The 2013-14 membership of this committee has not yet been finalized. Complete membership information for 2013-14 will be posted as soon as it becomes available.
Faculty of the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Other Faculty Offering Instruction in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Affiliated Members
Primarily for Undergraduates
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 91r. Supervised Reading and ResearchCatalog Number: 6225
Director of Studies and staff
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
The study of selected topics in studies of women, gender, and sexuality.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 97. Tutorial-Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 7217 Enrollment: Limited to concentrators.
Robin M. Bernstein
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
An introduction to foundational concepts and skills in the study of gender and sexuality. Readings include Gloria Anzaldúa, Donna Haraway, Patricia Hill Collins, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Monique Wittig, Alison Bechdel, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Michel Foucault.
Note: Required of, and limited to, Women, Gender, and Sexuality concentrators in their first year in the concentration.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 98f. Tutorial - Junior Year: Research and Methods - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 24505 Enrollment: Open only to juniors on leave in the spring term.
Afsaneh Najmabadi
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: WGS Juniors are expected to take 98s in the spring term. This course is only open to students planning to be on leave in the spring term of the junior year. Permission from the DUS in WGS and updated plan of study required.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 98s. Tutorial - Junior Year: Research and Methods
Catalog Number: 8094
Afsaneh Najmabadi
Half course (spring term). Th., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
The seminar is organized to scaffold student success in writing a junior paper. For the first six weeks, we will read a variety of texts and interrogate closely how different topics have been approached in literary and cultural studies, in social and historical studies, and in life-sciences. There are two goals here: To think carefully about how different methodological approaches allow certain kinds of research questions to be asked and answered, and to be able to identify the methodological approaches that will best serve each student’s specific research interests and needs. Each student will also work throughout the semester with an individual tutor on their own projects.
Note: Required of all Honors concentrators in their junior year.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 99a. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 6763
Linda Schlossberg
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Both WGS 99a and 99b are required of all honors concentrators in their senior year.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 99b. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 5847
Linda Schlossberg
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Both WGS 99a and 99b are required of all honors concentrators in their senior year.
For Undergraduates and Graduates
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1127. Beyond the Sound Bite: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in The Daily NewsCatalog Number: 48191 Enrollment: Limited to 35.
Alice Jardine
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 14
We are bombarded by sound bites from all over the globe, moving at disorienting speeds, reorganizing our relationship to time and space with increasingly dystopic results. This course will focus on selected televisual and digital events in "real time" from February-May 2014. We will analyze the embedded bits of gender and sexuality always at work in the representations of those events. Topics include: politics, the environment, military adventures, and popular revolt in dialogue with important texts in WGS Studies.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1167. Gender and Education - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 47209
Laura Johnson
Half course (spring term). F., 1–3 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
This course explores the impact of gender on educational opportunities, experiences and outcomes in the United States. We will look at the role gender plays in interpersonal relationships in educational settings, in classroom practices, in school rituals, in expectations for behavior and disciplinary actions, and in the content and structure of the curriculum. We also will examine the role beliefs about gender play in students’ extra-curricular choices and experiences. Finally, we will look at the complicated ways gender intersects with race, class, and sexual orientation to shape students’ identities, opportunities, and experiences.
Note: Jointly offered with the HGSE as H-613.
[Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1200sh. Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation 1955-1975]
Catalog Number: 9095
Michael Bronski
Half course (fall term). M., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
An introduction to the radical American social change movements of the 1960s and 70s. We will examine the specific historical conditions that allowed each of these movements to develop, the interconnections and contradictions among them, and why they ultimately lost political power. Along with historical analysis, we will examine primary source materials, manifestos, autobiographies, and media coverage from the period, as well as relevant films, music, and fiction. The class will be a mixture of lecture and discussion.
Note: Expected to be given in 2014–15.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1210st. Sexological Theories - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 98349 Enrollment: Limited to 25.
Gayle Rubin, Visiting Associate Professor (University of Michigan)
Half course (spring term). Tu., 3–5 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
Meets the WGS concentration requirement.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1220. Harem Fictions: From Montesquieue to Mernissi
Catalog Number: 67425
Afsaneh Najmabadi
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Is harem a space? An institution? What notions of gender and sexuality are affiliated with and informed by the notion of harem? This seminar will investigate the cultural work of harem as represented in several socio-cultural and historical contexts. We will begin with reading some historical essays on harem; we will then move onto a series of European texts, paintings, and films. From late-19th century to the present day Muslim women have also employed the notion of harem in a variety of ways. We will read some of their writings.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1224. Gender and Fandom - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 97035 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Keridwen Luis
Half course (fall term). W., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
This course examines the gendered experiences of those who identify as "fans" through the lens of anthropology, sociology, and gender studies. We will examine a wide variety of fandoms and ask questions such as, how does fandom shape gender expression? How does gender shape fandom? How are class, race, and cultural background implicated in fan expressions? How do fans create community? Who is welcomed and who is excluded from fan communities? We will examine particular fandoms, including online fandoms, sports fandoms, and sci-fi/fantasy fandoms, among others, and read works by sociologists, anthropologists, and the fans themselves.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1227. Race, Gender and Inequality - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 41567 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Chiwen Bao
Half course (fall term). Th., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
This course explores how interlocking forms of inequality emerge in society through entwined identity formations such as race, gender, sexuality and class. Through case studies, we examine how these complex systems of privilege and disadvantage influence life pathways and embodied experiences of safety and physical and emotional health. Seminar participants develop skills to investigate and approach social problems by relating research to practices, as explored through a creative final project. Topics include neighborhoods, social media, violence, work, incarceration, education, and health care.
