Spring 2007 Course Guide
GWS 103: Black Women in the Diaspora
Same as AFRO 103 and AFST 103
Flynn CRN 44763 TR 9-10:20
Explores the historical, social, economic, cultural and political realities of black women in the African diaspora with an emphasis on the U.S., Canada, Britain, Africa and the English speaking Caribbean. 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. Discussion of the multiple strategies/efforts that black women employ both in the past and present to ensure the survival of the self and the community.
GWS 150: Contemporary Women’s Issues
Morey CRN 34971 TR 10-11:20
Explores the most recent debate and research related to contemporary issues which affect primarily women. Reviews 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 multi-cultural perspective.
GWS 199 RW: Undergraduate Open Seminar
Topic: Fraternity Peer Rape Education and Prevention
Students must be members of fraternities and have permission of the instructor. To enroll contact Ross Wantland at Wantland@ad.uiuc.edu
Wantland CRN 34977 T 6-7:50
Can fraternity men stop rape? This course seeks to answer this question by providing interested fraternity men with skills to become peer rape educators for their own chapters. In the fall semester, students go through an 8-week course that trains them to become peer rape educators. In the spring semester, students build on their existing facilitation skills, and develop, implement, and evaluate a series of presentations for their individual chapters.
GWS 225 Women in Prehistory
Same as ANTH 225. See ANTH 225.
Soffer CRN 40453 MWF 10-10:50
his course introduces students to gender issues in archaeology and in what archaeologists produce: stories about the past. We begin by considering the multiple ways of "knowing" the past and evaluate the potential biases in each. We then examine the history of gender studies in archaeology and the roles that women have played in archaeology. Next we consider the variety of approaches to engendering the past. Armed with these theoretical and practical insights, wethen focus on how we can reliably identify the presence of women in the archaeological record and reconstruct both their lives and the roles that they played in a variety of prehistoric cultures around the world. We do this through focused case studies. This course will be run in a lecture/discussion format with extensive guided student participation.
GWS 245: Women & Gender Pre-Mod Europe
Same as HIST 245 and MDVL 245.
McLaughlin CRN 43545 MWF 2-2:50
An introduction to some major issues in the history of women and gender from the fifth to the seventeenth century. Among the subjects to be discussed are the impact of class on gender roles, women's work and access to property, the relationship between the public and private spheres of life, women's roles in the conversion of Europe to Christianity and in The Reformation, and the connection between the misogynist tradition and pre-modern women's sense of self. This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for a Hist&Philosoph Perspect, and Western Compartv Cult course.
GWS 260: Gender Studies Social Science
Same as HDFS 260 and SOC 220
Logue AE1 CRN 38488 R 2-2:50
Asiedu AE2 CRN 34595 R 11-11:50
Asiedu AE3 CRN 34599 R 10-10:50
Logue AE4 CRN 34602 R 12-12:50
Mukherjee AE5 CRN 34606 F 12-12:50
Mukherjee AE6 CRN 34609 F 10-10:50
Mayo AL1 CRN 34612 MW 1-1:50
The impact of culture and society of gender roles, including socialization and identity formation, as expressed in life-styles, marriage and family alternatives, and patterns of education and employment.
GWS 261: Gender in Transnational Perspective
Same as Soc 261
Jennings CRN 34363 MW 2-3:20
Examines how gender inequality is structured on a transnational level. Emphasis will be placed on the interactive relationship among various countries, and how globalization promotes racial, ethnic, sexual, and national hierarchies among women, in both newly and advanced industrialized countries. Same as GWS 261. Prerequisite: SOC 100, GWS 260, or consent of instructor. This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for a UIUC Social Sciences course.
GWS 281: Women in the Literary Imagination
Topic: Icons of Marriage and Maternity in the British Feminist Novel
Same as ENGL 281
Baron CRN 43197 MWF 2-2:50
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 postmodern version of Austen’s now classic novel about a young woman who refuses to be forced into marrying the wrong man. But for much of British history, women of classes were expected to maintain the social hierarchy through marriage and to fulfill their destiny through pregnancy and motherhood no matter how they felt about 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 by examining the nuances of 18th century marriages, 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. We’ll end the semester on a lighter note with Bridget Jones’s Diary, focusing on the liberated late 10th century woman as she struggles to find just the right guy, battles bad hair days, unwanted cellulite, career choices and non-committal boyfriends. Course requirements include 2 moderate length papers (6-8 pages) and a final (8-10 page) paper. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours if topics vary.
Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours if topics vary.
GWS 286: US Gender History Since 1877
Same as Hist 286
Pleck CRN 34133 MWF 9-9:50
The central premise of this course is that gender matters in history and that to understand women's history, one must appreciate the differences among women's historical experiences. The course will introduce students to the history of women's work, sexual definitions, and political lives in industrializing and modern America. Readings in primary sources and those written by women's historians will emphasize changes in women's life experiences in relation to larger historical changes in the U.S., such as economic change, race relations, and social movements. A major goal of the course is to show that women's history is a central part of American social history and a unique subject of historical investigation. Although the title of this course refers to women and men, most of the lecture and reading will concern the history of women. Hist & Philosoph Perspect course.
GWS 350: Intro to Feminist Theory
Priority given to Gender & Women’s Studies Majors. Contact Jacque Kahn in GWS at 333-2990 or by email at jskahn@uiuc.edu to enroll.
Nguyen CRN 39477 TR 10-11:20
This course introduces the study of feminist theory by presenting debates in contemporary feminisms over what counts as theory and as feminism. Investigating concepts such as experience, identity, location, difference, sexuality, race, class, politics, and knowledge production, we will focus on the social contexts of feminist critical discourses and practices in both national and transnational frames.
GWS 356 Sex & Gender in Popular Media
Same as COMM 356
Rasmusson CRN 45967 MW 11-12:20
Glennon CRN 31394 TR 9-10:20
The course examines the notion that the mass media influence our development as gendered individuals, looking at those who argue for and against this notion. We consider 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 we consider representation of minorities in the dominant media and examine newly created alternative representations. This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for a Western Comparty Cult course.
GWS 370 Intro to Queer Studies
Same as Soc 320
Cole CRN 34995 T 3-5:50
Interdisciplinary introduction to the field of queer studies. Traces the history of sexuality and sexual identities, reviews key concepts and debates guiding queer studies, and evaluates how they facilitate understandings of the social and cultural dimensions of sexuality. Prerequisite: GWS 250 or GWS 260 or GWS 350, or consent of instructor.
GWS 383 History of Black Women’s Activism
Same as AFRO 383 and HIST 383.
McDuffie CRN 45892 MW 11-12:20
Why have black women been critical to leading black freedom movements during the 20th century? Why were black women attracted to Garveyism, Communism, and Black Power? How did the intersections of gender, race, and class position black women and men differently within protests organizations? Using the latest scholarship, memoir, and film, this interdisciplinary course seeks to answer these questions and more. Students will gain a greater appreciation for black women’s history and improve their communicative, analytical, and writing skills Prerequisite: AFRO 100 or AFRO 101 or AFRO 103 or consent of instructor.
GWS 390 Individual Study
Special topics in regularly scheduled classes. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours. Students may register in more than one section per term. Approved for both letter and S/U grading. Prerequisite: One course in Gender and Women’s Studies; consent of instructor.
GWS 390 LMC: Comparative Citizenships
Meets with LLS 296 section B
Cacho CRN 46769 TR 2:30-3:50
This class will examine the ways in which the conferral and denial of citizenship has racialized and gendered Asians and Latinos differentially in the United States. This is an interdisciplinary class that will draw from Legal Studies, History, and Cultural Studies.
GWS 417: Leading Post-Performance Dialog
Same as THEA 417
Best CRN 47194 MW 4-5:50
The purpose of this course is to provide you with the skills, knowledge and opportunity to generate discussions with the audiences of social issues theatre productions. Emphasis will be placed on the history, processes and methods of social issues theatre, and facilitating post-performance dialogues with audiences following social issues theatre productions. Course work will include training in facilitation skills, discussion of artistic considerations used in addressing social issues theatrically, examination and practice of the role of the dramaturg and research of social and health issues, relevant to the campus community. Practical experience will be gained through facilitating discussions with audiences following performances by the INNER VOICES Social Issues Theatre ensemble. INNER VOICES Social Issues Theatre addresses topics that are pertinent to the quality of life in the university community and is a collaborative program of the Counseling Center, McKinley Health Center and the Department of Theatre at the University of Illinois.
