ARCC SUBMISSION LEARNING OUTCOMES
GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
CORE COURSES
GEND 1025 INTRODUCTION TO GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Faculty
Sal Renshaw, Wendy Peters, Renée Valiquette
Calendar Course Description:
This course will introduce students to some of the central themes, debates and issues that
shape and inform the program in Gender Equality and Social Justice. In particular this course will
foreground the intersections of race, class, sexuality, ability as well as the effects of colonization
in order to examine popular issues and controversial debates that have been central to the
development of women’s studies, gender studies, and equality rights movements. Through an
interdisciplinary examination of our systems of knowledge and social institutions, the course will
reflect on the way our public and private relationships as well as the quality of our lives continue
to be shaped in relation to these systems and institutions. The course offers a range of
perspectives on the work, status, and the lives of women and men in our local, national and
global communities. It also provides an overview of the history of gender through the various
contributions of women and men to changing the social, economic and legal status of
disadvantaged persons and groups.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate understanding of the key social justice and equality movements in the
West, particularly over the 20th century
2. Demonstrate understanding of and use an intersectional approach/methodology in
written and oral analyses of injustice and inequality
3. Clearly articulate to a lay person how the central identity categories of sex, gender,
race, class and sexuality continue to operate to mediate power and privilege across
global and local contexts
4. Begin to apply the conceptual and theoretical lexicon of the discipline to ‘real world’
examples of injustice and inequality.
5. Write an argument based research essay on a theme in the course which demonstrates
acquired knowledge rather than either so called common sense or received ‘wisdom’
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. Confidence in asserting scholarly research based knowledge, rather than opinion, of key
social justice issues, both historical and contemporary.
2. A developing ability in appropriately use the conceptual and theoretical language that
characterizes the discipline.
3. A modest understanding of the way power informs privilege and opportunity
4. A promising ability to engage in reasoned, informed debate and analysis of what are
often highly emotive and contentious issues.
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GEND 3306 THEORIES OF POWER AND EQUALITY
Faculty various
Calendar Course Description:
This course provides a broad historical examination of theories and perspectives of power,
sexual difference, and gender equality. We will trace the relationship between the history of
ideas and significant social events and revolutionary political activism that have taken place over
the centuries. Our overview will include consideration of mainstream theoretical traditions,
such as humanism, liberalism, socialism, and psychoanalysis, and their implications in the theory
and development of race, class and gender analysis, feminist theories and perspectives, and social
justice.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Clearly identify through written assignments, in-class dialogue and oral presentations the
key theorists, debates and questions central to the study of power and inequality
2. Critically assess the ways in which theories of power, justice and equality have changed
over time and in relation to cultural contexts
3. Demonstrate understanding of and explain the central place of power within social
institutions, discourses, bodies, desires, subjectivities, and agencies within hegemonic
systems
4. Demonstrate understanding of, explain and assess a range of theories—for example:
feminist anti-racism, post structural and post colonialism, as well as legal rights based
theories of equality—regarding how power is embodied as always raced, gendered,
classed, etc. and how it is differentially experienced by differently sexed subjects.
5. Explain and investigate how power relations are also spatially and geographically
organized and produced within local, regional, national, international, transnational
contexts
6. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. Depth of knowledge and familiarity with the key issues, methodologies and theoretical
concerns critical to studies of power
2. An enhanced ability to apply theory such as, feminist anti-racist interlocking oppressions
theory, to the research and examination of the effects of power on everyday life in local,
national and global contexts.
3. A developed ability to assess, critically reflect upon, and critically engage complex theory
and arguments both individually and collaboratively with others.
GEND 4205 HONOURS SEMINAR
Faculty
Various
Calendar Course Description:
Studies in Gender Equality and Social Justice is an interdisciplinary program that examines the
social and cultural construction of gender, and its role and impact on social relations,
institutions, and related systems of knowledge. It offers students a range of interdisciplinary
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perspectives on the work, status, and lives of women in our local, national, and global
communities, and the contributions of men and women to changing our social, political,
economic, and legal status. This seminar will offer students advanced studies in topics related to
these themes. The topics will change from year to year
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate a considerable familiarity with the key theories and methodologies
informing social justice and equality analyses particularly in the West, and particularly
over the 20th century
2. Demonstrate understanding of and use an intersectional approach/methodology in
written and oral analyses of injustice and inequality
3. Clearly articulate to a lay person how the central identity categories of sex, gender,
race, class and sexuality continue to operate to mediate power and privilege across
global and local contexts and in relation to the specific theme of the chosen topic
4. Demonstrate a sophisticated ability to apply the conceptual and theoretical lexicon of
the discipline to ‘real world’ examples of injustice and inequality.
5. Develop a clear, coherent thesis proposal and abstract.
6. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses both in a substantial written project/essay
and in verbal analyses
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. Significant depth of knowledge and familiarity with the key issues, methodologies and
theoretical concerns critical to developing a sophisticated understanding of the social
and political production of inequality and injustice
2. An significantly enhanced ability to apply complex theory such as, feminist anti-racism
interlocking oppressions theory, to the research and examination of the effects of
power on everyday life in local, national and global contexts.
3. A comprehensive ability to assess, critically reflect upon, and critically engage complex
theory and arguments both individually and collaboratively with others.
GROUP 1 – CULTURE AND CRITICISM
GEND 2026 MAKEOVER CULTURE
Faculty
Beth Pentney
Calendar Course Description:
Whether we choose to undergo elective cosmetic surgery, revamp our houses or transform
ourselves with diet and exercise we are all a part of a makeover culture. From a variety of
theoretical perspectives, students will study film, print, and online texts to analyze the ways that
gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, agency, and authenticity are figured in makeover culture.
Themes of transformation, good citizenship, self-discipline, beauty, freakishness and
consumerism will be explored.
EXPECTATIONS
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By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Apply a critical understanding of key concepts and theoretical approaches to makeover
culture in writing and orally.
2. Analyze themes within makeover culture from a feminist cultural studies perspective
and evaluate the arguments of scholars in the field.
3. Critique mainstream media texts such as print ads, TV series, and magazines for their
reproduction of hegemonic representations of gender, race, class and sexuality.
4. Investigate the power dynamics at work in media texts using feminist cultural studies
theories and methods and analyze their political implications.
5. Develop original research on an aspect of makeover culture using primary texts and
feminist cultural studies theories and methods.
6. Debate the impact(s) of makeover culture from a feminist cultural studies perspective.
7. Demonstrate enhanced skills using online learning tools such as blackboard.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge of feminist and communications scholarship in the area of
makeover culture, particularly with regard to themes of power, agency, embodiment,
discipline, and consumption.
2. The ability to support rigorous, original, and critically engaged positions on aspects of
makeover culture using academic sources and media texts both orally and in written
work.
3. The capacity to work collaboratively in a group and present research findings to the
class on a topic related to makeover culture.
4. The ability to investigate and evaluate the intersectional gendered, racialized, classed and
sexed power dynamics at work in media texts, medical discourses, advertising
campaigns, and resistance movements related to makeover culture.
GEND 2045 WOMEN AND ART HISTORY
Faculty
N/A
Calendar Course Description:
This course examines the ideologies that have shaped women as producers of art and as
representations in art. It considers the structures of power that enable or legitimize certain
artists and art practices while simultaneously excluding others across diverse social, historical,
and cultural contexts. Central themes include sexuality and cultural difference, and topics may
include feminist re-readings of male-produced art, gender analyses of the notion of genius,
representations of the female body, and critical evaluations of the historical canon of art. This
course may be credited towards a Major in Fine Arts (Art History and Visual Studies stream).
