|
|
Catalogue 2018-2019 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
|
|
|
|
| |
Women’s Studies: III. Advanced |
| |
-
WMST 355 - Childhood and Children in Nineteenth-Century Britain Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 355 and WMST 355 ) This course examines both the social constructions of childhood and the experiences of children in Britain during the nineteenth century, a period of immense industrial and social change. We analyze the various understandings of childhood at the beginning of the century (including utilitarian, Romantic, and evangelical approaches to childhood) and explore how, by the end of the century, all social classes shared similar expectations of what it meant to be a child. Main topics include the relationships between children and parents, child labor, sexuality, education, health and welfare, abuse, delinquency, and children as imperial subjects. Lydia Murdoch.
One 2-hour period.
|
| |
-
WMST 362 - Women in Japanese and Chinese Literature
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 362 and CHJA 362 ) An intercultural examination of the images of women presented in Japanese and Chinese narrative, drama, and poetry from their early emergence to the modern period. While giving critical attention to aesthetic issues and the gendered voices in representative works, the course also provides a comparative view of the dynamic changes in women’s roles in Japan and China. All selections are in English translation. Peipei Qiu.
Prerequisite(s): One 200-level course in language, literature, culture or Asian Studies, or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2018/19.
|
| |
-
WMST 366 - Art and Activism in the United States Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 366 , AMST 366 , and ART 366 ) Topic for 2018/19b: Exquisite Intimacy. An interdisciplinary exploration of the work and role of quilts within the US. Closely considering quilts–as well as their creators, users, keepers, and interpreters–we study these integral coverings and the practices of their making and use with keen attention to their recurrence as core symbols in American history, literature, and life. Lisa Collins.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
|
| |
-
WMST 367 - Artists’ Books from the Women’s Studio Workshop
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 367 and ART 367 ) In this interdisciplinary seminar, we explore the limited edition artists’ books created through the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York. Founded in 1974, the Women’s Studio Workshop encourages the voice and vision of individual women artists, and women artists associated with the workshop have, since 1979, created over 180 hand-printed books using a variety of media, including hand-made paper, letterpress, silkscreen, photography, intaglio, and ceramics. Vassar College recently became an official repository for this vibrant collection which, in the words of the workshop’s co-founder, documents “the artistic activities of the longest continually operating women’s workspace in the country.” Working directly with the artists’ books, this seminar will meet in Vassar Library’s Special Collections and closely investigate the range of media, subject matter, and aesthetic sensibilities of the rare books, as well as their contexts and meanings. We will also travel to the Women’s Studio Workshop to experience firsthand the artistic process in an alternative space. Lisa Collins.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2018/19.
|
| |
-
WMST 370 - Feminist Perspectives on Environmentalism
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 370 and ESSC 370 ) In this seminar we explore some basic concepts and approaches within feminist environmental analysis paying particular attention to feminist theory and its relevance to environmental issues. We examine a range of feminist research and analysis in ‘environmental studies’ that is connected by the recognition that gender subordination and environmental destruction are related phenomena. That is, they are the linked outcomes of forms of interactions with nature that are shaped by hierarchy and dominance, and they have global relevance. The course helps students discover the expansive contributions of feminist analysis and action to environmental research and advocacy; it provides the chance for students to apply the contributions of a feminist perspective to their own specific environmental interests. Jill Schneiderman.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor; WMST 130 recommended.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2018/19.