GWS 418: Social Issues Theatre
Same as THEA 418
Morrissette A3 CRN 37113 MWF 1-2:50
Morrissette A4 CRN 37114 MWF 1-2:50
Research, writing, and production of original plays addressing selected health and social issues on the UIUC campus in cooperation with the Counseling and Health Center. Course emphasizes training in acting and in methods of peer education and discussion facilitation.
GWS 421: Sex Role Theory in Counseling
Same as EPSY 421
Neville A CRN 44799 MW 3-4:20
Reviews research on sex role socialization related to career, family, and personal roles for both sexes; discusses counseling strategies aimed at freeing persons from attitudes and behaviors that limit their freedom to choose; and reviews strategies for change at policy, agency and individual levels.
GWS 450: Topics in Bodies and Genders
Topic: Gender Benders
Same as CWL 450/ENGL 461
Hilger CRN 44868 TR 1-2:20
This course examines literary texts and other cultural documents (biographies, opera, 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
Ngô FG4 (Grad students) CRN 46506 W 3:00-5:50
Ngô FGO (Undergrads) CRN 46010 W 3:00-5:50
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. Prerequisite: One course in Gender and Women’s Studies and the 200- or 300-level, or consent of instructor.
GWS 480: Gender Roles & International Development
Summerfield A3 (Grad students) CRN 35014 W 1-3:50
A4 (Undergrads) CRN 35018 W 1-3:50
Interdisciplinary seminar examining theoretical and empirical research on gender and the transformation of social and economic structures. Students will develop a comparative perspective on issues of women and public policy by contrasting and comparing such policies in North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, and Africa. Prerequisite: One course in Gender and Women’s Studies or one course in international, social, economic, or political development, or consent of instructor.
GWS 490: Seminar in Gender and Women’s Studies
Interdisciplinary seminar on special topics in women’s studies. 3 undergraduate hours. 2 to 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: GWS 250 or GWS 260 and two courses in Gender and Women’s Studies at the 200-300 levels; junior standing; or consent of instructor. May be repeated one time if topics vary.
Topic: Intro to Sexual Harassment in Organizations
Meets with Psyc 496 LF3, Psyc 496 LF4. Priority enrollment given to Psychology majors until Nov. 13th
Fitzgerald BG (Grad Students) CRN 35032 T 2:00-4:20
BU (Undergrads) CRN 35035 T 2:00-4:20
GWS 490: Seminar in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: Latinas in Television, Film and Popular Culture
Meets with Comm 391 and LLS 496
Valdivia CRN 35012 TR 10:30-11:50
Within the past few years, numerous government as well as media reports have noted the emergence of Latina/os as a growing, vibrant, and undeniable component of US popular culture. Truth is, of course, Latina/os not only have lived in the US for many generations, but, in fact, many predate the Anglo population. Yet we might say, that in terms of popular culture, especially in the mainstream, we are beginning to witness a Latina/o presence, whether it be in front or behind of the camera. Using a framework of analysis that combines Media Studies, Latina/o Studies, and Women’s Studies we will study and explore contemporary and recent historical issues, concepts, and people as they are connected to Popular Culture. For the purposes of this class, we will focus on issues of film, television, popular music and dance, as well as advertising, magazines, girl fiction, toys, and food as forms of popular culture. While there are many other huge areas of popular culture such as visual arts and literature, these fall beyond the scope of the class [and they are also studied in other classes]. When we study forms of popular culture we will follow a path that is outlined both by media theory in terms of issues of production, content, and audiences as well as by contemporary cultural studies analysis that is through the concepts of culture, identity and difference, representation, and culture of consumption. From Latina/o Studies, we will draw on a framework that acknowledges the diversity and heterogeneity of the U.S. Latina/o population while remaining ever vigilant to specificity and calls for nation or region specific affiliations. From Women’s Studies we, of course, employ the need to pay attention to issues of gender as a major form of difference that we use to make sense of our world. We use multicultural feminism as well as the accumulating amount of work conducted by Chicana and Latina feminists. There is some overlap between all these areas of study as they potentially inform each other. We will explore these areas of intersection.
