SPRING 2010 WOMEN’S STUDIES COURSES
If you have any questions about the particular courses, please contact the professor.
However, if you have any questions about the Women’s Studies Program or the
minor in Women’s Studies, please contact Karin Breuer, Coordinator of Women’s
Studies, kbreuer@ithaca.edu, 418 Muller Faculty Center, 274-1489.
ARTH 24300: GENDER AND VISUAL CULTURE, Jennifer Germann
This course examines a wide variety of images, including paintings, sculpture, and
photographs, as well as advertisements and film, in relation to the issues of gender,
sexuality, race, and class. We will discuss these representations in terms of both the
history of art and feminist theory. A central goal of the course will be to contextualize
representations of femininity and masculinity within particular historical and cultural
formations, to analyze the beliefs and attitudes held by their creators and shared or
resisted by those who viewed them. We will then examine contemporary visual culture
from this larger, historical and critical position.
CSCR 35100: RACE AND SEXUAL POLITICS, Paula Ioanide
This course will explore how dominant representations of Black sexuality, femininity,
and masculinity in American culture and politics influence the acceptability of racial
violence and inequality. Particular attention will be paid to the relationship between
Black sexual politics, welfare reform, the prison industrial complex, and intimate
domestic relationships. The course will focus on Black feminist resistance to derogatory
representations of Black sexuality, as well as propositions of anti-racist reproductive
justice.
ENGL 35100: GIRLHOODS IN LITERATURE, Katharine Kittredge
This course will look at the emerging and changing image of girlhoods from the 18th to
the 21st century as it is reflected primarily in the texts written for an audience of young
girls in children’s books, young adult literature, and some canonical literature with strong
female characters. We will be looking at the texts to gain an understanding of the
evolution of children’s literature and to consider the extent to which these iconic images
of girlhood reflect the ways in which the roles of women changed over the three
centuries. Possible texts might include: Goody Two Shoes, Pamela, Jane Eyre, Alice in
Wonderland, Little Women, Eloise, Pippi Longstocking, Ramona, Harriet the Spy, and
Speak.
HIST 20800: HIDDEN FROM HISTORY: AMERICAN HERSTORY, Vivian
Bruce Conger
This course is specifically designed to teach you to think critically, analytically, and
contextually about women’s lives since the arrival of Europeans on the North American
continent. It is intended to introduce students to the methodology of women’s history in
addition to exploring the too-often hidden and forgotten gender dimensions of many
aspects of the American past. Both continuity and change in women’s lives will be
explored from a wide variety of topics including Native American women, AfricanAmerican women, immigrant women, the family, class, politics, reform movements,
religion, sexuality, and the interplay between real and expected social values. Readings
will be based on both secondary and primary sources. Because I believe strongly in
letting women tell their own stories you will have many opportunities to “hear women’s
voices” through letters, diaries, journals, and autobiographies.
MUNM 25600: WOMEN IN POPULAR MUSIC: FROM BESSIE SMITH TO
MTV, Louise Mygatt
An examination of the lives and contributions of women in popular American music of
the 20th century, focusing on their role in society as well as the challenges they have
faced in developing their professional and personal lives, raising issues relevant to both
men and women. The development of American popular culture is viewed in the context
of its political climate and in terms of its roots in African American music, country and
western music, and the music of American musical theater. The course focuses on the
women practitioners in the genres of blues, gospel, country, and folk music, musical
theater, rock, and contemporary pop music. The music is examined in detail, and
listening and analytical skills are developed. This course is designed for non-music
majors, with no musical background necessary, and gender and racial issues raised are
relevant both to men and women. This course may be used as a music elective for the
bachelor of music degree or as a liberal arts elective for the bachelor of arts in music
degree. Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. 3 credits
POLT 14100: POWER: RACE, SEX AND CLASS, Zillah Eisenstein
We will deal with the distribution of power in the U.S. according to economic class, sex,
and race hierarchies. We discuss what power is, where it comes from, where it is located.
This involves the analysis of power in terms of issues of capitalism, globalism,
patriarchy, and racism, as well as the specific issues they raise for policy making,
persons, the family, and corporate power. The analysis will hopefully help us understand
the relations of power defining black working class women, white male workers, white
middle class women, etc. The premise of the course is that in order to understand
capitalist society one must understand the racialized aspects of sexuality as a form of
power, as well as the sexualized aspects of race. Some specific topics discussed are: the
present global and national economic crisis; changing aspects of the nation-state;
Bush/Cheney’s wars of/on terror; the Gulf Wars 1991-2009; the Chilean 1973 Coup;
Obama’s politics of hope; the changing realities of the middle/working class; the global
racialized sexual division of labor; the rise of China in the global market; the O.J.
Simpson trial, and so on.
