Fall 2015
Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Courses
WGSS 1104 Feminisms and the Arts
Instructor: Terri Smith
Mondays
2:35 to 5:15 PM
This course explores the intersections between feminist theory and contemporary art. We will focus primarily
on visual art with some consideration of popular culture phenomena, film, and music. We will look at the
way feminist artists have: infused new content into fine art; shifted thinking about the topics and materials of
art; critiqued and changed the language of art criticism; and were groundbreaking in developing approaches
to activism and socially-driven art—strategies that are still used today.
This class meets General Education Content Areas 1 and 4
WGSS 1121/HIST 1203 Women in History
Instructor: Carol Avery
Mondays
5:30 to 8:10 PM
This course examines the experiences of American women during the 20th century. It focuses on major
social and political changes that have impacted the lives of American women in all economic classes and
various ethnic backgrounds. Specific topics include the suffrage movement, immigration, urbanization, and
the second wave women's movement.
This class meets General Education Content Areas 1 and 4
WGSS 1105 Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Life
Instructor: Rhea Hirshman
Wednesdays
2:35 to 5:15 PM
“Is it a boy or a girl?” is usually the first question asked when a baby is born. The answer can determine
everything from the color of the baby’s clothes to the development of the teenager’s body image to the
adult’s experience of love and intimacy. This course presents basic concepts about gender and power and
introduces the discipline of women’s studies. In considering the myths about and realities of differences
between women and men, we will use readings ranging from theoretical essays to intensely personal
narratives. As we explore women’s experiences of socialization, education, body image, family, intimacy,
sexuality, work and religion, we will pay attention to differences among women of varied races, classes,
ethnic backgrounds and life experiences. Outside speakers and videos will be presented. Class discussion is a
significant part of the course.
This class meets General Education Content Areas 2 and 4
WGSS 3253 Gender Representations in U.S. Popular Culture
Instructor: Ingrid Semaan
Thursdays
2:35 to 5:15 PM
Forces in the U.S. that shape and reshape gender in popular culture.
This class meets General Education Content Area 2
SOCI 3651W Sociology of the Family
Instructor: Laura Bunyan
Tu/Th
9:55 to 11:10 AM
The American family, its changing forms and values, and the social conditions influencing it.
Note: This course is a W course
SOCI 3651 Sociology of the Family
Instructor: Laura Bunyan
Tu/Th
1:10 to 2:25 PM
The American family, its changing forms and values, and the social conditions influencing it.
HDFS 2300 Family Interaction Processes
Instructor: Anthony Lanza
Thursdays
5:30 to 8:10 PM
Family interaction: communication processes, bonding behaviors, management of conflict and aggression,
negotiation of family crisis.
HIST 3101W: History through Fiction: Gender, Race, and Class in the Gilded Age
Instructor: Mary Cygan
Wednesdays
6:00-8:40 PM
This course explores four novels set in the decades between the 1860s and 1890s: E. L. Doctorow’s
Waterworks (ghosts and grave robbers, missing children, orphanages and asylums, and gendered space in
New York after the Civil War); Marge Piercy’s Sex Wars (Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Victoria Woodhull’s 1872 campaign for president; prostitution, contraception, and a sex scandal that rocks
New York’s Protestant establishment); Frances Harper’s Iola Leroy (a young woman raised as white must
choose whether to “pass” or identify as a black woman after she learns the truth about her slave-holding
family); and Martin Duberman’s Haymarket (eight radicals fight for their lives and principles when they are
charged with throwing a bomb that kills a policeman at an 1886 demonstration).
The pace and amount of work for this course will not be greater than a typical non-W course. The three
projects and participation will count for 100% of the grade, and no midterm or final exam is required.
ENGL 3609 Women’s Literature: Mothers & Monsters in Film & Fiction
Instructor: Pam Brown
Tuesdays
2:35 to 5:15 PM
The overpowering presence of the maternal fills stories and plays about aliens, monsters, and horror of all
kinds. Why? This course explores the configurations of fear, wonder and mystery surrounding the figure of
the mother. In some stories the mother is a powerful agent of creativity and identity, embodying fantasies
about home and wholeness, but in others she focuses anxieties about female sexuality or constitutes a psychic
threat. In many tales she violates bounds of gender and species, or wields terrifying powers over life and
death. Films may include Alien, Psycho, Carrie, The Manchurian Candidate, We Need to Talk About Kevin,
Rosemary’s Baby, Antonia’s Line, and All About My Mother, and readings may include Indian and Biblical
creation myths, Euripides’ Medea, Beowulf, Macbeth, Shelley’s Frankenstein, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House,
Morrison’s Beloved, Butler’s Bloodchild, and Bechdel’s Are You My Mother?
WGSS 3998 Black Women’s Feminism and Activism from Abolition to the Civil Rights Movement
Instructor: Donna Andrade
Tuesdays
5:30 to 8:10 PM
This course will explore the range and impact of black women feminists, theorists, and writers in the United
States. We will examine some of the historical forces which have silenced, distorted, provoked, and inspired
the myriad perspectives of black women from the late 1800s up to the Civil Rights movement. This course
welcomes students from all different backgrounds (race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic
status, religion, etc.) to study and identify with black women as models for self-expression and autonomy.
Thus, the course assignments/learning activities are designed to help students examine how the works of
black feminists have influenced and shaped the American landscape as well as their own voices and
perspectives, including those of students who are not black women.
*** You need just 5 WGSS classes for the minor in WGSS (one can be at the
1000 level). Contact Ingrid.semaan@uconn.edu for more information***