girls, and Sports. Among other topics, we will discuss particular ways in which TV and film represent femininities and masculinities, consider sports films as a genre, think about live coverage of sports on TV, trace the popularity of film and TV shows about girls and girlhood since the early 1990s, and watch both famous (e.g., Bend It Like Beckham) and not-so-famous (e.g., documentaries about double dutch jump-rope) films about girls and sports.
The course will be co-taught by Professors CL Cole and Sarah Projansky and will have one teaching assistant. This structure will allow for a combination of lectures, dialogues, discussion, and smaller group discussions. A Wednesday evening screening is required. Grades will be based on multiple choice and short answer tests, several 1-page papers, and one longer analysis/research paper.
GWS 199 JS: Undergraduate Open Seminar
Topic: Fraternity Peer Rape Education and Prevention
Scott CRN 34977 T 3-4:50 p.m.
Fraternity men receive a lot of blame for sexual violence on campus. Some fraternity men are choosing to do something about it. GWS 199RW is a two-semester, 4 credit-hour course that trains fraternity men to become resources for their own chapters, and gain leadership & public speaking skills, while actively working to improve the our campus community.
Students must be members of fraternities and have permission of the instructor. To enroll contact Jennifer Scott at 333-3137 or at jscott1@illinois.edu
GWS 199 SV1: Undergraduate Open Seminar
Topic: Women, Science and Engineering
Meets w/ENG 198
Vostral, S. CRN 52455 TR 9:30-10:50 a.m.
What does it mean to be a woman in science, engineering or a related field? This is the central question the course will address. Throughout the semester, we will explore the ways women pursue educational training, challenge institutional barriers, and garner professional status within these broad fields. Students will read across multiple disciplines and engage contemporary media to understand the evolving place of women within science and technology. Attention will also be given to the concept of gender, identity, leadership, technological culture, inventive practice, and mechanical creativity.
GWS 215: US Citizenship Comparatively
Same as AAS 225, AIS 295, AFRO 215, and LLS 215. See AAS 215.
Cacho A CRN 52320 TR 2-3:20 p.m.
This course examines the racial, gendered, and sexualized aspects of US citizenship historically and comparatively. Interdisciplinary course taught from a humanities perspective. Readings draw from critical legal studies, history, literature, literary criticism, and ethnography.
GWS 218: Intro to Social Issues Theatre
Same as THEA 218. See THEA 218.
Bright A CRN 49364 MW 1-2:50 p.m.
This is an introductory exploration/survey of the rich histories, theories, and practices of community-based and social issues theatre. Through discussion, participation, lecture, and performance, representative works, movement, and artists will be explored. Lively connections will be made to an array of social issues in today's world.
GWS245: Women & Gender Pre-Mod Europe
Same as HIST 245 and MDVL 245. See HIST 245
McLaughlin CRN 43545 MWF 2-2:50 p.m.
This course examines the history of women and the evolution of concepts of gender in Western Europe from roughly 400 to 1700. Topics include the interactions of class and ethnicity with women's experiences, the social construction of sexuality and gender, the misogynist tradition and women's self-images.
GWS263: US History of Medicine
Same as HIST 263. See HIST 263
Reagan CRN 49071 TR 3:30-4:50 P.M.
Medicine and public health from the colonial period through the twentieth century; health care providers, patients, and public policy; incorporates issues of race and sex.
GWS280M: Women Writers
Topic: Asian American Women Writers
Same as ENGL 280, Meets with AAS 299
Koshy M CRN 40031 TR 9:30-10:45 a.m.
This course examines ways in which the perspectives of race and gender and their interrelationships structure the writing of Asian American women. Looking at a range of critical writings, we will also examine the development of Asian American feminist thought and its relation to cultural nationalist and transnational communities.
GWS280Q: Women Writers
Topic: American Women’s Autobiography
Same as ENGL 280, See ENGL 280
Deck Q CRN 49540 TR 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Culture and literary critics have suggested that in the United States autobiography, more than the novel or poetry, is the most democratic genre because anyone, regardless of age, level of education, gender, race or social class can and has published one. Readers in the United States, furthermore, gravitate towards the personal narratives of the famous, the infamous, and the “undistinguished” Americans from history and contemporary society. In this class we will survey the personal narratives of American women from a variety of historical periods, geographic regions, socio-economic classes, ethnic and racial groups. Our goal is to understand what distinguishes the personal narrative from history and the novel. What is particularly “American” about the various women’s personal narratives that we study?
