The Gender Issue
Women’s Studies, Spring 2016
Women’s Studies Courses for Fall 2016
To complete a minor in Women’s Studies, students must take History
130 (Introduction to Women’s Studies) plus 5 additional courses drawn
from at least 2 different disciplines. These courses often overlap nicely
with chosen major fields and with the gender studies pathway. For Spring
2016, Women’s Studies minors can choose from the following courses:
HIST 130
Intro to Women’s Studies
Dual Listed as WMST 130 An introduction to Women’s Studies, a field of scholarship
dedicated to the inclusion of women’s experiences and feminist perspectives in the academy.
The course places the emergence of women’s studies in an historical perspective, then
examines the transformative power of women’s studies in a number of fields. The goal will be
to assess how including women changes academic methods, goals, and outcomes. Offered
annually.
(11724) Wednesday at 8:00- 9:15 am and Friday at 11:00-12:15 am, taught by Kristin Bayer
PSYC 331
Psychology of Women
The psychology of women course is conceptualized within traditional psychological as well as
feminist theory. A survey of findings on women from various fields (personality, cognitive,
physiological, social, developmental and abnormal psychology) will be presented. The course offeres
discussion and study of the development of women's roles and personality across the lifespan,
drawing from the work of a variety of authors. Emphasis will be placed on the concepts of resilience
in women, using examples from historical as well as current figures. It weaves together research and
theory from several areas of psychology (developmental, social- personality, cross cultural, and
clinical) as well as from related academic fields. Critical emphasis of the disciplines include gender
similarities and differences (myths and stereotypes associated with men and women, gender
comparisons research, and origins of any identified differences) and topics specified to women.
Prerequisite: PSYC 101
(10662) Monday at 11:00-12:15 pm and Wednesday at 9:30-10:45 am
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HIST 314
Witchcraft and Sorcery
The early modern concern about witches and the diabolic intervention they harnessed through
sorcery or magic is one of the most debated historical phenomena. This class explores the
central issues that historians have grappled with when considering the preoccupation with
witchcraft in the fifteenth-eighteenth centuries. Main topics of discussion include "popular"
versus "learned" religion; issues of gender in the witch hunts; geographical comparisons of the
process; the effect of accusations on social relationships; and the role of Catholicism and
Protestantism in the rise of state-sponsored persecution. Prerequisite: Six credits in history.
(12337) Tuesday at 6:30-9:00 pm, Taught by Janine Peterson.
COM 400
Gender, Culture and Communication
This course explores the dynamics between gender, communication, and culture in today’s society.
Areas studied will include the following: how communication creates and perpetuates gender roles;
how human behavior reflects socially created gender roles; how people can act and communicate to
improve their individual and collective lives in terms of gender roles. This is an experiential course in
which students will connect theory and research with their own lives.
Prerequisite: Junior standing
(10850) Monday at 11:00-12:15 and Wednesday as 9:30-10:45 am, taught by Shannon Roper (10851)
Monday and Thursday at 12:30-1:45 pm, taught by Shannon Roper
ENG 220
Literature and Gender
This course will examine literary texts with special emphasis on gender issues. Questions may be
raised, for instance, about gender definitions and roles, gender and language, gender as a locus of
economic, political, social, or literary power. Topics will vary from semester to semester. The course
may be organized around a group of writers, a historical period or movement, a genre, a theme, or a
combination of these.
(10203) Monday and Thursday at 8:00-9:15 am
(11447) Monday and Thursday at 9:30- 10:45 am
(10204) Online, taught by Angela Laflen
(11579) Abroad, TBA
Special Topics Courses
ENG/ SPAN 392
Special Topics: Latin American Women Writers
This course is based on discussion and analysis of representative works by 20th and 21st-century
women writers from the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America. Readings will provide a diverse
overview of the central themes, sensibilities, and aesthetic directions of Latin American women
writers with attention to their historical and cultural contexts as well as theoretical approaches to their
work. [Discussions will be in English. Students seeking credit for Spanish will be expected to read
and write in Spanish (beyond the 200-level).]
(11723) Monday and Thursday at 9:30- 10:45 am, taught by, Ivette Romer
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ENG 293
Special Topics: Children’s Literature
This special-topics course will place you in conversation with children’s picture and chapter books
drawn from a wide variety of genres and time periods. What happens when we read Beatrix Potter's
"The Tale of Peter Rabbit" alongside "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food" and The One
and Only Ivan? We will consider theories of human development; pedagogy; gender and sexuality;
and racial and ethnic identity. Among the big-picture questions we will consider are: (1) What kinds
of agency do children’s books provide for juvenile protagonists as individuals? (2) In what ways do
our course texts support or challenge patriarchal, heteronormative, and racist perspectives? (3) What
common threads (if any) connect early folk literature and didactic works to more recent work
targeted to children?