POLT 14100: FEMINIST THEORY(ies), Zillah Eisenstein
This course introduces and then explores the multiple meanings and varieties of
feminisms. In order to do this we also interrogate the very meanings and multiplicities of
sex and gender and race. We start with clarifying several forms of ‘western feminisms’
and then critically compare these strains to feminisms defined by women of color—
African American, Chicana/Mexicana, inside the US. The course also examines
feminisms in Eastern Europe and feminisms in several Arab and/or Muslim countries.
The course will end with an examination of feminisms in the Afghan and Iraq wars.
Students are asked to assess the similarities and the differences that exist within each
feminism and between them and to query whether feminism is inherently ‘western’ as it
so often is thought to be, or rather, a more complex mix of global and cultural and
economic flows.
PSYC 26100: PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN, Carla Golden
This course is designed to introduce students to contemporary psychological research and
feminist theories on a variety of topics related to girls and women’s lives, including the
social construction of sex and gender; gender similarities and differences; the racialized
gender socialization of girls; puberty and adolescence, friendships, sexuality, intimate
relationships, work, parenting, mental health, and violence against women. Throughout,
attention will be paid to differences among women and the impact of class, culture,
race/ethnicity, and sexual preference in their lives. Critical to a consideration of each of
these topics is an understanding of the social and cultural contexts in which psychological
development takes place, specifically the gender and racial inequality still pervasive
across the globe. We will consider the causes, consequences, and changing face of such
inequalities in the lives of girls and women today. The course will also include daily
integration of contemporary news related to issues of gender and feminism around the
world, as well as a focus on feminist movements and strategies for social change.
RLST 37600: SOUTH ASIAN RELIGIONS: GENDER, SEXUALITY AND THE
BODY, Amanullah De Sondy
This course aims to explore gender, sexuality and the body in South Asian Religions
(specifically Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism) and the way in which such notions do or do not
shape their core beliefs. Such discussions will also include aspects of South Asian
history, geography and politics. This course will include a mixture of textual and visual
learning, including teaching an investigation into each faith’s sacred scripture, exploring
their interpretation placing texts in the context of male and female activity – making
effective use of South Asian film and the arts.
SOCI 21000: WOMEN'S LIVES, Judith Barker
To understand women's experiences in our society from a sociological and feminist
perspective as well as recognizing the differences among women by age, class, race, and
sexual orientation. Areas covered include social construction of gender; gender and
culture; sexuality; work; health and reproduction; religion; crime and deviance; power
and politics; social reform; and new directions.
SOCI 31600: WOMEN AND HEALTH, Nina Cummings
Analysis of the conditions for and experiences of women as patients, from birth control to
birthing to aging; analysis of women as health care providers, physicians, nurses, lay and
alternative healers; and analysis of the women's health care movement. Examination of
these issues within a broad historical and comparative framework (e.g., 19th-century
feminism, 20th-century third-world activism).
SOCI 32500: RACE, CLASS, GENDER, AND SEXUALITIES, Judith Barker
An analysis of how race, class, gender and sexualities as systems of oppression intersect
with each other to create an overall matrix of domination. Students will be given tools to
analyze the complex ways in which systems of oppression interact with each other and
also reinforce each other. This course is conceptual, rather than empirical. Students will
learn to explore the many ways in which our lives are shaped by various combinations of
these four “master statuses.” Prerequisites: SOCI 10100 or SOCI 10200; two additional
courses in the social sciences.
SOCI 43600: SELECTED TOPICS IN SOCIAL CHANGE: ECOFEMINISM,
Judith Barker
In this seminar we will work together to understand ecofeminist theory, issues and
activism. We will read a broad range of ecofeminist theory. Some of the themes we will
cover are: nature, animals and male power; fertility and male power; spirituality and
ecology; food production; globalization and the military; race and class and pollution;
and women’s environmental activism.
WMST 10000: INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN’S STUDIES, Vera Whisman
Women's studies provides a critical perspective that examines the world and everything
that happens within it from the viewpoints of women. It encourages new ways of seeing
and thinking about our world and its people and institutions. Interdisciplinary
introduction to the questions, findings, methods, and theories of women's studies
scholarship. Examines how multiple forms of feminism shape the practice of women's
studies and increasingly recognize differences among women. Examines feminism(s) as
well as the diverse conditions of women's lives and experiences in the United States.
WMST 21000: Green Grrrls and Earth Mothers, Vera Whisman
Green Grrrls and Earth Mothers explores the many connections between women and the
environment, from the symbolic association of women and nature, to the ways that global
warming is already impacting the lives of women in developing countries. Throughout
the course, we will examine the lives of women who work to bring about a world that is
ecologically sustainable and socially just. Green Grrrls is an interdisciplinary course,
utilizing methods and materials from throughout the social sciences and the humanities.