In addition to the required texts, we will read critical essays on autobiography. Students will write weekly response papers, two essays, and take two exams: a mid-term and a final.
Tentative titles: Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Ginsberg, Waiting: the true confessions of a waitress, Golden, Migrations of the Heart, Kingston, The Woman Warrior, Norris, Dakota, Santiago, When I Was Puerto Rican, Walker, Black, White and Jewish
GWS 281X: Women in the Literary Imagination
Topic: Marriage and Maternity in the British Feminist Novel
Same as ENGL 281. See ENGL 281
Baron X CRN 43197 MWF 12-12:50 p.m.
In 1796 Jane Austen finished her initial draft of Pride and Prejudice entitled First Impressions. Two hundred years later, author Helen Fielding published Bridget Jones’s Diary, a post feminist version of Austens’s classic novel about a young woman who refuses to be forced into marrying the wrong man despite the prospect of future penury. But for much of British history, women of all classes were expected to maintain the social hierarchy through marriage and to fulfill their personal destiny through pregnancy and motherhood no matter how they felt about their bodies, their husbands or their married lives. In this course, we’ll explore the evolution of women’s marital choices, sexual practices and economic rights in the UK over a two hundred year period from Austen to Fielding, viewing the changes that came along the way.
We’ll begin during the Regency period by examining the nuances of 18th century marriages, zeroing in on how women regarded courtship and how the advent of the novel and the rise of the mercantile class began to restructure the rules about marriage and property in England. Then we’ll see why in spite of their many accomplishments and a powerful female figurehead to lead the nation, Victorian women were barred from owning property, barred from voting, and forced into submissive marriages that could leave them either vulnerable and depressed or curiously satisfied with their constrained lives. Moving into the late 19th century, we’ll take a look at how working class women dealt with the changes that technology had on their vocations, marital choices and sexual practices including premarital relations. Next we’ll zoom into the pre and post WWI and WWII periods to see how women fared in the UK after war had permanently altered the gender lines and their figures with the normalization of reconfiguring undergarments and modern make-up lines. We’ll end the semester on a lighter note with Bridget Jones’s Diary, focusing on the liberated late 20th century woman as she struggles to find just the right guy, battles bad hair days, unwanted cellulite, poor career choices and non-committal boyfriends. Course requirements include 2 moderate length papers (6-8 pages) and a final (8-10 page) paper.
GWS 286: US Gender History Since 1877
Same as Hist 286. See HIST 286. History and Philosophy Perspect course
Pleck A CRN 34133 MWF 9-9:50 a.m.
This course aims to introduce students to changing ideals and life experiences of American women from the period just prior to the arrival of European explorers to the Civil War. The readings draw on primary sources and historian's interpretations to emphasize the work, family, and political activities of American women, within the context of larger changes in colonial America and the United States. These larger changes include colonialism and European settlement, the role of Enlightenment ideas, the growth of an industrial economy, the expansion of slavery, and the rise of nineteenth century reform movements. Students will learn to think critically about historical arguments and the use of evidence.
GWS320: Gender & Latina/o Migration
Same as LLS 320 and SOC 321. See LLS 320
Hester A CRN 52855 MW 11-12:20 p.m.
This course is the study of the gendered social process of international immigration, focusing on Latin American migration to the United States. Established theories of migration, the history of international immigration to the U.S., and historical and contemporary Mexico, Caribbean and Central American migration flows will be discussed in great detail. Primary focus on how gender shapes the migration experiences of immigrants and the gendered impact of migration on the economic, political, and social status of individuals.
GWS 350: Intro to Feminist Theory
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Rudolph KR CRN 50084 TR 9:30-10:50 a.m.
This course offers an introductory, interdisciplinary survey of feminist theory by examining debates within contemporary feminisms concerning what counts as “theory” and what counts as “feminism.” Using both national and transnational frames, we will explore the social and geographic contexts in which feminists have theorized how gender is lived in constant interaction with one’s race, class, sexuality and national status; on the body, in the home, within the nation state, and across national boundaries. Our investigation will be guided by attention to key concepts and themes, including identity, experience, social location, and spatial location, politics, and knowledge production.
GWS 356: Sex & Gender in Popular Media
Same as MS 356. See MS 356.