(12069) Tuesday and Friday at 9:30-10:45 am, taught by Moira Fitzgibbons
PHIL 292
Special Topics: Philosophy & Psychoanalysis
This course explores Freud and post-Freudian psychoanalytic theory and its relationship to key
questions in philosophy. The course will approach psychoanalytic theory from the perspective of
certain philosophical concerns: for example, what is a human subject?, what is human freedom and
why does it matter?, what is the nature of human desire? what is happiness and can humans be happy?
The primary readings for the course will focus on the texts of Freud and Lacan, as well as works by
Melanie Klein, Julia Kristeva, and Luce Irigaray. Prerequisite: PHIL 101.
(12260) Monday and Thursday at 2:00-3:15 pm, taught by Geroganna Ulary
HONR 380
Women and Art part II
This seminar will begin by examining the careers of the most productive and influential women
painters working in the Western World from the late 18th century to today. We will analyze the
professional position of these artists and the ways in which they overcame the conditions of their
gender, the economics of art production and contemporary cultural contexts. We will also study the
influence of the Feminism Movement on both their careers and their artistic productions.
Then, we will look at depictions of women by both male and female painters to see whether they
reveal different and gender-based attitudes in their art.
(11348) Monday and Thursday 2:00-3:15, taught by Anne Bertrand-Dewsnap
Gender Studies Pathway
Students can choose a Gender Studies Pathway to fulfill requirements in the Marist Core. The
Gender Studies Pathway focuses on gender as a significant cultural and cognitive category.
Courses examine how gender has influenced the lives, status, and opportunities of all people,
and attend to ways in which gender intersects with race, class, and ethnicity to shape social
structures and individual experiences.
Each Pathway must contain 4 courses covering a minimum of 3 different disciplines. Honors
and special-topics courses may be used in Pathways if they have been approved for this
purpose.
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Writing + Sexuality Salon Fall 2015
By Molly Scott ‘17
On Thursday, November
12,
Marist’s
English
department and the School
of Liberal Arts hosted
“Writing + Sexuality,” a
writing salon during which
Melissa Febos, author of
the acclaimed novel Whip
Smart,
talked
with
students about writing
nonfiction on a subject
they
may
not
be
comfortable talking about
publically.
“I'm
un-embarrassable"
Febos told the students
that congregated in the
Henry Hudson room. After writing and publishing her novel about her secret life as a
dominatrix there was very little that she could be asked that would make her uncomfortable.
"You have to submit to the awkwardness," she told the room.
Febos explained that to “essay” something is to test, to try to understand a memory or an
experience. Being able to write about something as personal as one’s sexuality is a difficult
task, but, as Febos said, writing is a tool to process intense memories that may have been
incomprehensible before. After sharing excerpts from her writing, Febos led students in
writing their own short nonfiction stories.
Students in attendance appreciated the opportunity to have a frank conversation about
sexuality and to learn techniques to explore this subject through writing. As Molly
Costello, Public Relations major and Writing minor, explained, “sexuality is a subject that
is often not discussed.” Costello stressed that focusing on this topic in the context of the
writing salon provided her with “new ideas of how to write about myself. I realized the
importance of moving past the embarrassment our society often associates with topics such as
sexuality."
This sense of discovery, both in terms of learning about one’s self and about the craft of
writing, is what the writing salons are all about. As Professor Thomas Zurhellen, chair of
the English Department, said when asked about the importance of the writing salons, “They
combine the writing students with students of other disciplines such as digital media, art,
science; all these other disciplines that don’t, at first glance, focus on writing but if you look
hard enough you’ll find that every discipline depends on writing.”
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Help Us Spread the Word…
#Femfog and Blurred Lines:
The Risks of Academic Feminism in Public and Online
Monday, April 18 at 3:30, Henry Hudson Room
While think pieces frequently encourage academics to become public
intellectuals, and online tools or social media make connecting with the
public increasingly easy, this move is not a simple one. Online
networks offer non-traditional means of connecting to feminist
communities and offering feminist scholarship available to the public.
They also bring risks from virulent anti-feminist pockets of the Internet
community and sometimes from within the academic community itself.
Dr. Jennifer Edwards will explore the benefits and challenges of being a
feminist online, as well as the ways such a journey mirrors the
experience of feminists in the academic world offline.
Save the Date: Fall 2016 Celebration of the Women and
Society Conference
Friday, Oct. 28, 5 pm:
Public Lecture by Hazel Carby, PhD, Yale University
More details coming soon!
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Opportunities to Get Involved
F.E.M.M.E
Feminine Empowerment Motivating and Managing
Education
Marist's newest club is committed to building a space on campus that will provide and
encourage authentic images of female empowerment. Help us empower all women on
campus and join our conversation every Thursday at 9:15 p.m.
Locations will be posted on our Facebook page. Our website address is:
https://maristfemme.wordpress.com/
Any questions, please email: sara.craft1@marist.edu
RGRG: The Race and Gender Reading Group
Race and gender affect us all, whether one is relatively privileged by one’s race or gender
identification or not. The Race and Gender Reading Group (RGRG) aims to contribute to the
campus discussion of these issues by providing an interdisciplinary setting in which students and
faculty can look at readings together and engage in discussion of the points they raise and related
topics.