GWS 490: Seminar in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: Postcolonial, Queer
Chandra SC CRN 46305 (Undergrads) W 10-12:50
SC1 CRN 46507 (Grad Students) W 10-12:50
Amongst the greatest obsessions of European colonial regimes around the world was the ‘fixing’ of ‘native’ sexuality as culturally specific, yet, universally reproductive. Ironically, the administration of sexuality as difference bolstered anti-colonial movements, hence extending the mutually reinforcing relationship between race, sexuality and imperialism. Indeed, the modern nation state - the most visible outgrowth of the history of colonial racism - compulsorily enshrines heterosexuality at the heart of its existence.
What is the relationship between heteronormativity, nationalism and imperialism, and why does it continue to produce its own un-named beneficiaries and minorities on a global scale? In other words, how do race and sexuality inform one another in a wider world of continuing imperial interactions? How has both postcolonial as well as queer theory actually exacerbated this tenacious nexus? Is ‘same’ sex desire always and already opposed to imperialism? Is it possible for sexual minorities to reject the everyday imperialisms that govern their choices? Using an array of primary sources from 200 years in Indian history, also novels and films, this course will provide students with the opportunity to confront debates on colonialism, print capital, cultural context, gender, sexual difference, nationalism, imperialism, 'theory' and the academy. The course requires a final 20 page paper based on original research.
GWS 490: Seminar in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: The Politics and Poetics of African American Girlhood
Brown RN CRN 46512 W 1-3:50
This course is designed to introduce students to traditional and contemporary theories, methods, and issues of political socialization. Political socialization, the processes and outcomes involved in learning to become and acting as citizens was once a major foundation of political science inquiry and is once again becoming central to discipline. This course focuses particularly on understanding children and youth political socialization based on the experiences of African American girls. Understanding the social, political, and cultural realities of African American girlhood provides a foundation to critique seminal work in the discipline as well as inspires creative and innovative possibilities for studying children and adolescents as political actors. Because we will examine scholarly approaches (course readings), critique cultural phenomenon (poetry, literature, and music), and do in class activities (performance) this course is inherently interdisciplinary and will require students to understand the boundaries of the political, as well as to transcend them. Students will be challenged to think critically about race, class, gender, and sexual orientation as it relates to the course material and classroom interactions.
GWS 490: Seminar in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: Representing Sex, Power and Politics
Meets with PS 499 SF.
Frost SF CRN 35048 (Undergrads) TR 1-2:20
SF4 CRN 46508 (Grad Students) TR 1-2:20
Debates about sexuality have shaped the self-conception, the self-representation, and the agenda of contemporary feminist theory and practice. Different conceptions of the relationship between sex and power have generated conflicting representations of the nature of women's oppression and the kinds of feminist politics necessary to fight it. This course examines how different representations of the relationship between sex, power, and subjectivity have shaped feminism. While we will situate our exploration of this issue against the backdrop of the bitter disagreements about the social and political significance of sexuality in the early years of the second wave of feminism in the United States, the bulk of our analysis will be theoretically oriented. We will draw on the theoretical frameworks provided by Freud, Deleuze, Bataille, and Foucault in order to explore how to think about and represent the relationship between power, desire, prohibition, subjectivity and political agency.
In the first main section of the course, we will read a series of different arguments about how subjects are constituted through the interplay of power and desire. In the following section, we will draw on these theoretical frameworks to consider how the politics of race, class, and historical and cultural context complicate feminist analyses of issues such as consent, rape, and prostitution. As we work through the latter part of the course material, we will consider how different representations of the relationship between power and desire generate different conceptions of feminist subjectivity and feminist politics.