C CRN 45968 TR 9:30-10:50 a.m.
This course examines the notion that the mass media influence our development as gendered individuals, looking at those who argue for and against this notion. Considers different forms of feminist theory applied to the study of mass media, the history and scholarly criticisms of the media and their portrayal of women, and feminist attempts to create alternatives to mainstream media images. Throughout the course, considers representation of minorities in the dominant media and examines newly created alternative representations.
GWS 360: Women and the Visual Arts
Same as ARTH 360. See ARTH 360.
Wood CRN 40427 MWF 1- 1:50 p.m.
This course explores the complex interconnections of women and the visual arts in Europe and North America from the classical era to the present, including the modes of artistic production and the representation of women in western society.
GWS 375: Scandinavian Sexualities
Same as CWL 376 and SCAN 375. See SCAN 375
Stenport M CRN 52542 TR 9:30-10:50 a.m.
This course investigates the myth and reality of "Scandinavian Sexualities" as presented in texts, primarily fiction, from the early nineteenth century to today. Starting with Romanticism's understanding of feminine nature, the course moves on to topics of morality debates, independence movements, prostitution, sexual liberation, homosexuality, and social gender equality.
GWS 380: Black Women Hist & Cultures
Topic: Black Women in Pop Culture
Same as AFRO 380. Prerequisite: AFRO 100 or GWS 250 or GWS 260 or consent of instructor.
Flynn A CRN 35001 TR 9:30 - 10:50 a.m.
Baby momma, empress, bitch, sketel, ho, queen, gold digger, and roots ooman, are stereotypes and images pervasive in Black expressive popular culture across the African Diaspora. In this course, we will explore how Black women have been portrayed, and currently portrayed in popular media, such as the television, internet, movies, and popular mediums, such as magazines, popular fiction, newspapers, and other cultural phenomenon. Using a multidisciplinary perspective and drawing on a range of theories, we will ask ourselves what these portrayals tell us about Black women’s role in society. Alternately, we will explore how Black women as consumers and participants respond to these stereotypes, and create alternative oppositional images.
GWS 383: History of Black Women’s Activism
Same as AFRO 383 and HIST 383. See AFRO 383.
McDuffie A CRN 45892 TR 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Examination of the history of twentieth century black women's activism specifically concerned with how African American female activists have been critical to building, sustaining and leading black freedom movements.
GWS 409: Women’s Health
Same as CHLH 409. See CHLH 409 – Note: Most seats held for Community Health and GWS majors through December 10.
Kim A CRN 31276 MW 2:30 - 3:45 p.m.
This course examines the culture of women in relationship to their health. Study is devoted to selected health care issues, developmental and physiological changes in the life cycle, health problems that affect women, and the maintenance of health.
GWS 417: Leading Post-Performance Dialog
Same as THEA 417 –See THEA 417
Glassman LTD CRN 47194 TR 4-5:50 p.m.
Study of the history, processes, and methods of leading discussions with social issues theatre audiences. This course emphasizes on the skills and techniques of facilitators/peer educators; artistic considerations; function and application of the dramaturgy; and practical experience through facilitation of social issues theatre dialog.
GWS 418: Devising Social Issues Theatre
Same as THEA 418. See THEA 418. Instructor Approval Required
Fay A3 (Undergraduates) CRN 37113 MW 11:30-12:50 p.m.
Fay A4 (Grad Students) CRN 37114 MW 11:30-12:50 p.m.
This course focuses on the role of the artist as “cultural worker”' through devising theatre in a community-based context that is explicitly concerned with social and/or health-related issues. While there is substantial research, reading and critique involved, the overall experience will be that of rigorously composing theatrical work vital to the community.
GWS 432: Gender and Language
Same as CMN 432 and LING 432. See CMN 432 (This is for undergraduate students)
Giorgio 1 CRN 37083 TR 12:30 - 1:50 p.m.
This course investigates how gender is communicated. Language—our statements as well as our demeanor—both explains and defines us. It sends covert as well as overt indications about us. In a complicated and not generally symmetrical fashion, our gender and sexuality inform our language and our language informs our gender and sexuality. This course focuses on the ways in which we discuss and enact—the ways in which we verbally and physically speak—gender and sexuality. This course interrogates notions of gender and sexuality and examines the way in which language serves to both reinforce and challenge these notions.