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Articulate a general understanding of different methodological, theoretical, and
conceptual approaches relevant to the fields of Art History and Visual Studies;
2. Assess and evaluate different approaches to the fields of Art History and
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Visual Studies as they pertain particularly to women in art
3. Identify and articulate the contributions of some of the key women artists whose work
has been suppressed and/or underemphasized over the history of Western art.
4. Demonstrate a general understanding of some of the key contributions of feminist art
historians to recovering the history of women in art
5. Apply methods from a variety of academic disciplines to the analysis of Western
art and cultural objects
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the contingency of creating history and knowledge,
and be open to critical self-reflection
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A general understanding of how the categories of woman and the feminine have been
positioned in Western art and culture from classical antiquity to the 21st century
2. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments concerning the place of
gender in Western art history in consistent, coherent and grammatical prose and
express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal debate/exchange in class to
submitted research essays
3. A developing ability to articulate the specific ways in which gender analyses reveal the
cultural, historical and political limitations of the concepts of “Western,” “art,”
“history,” and “canon.”
GEND 2047 GENDER AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Faculty
Beth Pentney
Calendar Course Description:
In this course students explore the role of social media in shaping, reflecting, and re-negotiating
dominant ideas of gender, using a feminist cultural studies approach. Issues for consideration
may include citizen journalism, virtual realities, e-commerce, gaming, cybersex, access and
participation (or lack thereof), modes of production, surveillance, (dis)embodiment, media
convergence, and the “digital divide.”
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Apply a critical understanding of key concepts and theoretical approaches to social
media in writing and orally.
2. Analyze trends within social media from feminist cultural studies and communications
perspectives, and evaluate the arguments of scholars in the field.
3. Critique social media events and spaces for their political and ideological meanings and
the representations of gender, race, class and sexuality among them.
4. Investigate the power dynamics at work in the production of social media using feminist
cultural studies and communications theories and methods, and analyze their political
implications.
5. Develop original research on an area of social media using primary data and scholarly
research.
6. Debate the impact(s) of social media on the news media, global economies, literacy,
privacy, and labour.
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7. Design and launch a social media /campaign that reflects on and critiques the gendered,
raced, classed and sexed dimensions built into social media.
8. Demonstrate enhanced skills using social media.
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OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge of feminist and communications scholarship in the area of social
media, particularly with regard to themes of power, education, labour, and consumption.
2. The ability to support rigorous, original, and critically engaged positions on social media
texts and spaces, using academic sources and media texts both orally and in written
work.
3. The ability to think critically about one’s personal use of and investment in social media
and to reflect on that experience in writing.
4. The ability to investigate and evaluate the intersectional gendered, racialized, classed and
sexed power dynamics at work in media texts, advertising campaigns, and resistance
movements related to and engaged in social media.
GEND 2056 SELECTED TOPICS IN CULTURE AND CRITICISM
Faculty
N/A
Calendar Course Description:
While remaining substantively focused on culture the specific content of this course will change.
The content of this course will vary according to the specialization of the instructor teaching the
course.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain the core issues relating to the specific topic in the culture and
criticism stream for that year
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the various methodological approaches to
research/scholarship in the topic area
4. Select, evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and
print resources, for a written response/research paper
5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. An enriched understanding of the critical role of culture in the production of racialized,
gendered and classed identities as they relate to the specific theme of the course.
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2. An understanding of the importance of approaches to knowledge that embrace an
intersectional analysis
3. An ability to develop a clear thesis, relevant to the course topics, and apply appropriate
research methods to support and defend the thesis.
GEND 2166 WOMEN, MEDIA AND REPRESENTATION
Faculty
Wendy Peters
Calendar Course Description:
The body has always occupied a central place in the Western imagination and images of women,
in particular, have long been a part of our everyday world. In this course, we will consider the
different ways in which women have been represented through various media including popular
novels, film, television and magazines. In studying popular representations of women we will pay
close attention to the ways in which women are differentially represented along lines of race,
class, sexuality and ability. We will review contemporary cultural theories of representation,
tools for creating critical cultural analysis, as well as recent debates in feminist media studies.
The course will focus not only on how women have been represented by others, but also on
how women, in more recent years, have been choosing to influence the means of
representation. This course may be credited towards Film and English Studies.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical cultural studies.
2. Demonstrate through writing and orally an understanding of the notion that “woman” is
not an essential and unproblematic category, but a category with discursive force that
can be seen in and is produced by media representations.
3. Recognize and evaluate how power operates through media representations to value
and discipline women differentially along the lines of sex (trans/cis), gender
(masculine/feminine), sexuality, race, class, and ability.
4. Orally analyze and interpret media representations of women through the application of
major theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical cultural studies.
5. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding women, power, and
media representation.
6. Write an essay engaging with scholarly literature in feminist and critical cultural studies
in order to create a well-supported analysis of an aspect of the media representation of
women.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how power operates through
media representations of women.
2. The ability to develop evidence-based and original arguments regarding, and utilizing, the
major perspectives of feminist and critical cultural studies.
3. The ability to interpret and analyze media texts representing women as they relate to
questions of power, gender equality, and social justice.
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GEND 2217 GENDER AND THE MEDIA: THEMES AND CONTROVERSIES
Faculty
Wendy Peters
Calendar Course Description:
This course examines the media's role in the representation of gender through a close
examination of various themes and issues. While the issues will vary from year to year, they may
include topics such as reality television, objectification, questions of cultural appropriation,
power and politics, and media ownership. Students will be encouraged to develop critical
reading and analytic skills, and to apply them to analyze a range of different media, including film,
television, magazines and children’s toys. This course may be credited towards English Studies.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical cultural studies.
2. Articulate in writing and/or orally an understanding of the notion that “men” and
“women” are not essential and unproblematic categories, but categories with discursive
force that can be seen in media representations.
3. Evaluate and analyze how power operates through media representations to value and
discipline men and women differentially along the lines of sex, gender, sexuality, race,
class, and ability.
4. Assess and evaluate in writing and orally how representations of men and women are
(often) relational thus forming the basis for naturalizing heterosexuality.
5. Orally analyze and interpret media representations of men and women through the
application of major theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical cultural studies.
6. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding men, women, power,
and popular culture.
7. Write an essay engaging with scholarly literature in feminist and critical cultural studies
in order to create a well-supported analysis of a popular representation.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how power operates through
media representations of men, women, and heterosexuality.
2. The ability to develop evidence-based arguments regarding, and utilizing, the major
perspectives of feminist and critical cultural studies.
3. The ability to interpret and analyze cultural texts representing men and women as they
relate to questions of power and social justice.
GEND 2305 WOMEN IN CINEMA
Faculty
Renée Valiquette
Calendar Course Description:
This course examines the portrayal of women in both mainstream and alternative cinema,
including the influence of social, economic and political forces on developing roles of women in
film and a comparison of the representation of women on the screen with the actuality of their
lives in society. These issues are studied in the context of the representation of gender in
American and European films, the Hollywood star system, acting styles, narrative forms, and
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theories of spectatorship and identification. A wide variety of significant films are screened and
discussed, including the work of women directors. This course may be credited towards English
Studies (Group 2) and a Major in Fine Arts (Art History and Visual Studies stream).
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist film theory and cultural studies
to critically assess the role of women in cinema.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the notion that Western conceptions of the social
organization of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and class function together to form the
normative ideal of women in cinematic representations.
3. Develop a critical approach to and understanding of film production and film analysis.
4. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding the role of film in the
production of social, cultural and economic inequalities indexed to gender, sexuality,
race, ethnicity and class.
5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. The ability to speak, think and write critically about the history of women in cinema and
the development of feminist film theory.
2. A general knowledge and critical understanding of the role of gender, sexuality, race,
ethnicity and class in the production of representations of women in cinema.