GWS 490: Seminar in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: Science, Technology and Gender History in the United States
Meets with Hist 498
Vostral SV CRN 47000 R 9-10:50
This course will examine the field of science, the production of technology, and the ways in which gender is both embedded in and defined by these practices in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century America. The course addresses issues of women as practitioners of science and as inventors, and what is means to work in a masculine environment. We will then examine assumptions about gender built into artifacts, and how common technologies influenced and shaped men’s and women’s daily experiences. Topics include housework, labor relations, identity, communication, architecture, medicine and consumption. By engaging historical artifacts as having technological meaning, it provides a means and a methodology for researching the material past.
GWS 490: Seminar in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: Theories & Politics of Black Women's Writings
Meets with AFRO 498
Kaplan UG CRN 47537 MW 1-2:20
G CRN 47538 MW 1-2:20
This course uses contemporary literature by Black women in the Americas as a site from which to explore the complex relationship between history, literature, social theory, and politics in Black popular and political culture. Over the course of the semester, we will read work by writers including Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Suzan-Lori Parks, Octavia Butler, and Thylias Moss in dialogue with political/theoretical work from a breadth of academic disciplines. Our goal is to develop an analytical framework within which to situate 'Black women' geographically, philosophically, historically, and politically.
GWS 498: Senior Seminar in Gender and Women's Studies
This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for Advanced Composition (Comp II)
Projansky CRN 35012 M 1-3:50
This is the "capstone" course for GWS majors (and minors). The course has two goals: (1) to explore various gender and women's studies research methods and (2) to provide students with an opportunity to design and carry out a substantial research project of their own.
In order to achieve these goals, we will explore how gender and women's studies scholars—ourselves and others—ask questions and develop knowledge. What are some of the major assumptions and strategies these scholars employ? What does it mean to research from a gender and women's studies perspective? How have gender and women's studies scholars challenged or changed approaches to knowledge used by traditional scholars, revisionist scholars, and other gender and women's studies scholars? What are the roles of the researcher in the research and writing processes?
The course will be run as a seminar, emphasizing discussion over lecture. Students' own interests will shape the direction of our conversations, as well as at least some of the reading we do for class. The primary work of the class will be a seminar-length final paper. The course is designed to facilitate these projects, with topic proposals, research plans, working bibliographies, outlines, methods statements, and rough drafts due throughout the semester. Additionally, each student will have her or his research paper workshopped. Throughout the semester, we will set aside time during class to discuss the process of developing these substantial research projects.
GWS 570: Feminist Research Social Science
Same as SOC 520
Kenney CRN 35052 W 2-4:50
This course is an introduction to feminist theories in the social sciences and feminist contributions to and critiques of social science research. The methodologies portion of the course will survey a variety of the qualitative and quantitative research methods available for the description and analysis of social life and individual experience using readings and discussions of three types of texts: practical “how-to” descriptions of research methods; feminist critiques of different methods and feminist theories on methodology and epistemology; and examples of empirical work by feminist (and some non-feminist) researchers from various social science disciplines. Theory readings are interspersed with the methodology readings—whenever possible there is a relationship between the two (e.g., feminist theories in anthropology with feminist ethnographic methods).
Our readings and discussions will be directed toward answering the following questions: “How and by whom is knowledge produced and validated? Do distinctively feminist methods exist? What is the relationship of the researcher to the researched? How does the social location of the researcher (race, class, sexual identity, etc.) affect the research? What are the issues (ethical, political, epistemological, methodological) that arise in studying “others”? How can research relate to efforts for social change?” (Cynthia Deitch, 1998)
Over the course of the semester, students will develop their own proposals for a feminist research project, paying particular attention to issues of methodology. We will discuss this work together in a “writing workshop” at various stages of its progress and provide each other with constructive advice and suggestions. Each student will present his or her final research proposal to the class at the end of the semester. Prerequisite: Undergraduate statistics; at least one graduate-level social science course or consent of instructor. A graduate-level course in social science research methods is strongly recommended.