GWS 435: Commodifying Difference
Same as AAS 435, AFRO 435, LLS 435 and MS 432. See LLS 435
3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: Any combination of 6 hours from Latina/o Studies, Asian American Studies, Afro-American Studies, Gender and Women Studies or Media Studies; graduate standing, or consent of instructor.
Molina AG CRN 40446 T 5 - 7:30 pm.
AU CRN 40517 T 5 - 7:30 pm.
An interdisciplinary examination of how racial, ethnic and gender difference is negotiated through media and popular culture, and how racial, ethnic and gendered communities use cultural forms to express identity and difference. Among the theoretical questions explored are the politics of representation, ethnic/racial authenticity, cultural commodification and transnational popular culture. Some of the cultural forms examined are cultural festivals/parades, ethnic/race-based beauty pageants, cinematic and televisual texts and musical forms, such as Hip-Hop and Salsa.
GWS 445: US Latina Lit and Iconography
Same as LLS 442 and SPAN 442. See LLS 442.
Galarte CRN 52963 M 5-7:30 p.m.
Systematically addresses contemporary Latina feminism, its contexts, and its origins through the study of influential female cultural icons from the 16th century to the present. This critical approach allows contemporary Latina feminism to construct historical and cultural narratives based on women's contributions to culture. Students will also learn how contemporary theoretical approaches Postcoloniality, Gender Studies, Nationalism, etc. influence the study of Latina identity.
GWS 450: Topics in Bodies and Genders
Topic: Gender Benders
Approved as an elective in the LGBT/Queer Studies Minor - Same as CWL 450. See CWL 450
Hilger A CRN 44868 TR 1-2:20 p.m.
This course examines literary texts and other cultural documents (biographies, opera, and films) from the Antiquity to the twenty-first century, which all question the gender roles of their time through a representation of characters with unstable, ambivalent, or ambiguous gender identities. We will pay special attention to social and historical contexts and try to understand the function of transvestites, hermaphrodites, castrati and other gender benders in these documents. We will also read selections from Thomas Laqueur’s Making Sex and Londa Schiebinger’s The Mind Has No Sex? To help us understand how biology and science are used to construct and justify gender identity at various historical moments. This course therefore has particular relevance to current debates about gender and sexual identity, marriage, reproductive rights, etc.
GWS 470: Trans Bodies & Politics
Approved as an elective in the LGBT/Queer Studies - Minor 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One course in Gender and Women's Studies at the 200- or 300-level, or consent of instructor.
Cole CCG (Grad Students) CRN 50209 T 3 - 5:50 p.m.
Cole CCU (Undergraduates) CRN 50208 T 3- 5:50 p.m.
Seminar is concerned with the historical and political significance of current models of, claims about, and contests for meaning surrounding "sex" and the human body. Students will examine and critically evaluate contemporary debates about transgender, inter-sexuality and other trans-bodies that contest normative male/female binaries. Readings and discussions will be directed at examining the dynamics implicated in the ongoing making of nature and sexual difference as they are enacted and encoded on and through trans-bodies.
GWS 480: Gender Roles & International Development
Meets with HCD 595G - Grad Students Only - Prerequisite: One course in Gender and Women's Studies or one course in international social, economic, or political development, or consent of instructor.
Summerfield A4 (Grad Students) CRN 35018 R 12:30-3:20 p.m.
Summerfield A3 (Undgraduates) CRN 35014 R 12:30-3:20 p.m.
This course focuses on analysis of the gendered dimensions of globalization and socio-economic transformation policies during the last few decades. The course stresses global human security and gender equity, with special attention to livelihood, migration, and health. We will examine who gains and who loses from neoliberal policies, assess the disparities in the impacts of crises and reforms on women, men, and children, and study the successful strategies and policies that appear. The course will address conceptual tools for evaluating development policies based on different paradigms. It satisfies the core requirement for the GRID (Gender Relations in Development) graduate minor offered by the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives (WGGP) program and Human and Community Development in cooperation with departments and units across campus.
GWS 495SS: Advanced Topics GWS
Topic: Fairy Tales and Gender Formation
Meets w/ENGL 461
Mahaffey VMG (Grad Students) CRN 50083 MWF 2-2:50 p.m.
Mahaffey VMU (Undergraduates) CRN 52452 MWF 2-2:50 pm.