3. The ability to critically interpret and analyze contemporary film culture and to apply a
gender equality and social justice framework to such interpretations and analyses.
GEND 2306 ART AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Faculty
Renée Valiquette
Calendar Course Description:
How have art and representation been used both to marginalize groups and, conversely, to
galvanize protest and resistance? Beginning with the ideological role that images and
representation played in colonization, this course looks at how social injustice is often created
and supported through traditional and modern visual arts. Paradoxically, art and representation
have also been central to many social justice movements, forming a vital medium for imagining
and instigating action for social change. This course may be credited towards a Major in Fine
Arts (Art History and Visual Studies stream) and Social Welfare and Social Development.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist and cultural studies from an
interdisciplinary approach to art history, aesthetics and the politics of representation.
2. Demonstrate a developing awareness that aestheticized representations of gender,
sexuality, race, ethnicity and class operate together to influence social perceptions of
what is considered to be normal and ideal identity and behaviour.
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3. Demonstrate a general understanding of the paradoxical role played by art, aesthetics
and representation in relation to social justice movements.
4. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding the role of Western art
and aestheticized representations in relation to social justice movements.
5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. The ability to speak, think and write critically about Western art history.
2. A developing knowledge and critical understanding of the role of art, aesthetics and
representation in the production of social injustice.
3. A developing knowledge and critical understanding of the role of art, aesthetics and
representation in the struggle for social justice.
4. The ability to interpret and analyze art, aesthetics and representation as they relate to
questions of power, gender equality, and social justice.
GEND 3046 QUEER MEDIA
Faculty
Wendy Peters
Calendar Course Description:
This course will examine both the history of queer visibility, particularly in the US and Canada,
as well as the new visibility of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans identified people in the media.
We will explore these representational shifts in relation to larger societal changes and the
tensions that arise when popular visibility of marginalized identities is entangled in commodity
culture; when communities of resistance become "niche markets." This course may be credited
towards English Studies.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in queer theory, the Western history of
sexuality, and critical cultural studies.
2. Analyze and evaluate the implications of queer theory, the Western history of sexuality,
and critical cultural studies for contemporary “queer media” and representational
politics.
3. Connect, in class discussions and written assignments, the contemporary
representations of sexual minorities in popular culture to the history of their
representation in media throughout the 20th century.
4. Illustrate and evaluate the importance of representation, identity production,
commodification, consumption, and regulation in the study of sexualities in media.
5. Identify and explain the notion that men, women, heterosexual, gay, and lesbian are not
essential and unproblematic categories, but categories with discursive force that can be
seen in and are produced through media representations.
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6. Demonstrate a thorough understanding of how power operates through popular
representations to value and discipline men and women differentially along the lines of
sex, gender, sexuality, race, class, and ability.
7. Write an original analysis and interpretation of a media representation through the
application of major theoretical perspectives in queer theory, the history of sexuality,
and critical cultural studies.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how power operates through
popular cultural representations of sex, gender, and sexualities.
2. The ability to develop evidence-based and original arguments regarding and utilizing the
major perspectives of queer theory, the Western history of sexuality, and critical
cultural studies.
3. The ability to interpret and analyze media texts representing diverse sexes, genders, and
sexualities as they relate to questions of power and social justice.
GEND 3055 SELECTED TOPICS (ADVANCED) IN CULTURE AND CRITICISM
Faculty
N/A
Calendar Course Description:
The theme and content of this course will change from year to year. Topics may include culture,
language, politics, institutions and social relations. The specific topics and course description will
be made available to students during registration in each year of offering.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate thorough pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and
comprehension of key concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain at a more advanced level the core issues relating to the specific
topic for that year
3. Demonstrate a complex understanding of the various methodological approaches
appropriate to research/scholarship in the topic area
4. Select, evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and
print resources, for written assignments and a research paper
5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A sophisticated understanding of the role of culture in the production of
racialized/gendered and classed identities as they relate to specific institutions and
specific themes in the course.
2. A complex understanding of the importance of approaches to knowledge which
embrace an intersectional analysis
3. An ability to develop a clear thesis, relevant to the course topics, and apply appropriate
research methods to support and defend the thesis.
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GEND 3117 Gender and the Bible
Faculty
Sal Renshaw
Calendar Course Description:
Drawing on specific writings and figures in orthodox and apocryphal texts of Judaism and
Christianity, this course will explore the religious beliefs and values that have contributed to
Western understandings of gender difference. It will examine the critical theologies and
interpretive practices that have informed a range of issues such as family structures, and gender
roles and responsibilities. The course will reflect on the extent to which the Biblical text
continues to be a moral touchstone in contemporary society.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate in orally and in writing a considerable familiarity with some of the key
figures and stories within the Hebrew and Christian Bibles as they relate to shaping and
forming historical and contemporary ideologies of gender
2. Articulate a considerable familiarity with the influence of some of the key secondary
sources, namely the writings of the Church fathers
3. Express in writing a complex understanding of the ongoing contribution of the Biblical
traditions in informing widely held contemporary cultural beliefs about marriage,
sexuality, gender, divorce, reproductive technologies
4. Demonstrate an understanding of, and be able to explain in terms meaningful to a lay
person, the ongoing significance of Biblical traditions and texts to contemporary life
regardless of religious affiliation or religious belief
5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. An enriched understanding of the powerful and ongoing influence of Biblical stories in
shaping contemporary ideologies of gender.
2. An ability to distinguish between the material and the symbolic aspects of gender in
Western religious traditions and to appreciate the ongoing significance of divinity and
the sacred being primarily constructed in normatively masculine terms
3. An enriched understanding of the importance of gender focused analyses of traditional
and contemporary interpretations of primary and secondary religious texts.
4. An ability to develop a clear thesis, relevant to the course topics, and apply appropriate
research methods to support and defend the thesis.
GEND 3205/PHIL 3205/RLCT 3205: Philosophy of Sex and Love
Faculty
Sal Renshaw
Calendar Course Description:
Attitudes and beliefs surrounding the virtues of sex and love have changed dramatically over
time and across cultures. Moreover as two of the most central aspects of human life and human
experience, both sex and love have variously been seen as either ways to the divine or
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impossible obstacles. This course offers a critical engagement with a range of philosophical and
religious ideas which have shaped both Western and Eastern understandings of the role of sex
and love in human relationships and human societies. Particular attention will also be paid to the
way these concepts are inseparable from gender ideologies.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Critically assess the ways in which attitudes to love and sexuality are embedded in
political, social and historical contexts
2. Demonstrate an advanced familiarity with some of the key texts within the western
tradition which have shaped ideas of love and sexuality from classical antiquity to the
20th and 21st centuries
3. Critically reflect upon and evaluate the intersections between religious and philosophical
approaches to questions of love and sexuality and bring to these evaluations a complex
gender analysis
4. Engage in reasoned, evidence based verbal debate surrounding controversial issues in
sexuality
5. Articulate some of the central ethical dimensions to issues concerning human
relationality
6. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. An awareness of the centrality yet historical contingency of notions like love to human
societies
2. An ability to bring informed, scholarly and well reasoned argument to bear on questions
of sexuality
3. An awareness of the underlying ethical dimension to questions of love and sexuality and
an ability to express informed analyses which take account of this ethical dimension
4. An ability to develop a clear thesis, relevant to the course topics, and apply appropriate
research methods to support and defend the thesis.
GROUP 2 - POWER AND INEQUALITY
GEND 2006 Gender and Education
Faculty
N/A
Calendar Course Description:
This course will explore the impact of gender and gender role expectations on schooling and
students’ learning. Starting from the understanding that children are affected by societal attitudes
and gender role expectations, the course will consider how gender, as well as other social
locations such as race, class, sexuality and ability, influence students’ educational experiences.
