Women's Studies

A minor in Women's Studies allows students to examine contributions and representations of women through an interdisciplinary program that employs gender as a fundamental category of analysis.  Students will engage the scholarly methods and theories of women's studies in ways that complement traditional disciplinary inquiry.  The minor encourages students to investigate the historical and contemporary contributions of women as well as the significance of gender in the social and natural sciences, in the arts and literature, and in religion.  The program further invites students to analyze gender in relation to other categories of difference, such as race, class, sexuality, and ethnicity. The goal of Women's Studies is to stimulate critical examination of assumptions about gender in cultures past and present.

The Minor in Women's Studies consists of six courses. Two courses, Introduction to Women's Studies and Women's Studies Senior Seminar, are required. A minimum of two cross-listed courses must be completed. The remaining two courses may be chosen from the list of Women's Studies courses, cross-listed courses, or recommended courses, which appears below.

NOTE: A student may not use in fulfillment of the requirements of the minor any course used in fulfillment of requirements in a major or other minor. 

Women's Studies Courses

Women's Studies 100. Introduction to Women's Studies -- This course provides an introduction to contemporary analyses of women's economic, cultural, biological, and political conditions. We will explore commonalities and differences among women, both in the U.S and globally.  In so doing, we will engage the concept of gender as an historical and critical category relating to a woman's ethnicity, class, sexuality, and  race.   The course will also examine varieties of recent feminist thought, paying particular attention to the impact of this scholarship on traditional academic disciplines. (Berebitsky)

Women's Studies 111. Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies -- A survey of the history, politics, culture, psychology, biology and literature of LGBT people.  Readings and lectures  focusing on works by and about LGBT people. 

Women's Studies 448.  Women's Studies Seminar -- An interdisciplinary seminar for students completing the concentration.  Topics will vary. 

Cross-Listed Courses

Anthropology 290. Women in Cross-Cultural Perspective — A comparison of women’s experiences of family, work, religion, development and war across diverse world regions to see how these can differ widely from one society to another. Anthropological writings and films are used to learn the concepts and perspectives necessary for the exploration of women’s similarities and differences. Discussion-centered learning and student research papers help involve students actively in the collective construction of knowledge about women’s lives around the world. No prerequisite.  (Murdock)



Anthropology 311. Gender and Class in Latin America  The course examines gender relations as they are construed in differing cultural contexts across the Latin American region.  The history of anthropological scholarship on gender and class in the region, as well as contemporary theories of how gender, social class, race/ethnicity, and sexuality intertwine in human experience are key foci of the course.

Biology 110. Women and Biology — A topical study of the biological nature of women and their role in the natural order. Topics include the following: women and scientific inquiry; genetics, evolutionary theory and women; social Darwinism and sociobiology; physiology and women's health; sex differentiation, hormones and a non-deterministic model of human sexuality; and biology from a feminist, ecological and third world perspective. Contributions of women to biological knowledge are included. Non-laboratory course. This course may not be taken if you have already taken Biol 100 or 105. (Croom)

Economics 309. Women in the Economy — This study of the relative economic status of women and men in the U.S., and how it has changed over time, focuses on sex differentials in earnings, occupational distribution, labor force participation and unemployment rates, levels and types of education and experience. Includes an analysis of the reasons for such differentials (e.g., the motivations for discrimination), their history, and cross-cultural variations in female status (with particular emphasis on Africa and Asia). Analyzes the effect of law and policy in the U.S. on the status of women. (Mohiuddin)

English 207. Women in Literature -- A consideration ofthe role of women in literature. Topics include Gothic fiction, nineteenth and twentieth century women writers, and women in fiction. Drawing on authors of both genders, the course considers gender relations, the historic role of women, the special challenges that have faced women writers, and the role of women in fiction. Prerequisite: None. (Staff)

English 357. Shakespeare I (Macfie section only) — A study of several plays written before 1600.

English 358. Shakespeare II (Macfie section only) — A study of several plays after 1600.

English 359. Renaissance Literature I (Macfie section only) - A study of the major sixteenth-century genres, with emphasis on sources, developments, and defining concerns. Readings include the sonnets of Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare; the mythological verse narratives of Marlowe and Shakespeare; the pastoral poems of Spenser; and Books I and III of Spenser's Faerie Queene.

English 360. Renaissance Literature II (Macfie section only) — A study of the major seventeenth-century poets, concentrating on such poets' redefinitions of genre, mode, and source. Readings emphasize works by Donne, Herbert, Jonson, Herrick, Milton, and Marvell.

English 399. World Literature in English -- A study of twentieth-century literature written in English from Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean, concentrating on colonial and post-colonial themes, as well as issues of gender, politics, and nationalism. Possible authors include Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, V.S. Naipaul, and Derek Walcott. Prerequisite: none. (Outka)

History 237. Women in U.S. History, 1600-1870 — A survey of the history of American women which considers how women experienced colonization, American expansion, the industrial revolution, war, and changes in the culture's understanding of gender roles and the family. The course also explores how differences in race, ethnicity, and class affected women's experience. (Berebitsky)

History 238. Women in U.S. History, 1870 to the Present — A survey of the major changes in American women's lives since the end of the nineteenth century, including increased access to education, movement into the labor market, and changes in reproductive behavior and in their role within the family. Special consideration is given to the movements for women's rights. (Berebitsky)

