Special Topics Courses, Spring 2013
WGS 210-01, Gender Migration and Globalization
WGS 300-01, Gender and Ethics
WGS 300-02, The Female Body and the History of Medicine
WGS 300-03, International Women’s Human Rights
WGS 347-01, Global/Transnational Women Writers
WGS 350-02, Anthropology in/of Latin America: Gender, Race and Social Justice
WGS 490-01, Women and Politics
• WGS 210-01, Topics in Women’s Studies. Gender Migration and Globalization - Prof. K. McHenry
This course will investigate women’s experiences of globalization. We will ask how globalization shapes women’s lives. By investigating women’s migration patterns, we will analyze the myriad ways women’s labor is crucial to the global economy. As a result we will examine the global exploitation of women’s labor in sweatshops, global care chains, and human trafficking through a feminist lens. We will analyze the way militarism and environmental degradation often affects women in detrimental ways. As we examine theories of globalization we will be using feminist critical analysis. We will develop a cross-cultural feminist analysis of women’s reactions and political resistance to globalizing forces. Lastly, we will examine particular cases on women’s resistance to globalization in Peru, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Web-enhanced. WGS Major/Minor Concentrations: Politics, Justice, and Policy; Cross-Cultural Inquiry; Non-Western/Comparative Cultures Elective.
• WGS 300-01, Topics in Women's Studies. Gender and Ethics - Prof. C. Gardner
Cross-listed with PHL 300.
We will begin with a brief introduction to the philosophical subject field of ethics as well as an overview of the concept of gender. We will then look at some traditional philosophical works for the way that ethics has been gendered, in other words, for the way it has been held that men and women think differently about morality. We will then look at modern discussions about whether men and women think differently about ethics and ethical issues. Whether or not we believe ethics is gendered, these modern discussions have thrown into relief new sets of concepts and perspectives that we can use for our moral decision-making. We will use the lens of gender to examine contemporary ethical issues, such as reproductive rights, vegetarianism, and the environment, in a new light.
• WGS 300-02, Topics in Women's Studies. The Female Body and the History of Medicine - Prof. S. O’Hara
This course begins with a general introduction to the history of women and gender and the history of medicine in the early modern period. We will then turn to a variety of primary and secondary sources that focus on specific aspects of the role of gender in the history of medicine in this period, such as Katharine Park’s Secrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection; the medieval Trotula, the sixteenth-century surgeon Jacques Guillemeau; the seventeenth-century English midwife Jane Sharp, the seventeenth-century German midwife Justine Siegemund, and the early seventeenth-century French royal midwife Louise Bourgeois (with readings from the professor’s soon-to-be published translation). A guiding theme of this course is the question of continuity and change in how the female body and women’s health issues used to be viewed in the history of medicine, and how they are viewed today. Web-enhanced. WGS Major/Minor Concentrations: Cross-Cultural Inquiry; Arts and Letters.
• WGS 300-03, Topics in Women's Studies. International Women’s Human Rights - Prof. K. McHenry
This course provides an overview of the international human rights of women. We will examine the laws and practices that impact women all over the world. This course will provide a historical overview of the global human rights movement. We will investigate international law and a human rights framework for women’s rights. We will specifically investigate human slavery and sex trafficking, rights of women with disabilities, child marriage, female genital mutilation, female infanticide, sex selective abortion, child soldiers and sexual violence. We will investigate legal and cultural practices that deny women their fundamental human rights. Web-enhanced. WGS Major/Minor Concentrations: Politics, Justice, and Policy; Non-Western.
• WGS 347-01, Special Topics in Women's Literature: Global/Transnational Women Writers - Prof. A. Arora
Cross-listed with ENL 347-01.
This course will introduce you to a wide range of women writers with origins in countries often referred to as the “Third World.” We will explore some of the following interrelated topics: centrality of gender to the colonial project; treatment of women as symbols within (nationalist) debates of tradition and modernity; migrancy and gender; intersections of gender with class, race, and religion; queer sexualities; and the constitution of gendered identities in the context of increasing globalization. We will be attentive to the historical and cultural context within which the texts are produced. Web-enhanced.
• WGS 350-02, Readings in Sociological & Anthropological Literature: Anthropology in/of Latin America: Gender, Race and Social Justice - Prof. L.M. Knauer
Cross-listed with ANT/SOC 350-05.
This course uses an ethnographic lens to explore the relationship between gender, race and social justice in Latin America, focusing primarily upon the experiences of indigenous and Afro-descendant women. At the same time, we will take a critical look at the politics and ethics of engaged scholarship, as until recently, non-indigenous scholars and writers are the ones who have represented (or helped represent) indigenous women in oral history and ethnographic texts. WGS Major/Minor Concentration: Cross-Cultural Inquiry; Gender Studies.
• WGS 490-01, Special Topics: Women and Politics - Prof. H. Berggren
Cross-listed with PSC 445-01.
In the United States and many other countries, politics began as a male-dominated domain. Today, women are active in politics, as voters, as election-campaign and social-movement activists, and as elected and appointed leaders. Yet there is room for a lot more progress. We will address numerous questions related to women’s involvement in the processes, institutions and outcomes of politics. What roles do women’s movements and feminism play? How do we describe and theorize women’s political participation? Do women generally think alike when it comes to politics, or are nationality, race, socio-economic class, religion and ideology more significant than gender? What is the political significance of conservative and anti-feminist women? How do women fare as candidates for political office, and how do they govern once elected, and when serving as appointed officials? Why is it that women still constitute a very small percentage of politicians? What has been the impact of women’s political involvement on public policy? In their capacity as recipients of benefits accruing from government policies, how have women fared? We will examine these questions as they relate to women in countries around the world, but with a heavier focus on the United States. Web-enhanced.