Students will become familiar with some of the challenges inherent in education and have the
opportunity to begin thinking critically about how change may be introduced.
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EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Identify, analyze and demonstrate an initial understanding of key themes and
developments in the history of education, particularly in the North American context.
2. Use a complex intersectional approach to identity in order to analyze primary
documents that shape and inform education theory and policy.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the ethical need to bring an intersectional approach
to studies in education as well as to considerations of the role of Western education
theory and practices in global contexts
4. Synthesize primary and secondary source material into an original piece of writing.
5. Write clearly and logically in coherent prose.
6. Demonstrate a promising ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A critical understanding of how power operates through categories like sex, race, class
and gender to significantly shape knowledge practices and educational opportunities
2. The ability to critically interpret and analyze popular, scholarly and policy documents
engaged with issues in education
3. The ability to develop evidence-based arguments consistent with their chosen
methodology and express these argument coherently in written and oral form.
GEND 2055 RACE, CLASS AND SEXUALITY
Faculty
Wendy Peters
Calendar Course Description:
This is a foundational course in Gender Equality and Social Justice which specifically builds on the
introductory course. In its focus on the local, national and international contexts of power and
oppression the course positions gender inequality as one of numerous, intersecting systems of
oppression. The course will also consider the historical as well as contemporary contexts
through which such things as race, class and sexuality continue to be some of the primary
categories through which inequality is perpetuated.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist theory as related to race, class
and sexuality.
2. Demonstrate recognition that categories of sex, race, class and sexuality are not
essential and unproblematic categories, but categories with discursive force.
3. Articulate in class discussion and written assignments how power operates through
discourses of sex, race, class and sexuality, rendering and producing subjects who are
not valued equally.
4. Orally analyze and interpret signifiers of race, class and sexuality, including their
historical and cultural embeddedness.
5. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding the discursive and
material effects of categories of sex, race, class and sexuality.
14
6. Write an essay engaging with scholarly literature in feminist studies in order to create
an original and well-supported analysis regarding the discursive and material effects of
categories of sex, race, class and sexuality.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how power operates through
unstable categories of race, class and sexuality.
2. The ability to develop evidence-based and original arguments regarding, and utilizing, the
major perspectives in feminist theorizing of race, class and sexuality.
3. The ability to interpret and critically analyze signifiers of race, class and sexuality as they
relate to questions of power and social justice.
GEND 2066 RACE, COLONIZATION AND INDIGENEITY
Faculty
Leslie Thielen-Wilson
Course Description
This course will examine the central problems of colonization through a range of critical
perspectives. Developing upon the position that colonization shapes lived experience as well as
what counts as knowledge, topics will include the effects of colonization on sexualized and
racialized embodiment; the role of nationalism; and ideas of community and belonging. This
course may be credited towards Native Studies.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Explain anti-colonial theory and concepts regarding the structural, symbolic, and
individual dimensions to the operation of colonial power within settler contexts.
2. Explain the contribution to anti-colonial theory made by specifically feminist Indigenous
and non-Indigenous anti-racism scholarship.
3. Explain how historical European knowledge/values/world views gave rise to relations of
race, gender, and economic inequality in the past and analyze how these continue to
shape Indigenous – settler relations today locally and globally.
4. Investigate how bodies, individual and collective, are constructed as raced, gendered,
classed and controlled or regulated within settler contexts.
5. Illustrate and analyze connections between sexual violence, racial violence, and issues of
land within contemporary settler-colonial contexts, locally and globally.
6. Demonstrate an understanding of, and be able to apply Indigenous
knowledge/values/world views that inform on-going Indigenous resistance to settler
colonial states.
7. Critique and create practical strategies for anti-colonial education and social change,
settler accountability, and settler-Indigenous alliances.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. Improved ability to apply the course material to every-day life to recognize and reflect
upon unjust Indigenous-Settler relations and avenues of social change.
2. A broad understanding of how Indigenous/non-Indigenous, feminist/non-feminist anticolonial scholars theorize the racial basis to settler colonial contexts and the
15
interconnection between race, gender and economic forces within such contexts
(historically and today).
3. An initial understanding of how to conduct interdisciplinary anti-colonial research and
analysis in a way that attends to interlocking gender, race and economic dimensions to
Indigenous-Settler relations.
4. Improved ability to interpret anti-colonial and feminist texts, to develop lines of
argument, and articulate sound reasons in support of their own positions regarding
Indigenous-settler issues.
5. Improved written and verbal communication skills through two writing exercises, a
major essay, an essay exam, collaborative team work and regular participation in class
discussion.
GEND 2086 Animal Rites
Faculty
Sal Renshaw
Calendar Course Description:
What are animals? Are we really so very different from them? Aristotle was one of the first
scientific observers of them; Rene Descartes thought they were best understood as machines;
and in the West we seem to think of at least some of them as family. From the perspectives of
religion and philosophy this course offers an introductory analysis of the human/animal relation
informed by critiques of power, including a gender and race. This course may be credited
towards Philosophy and Religions and Cultures.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Critically assess the ways in which attitudes to animals have changed over time and in
relation to cultural and religious contexts
2. Demonstrate a familiarity with some of the key texts and issues within the western
philosophical tradition which have shaped ideas of the human/animal relationship
3. Critically reflect upon and evaluate the intersections between religious and philosophical
approaches to the human/animal relationship and bring to these evaluations a complex
gender analysis
4. Engage in reasoned, evidence based verbal debate surrounding controversial issues in
the burgeoning field of critical animal studies
5. Demonstrate recognition of and articulate some of the central ethical dimensions to
issues concerning the human/animal relationship
6. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. An awareness of the centrality yet historical contingency of the relationship between
humans and animals
2. An ability to bring informed, scholarly and well reasoned argument to bear on questions
of concerning the relationship between humans and animals especially as this concerns
16
controversial issues like industrial animal production, animal welfare, animal rights and
animal liberation
3. An enhanced awareness of the ethical dimensions to questions about animals and an
ability to express informed analyses which take account of this ethical dimension
4. An ability to develop a clear thesis, relevant to the course topics, and apply appropriate
research methods to support and defend the thesis.
GEND 2056 SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER AND INEQUALITY
Faculty
N/A
Calendar Course Description:
While remaining substantively focused on the broad themes of power and inequality the specific
content of this course changes. The content varies according to the specialization of the
instructor teaching the course.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain the core issues relating to the specific topic in the power and
inequality stream for that year
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the various methodological approaches to
research/scholarship in the topic area
4. Select, evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and
print resources, for a written response/research paper
5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. An understanding of the critical role of power in the production of racialized, gendered
and classed identities as they relate to the specific theme of the course.
2. An understanding of the importance of approaches to knowledge that embrace an
intersectional analysis
3. A promising ability to develop a clear thesis, relevant to the course topics, and apply
appropriate research methods to support and defend the thesis.
GEND 2166 SEX, BODY, AND IDENTITY
Faculty
Wendy Peters
Calendar Course Description:
Sex, Body, and Identity aims to provide students with a forum for thinking critically about how
individuals learn, perform and experience their gendered identities. To approach the question of
gender from a critical perspective, students will be asked to reflect on a number of theoretical
questions. First, what exactly is “gender” and how is it different from “sex”? Second, how have
17
feminist theorists, inspired by a variety of perspectives, made sense of gender and its
implications for lived experience? Third, how are social imperatives related to femininity and
masculinity both internalized and held in check by a vast constellation of concrete and abstract
forces? Fourth, how do prevailing conceptions of femininity and masculinity condition our
relationships to our own bodies and the bodies of others? Finally, how are the gendered norms
and values that anchor themselves on the bodies and minds of human beings caught up in
broader patterns of inequality and oppression? This course is suitable for students who do and
do not have a background in women's studies or gender studies.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate feminist theoretical perspectives on sex and gender.