What does it mean to be female in contemporary culture, and how is that meaning related to definitions of femininity in other cultures, and at other times? Children are taught the difference between male and female roles, and one of the main ways this instruction takes place is through the pleasurable media of books, tales, and, more recently, films. Yet relatively few children reared on “Sleeping Beauty” know that once upon a time it was a tale about rape (Jane Yolen, in sharp contrast, turns it into a story about the Holocaust); similarly, one set of “Cinderella” stories (the “Donkey skin” variant) concerns father-daughter incest. The stories currently found in nurseries are often sanitized versions of older, more complex and varied narratives that take many different forms. Reading other cultural versions of a familiar tale throws into high relief the values of one’s own culture. For example, the “Cinderella” of Charles Perrault, designed for the French court, is very different from the much earlier Chinese version: the elegant and fragile glass slipper contrasts sharply with a celebration of small feet in a culture in which it is customary for women to bind their feet. Disney versions of fairy tales, peopled with slim, colorful, singing cartoon characters, differ markedly from the sexually explicit Inuit tales, since the warmth offered by sexuality was necessary for survival. Our overall aim, then, is to understand how sexual identity is constructed differently in different cultures, and to explore the ways that fairy tales work to express psychological reactions to maturation while conditioning both characters and readers to adopt specific social roles in adulthood.
We will look at different versions of such fairy tales as “Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Bluebeard,” “Snow White,” and “Hansel and Gretel.” We will also sample Inuit tales, contemporary film versions of fairy tales, and feminist rewritings of these stories by Anne Sexton, Jeanette Winterson, and Angela Carter. Assignments consist of an oral report, two essays (which may involve a rewriting of a fairy tale accompanied by a comparative analysis), and a final exam.
GWS 498: Senior Seminar
No graduate credit - Prerequisite: Senior standing and enrollment as a major in Gender and Women’s Studies, or consent of instructor. Advanced Composition course.
Nadeau CN CRN 48439 M 1-3:50 p.m.
This course considers the relationship between theory and research in Women's Studies. Reviews and examines the key issues of feminist scholarship. It provides students with the methodological knowledge and opportunity to carry out a research project.
GWS 551: HBSE II: Women’s Issues
Same as SOCW 551. See SOCW 551
Carter-Black A CRN 49798 M 1 - 3:50 p.m.
Extends concepts and theories introduced in SOCW 451 with a focus on women including how cultural belief systems related to gender are instantiated through the differential treatment of females and males in our educational, mental health, social welfare and health care systems; and the consequences of such practices throughout the lifespan. This includes consideration of policies and practices that support women emphasizing issues of special concern to women of color, lesbians, older women, impoverished women and disabled women.
GWS 561: Race and Cultural Critique
Same as AAS 561, AFRO 531, ANTH 565, and LLS 561. See AAS 561.
Rana A CRN 52842 W 3-5:50 pm.
This course is an introduction to graduate level theoretical and methodological approaches in Comparative Race Studies. As a survey of theories of race and racism and the methodology of critique, this course offers an interdisciplinary approach that draws from anthropology, sociology, history, literature, cultural studies, and gender/sexuality studies. In addition, the study of racial and cultural formation is examined from a comparative perspective in the scholarship of racialized and Gender and Women's Studies.
GWS 580: Queer Theory
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing
Somerville SS CRN 52453 R 3-5:50 p.m.
Seminar in Queer Theory. Traces the history of the field of queer theory and examines recent developments such as black queer studies and transnational queer studies.
GWS 590EM: Topics in WGS
Topic: Women, Gender and Sexuality and the Black Freedom Movement
Meets with AFRO 597 (CRN 47117)
McDuffie EM CRN 41599 T 2-4:50 p.m.
This is an interdisciplinary readings class in one of the most exciting new areas of scholarly inquiry in Black Studies, Women’s Studies, and History. We are primarily concerned with appreciating black women’s activism, as well as how gender and sexuality were critical to structuring relations of power within twentieth century black movements in the U.S. and across the Diaspora. Interdisciplinary and transnational in breadth, we will read both classic and the most recent texts in this field. Significant attention will be given to appreciating how scholars employ black feminist, diasporic, queer, and social movement theory for recovering and examining black women’s activism, and the gender and sexual politics of black freedom movements. For their final project, students will write an interpretative paper and give a presentation before the class. This exercise will be useful for preparing students for academic conferences and publishing. If successful, this class should be very useful for students interested in researching and teaching African American Studies, Women’s Studies, History, Education, Literature, and other fields in higher and in secondary education.
