General Theoretical Courses on Gender Studies

ANSC 125. Gender, Sexuality, and Society (4)   
How are gender and sexuality shaped by cultural ideologies, social institutions, and social change? We explore their connections to such dimensions of society as kinship and family, the state, religion, and popular culture. We also examine alternative genders/sexualities cross-culturally. [Formerly known as ANGN 125.] Credit not allowed for both ANGN 125 and ANSC 125. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.

CGS 101. Gender, Modernity, and Globalization
Considers how men and women around the globe are affected differently by modernity, modernization, and globalization. Possible topics: international consumer culture; international divisions of labor; construction of sexuality and gender in context of global movements and migrations of people, capital, culture.

COCU 132. Gender and Media (4)     This course examines the work of women artists and the history of the representation of women in the media, from the beginnings of cinema to the present, and offers a basic introduction to feminist media theory. It focuses on the representation of gender, and narrative and experimental strategies used by women media makers, and the role of the female spectator. Prerequisite: COCU 100 or consent of the instructor.

COCU 139. Reproductive Discourse and Gender (4)     In this course we will examine as a problem of discourse and culture the controversies surrounding the development and use of the new technologies of human genetics and reproduction. Of particular interest will be the way in which these new technological practices and processes test, erode, or undermine traditional understanding of “human nature” and relationship while enforcing traditional understanding of gender. Prerequisite: COCU 100 or CGS 2A or 2B or consent of instructor.

COSF 185. Gender, Labor, and Culture in the Global Economy (4)     Course examines the ways in which women participate in the global economy as the producers of consumer products and of cultural goods like entertainment and information. It also examines power as it relates to women's labor in producing such material and cultural goods. Prerequisite: COSF 100 or consent of instructor.

ETHN 183. Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Class (4)     Gender is often neglected in studies of ethnic/racial politics. This seminar explores the relationship of race, ethnicity, class, and gender by examining the participation of working class women of color in community politics and how they challenge mainstream political theory.

ETHN 256. Gender, Sexuality, and Race
This course studies the body cross-culturally as a site of the construction of gender, sex, ethnic, and racial identities

LTSP 175. Gender, Sexuality, and Culture
This course will examine issues of gender, sexuality, and culture in Spanish, Latin American, and/or Chicana/o literatures. Repeatable for credit as topics, texts, and historical periods vary.

POLI115A. Gender and Politics (4)     
Our understanding of politics, power, conflict, and quality continue to be challenged and transformed by considering gender as it intersects with nationality, race, class, and ethnicity. We will consider the importance of gender in each of the subfields of political science.

Soc/B 118. Sociology of Gender (4)     
An analysis of the social, biological, and psychological components of becoming a man or a woman. The course will survey a wide range of information in an attempt to specify what is distinctively social about gender roles and identities; i.e., to understand how a most basic part of the “self”–womanhood or manhood–is socially defined and socially learned behavior. Prerequisite: upper-division standing.

Soc/C 139. Social Inequality: Class, Race, and Gender (4)     
Massive inequality in wealth, power, and prestige is ever-present in industrial societies. In this course, causes and consequences of class, gender, racial and ethnic inequality (“stratification”) will be considered through examination of classical and modern social science theory and research. Prerequisite: upper-division standing.

Theoretical/Feminist Theory Gender Studies Courses

CGS 100. Conceptualizing Gender: Theories and Methods
This course will compare the uses of gender as a category of analysis across academic disciplines in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences with particular attention to research methodologies: biotechnology, biological determinism, eugenics, plagiarism and invisible work, information technologies and access, and the politics of museums.

CGS 103. Feminist Theory
An interdisciplinary course in feminist theory. Topics may range from a general survey of feminist theory in a variety of disciplines to a more focused interdisciplinary theoretical topic such as postmodernism and feminism. May be taken for credit three times when topics vary.

COCU 138. Feminist Theory
This class is designed to initiate students into the pleasures, pains, and perplexities of critical thinking about gender. We will survey a wide variety of thinkers and issues, consider some of the historical as well as con-temporary debates within western feminist thought, and develop tools of analysis for future work.

ETHN 257 A-B Social Theory
An intensive survey of social and cultural theory, focusing on how constructions of science, language, politics, and social inequality shaped early modernity, Romantic Nationalism, Marxism, cultural relativity, psychoanalysis, and fin de siècle social thought. The second quarter surveys poststructuralist, postmodern, feminist, Subaltern Studies, globalization, and other critiques. ETHN 257A is not a prerequisite for ETHN 257B.

HIGR 205. Feminist Historical Studies (4)    
An introduction to feminist historical studies, this course is designed for interested graduate students from all history field groups. Graduate students from other disciplines are also encouraged to participate. The course will provide students a rigorous training in women's history, in the feminist theories that undergird that scholarship, and in the emergent field of gender analysis. The particular content of the course will change from year to year, but each course will include theoretical texts, historical case studies, and primary sources. Readings will be drawn from different times and places. This course is strongly recommended for those preparing minor fields in women's history. The course can be repeated twice for credit.

POLI116A. Feminist Theory (4)     
Readings in historical and contemporary feminist theory; development of gender as a category of political analysis; alternative perspectives on core concepts and categories in feminist thought.

SOC/G 267. Sociology of Gender
Course examines social construction of gender focusing on recent contributions to the field, including micro- and macro-level topics, i.e., social psychological issues in the development of gender, gender stratification in the labor force, gender and social protest, feminist methodologies.

Gender Studies in Latin America

HILA 161/261. History of Women in Latin America
A broad historical overview of Hispanic-American women's history focusing on issues of gender, sexuality, and the family as they relate to women, as well as the historiographical issues in Latin American and Chicana women's history

HILA 164/264. Women's Work and Family Life in Latin America (4)
Inside or outside of the household, women have always worked. Where do we find Latin American women, how has the labor market changed, how was and is women's work perceived, what were the consequences of changing work patterns on family life? Requirements will vary for undergraduate, M.A., and Ph.D. students. Graduate students are required to submit a more substantial piece of work. Prerequisite: upper-division standing or consent of instructor and department stamp.

POLI 134P. Organizing Women in Latin America
Survey of women's participation in formal political institutions in Latin America (public bureaucracies, political parties, trade unions, peasant organizations), the politics of gender in recent women's movements, and the impact on women of democratization and neoliberal economic policies: revolutionary episodes; psychological theories; ideology and belief systems; coups; insurgencies; civil wars; terrorism and revolutionary outcomes.