[*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1233. Gender, Sexual Violence, and Empire]
Catalog Number: 4121 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Katherine Stanton
Half course (spring term). Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Making the case for what Deepika Bahri identifies as the "prominent and constitutive" role of gender-and sexuality-in colonial formations, this course will examine how gendered and sexed ideas and practices were critical to signifying racial difference, naturalizing exploitation, symbolizing the colonial mission, and managing colonial economies. We will ask, with Ann Laura Stoler, was sexual domination a metaphor for colonial power, or the very "substance" of imperial policy?
Note: Expected to be given in 2014–15.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1234. A Voice of One’s Own: Creative Writing in Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Catalog Number: 12567 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Linda Schlossberg
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 11:30–1. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
Students write and analyze short stories, paying close attention to key writing concepts such as characterization, voice, point-of-view, dialogue, and setting, while also investigating thematic issues related to women, gender, and sexuality studies. Frequent writing assignments, including written evaluations of peers’ stories.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1237. LGBT Literature - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 44338 Enrollment: Limited to 25.
Linda Schlossberg
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 11:30–1 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
This course examines a range of works from the British and American LGBT canon. Our starting premise will be that LGBT themes have been central, rather than peripheral, to the Western literary tradition. We’ll pay close attention to how sexual identity and desire are understood and represented in different social and historical circumstances, as well as the aesthetic traditions and personal experiences shaping these individual works. Authors include James Baldwin, E.M. Forster, Nella Larsen, Virginia Woolf.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1243. Men to Boys: Masculinity in Postwar Hollywood Film - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 46977 Enrollment: Limited to 25.
Michael Bronski
Half course (spring term). M., 1–3 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
This survey course examines the changing images of masculinity in Hollywood films from 1950 to the present. We will use the films, critical readings, feminist theory, film theory and primary source materials to chart the enormous changes in how postwar culture conceptualized "manhood" and "masculinity." Beginning with post-World War II films such as "The Men," and then covering Vietnam films and sports films such as "Rocky" and "Raging Bull" we will end with popular comedies celebrating male immaturity of Judd Apatow. We will be analyzing the films in the economic, political, sociological, and psychological context in which they were made and to which they were responding.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1249. Gender in African History - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 60756 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Meghan Healy-Clancy
Half course (fall term). Tu., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
This seminar surveys the changing politics of gender across African history, in conversation with global histories of gender and sexuality. We investigate three questions: How can we understand the history of gender in Africa before colonialism? What role did gender play in the making and unmaking of colonialism? How have nationalist and postcolonial politics been defined by gendered categories? Readings include case studies from west, east, and southern Africa, treating themes from the history of sexuality to the history of political culture. Each student will present an original research project related to course themes.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1251. Gender and Sexuality in Asian-American Literature - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 19431 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Rani Neutill
Half course (fall term). Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
This course investigates Asian-American literature and film, with an emphasis on issues of feminism, sexuality, politics, and popular culture. We will examine the influence of these works from both a U.S. domestic and global perspective. Authors to include Maxine Hong Kinston, David Henry Hwang, Jhumpa Lahiri, Theresa Cha, Rakesh Satyal, Monique Truong.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1258. Friends with Benefits?
Catalog Number: 12001
Afsaneh Najmabadi
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 11 and a one hour section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
How many people would you count as your friends? Facebook friends? Facebook Close Friends? Google+ friends? Other network friends? Friends with Benefits? Does sex get in the way of friendship? Are your friends mostly of the same sex/gender/sexuality? Is it harder to make friends with persons of different sex/gender/sexuality? How have friendships changed as people have become more embedded in online communities? The course will begin with a consideration of current conversations about friendship, including popular TV serials -- such as "Friends," "Sex and the City," "New Girl," and "The Inbetweeners" -- in which friendships are lived and variously configured through sexual relationships. What could we make about meanings of friendship and sex, and their inter-relationship, in contemporary American culture? We will read various texts that form historical threads that inform our contemporary concepts and practices of friendship and romance. Readings will include Winthrop, Plato, Cicero, Biblical sources, St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, Montaigne, Bray, Marcus, Sedgwick, and Foucault. Finally, we will return to contemporary America, asking what gay marriage, Facebook, and changing conceptions of masculinity/femininity are doing to/for friendship.