2. Demonstrate in writing and class discussion an awareness that the categories of sex and
gender are not innate and unproblematic, but categories with discursive force that have
implications for lived experience.
3. Evaluate how power operates through sex, gender, bodies and identities to value and
discipline humans differentially.
4. Orally analyze and interpret how prevailing Western conceptions of male/female and
feminine/masculine condition our relationships to our own bodies and the bodies of
others.
5. Develop evidence based arguments to articulate how the gendered norms and values
that anchor themselves on the bodies and in the minds of human beings are caught up in
broader patterns of inequality and oppression.
6. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how power operates through
categories of sex and gender.
2. The ability to interpret and analyze texts and theories representing diverse sexes,
genders, bodies and identities as they relate to questions of power and social justice.
3. The ability to develop evidence-based and original arguments regarding, and utilizing, the
major perspectives in feminist theorizing of sex, gender, bodies and identity.
GEND 2506 Global Gender issues
Faculty
Dr. Stacey L. Mayhall
Calendar Course Description:
Cynthia Enloe, a well-known pioneer in global gender politics once said, ‘gender makes the
world go around’. We begin this course with this premise and seek to explore the place and
role of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality and class in global politics, and the ways in which the
intersection of these dimensions operate to influence all of our lives across local, national and
global levels. We ask how gender inequality at the global level impacts everyday life influencing
our political, economic and cultural choices. We seek to learn more about the relations
between and among women and men in relation to their varying roles and agencies at the
international level. We will develop an understanding of the way that masculinity and femininity
18
operate to affect/influence individual, domestic, national and nongovernmental agency.
Specifically, we explore the ways in which the use of an intersectional approach to gender offers
us an analytical tool that might shift our understanding of global violence, militarism/security,
international political economy, the environment, health, human rights and global resistance
movements.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical studies.
2. Demonstrate recognition in writing and orally that gender, race, ethnicity and class
operate together to influence agency in global politics.
3. Evaluate how gendered and racialized power and agency operate in global contexts
including global violence, militarism/security, international political economy, the
environment, health, human rights and global resistance movements.
4. Orally analyze and interpret global gender issues through the application of major
theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical international political studies.
5. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding how gender, power, and
agency operate in ever changing global political contexts.
6. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how power operates in global
politics.
2. The ability to develop evidence-based and original arguments regarding, and utilizing, the
major perspectives of feminist and critical political studies.
3. The ability to interpret and analyze global gender issues as they relate to questions of
power, gender equality, and social justice.
GEND 3026/RLCT 3026: Women and World Religions
Faculty
Gillian McCann
Calendar Course Description:
This course will examine the presence and influence of women and the feminine across a
number of world religious traditions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, African religious
traditions, Islam and animistic religions. The course will draw on contemporary writings from
feminist scholars and reflect on the contributions women have made to the study of religion.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the contribution of feminist theory to the discipline of
religious studies
2. Utilize feminist epistemologies related to the cultural construction of authority and
power within religious traditions
19
3. Develop an overview of the role of women and their contributions to a broad range of
world religious traditions theologically and institutionally.
4. Demonstrate in writing and orally an awareness of the dynamics surrounding the
different struggles of women within most of the world’s traditions
5. Critically analyze texts using the lens of philosophies of gender
6. Engage with both the textual and actual lives of women across religious traditions
7. Be able to engage in a comparative analysis of the role of women in religion across
traditions
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A knowledge of the ways in which feminist scholarship impacts the discipline of religious
studies
2. The ability to critically analyze religious texts and media in relation to gender
3. The ability to apply these insights to both historical and contemporary societies
4. The ability to write on issues of gender and religion in clear and coherent prose
GEND 3037: Applied Activism for Gender Equality and Social Justice
Faculty
Wendy Peters
Calendar Course Description:
How do theories of power, privilege, marginality, systemic oppression and social regulation
apply in “real life”? Students will combine theory with practical skills appropriate to cultural
activism (such as digital storytelling) and social change through a 32-hour placement in a local
gender equality and social justice agency. The course combines readings, practicum and
assignments relevant to learning both inside and outside the classroom.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theories of power as they relate to differing understandings of
social inequalities.
2. Demonstrate in writing, class discussions and various assignments an awareness of how
power operates through social inequalities, discourse, and institutions, rendering and
producing subjects who are not valued equally.
3. Put into practice theories of gender equality and social justice through local civic
engagement.
4. Gain first-hand and real-world knowledge and competence through community service
learning.
5. Critically analyze and evaluate a range of tools and strategies for: designing campaigns;
interacting with media; mobilizing people; messaging; and managing contacts.
6. Create a written or digital project that engages with theories of power as related to
systemic inequalities addressed within their community placements.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
20
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how power operates through
differing theories of power, systemic inequalities, discourse, and institutions, as they
relate to gender equality and social justice.
2. Autonomy and professional capacity in their chosen field of gender equality and social
justice.
3. Written and digital skills appropriate to analyze and communicate complex issues
relating to gender equality and social justice.
GEND 3045 MASCULINITIES & POWER
Faculty
Leslie Thielen-Wilson
Course Description
Applying diverse historical and theoretical perspectives to the study of such themes as sports,
politics, war, sexuality, desire, and popular culture, this course helps students think through
questions about the social construction of masculinities as expressions of power. Do the
masculinities of Eminem and Tiger Woods have anything in common with Canadian soldiers?
What distinguishes hockey heroes from drag as ‘performances’ of masculinity? These are just
some of the questions asked as we consider and unsettle the multiple and complex power
relations that exist across the categories of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, and disability.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Identify key theorists, debates and questions central to the study of masculinity and
power.
2. Explain feminist anti-racism interlocking systems theory and utilize it to research and
analyze key issues, dilemmas, and gaps within masculinity studies and gender studies.
3. Explain the notion of modern power and the relation between social structures,
discourse, bodies, desire, subjectivity, and agency within hegemonic systems
4. Critique Western culture’s biological/essentialist assumptions about categories of
difference and the operation of these categories within Western hegemonic systems
5. Demonstrate an understanding of, explain and assess various theories regarding how
masculinity is embodied (as always raced, classed, etc.) and differentially experienced by
male, genderqueer, and female people.
6. Explain and investigate how processes of embodiment are also spatially/geographically
organized and produced within local, regional, national, international, transnational
power relations
7. Identify, investigate and substantiate material and symbolic interconnections between
local, national, and transnational masculinities.
8. Imagine and articulate strategies for disrupting hegemonic masculinities targeted to both
macro and micro dimensions of society.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. Depth of knowledge and familiarity with the key issues, theoretical concerns and
gaps within critical masculinity studies and gender studies, as they relate to the
theorization of masculine subjectivity and power.
2. Enhanced ability to apply theory such as, feminist anti-racism interlocking
oppressions theory, to the research and examination of masculinities, power,
complicity and agency within everyday life and contemporary culture.
21
3. Improved ability to assess, critically reflect upon, and critically engage theory and
arguments both individually and collaboratively with others.
4. Improved ability to communicate analytical arguments in clear, correct, and
persuasive prose through the team projects, team reading seminar, independent
essay writing and essay exams.