GWS 590JD: Topics in WGS
Topic: Performance Studies
Meets ANTH 515 (CRN 48150, SEC JD)
Desmond JD CRN 52464 T 2-4:50 p.m.
This graduate seminar introduces students to the issues and methodologies of the emerging field of performance studies. In the last twenty years, concurrent with new theoretical developments in other fields such as literature, film studies, and art history, and postcolonial studies the analysis of live performance events has undergone a radical change. A new area of study has been defined which includes popular entertainments, dance, performance art, festivals, public rituals, tourist productions, sports, religious rituals, and the activities of daily life. No longer limited to the textual nature of earlier theater criticism, or to the qualitative evaluation of specific performances, the field of performance studies seeks to understand and theorize the function of performative events and actions in a particular cultural context at a particular historical time. One key aspect of performance studies emphasizes the public enactment of embodied aspects of social identity such as gender, race, ethnicity, concepts of able-bodiedness, and social class through markers of speech, actions, gesture, fashion, movement and so on. These tools can also be used to analyze the articulation of national identity through performative modes such as presidential debates, the celebration of national holidays, and the mass media representation of events like the Iraq war. Students in literature, anthropology, GWS, drama, dance, ethnomusicology, communication, film studies, social history, sociology, and cultural geography may find this particularly useful.
GWS 590TB: Topics in WGS
Topic: Feminisms on the African Continent
Meets w/African Studies 550 (CRN 53477, Section TB)
Barnes TB CRN 52465 F 11-12:50 p.m.
This course will explore the subaltern feminist traditions and debates on the African continent (rather than African diasporic and African-American feminisms). We will explore recent research and readings on 1) critiques developed by African feminist intellectuals of Western-based theories of gender, identity, the body and sexuality, and 2) African feminist movements which have confronted gender-based inequalities and disparities of social power at local, national and international levels. The course will pay particular attention to the tensions between feminism and nationalism, and the international debates around socialization and the bodies of African women. Readings will include: Ifi Amadiume, Male Daughters Female Husbands, Oyeronke Oyewumi, African Gender Studies: A Reader,
A. M. Tripp, et al, African Women's Movements, and Issues of the online journal Feminist Africa.
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ANTH 467: Cultures of Africa
3 undergraduate hours. 3 or 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: ANTH 230 or consent of instructor. Meets w/AFST 467
Gottlieb 1G CRN 50157 TR 12:30-1:50 p.m.
1U CRN 50156 TR 12:30-1:50 p.m.
“I thought kinship theory was dead.” Surprise—kinship is alive and well in Africa!
“Not that boring lineage stuff…?” It’s not so boring when people fight life-and-death struggles over it.
- Who gets to decide where to bury a man’s corpse: his urban widow or his country brother?
- What would personhood look like when viewed from the womb?
- How do “HIV orphans” survive on the streets of Kampala, Abidjan, Johannesburg?
- How is the family more relevant than ever in the postcolony?
These are some of the daily questions facing families that now claim people’s attention in Africa. In this class, we’ll look at these issues wherever they take us—from small villages in West Africa, to townships in South Africa, to new African diasporic communities in Europe and the U.S.
Grad students: this course is primarily aimed at students in cultural anthropology and African Studies. Others welcome if you have an interest in the subject—especially if you’ve taken at least one previous course in cultural anthropology. For grad. students in cultural anth.: this course meets the requirement for a regional course inside or outside your fieldwork area; and it counts as a course in the “Body, Gender, and Sexuality” cluster.
Undergrads: you’ll get the most out of this course if you’ve already taken at least one 300-level course in cultural anthropology. For anth. majors specializing in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology: this course fulfills the “Ethnographic Places” requirement.
CHLH 199B: Campus Acquaintance Rape Education
Note: Most seats reserved for freshman-junior status through November 30th.
Wantland CRN 31112 MW 3-4:15 p.m.
Why is it difficult to speak out against rape? If the majority of perpetrators are men, why is it still seen as a "woman's problem"? Is rape inevitable? This class explores the realities of sexual assault and its societal foundations. Students will have an opportunity to discuss and critically analyze the effects of culture, oppression, and socialization on sexual violence. Additionally, students acquire facilitation skills which allow them to work as peer educators with the C.A.R.E. program. There are no prerequisites for this course. We have a special need for men, LGBT students, students of color, and students with disabilities. If you have further questions, please e-mail Ross at 333-3137 or wantland@uiuc.edu.
