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Gender and Women's Studies

Courses

Spring 2006 Courses

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019. Femmes Fatales, Lady Killers, and Other Dangerous Women: Aviva Briefel T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55; This course explores a popular cinematic figure: the dangerous--and sometimes deadly--woman. By analyzing a range of films from Classical Hollywood cinema to the present day, we will explore the various forms that this female character assumes: the femme fatale, the tragic mulatto, the jealous or vindictive woman, the murderous lesbian, the revenge seeker, etc. In addition to examining the various permutations of the dangerous female, we will examine why she has attained such a prevalent place on the silver screen. What is so seductive about the deadly woman? This class will also introduce students to film criticism. Films may include Basic Instinct, Carrie, Double Indemnity, Fatal Attraction, Gilda, Kill Bill, Mildred Pierce, Sunset Boulevard, Thelma and Louise, and Vertigo.
LAB: Aviva Briefel M 7:00 - 10:00; This course explores a popular cinematic figure: the dangerous--and sometimes deadly--woman. By analyzing a range of films from Classical Hollywood cinema to the present day, we will explore the various forms that this female character assumes: the femme fatale, the tragic mulatto, the jealous or vindictive woman, the murderous lesbian, the revenge seeker, etc. In addition to examining the various permutations of the dangerous female, we will examine why she has attained such a prevalent place on the silver screen. What is so seductive about the deadly woman? This class will also introduce students to film criticism. Films may include Basic Instinct, Carrie, Double Indemnity, Fatal Attraction, Gilda, Kill Bill, Mildred Pierce, Sunset Boulevard, Thelma and Louise, and Vertigo.
020. In Sickness and in Health: Public Health in Europe and the United States: Susan Tananbaum M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25; Introduces a variety of historical perspectives on illness and health. Considers the development of scientific knowledge, and the social, political, and economic forces that have influenced public health policy. Topics include epidemics, maternal and child welfare, AIDS, and national health care.
101. Introduction to Gender and Women?s Studies: Jennifer Scanlon M 8:00 - 9:25, W 8:00 - 9:25; An interdisciplinary introduction to the issues, perspectives, and findings of the new scholarship that examines the role of gender in the construction of knowledge. The course explores what happens when women become the subjects of study; what is learned about women; what is learned about gender; and how disciplinary knowledge itself is changed.
211. Women?s History from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages (200-1200 c.e.): Nicola Denzey M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55; Seminar. A history of women and the private life in Western Europe, with an emphasis on Italy, France, and Germany. Studies the impact of gender on both domestic and political worlds. Explores the economic and practical options and contributions of women, the rise of women?s spirituality, and discusses the different possibilities of women according to social status and class.
212. Gender and Crime: Janet Lohmann T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25; Examines how gender intersects with the understanding of crime and the criminal justice system. Gender is a salient issue in examining who commits what types of crimes, who is most often victimized, and how the criminal justice system responds to these victims and offenders. Students explore the context of crimes such as domestic violence and sexual assault, as well as how the correctional system and social policy are affected by the issue of gender.
213. Gender and Revolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives and Experience: Jill Massino T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25; Examines how major upheavals such as revolution and social movements affect gender relations, roles, identity, and women's everyday lives. Explores the French Revolution, the socialist revolutions in the USSR and Eastern Europe, the American Civil Rights Movement, and the religious revolutions in Iran and Afghanistan, considering the manner in which political, social, economic, and cultural realms are gendered. Major questions to be addressed include: Why and to what extent do revolutionary ideologies appeal to women, both individually and as a group? What are the roles of women and men in revolutionary and social movements? What have been the net gains and losses for women as a consequence of revolution? Analyzes the ways in which race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality intersect with gender and are constituted by revolutionary discourse.
237. Family, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin America: Krista Van Vleet W 2:30 - 3:55, F 2:30 - 3:55; Focuses on family, gender, and sexuality as windows onto political, economic, social, and cultural issues in Latin America. Topics include indigenous and natural gender ideologies, marriage, race, and class; machismo and masculinity; state and domestic violence; religion and reproductive control; compulsory heterosexuality; AIDS; and cross-cultural conceptions of homosexuality. Takes a comparative perspective and draws on a wide array of sources including ethnography, film, fiction, and historical narrative.
239. Victorian Genders: Aviva Briefel T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55; Investigates the literary and cultural construction of gender in Victorian England. Of central concern are fantasies of ?ideal? femininity and masculinity, representations of unconventional gender roles and sexualities, and the dynamic relationship between literary genres and gender ideologies of the period. Authors may include Charlotte Bronte, Freud, Gissing, Hardy, Rider Haggard, Christina Rossetti, Ruskin, Schreiner, Tennyson, and Wilde.
261. Gender, Film, and Consumer Culture: Jennifer Scanlon M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55; How do we spend money, and why? Examines the relationship between gender and consumer culture over the course of the twentieth century. Explores women?s and men?s relationships to consumer culture in a variety of contexts: the heterosexual household, the bachelor pad, the gay-friendly urban cafeteria, the advertising agency, and the department store. Also explores the ways in which Hollywood films, from the 1930s to the present, have both furthered and complicated gendered notions about the consumption of goods.
301. Capstone Seminar: Doing Gender Studies: Research Methodologies and Social Change: Jill Massino T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25; Explores how research and scholarship on gender can be an engine for social change. Students learn how to use the different ?tools? of the scholar: interviews, surveys, oral history, archival research, participant observation, and discourse analysis. Through a semester-long research project, each student has a hands-on experience of designing and implementing an in-depth study on the gender issue of the student?s choice. Open to Gender and Women?s Studies majors and minors, or with permission of the instructor.