MINOR HONOR PROGRAM IN GENDER STUDIES
Gender continues to be a key category of analysis in the social sciences and humanities, and a central
concept in national and international public debates. This program aims to introduce the students to the
major issues and approaches in gender and women’s studies, and to equip them with critical skills to
analyze the gendered aspects of everyday life, politics, economy, culture, and society by combining the
analytical tools of disciplines such as anthropology, cultural studies, history, literary studies, media
studies, political science, philosophy, sociology, and visual studies.
Summary of Degree Requirements
Course Category
Minimum Credits
Minimum Courses
Required Courses
6
2
Elective Courses
12
4
Total
18
6
Required Courses
Course
Name
Credit
Faculty
CULT 242
Myths of Gender: Cultural Theories about
Women and Men
3
FASS
CULT 444
Gender and Sexuality in Turkey
3
FASS
Electives
Minimum 12 credits must be taken from list.
Course
Name
Credit
Faculty
ANTH 326
Anthropology of the Body
3
FASS
ANTH 340*
Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality
3
FASS
CULT 343
Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies
3
FASS
CULT 442
Gendered Memories of War and Political Violence
3
FASS
CULT 446*
Gender and Media
3
FASS
HART 320
Women Artists
3
FASS
HUM 245*
Major Works of Literature by Women
3
FASS
LIT 345*
Gender and Sexuality in Literature
3
FASS
GEN 399*
Independent Study in Gender Studies
3
FASS
Any other course in the catalog can also be taken and counted towards the degree requirements, but
only upon the approval of the program coordinator.
* new course
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Required Courses
CULT 242 Myths of Gender: Cultural Theories about Women and Men
How have we developed our ideas of what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man?
How do these ideas change historically and from one society to another? Asking these questions and
others, this course aims to develop a critical awareness of how gender and sexuality have shaped and
have been shaped by political, religious, economic, scientific, and cultural practices and discourses in
different parts of the world, including Turkey.
CULT 444 Gender and Sexuality in Turkey
This course will explore a wide variety of texts ranging from academic, literary and political writings to
films and documentaries on gender and sexuality in Turkey. Topics include the evolution of the
feminist movement from the late nineteenth century till today, the experiences and narratives of
masculinity, violence against women, virginity debates, the interconnections between gender and
nationalism, religious and state discourses on the body, the politics of secularism and Islam, the
writings and experiences of minorities, politics of sexuality and queer politics.
Elective Courses
ANTH 326 Anthropology of the Body
The biological body has an undeniable physicality, yet at the same time, our experiences of our bodies
and the ways in which we make sense of those experiences are inevitably embedded in and defined by
the social. Taking an anthropological perspective and paying attention to both discursive and
phenomenological approaches, this introductory course will investigate the ways in which the body has
been observed, classified, experienced and modified in different cultural contexts and disciplinary
regimes.
ANTH 340 Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality
Throughout the 20th Century, anthropologists have studied the diverse constructions of gender and
sexuality in human societies around the world. Researching the ways in which understandings of
gender and sexuality are constitutive of people’s self understandings, religious beliefs and practices,
constructions of kinship and family, the state, economic life, cultural practices, as well as political
discourses and practices has been central to contemporary anthropology. This course covers
anthropological studies and debates on gender and sexuality through a diverse selection of readings,
visuals and ethnographic films.
CULT 343 Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies
This course addresses historical and contemporary issues in gender and sexuality studies. The specific
focus of the course will be announced each semester that it is offered. Topics and approaches may be
drawn from anthropology, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, literature,
performance studies, sociology, and visual studies.
CULT 442 Gendered Memories of War and Political Violence
20th century has been ''a century of wars, global and local, hot and cold? (Catherine Lutz). The course
explores the different ways in which war and political violence are remembered through a gender lens.
Central questions include: what are the gendered effects of war, political violence, and militarization?
How have wars, genocide and other forms of political violence been narrated and represented? How do
women remember and narrate gendered violence in war? How are post-conflict processes and
transitional justice gendered? What is the relationship between testimony, storytelling, and healing?
How is the relationship between the ''personal'' and the ''public/national'' reconstructed in popular
culture, film, literature, and (auto)biographical texts dealing with war, genocide, and other forms of
political violence? How are wars memorialized and gendered through monuments, museums, and other
memory sites? Besides others, case studies on Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Rwanda, former
Yugoslavia, and Argentina will be used to elaborate the key concepts and debates in the emerging
literature on gender, memory, and war.
CULT 446 Gender and Media
Media in all its forms – print, Internet, television, music, etc. – are a major force in creating and
inventing reality for the world. This course will address how our ideas about sex and our identities as
men, women, and sexual beings are constructed, contested and subverted in different sites within media
culture. We will explore the complex relationships between media texts, their production as well as
consumption. In addition to engaging with various theoretical perspectives, students will acquire a
working knowledge of critical viewing and deconstruction methodologies by participating in small
teams which focus on different media genres (these might include children’s cartoons, the soap opera,
music video, talk shows, etc.).
HART 320 Women Artists
This course is an introduction to works by women artists that practice(d) in the field of visual arts, in
the 19th and 20th centuries. It covers art historical areas from Realism, Symbolism, Impressionism to
Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art & Feminist Art of the 1960's
onwards. It focuses on women artists whose fame had/has already been established during their own
life times. This course aims to provide students with an understanding of visual and cultural aspects of
modern and postmodern art approached through the study of women's works. It also gives them an
insight into the conditions of art practice for women before and at the start of the feminist art
movement.
HUM 245 Major Works of Literature by Women
This course aims to teach students to do close readings of significant essays, poems and works of
fiction by women. Students will focus on different issues taken up by women writers of different
cultures from several eras, while analyzing common characteristics and concerns voiced by women.
LIT 345 Gender and Sexuality in Literature
This course explores the ways in which literature reflects, influences, creates, and reveals cultural
beliefs about gender roles, identities, and sexuality by analyzing short stories, novels, poems, and plays
from a diversity of eras and national traditions. Literary texts will be studied in the light of major works
of feminist and queer literary theories and histories of sexuality. The ways in which gender intersects
with other cultural issues such as race, nationhood, globalization, and class will also be addressed in the
context of specific literary texts.
GEN 399 Independent Study in Gender Studies
This course allows students to explore an area of gender studies that is not currently covered in regular
course offerings. Under the supervision of a faculty member, students are expected to take
responsibility for their own learning, including developing together a reading list and forms of
evaluation. Students must receive the approval of a supervisor faculty member prior to enrollment.