CHLH 206: Human Sexuality
See course schedule for sections.
This course emphasizes the behavioral aspects of human sexuality. Topics include: birth control; prenatal care, pregnancy and childbirth; sex roles; premarital sex; lifestyles; marriage and divorce.
CMN 450: Advance Topics in Public Discourse
Topic: Gender and Rhetoric
Finnegan GR CRN 52658 MWF 11-11:50 a.m.
UGR CRN 52659 MWF 11-11:50 a.m.
This course uses the tools of rhetorical analysis to examine the relationship between gender and citizenship in U.S. public discourse from the founding to the present day. Students study historical and contemporary primary sources (speeches, tracts, pamphlets, etc.) in order to discover how they frame men’s and women’s experiences as citizens. Specific topics include: movements for social change (including suffrage, temperance, pacifism, civil rights, and women’s liberation); changing views of home, work, and family; “public” vs. “private” spheres; and gendered rhetorical styles in politics.
CMN 496: Advance Topics in Communication
Topic: Gender, Race and Work
Reserved for majors in Communication through November 13. Restricted to Speech Communication, and Communication.
Wright TWG CRN 50674 TR 11-12:20 p.m.
TWU CRN 50675 TR 11-12:20 p.m.
ENGL 300E: Writing About Literature
Topic: Defining Women: Gender and the Enlightenment. ENGL 300 is restricted to English/Rhetoric Majors
Wilcox M CRN 32122 TR 9:30-10:45 a.m.
ENGL 300S2: Writing About Literature
Topic: S2: Race and Sexuality in American Culture
Approved as an elective in the LGBT/Queer Studies Minor - ENGL 300 is restricted to English/Rhetoric Majors
Rodriguez S2 CRN 32120 TR 2:00-3:15 p.m.
This course will examine interlocking discourses of race and sexuality in American literature and culture. Looking specifically at the intersections of class, race, gender, and sexuality in proximity to and within African American and Latino/a communities, we will read a selection of novels, short stories, and essays emphasizing the social and historical dynamics that both regulate and enable articulations of racialized sexualities. Writers whose work we will engage include William Faulkner, Nella Larsen, James Baldwin, Piri Thomas, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa, Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Junot Díaz, and Manuel Muñoz.
ENGL 461: American Narratives of Passing
Approved as an elective in the LGBT/Queer Studies Minor
Somerville 3G CRN 39306 TR 11-12:15 p.m.
3U CRN 52283 TR 11-12:15 p.m.
Recent critical and theoretical work on identity has drawn attention to the phenomenon of passing, that is, the movement from one identity to another, across lines of race, gender, or sexual orientation. We will study a range of texts—including fiction, autobiography, and film—that have portrayed or enacted various kinds of passing in the United States. Along the way, we will become acquainted with contemporary theories of identity. Our guiding questions will include: To what extent does the act of passing reinforce or unhinge seemingly natural categories of race, gender, or sexual orientation? What are the connections or disjunctions between closeting and crossing the color line? How might literary texts themselves pass? How do different historical and political contexts shape passing narratives and their reception? To what extent does passing across one axis of difference unsettle other categories of identity? The course format will be primarily discussion, with frequent opportunities for you to shape these and other questions.
ENGL 553: Seminar Later American Lit
Topic: U.S. Women Modernists
Bauer R CRN 32278 T 1-2:50 p.m.
This course will be focused on three major movements in women’s writing: high modernism, middle-class modernism, and working-class writing. We will spend roughly five weeks on each topic, and your assignments will include a book review on recent modernist writing, as well as a historical paper on one of the authors we are reading.
Tentative Reading List: Gertrude Atherton’s Black Oxen; Fannie Hurst’s Imitation of Life; Lummox;Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady;Anita Loos’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Anzia Yeziereska’s Salome of the Tenements; Meridel Le Sueur’s The Girl; Edith Wharton’s A Mother’s Recompense; Age of Innocence; Jessie Fauset’s Plum Bun; Gertrude Stein’s writings; Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood; Nella Larsen’s Passing; Edna Ferber’s Emma McChesney series
EPS 421: Racial and Ethnic Families
Same as AFRO 421, HDFS 424, and SOC 421. Prerequisite: SOC 100, a 200-level SOC course, or consent of instructor.