Note: This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the General Education requirement for Culture and Belief or the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts C.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1266. Gender and Sports
Catalog Number: 60105 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Laura Johnson
Half course (fall term). F., 11–1. EXAM GROUP: 4, 5
This course explores the relationship between gender and sports in the U.S. We will consider the ways in which deeply held beliefs about masculinity and femininity, as well as sexuality and race, affect the practice of sports, as well as how sports shape identity. While we will situate our exploration within its historical context, our focus will be on the contemporary scene, including youth, collegiate, and professional sports.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1322. Theory Makes Practice Makes Theory: Feminist Fieldwork and Activity Based Learning
Catalog Number: 3232 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Keridwen Luis
Half course (spring term). W., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
This course brings service work and community advocacy together with critical thinking at the complex intersection between feminist theory and practice. We will ask questions such as, what is the role of academic thought in community initiatives and politics? What does it mean to be an ally? We will examine phenomena like "backpacktivism" and "voluntourism" and discuss research in the global market. Participants will do community service and/or fieldwork, and classroom discussions will focus on feminist, queer, and intersectional analyses incorporating student internship experiences with the readings.
Note: Note: Interested students are strongly encouraged to attend an information session in December detailing the requirements for the course (contact Professor Luis for meeting details). Student enrollment in this course is contingent upon placement at an approved internship site. Students will be required to spend 6 hours per week in an agency or organization, in addition to the weekly 2-hour seminar class.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1421. Medical Management of the Female Body
Catalog Number: 21083 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Sarah S. Richardson
Half course (spring term). W., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
This course examines how Western medical knowledge, practices, and institutions define female health and normality and manage diseased and gender-variant female bodies. How, for instance, does medicine conceive of the female body as a medical problem or mystery and how do race, class, and sexuality inflect these conceptions? Topics include: "female maladies," medicalization of childbirth and the pregnant body, medical management of transgender and intersexed bodies, ideals of fitness, cosmetic surgery, disability, and pharmaceutical marketing.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1424. American Fetish: Consumer Culture Encounters the Other
Catalog Number: 91598 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Caroline Light
Half course (fall term). W., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
How are notions of human difference, including ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality, used to sell products in an increasingly global market? We will start in the nineteenth century with the rise of consumer culture, examining how cultures and people considered "primitive" achieved value as objects for exchange and entertainment, and then investigate how this idea takes shape in our contemporary moment. Topics include: sex tourism; commodification of "queer" and multiracial aesthetics; "compassionate" consumption.
Note: This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the General Education requirement for Culture and Belief or the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts C.
[*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1433. Topics in Advanced Performance Studies: Gender and Sexuality]
Catalog Number: 42391 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Robin M. Bernstein
Half course (fall term). W., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
In this seminar, we will listen to and participate in current conversations in Performance Studies about gender and sexuality, especially as both these categories intersect with race. Topics include affect, time, and material culture; reading includes works by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, E. Patrick Johnson, Judith Halberstam, José Esteban Muñoz, Heather Love, Elizabeth Freeman, Susan Leigh Foster, and Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes. This is an advanced course intended for graduate students and upper-level undergraduates.
Note: Expected to be given in 2014–15.
Prerequisite: Prerequisite for undergraduates: "Gender and Performance" (General Education/Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 26), WGS sophomore tutorial, or permission of the instructor.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1440. Mommy Wars: Race, Class, and the Politics of Motherhood - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 29785 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Elizabeth Singer More
Half course (fall term). M., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
The term "mommy wars" emerged in 1990 to suggest that relations between "working mothers" and "stay at home mothers" were characterized by mutual animosity and petty status battles between women defined through their roles as mothers. Yet the political, cultural, and economic struggles over motherhood have deep roots and high stakes. This seminar will look critically at the history and literature of the "mommy wars," from The Feminine Mystique to contemporary advice literature, paying special attention to voices often excluded from mainstream media representations. Topics include mothers in the workplace, race and reproduction, caring labor, and class in discourses of "good" and "bad" mothering.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1442. Well Behaved Women - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 40039 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Waiting for description. Preferred teaching times are Tues 1-3 or 2-4.