Each meeting is led by a facilitator who chooses a reading, generally an academic paper or news
article that they find interesting. Both students and faculty can serve as facilitators, offering a
unique experience to students interested in developing their leadership skills. In the past, we
have examined issues of race and gender as they arise in philosophy, history, and popular
culture, as well as current events, and we welcome an even wider array of disciplinary
perspectives.
We have explored the metaphysics of gender and race, the nature of oppression, the use of
blackface and cross-dressing in historic ritual, diversity in comics, and female terrorists.
If you are interested in joining the group’s iLearn site and getting on the mailing list, please email Cathleen.Muller@marist.edu.
Our meeting schedule varies from semester to semester, but if you are on the list, you will
receive that information when it is finalized.
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History Students Document History of Hudson Valley Women
By Molly Scott '17
Students enrolled in Dr. Sally Dwyer-McNulty’s U.S Women’s History class during the Fall
2015 semester not only read about women’s history but actively participated in
documenting it as well. The students conducted oral histories of individuals living in the
Hudson River Valley area. Nine groups interviewed eight women and one man from a
multitude of backgrounds including local business, health, education, and politics. Pictured at
left are students Jeraldo Vasquez '18 and Miranda Perez '18 with Mr. Thomas Wade, who
served as Marist's Dean of Students in 1968, the first year that the College became fully coeducational.
Although Dr. Dwyer-McNulty has taught this course in the past, this was the first time she
included a community engagement component. She redesigned the course as part of her work as
a Faculty Fellow for Marist’s Center for Civic Engagement and Leadership (CCEL). The
primary goal of this Community Based Learning class was to combine the in-class
academic experience with an active, reflective component. This encourages students not only
to make connections between lived experience and historical texts, but also to give something
back to the community. Altogether, twelve faculty fellows will offer courses in different
disciplines throughout the 2015-2016 school year that have been redesigned to include
Community Based Learning. Dr. Melissa Gaeke, Director of the CCEL, noted that this form of
learning “deepens what students learn in an interactive and personal way and makes the
experience much more exciting.” Dr. Dwyer-McNulty agrees that adding the community
component created unique learning opportunities for students to hone their communications
skills, conduct research-based interviews, handle technical issues on location, and meet new
people.
In order to prepare students to effectively conduct these oral histories, Dr. Dwyer-McNulty
held classes on troubleshooting the kinds of issues that one can face with oral history,
learning about the different technological tools and apps that could be used to conduct the
interviews, and writing good interview questions. The class has been revised to contain this
oral history component as well as, Dr. Dwyer-McNulty notes, having students “write a final
paper called a ‘Connection Reflection paper,’ which connects themes and issues that we have
talked about, with regard to women’s history, to the experiences of contemporary women.”
Students and Dr. Dwyer-McNulty agree that their efforts were well worthwhile. Dr.
McNulty’s favorite part of the project was seeing the excitement on her student’s faces and in
their e-mails when talking about the success of their interviews. Jillian Lentinello '19, who
interviewed Ms.Tina Robie, Vice-President of Organizational Development at Dutchess County
Planned Parenthood, explains that “talking with someone who has helped the growth of
gender equality and female choice” ultimately “changed the way I viewed feminism and
female empowerment.” Alyssa Overton '19, who interviewed Prof. Rose Marie Castano,
Marist Legacy Society founding member and life coach, really enjoyed learning-by-doing:
“This oral history made the class interesting because it allowed me to make a real
connection with what we learned in class to a woman who did so many positive things in
her life.” Ms. Overton is pictured above, left, with Prof. Castano and classmate Victoria Lyman
'18.
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The students’ work will serve a valuable purpose in the larger community as well. As Dr.
Dwyer- McNulty explains, “There is so much history that hasn’t been written and these
[interviews] are going to be primary sources.” The interviews will be logged and included in
the Marist Archives and Special
Collections, eventually creating
a repository of primary sources
for future researchers to have
access to
and use. This
repository will preserve the
stories of Hudson Valley women
that have not necessarily been
told before and that might not
show up in other types of
historical accounts. As such, the
project
is
an
important
contribution to women’s history,
giving women the chance to
speak about what they believe to
be noteworthy in their unique
social and historical contexts.
Stay in Touch with Women’s Studies!
We welcome your ideas, questions, and announcements of upcoming
events or calls for papers.
1) Join our Facebook group “Marist Women’s Studies”
2) To join a Marist Women’s Studies email list to receive
announcements from the program, please send your contact information
to angela.laflen@marist.edu or kristin.bayer@marist.edu
3) Check us out on the web at
http://www.marist.edu/liberalarts/womensstudies/
4) Contact the co-directors at kristin.bayer@marist.edu and
angela.laflen@marist.edu
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