GEND 3047 Deconstructing Nature
Faculty
Renée Valiquette
Calendar Course Description:
What is nature? Is it something that humans are a part of or something we control? Is nature
simply the place we go camping and the stuff we plant in our backyards? What if our ideas about
nature are helping to cause the current ecological crisis? In this course students are introduced
to emerging interdisciplinary scholarship that challenges and questions how we think about
“nature.” From evolution to Cyborg ecology and beyond students address how and why
Western culture remains so attached to this concept and to naturalizing a variety of ideas that
help prevent more socially and environmentally just communities from developing.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in contemporary environmental
humanities literature from an interdisciplinary approach to environmental crises and
general understandings of 'nature.'
2. Demonstrate recognition that Western conceptions and social organization of gender,
sexuality, race, ethnicity and class help to naturalize relationships and attitudes toward
the environment.
3. Articulate in writing and orally a developed understanding of the notion that nature is a
socially, politically and historically constructed concept.
4. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding the role of gender,
sexuality, race, ethnicity and class in the construction of nature and the natural.
5. Write a developed and polished research essay engaging with scholarly literature in the
environmental humanities in order to create an original and well-supported analysis of
the historicity of nature
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. The ability to speak, think and write critically about the historicity of nature as a
concept and the environments that have been affected by such conceptions.
2. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how conceptions of and attitudes
toward nature help to produce and maintain inequalities indexed to gender, sexuality,
race, ethnicity and class.
3. The ability to critically interpret and analyze contemporary discussions of environmental
crises and to apply a deconstruction of nature to proposed resolutions.
GEND 3056 SELECTED TOPICS (ADVANCED) IN POWER AND INEQUALITY
Faculty
N/A
22
Calendar Course Description:
Students will be introduced to topical issues relating to the changing relations of men and
women in historical and contemporary societies. Topics may include sexuality, sexual politics,
power, equality, and difference.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate substantive pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and
comprehension of key concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain the core issues relating to the specific topic in the power and
inequality stream for that year
3. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the various methodological approaches
to research/scholarship in the topic area
4. Select, evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and
print resources, for a written response/research paper
5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. An enriched understanding of the critical role of power in the production of racialized,
gendered and classed identities as they relate to the specific theme of the course.
2. A deeper understanding of the importance of approaches to knowledge that embrace an
intersectional analysis
3. A sophisticated ability to develop a clear thesis, relevant to the course topics, and apply
appropriate research methods to support and defend the thesis in written and oral
forms.
GEND 3066 CANADA,
COLONIZATION
RESISTANCE
Faculty
Leslie Thielen-Wilson
AND
THE
POLITICS
OF
Course Description
This course will investigate the politics of resistance to colonization within the Canadian context.
Using contemporary as well as historical case studies, this course examines strategies of
anticolonial resistance and the possibility of alliance-building. Topics will include sovereignty,
representation, responsibility and action. This course may be credited towards Native Studies and
Political Science.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Explain anti-colonial theory and concepts regarding the structural, symbolic, and
individual dimensions to the operation of colonial power within the Canadian settler
contexts.
2. Explain the contribution to anti-colonial theory made specifically by Canadian feminist
Indigenous and non-Indigenous anti-racism scholarship.
23
3. Explain how historical European knowledge/values/world views gave rise to relations of
race, gender, and economic inequality in the past and analyze how these continue to
shape Indigenous – settler relations today locally and globally.
4. Investigate how bodies, individual and collective, are constructed as raced, gendered,
classed and controlled or regulated within settler contexts.
5. Illustrate and analyze connections between sexual violence, racial violence, and issues of
land within contemporary settler-colonial contexts, locally and globally.
6. Demonstrate an understanding of and apply Indigenous knowledge/values/world views
that inform on-going Indigenous resistance to settler colonialism in Canada.
7. Critique and create practical strategies for anti-colonial education and social change,
settler accountability, and settler-Indigenous alliances in the Canadian context.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. An advanced ability to apply the course material to every-day life to recognize and
reflect upon unjust Indigenous-Settler relations and avenues of social change.
2. A deeper understanding of how Indigenous/non-Indigenous, feminist/non-feminist anticolonial scholars theorize the racial basis to the Canadian settler colonial context and
the interconnection between race, gender and economic forces within such contexts
(historically and today).
3. A comprehensive understanding of how to conduct interdisciplinary anti-colonial
research and analysis in a way that attends to interlocking gender, race and economic
dimensions to Indigenous-Settler relations.
4. A developed ability to interpret anti-colonial and feminist texts, to develop lines of
argument, and articulate sound reasons in support of their own positions regarding
Indigenous-settler issues.
GEND 3116/RLCT 3116
Faculty
Sal Renshaw
Women and Western Religions
Calendar Course Description:
Christianity remains the most influential and dominant religion of Western culture. Its influence
extends far beyond the obvious bounds of the Church. In this course we will focus particularly
on the relations of Christianity to sex roles and sexual politics in Western Culture. We will
examine the practices and beliefs of Christian religions with respect to sexuality, and the impact
they have had on the changing status of women. Students will be introduced to contemporary
studies of women and the Church. We will look at recent debates within Feminist Theology and
their role in reconceptualizing the place of women in the study of religion and spirituality.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze texts, both primary and secondary, using strategies of textual analysis and close
reading.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the material history of women’s roles in the early
Christian Church
3. Identify the ideological assumptions concerning gender which are revealed within the
writings of particular thinkers as well as the Biblical texts
4. Identify the complex contribution of feminist theology to the discipline of Religious
Studies as it bears on questions concerning women and the feminine
24
5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
6. Apply feminist theological reasoning to formulate cogent arguments about religious
texts in discussion and debate as well as in written assignments.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. An enriched understanding of the role of women in the early Christian Church and an
appreciation of the historical shifts that have taken place to change these roles
2. An ability to distinguish between the materiality of women’s lives and the symbolic place
of the feminine in religious experience and religious texts as they relate particularly to
Christianity
3. An enriched understanding of the importance of gender focused analyses of traditional
and contemporary interpretations of primary and secondary religious texts.
GEND 3407 GENDER AND GLOBAL POLITICS
Faculty
Various
Calendar Course Description:
This course will examine a range of competing approaches to the study of gender and global politics.
Students will learn to analyze the interrelationship of gender, politics, the state and globalization. We
begin by examining feminist, traditional, and non-feminist critical approaches to global politics in order to
understand the role of gender in political mobilization, representation and participation, public policy, and
international relations. This course provides students with conceptual and analytical tools for the study of
gender, sexuality, race and politics in globalized contexts. This course may be credited towards Political
Science.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist and international political
studies as they pertain to global political issues in both historical and contemporary
circumstances.
2. Demonstrate an understanding that gender, race, ethnicity and class operate together to
influence agency in the context of global economics and politics.
3. Evaluate how power operates to shape gendered relations in diverse political arenas and
contexts including, for example, the contexts of internecine conflicts, civil war and
ethnic conflict as well as global economics, global jurisprudence, human rights and global
resistance movements.
4. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding the effect of gender, on
power and agency in global political contexts.
5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
25
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how the category of gender offers
a critical analytic lens through which to develop a comprehensive understanding of
global politics.
2. The ability to develop evidence-based and original arguments regarding, and utilizing, the
major perspectives of feminist and critical studies.
3. The ability to interpret and analyze global political issues as they relate to questions of
power, gender equality, and social justice.