History 270. Women in European History since 1750 — This course surveys the roles and experiences of European women from the Enlightenment era to the present. With emphasis on individual lives and outlooks, the study illuminates women's quest for equality and dignity in the public sphere in Britain, France, and Germany. Themes covered include the development of feminist movements, modern feminism, and sexual liberation. (Mansker)

History 318. African-American Women and Religion — This class examines African-American Women's participation and critical role in religious life in America. It explores black women's place in the formation of revival culture, the creation of religious ritual, and the institutional establishment of the black churches. Further, it investigates black women's vital role in the dissemination of religious values within and between generations. Through biography and autobiography, this course addresses the ways in which black women have appropriated religious language and sensibility in constructing the narratives of their lives. In sum, it explores the myriad ways African-American women contested and critiqued their place in the church and the community, while simultaneously supporting and furthering black churches and promoting the health of religious life. (Roberson)

History 349. American Women's Cultural and Intellectual History — This discussion-based seminar examines women's experience from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Topics include changes in understandings of motherhood and female sexuality, popular women's fiction, and representations of women in music, film, and television. (Berebitsky)

History 358. Women in Latin America — A seminar on the history of Latin American women from the seventeenth century to the present, examining the tension in Latin American countries concerning the role of women, their relationship to the family, and their desire for equality. The course explores controversies over the legal status of women, education, employment, and participation in political life. Students examine several theoretical approaches to gender studies together with specific case studies. (McEvoy)

History/Spanish 367. Writing the Nation: Literature, Nationalism and the Search for Identity in Latin America, 1815-present — A study of national projects in Latin America from 1810 to the present. Topics include Bolívar, the wars of independence, nineteenth-century visions of progress, Vasconcelos' concept of The Cosmic Race, and contemporary movements for the inclusion of women, blacks, Native Americans, gays, and other marginalized groups in a common Latin-American culture.

History 378. Sexuality and the Self in Modern Europe — This seminar investigates how and why sexuality became the key to selfhood in modern Europe. Drawing on the tools of gender analysis and cultural history, students explore the ways in which political, socioeconomic and cultural tensions of particular historical moments were manifested in the sexuality of individuals. Students also examine a variety of primary sources from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries to consider how individuals defined themselves through sexuality and how definitions were imposed on them by a variety of institutions and authority figures. Prerequisite: None. (Mansker)

History 380. Crimes and Scandals in the Historical Imagination, 18th–20th Centuries — An investigation of the ways historians read past crimes and scandals for evidence of broader social, political, and cultural anxieties and desires. Focusing less on details of incidents themselves than on the debates and public interpretation surrounding them, this seminar deals with crimes such as those committed by Jack the Ripper or French murderesses at the end of the nineteenth century. In addition to analyzing secondary sources dealing with crime and scandal, students scrutinize a variety of primary documents such as trial records, medical and judicial debates, scientific analyses of criminality, memoirs of notorious criminals, and detective novels. No prerequisite. (Mansker)

Political Science 319. Gender and Politics from a Global Perspective — Recent U.N. studies document the continuing sytematic inequality that exists between men and women around the world. Approaching the study of sex-based inequality from a cross-cultural perspective reflects the reality that it is a universal phenomenon, but with complex and varied roots. Topics include the study of women's political representation worldwide, women and Islam, public policy issues of importance to women and families, and gender and war. (Schneider)

Political Science 344. Myth America — This course is concerned with myths that have played a prominent role in our nation's self-conception and its political rhetoric — such as the myth of the frontier, the myth of success, and the notion of the American dream. Students examine 1) the changing historical meanings of these myths from the colonial period to the twentieth century and 2) the gender aspects of these myths. (McKeen)

Political Science 346. Contemporary Social Movements — In this course we study the ways in which ordinary citizens come together, create more or less formal organizations, and mobilize politically to demand social and political change in society. We begin our study close to home with an examination of political organizing and social change on the Cumberland Plateau and Appalachia. We then proceed to study a wide range of political movements including labor and economic justice movements, the gay rights movement, the Christian conservative social movement, and the global justice/anti-globalization movements. (Schneider)

Psychology 412. Psychology of Gender — A comparison of different theoretical perspectives on sex and gender and a critical examination of research on gender differences and similarities in human behavior. Patterns of public attitudes regarding gender are also discussed. Prerequisite: four courses in psychology and/or women's studies, or permission of instructor. (Barenbaum)

Religion 223. Feminist and Womanist Religious Ethics — Examination of contemporary Jewish and Christian feminist and Black womanist ethics. Focus is upon religious and non-religious ethical thought as it relates to the construction of gender identity, and the implications for an understanding of economic justice, racism, familial relations, and gendered participation with religious traditions and theological communities. Authors include Katie Canon, Sharon Welch, Delores Williams, Judith Plaskow, Rachel Adler, and Audre Lourde. (Parker)

Spanish 422. Major Hispanic Women Writers — A study of major literary works by women writers of the Hispanic world throughout its literary history, including both feminist and anti-feminist background readings and critical essays. (Bonds)

Recommended Courses

In addition to the above-listed courses, each semester a number of other courses can be taken for Women's Studies credit, including Anthropology 340, Art History 322, 332, 345, and 346, English 378, History 322, Psychology 201, 213, and 406, and Spanish 305.  To receive Women's Studies credit, all papers or projects completed for these courses must address topics relevant to Women's Studies.  Students must also secure approval for WS credit no later than the end of the first week of class from both the instructor and the Chair of the Women's Studies Program.