GWS 590 EM: Topics in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: The History of 20th Century Black Women’s Activism
Meets with HIST 572
McDuffie CRN 41599 W 2-4:50
This is a readings class in the history of twentieth century African American women’s activism and their involvement in social movements. We are concerned with appreciating their critical roles in building, sustaining, and leading all-Black organizations such as the Women’s Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention, National Association of Colored Women, Universal Negro Improvement Association, Black Panther Party, National Black Feminist Organization, and Combahee River Collective as well as interracial organizations like the Communist Party, USA and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. This class will be grounded in social movement and Black feminist theory. We will analyze how Black women activists formulated Black feminist, transnational, diasporic frameworks to understand the global nature of racism, economic inequalities, sexism, and in some cases homophobia. We will examine how gender, race, class, sexuality, femininity, masculinity, age, and culture have structured social movements and positioned black women and men within them. In addition, we will focus on how black women’s activists have grappled with black nationalist discourses, which have often narrowly defined the struggle for black liberation in masculinist terms. We will also examine the transformative effects of activism on Black women’s subjectivities. Interdisciplinary in approach, we will use the latest scholarship from the fields of History, Women’s Studies, Sociology, and Political Science as well as memoir and fiction to explore these issues. Students will be required to write an interpretative essay as their final project. If successful, this class should be very useful for students interested in researching and teaching in the fields of Black Women’s Studies, African American History, and African Diaspora Studies.
GWS 590 LMC: Topics in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: Women of Color Feminism
Meets with AAS 590 and LLS 596
Cacho CRN 46770 W 3:30-6
This course will explore recent theories and methods that have emerged from women of color feminism by examining the kind of work that was enabled by seminal texts, such as This Bridge Called My Back, Sister Outsider, and Borderlands. Following the work of Grace Hong in Ruptures of American Capitalism, we will consider the following questions: How and why the identity category of women of color was negated when it emerged. How might we define women of color feminist practice? How is it different from racialized immigrant women’s culture? Our discussions and reading responses will revolve around this fundamental question: How does women of color feminism challenge the theories, methods, and evidence of not only traditional disciplines but also the interdisciplines of Ethnic Studies, American Studies, and Women’s Studies?
GWS 590 CM: Topics in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: Theories of Feminist and Intersectional Pedagogies
Meets with EPS 590
Mayo CRN 46941 T 4-6:50
This course examines the link between political movements and pedagogies, analyzing feminist, intersectional, critical, critical multicultural, critical race, and queer pedagogies. Starting with the theories of feminist and critical pedagogy from the 1970s, moving to the interventions of women of color feminism in the 1980s, and finally onto the theories of feminist poststructuralism, intersectional, critical/multicultural, critical race and queer pedagogies of more recent years. Key concepts in these pedagogies include centralizing authentic and absent voices, consciousness raising, intersecting but not analogizing struggles, examining experience in the context of institutional constraint, and a range of theories of power and epistemic authority. Whatever the theoretical background, all of these pedagogies agree that education is a politicized and politicizing process and that political struggle is a process that involves learning and teaching. In addition to our engagement with theoretical issues in each of these pedagogies, this course will involve practical examination of their techniques and strategies. Students will develop pedagogical projects using the insights from theory and collaborate in critiques of those projects.
GWS 590 NB: Topics in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: The Body in Pieces: Corporeal Image in Contemporary Poetry and Film
Meets with CWL 581
Blake CRN 46015 W 3-5
This graduate seminar will address body image and its avatars in the arts. We will consult psychoanalytic theory as well as feminist and queer theory to read the message of the fragmented body represented in the contemporary context.
GWS 590 YW: Topics in Gender and Women’s Studies
Topic: Race, Gender and Performance
Meets with AAS 590
Wong, Y CRN 47057 M 2-4:50
What does it mean to "perform" race or gender? How does a body go about "performing" race and gender in theatrical contexts and in everyday life? Are performances of race and gender aesthetic, political or both? This seminar invites a close examination of racializing and gendering discourses in relationship to its affect on the form and content of performative events. Materials in the course will draw on readings and viewings across a variety of performance genres including dance, performance art, physical theater, and festivals.
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Advertising 400: Consumers and Citizens
Cate CRN 46801 W 3-5:50
Consumers and Citizens explores consumer culture in the United States. We will examine how marketing, advertising, and shopping are gendered, raced, and classed. We will also address how marketers help to create, sustain, or undermine particular race, class, and gender stereotypes. Our readings and discussions are designed to address questions about empowerment in America’s contemporary consumer culture. Whose interests are served when citizens view democracy in terms of their rights to consume?