Barnett BAR CRN 47206 T 1-2:50 p.m.
Graduate- level sociological examination of how gender, race, ethnicity, cultural diversity and class function in the development of diverse American families, which are important foundations of education. Primary attention will be given to African American and Hispanic families. Secondary attention will be given to Asian American, Native American and other racial and ethnic family groups.
FR 323: Major Literary Figures
Topic: Medieval "Room of One's Own": Christine de Pizan and her World
Prerequisites: French 207, 209 and 210 or permission of the instructor.
Fresco E CRN 43803 TR 2-3:20 p.m.
France in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries was a difficult place for Christine to find work when her father and husband died, leaving her as the sole support of her children and mother. During this period, France was riven by political, social and economic crises and the Hundred Years' War. In this course we will examine how Christine made a place for herself in a male-dominated literary tradition. The lectures, readings and research assignments will provide a broad canvas of late-medieval literary and historical change since Christine came into contact with many of the great political and literary figures of her time and lived long enough to witness the appearance of Joan of Arc, about whom she composed one of her last works. During the semester we will engage questions about the relationship between gender and reading, gender and literary reception, and the construction of female subjectivity. Readings will focus on a selection of works by Christine, such as The God of Love's Letter, The Book of the City of Ladies, The Lamentation on the Evils That Have Befallen France, and The Poem of Joan of Arc.
HIST 471: History of American Families
Same as HDFS 421. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One year of college history.
Pleck G4 CRN 43394 MWF 1-1:50 p.m.
Pleck U3 CRN 43393 MWF 1-1:50 p.m.
This course will provide an overview of family life in the United States, beginning before the forming of the U.S. in colonial history and extending up to the present. Topics emphasized will be the history of childhood and adolescence, dating and courtship, sex and reproduction, husband-wife relations, female-headed households, and aging. The course will also examine major transformation in family structure and authority patterns, and consequences of those transformations. Among the assignments will be an analysis of family photos and a possible research paper on history of the student’s family.
HDFS 120: Intro to Family Studies
Overview of current concepts, theories, and substantive issues in family studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Gives attention to variation in family form and function across different social/cultural contexts and how family experience is structured by gender. Examines issues of family development (marriage, parenting, divorce, remarriage, aging family) and explores the links between families and other social institutions.
AD1 CRN 33680 M 8-8:50 a.m.
AD2 CRN 33683 M 9-9:50 a.m.
AD3 CRN 33732 M 11-11:50 a.m.
AD4 CRN 33781 M 12-12:50 a.m.
AE1 CRN 33785 R 8-9:50 a.m.
HDFS 220: Comparative Family Org
Same as ANTH 210
AD1 CRN 33803 W 9-9:50 a.m.
AD2 CRN 33804 W 10-10:50 a.m.
AD3 CRN 33805 W 12-12:50 p.m.
AD4 CRN 33806 W 1-1:50 p.m.
Raffaelli AL1 CRN 33807 T 8-9:50 a.m.
Cross-cultural and historical examination of how different social, political, and economic systems produce different kinds of families.
HDFS 420: Family Diversity in the U.S.
Prerequisite: HDFS 220
Lleras A CRN 33813 TR 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Lleras GR CRN 44457 TR 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Examines the diversity families assume in the United States; families are compared in the areas of kinship, family organization, interpersonal relationships, child and youth socialization, wealth and possessions, and integration within the larger society.
LIS 390: Special Topics Info Studies
Topic: Race, Gender and Information Technology
Open to sophomores, juniors and seniors
D'Arpa RGI CRN 36574 MW 2-3:20 p.m.
PSYCH 341: Advanced Community Projects
Topic: Girls Advocacy Project/Juvenile Detention Center Intervention
Allen GAP MW 3-4:50 p.m.
SOC 273: Social Perspectives on the Family
Prerequisite: SOC 100
Muhammed RMU CRN 39026 TR Arranged
Examines the societal forces shaping aspects of stable and changing family relations in the U. S. and other countries; focuses on social-structural factors affecting marriage, divorce, co-habitation, child-bearing, the division of work and authority, and other features of life.
THEA 591: Special Problems
Topic: African Women in Theatre
Perkins AFT CRN 51279 MW 2-3:50 p.m.