[*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1466. Virtue, Vice and Everyday Life]
Catalog Number: 79196 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Erin R. Helfrich
Half course (spring term). M., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
This seminar will explore the areas of overlap and also of disconnect between our conscious decisions, our unconscious reactions, and our moral values. We will focus specifically on the ways that our moral, social, and psychological environments give rise to ethical challenges relating to gender. Topics may include: workforce discrimination; women’s participation in STEM fields and representation in governing bodies; how work is coded masculine or feminine; and women and welfare.
Note: Expected to be given in 2014–15.
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1468. Feminist Sex Wars - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 20678 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Gayle Rubin, Visiting Associate Professor (University of Michigan)
Half course (spring term). W., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1500. The Senior Capstone
Catalog Number: 72605 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Karen P. Flood
Half course (spring term). Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
This course allows advanced students to synthesize previous semesters of study in WGS in an intensive research-oriented seminar. Students will complete independent projects while also building collective knowledge around a topic in gender and sexuality studies. The likely focus for 2013 is sex, gender and work. Possible areas of study include the sex-typing of occupations, work/life debates, care work, gender and LGBT discrimination and harassment in the workplace, sex work, labor activism, and the politics of welfare.
Note: Intended for WGS seniors on capstone track, but open by permission of instructor to other advanced students with experience in women, gender, and sexuality studies.
Primarily for Graduates
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 2000. Introduction to WGS: Graduate ProseminarCatalog Number: 9620 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Robin M. Bernstein
Half course (spring term). Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
An introduction to graduate study in women, gender, and sexuality. Special attention given to questions of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, to processes of professionalization, and to the critical study of the neoliberal academy.
Note: Will count as the Graduate Proseminar for the PhD secondary field requirement in WGS.
[*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 2010. Science, Nature, and Gender (Graduate Seminar in General Education)]
Catalog Number: 51121 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Sarah S. Richardson
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
A survey of central texts, theories, and methods in scholarship on gender and science. Science has helped to construct and enforce cultural gender norms. Gender also valences scientific language, inflects science’s status as an authoritative social institution, and stratifies scientific communities. This seminar examines historical, philosophical, and social dimensions of science through the lens of gender. Students will pursue independent research and explore methods in interdisciplinary and feminist pedagogy. The seminar will design and develop a General Education course on these themes for undergraduates.
Note: Expected to be given in 2014–15.
Graduate Courses of Reading and Research
*Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 3000. Reading and ResearchCatalog Number: 17353
Robin M. Bernstein 5411, Michael Bronski 6029, Alice Jardine 7457 (on leave fall term), Afsaneh Najmabadi 4052, Sarah S. Richardson 6730 and members of the Committee
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Open only by petition. Applicants for admission should first confer with the Director of Graduate Studies.
Of Related Interest
Courses related to the studies of women, gender, and sexuality offered by other departments are listed below. Many of the courses may be taken for graduate credit. Students should also investigate offerings in other faculties in which they may cross-register, such as the Graduate School of Education, the Law School, the Medical School, and the Women’s Studies program at the Divinity School. This list is for informational purposes only and courses are not pre-approved for WGS concentration credit. For courses offered by other departments that are approved for WGS concentration credit please contact the WGS main office.[Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 26. Race, Gender, and Performance]
African and African American Studies 118. The History of African Americans From the Slave Trade to the Great Migration
African and African American Studies 120x. African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance
[African and African American Studies 183x. Queer of Color Theory]
Culture and Belief 22. Concepts of the Hero in Classical Greek Civilization
[Culture and Belief 41 (formerly Historical Study A-67). Gender, Islam, and Nation in the Middle East and North Africa]
[Ethical Reasoning 22 (formerly Moral Reasoning 22). Justice]
[*French 61a. Classicism and Modernity: An Introduction to Performance]
French 70b. Introduction to French Literature II. 19th and 20th Centuries: Tales of Identity
[French 157. The Hermaphroditic Imagination]
[*History 81f. Women’s Voices in Medieval and Early Modern Europe]
History 1462. History of Sexuality in the Modern West
*History 1981. A Cultural History of the U.S. Military: World War I to the Present: Conference Course - (New Course)
[History 2805. Gender and Sexuality: Comparative Historical Studies of Islamic Middle East, North Africa, South, and East Asia: Seminar]
[History of Science 108. Bodies, Sexualities, and Medicine in the Medieval Middle East]
Japanese Literature 133. Gender and Japanese Art
Portuguese 40. Images of Brazil: Contemporary Brazilian Cinema
[United States in the World 16 (formerly Historical Study A-86). Men and Women in Public and Private: the US in the 20th Century]
Visual and Environmental Studies 181. Frames of Mind: Film Theory
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 182. Film Architectures: Seminar]
Visual and Environmental Studies 184. Imagining the City: Literature, Film, and the Arts
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 185x. Visual Fabrics: Art, Media, Materiality Seminar]
[Visual and Environmental Studies 196. Women’s Film and Video in France: Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman and Claire Denis]