ADV 590: Health and Promotional Cultures
Cole CRN 46805 M 3-4:50
This course provides students with a survey of the issues and debates surrounding the relationship between health and consumer culture. Although we typically consider the category of health as a given, we will consider how prevalent conceptualizations of health and related concepts are produced by and implicated in promotional discourses. Relatedly, we will examine the norms, particularly as they relate to class, race, and gender formations, implicit in such strategies. Issues that we will discuss include: diet and nutrition, the fit body, disease, risk, lifestyle, cause-related marketing, sport, and pharmacology. We will place special emphasis on the role of advertising in the production of health and disease. Grades will be based on in-class participation, weekly response papers, and a final research paper and presentation.
AFRO 342: Black Men in U.S. Society
Same as SOC 325
Hamer CRN 43468 MW 9-10:20
The sociological study of African American men in the contemporary United States. Specifically, the experiences of this demographic group as it relates to the economy, state, policy, and institutions such as family, criminal justice system, and education. Prerequisite: Introductory social science course.
Afro 598: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN AND RELATIONSHIPS
Hamer CRN 46375 M 1-3:50
This course is intended to provide students with an extensive review of the varied theoritical perspectives that are generally used to guide the study of black women, work, and families broadly. More specifically, students will review past and current literature on African American women and their relationships to work, motherhood, marriage and intimate partners. Overall, we will seek to understand the ecological links between African American women's roles as mothers, workers, and partners in a contemporary political economy.
ANTH 199: Undergraduate Open Seminar
Topic: Sex in Nature and Culture
Bunzl and Stumpf CRN 45674 MW 9-10:20
This course is a simultaneous exploration of human sexuality from a biological and cultural perspective. In regard to the former, the focus will be on evolutionary and biosocial approaches; with the latter, the emphasis will be on historical and cultural dimensions. Numerous substantive issues will be covered, including the physiological, ecological, and social aspects of human sexuality from embryology to puberty and from adulthood to old age. Other topics include variation in male and female reproductive strategies, cognitive and behavioral differences between the sexes, and cross-cultural differences in life history. We will also explore the historical and cultural foundations for such phenomena as the social traffic in women, the emergence of hetero- and homosexuality, and the various formations of transsexuality. With all of these topics, the biological and cultural perspectives will be presented as different empirical and analytic approaches to the study of human sexuality. At times, they will appear as complementary; at others, we will probe their possible incompatibility. In this sense, the course also serves as an introduction to some of the central issues of interdisciplinary scholarship, particularly the possibility of collaboration between the humanities and sciences.
ANTH 209: FOOD, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY
Same as Soc 269
Manalansan CRN 43563 TR 2-3:20
“As American as apple pie! “
“Let’s have a coffee break.”
“I can’t eat any more – I have to fit into a bikini this summer.”
“What? A Thanksgiving dinner without turkey? Impossible! “
“You have not eaten French haute cuisine? Oh you poor thing!”
“You can’t be friends with them – they eat dogs!”
These statements illustrate how food is part of our everyday life. Furthermore, they demonstrate how food goes beyond providing nutrition and biological sustenance. Food is a symbolic and material medium for establishing relationships, meanings and practices that revolve around family, kinship, religion, gender, class, ethnic, national and other collective identities. It marks routines, important life events and special holidays. Food influences how we see ourselves in relation to others. It is a vehicle for creating intimacy between and for discriminating against people.
The course introduces students to the anthropological and sociological study of food in order to better understand how food practices, culinary cultures and dietary rules are embedded in our individual and collective memories, desires, and everyday struggles. Some of the themes to be explored in this class include: cookbooks and cooking shows; diet and gender; ethnic foods; haute cuisine and class inequalities; religion and food taboos; cannibalism, fast-food: globalization; and world hunger.
This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for a UIUC Social Sciences course.
ANTH 499: EATING THE OTHER: FOOD, RACE AND BODIES
Meets with AAS 490
Manalansan