GROUP 3 – HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
GEND 2057 SPECIAL TOPICS IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Faculty
N/A
Calendar Course Description:
While remaining substantively focused on the broad themes of human rights and social justice
the specific content of this course will change. The content varies according to the specialization
of the instructor teaching the course.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain core concepts in the special topics
3. Integrate and apply theories of human rights and social justice to specific case studies
4. Select, evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and
print resources, in order to investigate and analyze a specific case study in human rights
and social justice
5. construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will:
1. Develop research, communication and critical reading skills
2. Explain to a layperson the specifics of the special topic
3. Engage core concepts in feminist and human rights theory in order to analyze specific
instances of social and gender injustice in our society
GEND 2146 LAW, POWER AND JUSTICE
Faculty
Dr. Rosemary Nagy
Calendar Course Description:
What is the relationship between law, power and justice? How do systems of law create or
reinforce inequalities? What is the emancipatory potential of law? In this course, we examine
various critical approaches in understanding the practice and organization of law and legal
26
institutions. We explore the dual nature of law as both a system of power and a means to
challenge existing relations of power in the contexts of same-sex marriage, the ‘war on terror,’
and international law. In the course of analyzing these three case studies, students will also be
introduced to how law works in the Canadian and international systems.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain law-making through legislative, executive and judicial processes in
Canada and/or the workings of international law
3. Theorize the ways in which law exists as a system of power and as a means of
challenging existing relations of power
4. Analyze and explain the dual nature of law in the contexts of same-sex marriage, the
war on terror, and/or other cases
5. Demonstrate an understanding of and analyze court decisions, and evaluate their import
for social justice
6. Select and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and print
resources, to create a report and analysis of specific human rights situations
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will:
1. Develop research and communication skills
2. Appreciate the complexity of law as a potential instrument of social justice
3. Explain to a layperson the relationship between law, power and justice with respect to
contemporary debates over social and legal justice
GEND 2147 CITIZENSHIP AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Faculty
Dr. Rosemary Nagy
Calendar Course Description:
This course is a broad survey of the relationship between citizenship and the enjoyment of
rights. We examine the meaning of citizenship, its historical expansion, and the extent to which
access to rights is dependent upon recognition and belonging to a community. Topics may
include the gendered dimensions of citizenship, marginalization and identity, the place of the
enemy, alien, or refugee, and cosmopolitan or global citizenship. This course may be credited
towards Political Science and Social Welfare and Social Development.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Explain Hannah Arendt’s notion of the “right to have rights” and the tension between
human rights and citizenship in both the interwar era and today
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3. Interrogate the global spatial relationship between rights, belonging and statelessness
through analysis of extraordinary rendition and the war on terror
4. Identify and explain the historical relationship between race, gender and nation in the
construction of what Sunera Thobani calls “exalted subjects” in Canadian citizenship
5. Critically evaluate Canada and the West`s contemporary immigration and refugee
policies
6. Select, evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and
print resources, for a research paper on citizenship and social justice
7. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will:
1. Develop research, communication and critical reading skills
2. Explain to a layperson the extent to which the enjoyment of (universal human) rights
are dependent upon (white male) citizenship in a (developed) nation-state
3. Critically assess the relationship between citizenship and social justice in specific
contexts, including the war on terror and the international refugee regime
4. Recognize the globalized, spatial dimensions of privilege and how this maps onto gender,
race, colonialism, etc.
GEND 2157 CASE STUDIES IN GENDER AND THE LAW
Faculty
Dr. Rosemary Nagy
Calendar Course Description:
This course will examine a range of contemporary issues and debates concerning sexual politics
and social justice. We will study the history of women’s engagement with the law and the
development of feminist approaches to achieving equality and social justice, particularly as they
relate to topics that have been central to the women’s movement. We will study the work of
government and non-government organizations to change existing laws and social policies to
answer to the changing needs and concerns of Canadian society. With this approach, we will
review the notions of justice that guide these initiatives, and evaluate both their success and
failure in achieving social and legal reform. This course may be credited towards Sociology.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify major moments and movements in women’s and feminist engagements with the
law in Canadian society
3. Analyze the duality of law as an instrument of social change and as an instrument of
gender oppression
4. Apply feminist theories of the law to analyze specific issues of social (in)justice
5. Evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and print
resources, in order to investigate and analyze a specific case study in gender and the law
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6. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will:
1. Develop research, communication and critical reading skills
2. Explain to a layperson the relationship between legal and social change
3. Engage core concepts in feminist legal theory in order to analyze specific instances of
gender injustice in our society
GEND 2187 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS
Faculty
Dr. Rosemary Nagy
Calendar Course Description:
In this course we examine how international human rights law and norms are promoted and
protected under conditions of globalization. We survey major human rights instruments and the
different actors and institutions involved in the international human rights regime. We ask what
it means to say that human rights are “universal” and how they interact with local values and
processes. When might “sovereignty,” “culture” and “tradition” serve to protect gender-based
violence and other human rights abuses, and when does the discourse of human rights function
to impose “Western” values in the interests in dominant powers? How can international human
rights be translated into local justice?
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain the major ways in which human rights are protected and promoted
3. Analytically answer the questions for each week’s reading response
4. Identify and explain historical and contemporary exclusions from universality in the
development of international human rights
5. Distinguish between the international human rights regime and local realities and explain
how they intersect, or not, with reference to specific issues or cases
6. Select and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and print
resources, to create a report and analysis of specific human rights situations
7. Evaluate claims of universality or difference using analytical frameworks of gender,
colonialism, or race
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will:
1. Develop research and communication skills
2. Appreciate the complexity of realizing universal human rights in diverse locales
3. Critically evaluate claims of humanitarianism or universality, as well as claims of culture
or difference
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4. Develop critical awareness of the intersections of race, gender, culture and colonialism
in the field of human rights
GEND 2226 CASE STUDIES IN PERSECUTION AND VIOLENT CONFLICT
Faculty
Dr. Rosemary Nagy
Calendar Course Description:
This course investigates the social, political and legal conditions that make possible the
persecution of vulnerable groups. We examine how specific groups are constructed as social or
political threats and targeted as scapegoats, enemies, or even non-human. The course may focus
on phenomena such as general religious, ethnic or political persecution; the role of persecution
in maintaining social and sexual oppression or vice versa; and how persecution and fear may
escalate into violent conflict, ethnic cleansing, or genocide. This course may be credited towards
Political Science.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and compare the main theoretical explanations for genocide and violent conflict
3. Explain the relationship between acute and structural violence, particularly with respect
to gender-based and sexual violence
4. Apply theories of genocide to specific situations
5. Demonstrate an understanding of the methodological complexity of doing research in
politically volatile situations with traumatized populations
6. Evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and print
resources, in order to investigate and analyze a specific violent conflict
7. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and
grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal
debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will:
1. Develop research, communication and critical reading skills
2. Explain to a layperson the complexities of “ethnic violence” and/or gender-based
violence
3. Appreciate that gross violations of human rights occur in globalized and structural
contexts
4. Begin to critically evaluate efforts to prevent or punish genocide or violent conflict
GEND 2306 ART AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Faculty
Renée Valiquette
Calendar Course Description:
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How have art and representation been used both to marginalize groups and, conversely, to
galvanize protest and resistance? Beginning with the ideological role that images and
representation played in colonization, this course looks at how social injustice is often created
and supported through traditional and modern visual arts. Paradoxically, art and representation
have also been central to many social justice movements, forming a vital medium for imagining
and instigating action for social change. This course may be credited towards a Major in Fine
Arts (Art History and Visual Studies stream) and Social Welfare and Social Development.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist and cultural studies from an
interdisciplinary approach to art history, aesthetics and the politics of representation.
2. Recognize that aestheticized representations of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and
class operate together to influence social perceptions of normal and ideal identity and
behaviour.
3. Understand the paradoxical role played by art, aesthetics and representation in relation
to social justice movements.
4. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding the role of western art
and aestheticized representations in relation to social justice movements.
5. Write a research essay engaging with scholarly literature in feminist and cultural studies
in order to create an original and well-supported analysis of two aesthetic objects, one
that enables social injustice and one that bolsters social justice.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. The ability to speak, think and write critically about western art history.
2. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of the role of art, aesthetics and
representation in the production of social injustice.
3. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of the role of art, aesthetics and
representation in the struggle for social justice.
4. The ability to interpret and analyze art, aesthetics and representation as they relate to
questions of power, gender equality, and social justice.
GEND 3036 GLOBAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Faculty
Dr. Stacey L. Mayhall
Calendar Course Description:
This course is designed to familiarize students with a range of issues related to theory and
practice of global social movement, their formation, structure and role in making change. To
achieve this end, we will first make sense of the concept(s) of collective action; this will
necessitate a look at how politics and political access is structured, how it operates in economic,
political and cultural ways, and how it conditions local, national, and global contexts. This course
will examine the shifting role of social movements in bringing about change in a globalized world,
with particular attention to gender, race and class. From the 1960s on so-called 'new social
movements', including civil rights, women's, lesbian and gay, anti-colonial and environmental
movements, have transformed the social and political landscape of western societies. We will
examine these and other global movements in light of current research and analysis.
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EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical political studies
from an interdisciplinary approach to global social movements and collective action.
2. Demonstrate recognition that gender, race, ethnicity and class operate together to
influence the formation, structure and role of global social movements in making change.
3. Orally analyze and interpret global social movements through the application of major
theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical political studies across local, national and
global levels of analysis.
4. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding the social, cultural,
political and economic dimensions of global social movements.
5. Write a research essay engaging with scholarly literature in feminist and critical studies
in order to create an original and well-supported analysis of a global social movement
discussed in class.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of global social movements.
2. The ability to develop evidence-based and original arguments regarding, and utilizing, the
major perspectives of feminist and critical political studies.
3. The ability to interpret and analyze global social movements as they relate to questions
of power, gender equality, and social justice.
4. A significant familiarity with effective social movement techniques and strategies as well
as an understanding of the dominant contemporary methods for bringing about change
in a globalized world.
GEND 3057 SPECIAL TOPICS IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Faculty
Dr. Rosemary Nagy
Calendar Course Description:
This course will provide students with the opportunity to examine topical issues relating to
human rights and social justice. The theme and content of this course will change from year to
year. Topics may include globalization, international justice, human rights conventions and
perspectives on power and equality.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain core concepts in the special topic
3. Integrate and apply theories of human rights and social justice to specific case studies
4. Evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and print
resources, in order to investigate and analyze a specific case study in human rights and
social justice
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5. Clearly communicate ideas and argument in written and oral form
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will:
1. Develop research, communication and critical reading skills
2. Explain to a layperson the core issues of the special topic
3. Engage core concepts in feminist and human rights theory in order to analyze specific
instances of social and gender injustice in our society
GEND 3056 HIV, HEALTH AND SOCIAL CHANGE
Faculty
Dr. Stacey L. Mayhall
Calendar Course Description:
This course explores the social, cultural, political and economic dimensions of HIV/AIDS. Since
the 1980s HIV/AIDS has had a dramatic and often devastating impact on people around the
world. After reviewing the history and background of this global pandemic, both in terms of
those infected and those affected by HIV/AIDS, we turn our attention to key dimensions of risk,
especially as it pertains to sex and injection drug use. We examine the ideological challenges that
arise as a result of the modes of transmission as well as the activities of the populations most at
risk. We are interested in local, national and global levels of analysis, and in particular, we seek
to apply an intersectional framework of understanding to these contexts, geographies and
populations. Finally, we will reflect on the evolution of governance and policies at the national
and international levels that have resulted from HIV/AIDS as it has morphed and changed from
its introduction in the 1980s to the present.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical studies from an
interdisciplinary approach to health.
2. Demonstrate recognition that gender, race, ethnicity and class operate together to
influence health and social justice in relation to HIV locally and globally.
3. Orally analyze and interpret HIV, Health and Social Change through the application of
major theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical studies across local, national and
global levels of analysis.
4. Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding the social, cultural,
political and economic dimensions of HIV/AIDS.
5. Write a research essay engaging with scholarly literature in feminist and critical studies
in order to create an original and well-supported analysis of a global issue discussed in
class.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
1. A developed knowledge and critical understanding of HIV, and the current determinants
of health and social change
2. The ability to develop evidence-based and original arguments regarding, and utilizing, the
major perspectives of feminist and critical political/health studies.
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3. The ability to interpret and analyze HIV and health as they relate to questions of power,
gender equality, and social justice.
4. An enhanced knowledge of effective harm reduction techniques and an understanding of
risk in relation to health and HIV.
GEND 3207 THE UNITED NATIONS
PROTECT
Faculty
Dr. Rosemary Nagy
AND
THE
RESPONSIBILITY
TO
Calendar Course Description:
How have the United Nations and other international organizations fared in their “responsibility
to protect” human beings from genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity? Inquiring
into the three main principles of the “responsibility to protect”—to prevent, to react, and to
rebuild—we examine intervention, justice, and peacebuilding through an overview of the
structure and functions of the United Nations, and an examination of its record of protection in
specific cases including gender-based violence.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain the structure and organization of the United Nations
3. Identify and explain the evolution of R2P and its core principles and pillars, including
through an understanding of international relations of power and analyze the
consequences of (non)intervention in a specific conflict and theorize the implications
this has for the United Nations and R2P
4. Compare traditional notions of (state) security with gendered concepts of human
security
5. Investigate and evaluate gender mainstreaming in the responsibility to protect
6. Evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and print
resources, in order to map the contours of a conflict
7. Determine the nature of a conflict including through the application of conflict mapping
questions/categories
8. Work collaboratively in a group and create a visual conflict map
9. Clearly communicate ideas and argument in written and oral form
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Develop research and communication skills
Appreciate the complexity of “humanitarian” intervention in intractable conflicts
Critically evaluate the structure and politics of the United Nations
Conceptually map complex conflicts, including through the integration of various
sources
5. Explain to a layperson the principles and challenges of the Responsibility to Protect with
respect to specific conflicts
6. Understand and evaluate gender mainstreaming in the United Nations
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GEND 3227 TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
Faculty
Dr. Rosemary Nagy
Calendar Course Description:
This course examines legal, ethical and sociopolitical responses to massive human rights
violations in post-authoritarian and post-conflict societies. We ask whether, and how, the
restoration of the rule of law, the (re)construction of democratic institutions, and the demands
of truth, justice and reconciliation can be met. How should countries “deal with the past”? Is
justice enough, and what kind of justice? Are some acts beyond forgiveness and punishment? Are
truth, reparation and reconciliation possible? What are the gendered implications of atrocity and
its remedy? We investigate these and other questions through historical and current case
studies. This course may be credited towards Political Science.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key
concepts and ideas during class discussions
2. Identify and explain the tools in the transitional justice `tool kit`
3. Explain the evolution of the field of transitional justice, both chronologically and in terms
of critical intellectual directions
4. Critically evaluate the limits and advantages of trials, reparation, truth commissions, and
traditional mechanisms, particularly with respect to structural and gender-based
violence
5. Analyze the interstices and tensions between local and international responses to mass
atrocity
6. Recognize the methodological challenges of conducting research in politically volatile
situations with traumatized populations
7. Select, evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including electronic and
print resources, for a research paper on transitional justice
8. Clearly communicate ideas and argument in written and oral form
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will:
1. Develop research, communication and critical reading skills
2. Explain to a layperson the role that transitional justice might play in a conflict or postconflict situation, or in response to systemic abuses in established democracies
3. Critically analyze discourses of truth, healing, forgiveness and reconciliation
4. Critically evaluate the meaning and limits of `justice` in specific contexts
5. Begin to consider how transitional justice might pair with other post-conflict efforts in
areas of development or peacebuilding
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