|
| |
-
WMST 371 - Gender, Science and Politics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 371 and STS 371 ) In a context that some have described as “post-truth,” and in which “marching for Science” has become a form of resistance to power, there are high stakes behind science literacy. When the climate sciences are helping us understand our ecological condition, yet climatology and the new discourse of “Anthropocene” also has begun legitimizing fantasies of geoengineering the Earth, what would a feminist climatology look like? In today’s digital age, when boundaries between real/unreal, physical/virtual, human/natural, female/male seem to collapse all around us, should we, more-than-women and more-than-men espouse our new cyborg selves, or cling to an image of women-as-goddesses oh-so-close to nature, and to images of men as taming, mastering, dominating nature? What are some alternatives beyond these possibilities? This course critically engages the sciences from a feminist theoretical perspective. We examine the ”situated” nature of scientific knowledge, against the positivist grain of scientific claims to Truth and objectivity. We also examine how feminist theorists have drawn from some dissensual and innovative scientific theories of late, to inspire provocative arguments about the environment, ontology, and normativity. Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
|
| |
-
WMST 375 - Seminar in Women’s Studies Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This capstone seminar examines recent topics in contemporary feminist theory, foregrounding work at the frontier and periphery of what we might call 21st century feminisms. Class readings and viewings are radically interdisciplinary and include themes such as sex worker rights, transgender feminisms, women of color feminisms, transnational feminisms, crip feminisms, post-feminisms, feminism and the body, and media activisms.
Topic for 2018/19b: Transnational Sexualities. This interdisciplinary seminar examines the scholarly field of transnational sexualities, which explores how the mobility of ideas and bodies across borders has shaped new forms of intimacy and sexual subjectivity. The course pays close attention to the traces of colonial inequality that reappear in contemporary sexualities and interrogates the limits of postcolonial nationalism for envisioning sexual and gender liberation. We engage scholarly analyses of queer diaspora, “global gays” homonationalism, sex and marriage tourism, military prostitution, and transnational media erotics. The course analyzes these phenomena as intersectionally constituted and inextricable from the structuring force of neoliberal globalization. Elias Krell
May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed.
One 2-hour period.
|
| |
-
WMST 381 - How Queer is That? Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course sets out to examine what, exactly, constitutes the object of inquiry in queer studies. What is sexuality, and how does it relate to gender, race, class, or nation? Does homosexuality designate one transhistorial and transcultural phenomenon, or do we need to distinguish premodern same-sex practices from the modern identities that emerged in the 19th century? As part of investigating the terms and methodologies associated with queer studies, the course will interrogate competing narratives about the origins of homosexuality and what is at stake in any given account. Special attention will also be paid to the intellectual and political connections between queer studies and feminism, critical race studies, postcolonialism, Marxism, etc. Additional topics may include bisexuality, tensions between mainstream tactics and subcultural formations, the closet, coming out, popular culture, debates around gay marriage, and similarities and differences between lesbian and gay culture. Readings and films will draw on works by Butler, Foucault, Freud, Halberstam, Halperin, de Lauretis, Lorde, E. Newton, Rich, M. Riggs, Sedgwick, and Wilde. Hiram Perez.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor; WMST 130 and relevant 200-level course desirable.
One 2-hour period.
|
| |
-
WMST 382 - Marie-Antoinette
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 382 ) More than 200 years after her death, Marie-Antoinette continues to be an object of fascination because of her supposed excesses and her death at the guillotine. For her contemporaries, Marie-Antoinette often symbolized all that was wrong in French body politic. Through the life of Marie-Antoinette, we investigate the changing political and cultural landscape of eighteenth-century France including the French Revolution. Topics include women and power, political scandal and public opinion, fashion and self-representation, motherhood and domesticity, and revolution and gender iconography. Throughout the course, we explore the changing nature of the biographical narrative. The course also considers the legacy of Marie Antoinette as martyr and fetish object in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and her continuing relevance today. Sumita Choudhury.
Not offered in 2018/19.
|
| |
-
WMST 384 - Transnational Queer: Genders, Sexualities, Identities
1 unit(s)
(Same as CLCS 384 and INTL 384 ) What does it mean to be Queer? This seminar examines, critiques, and interrogates queer identities and constructions in France and North America. In what ways do diverse cultures engage with discourses on gender and sexuality? Can or should our understanding of queerness change depending on cultural contexts? Through guest lectures and discussion seminars, the course examines a broad range of queer cultural production, from fiction to cinema and performance. Topics include such diverse issues as queer bodies, national citizenship, sexual politics, legal discourse, and aesthetic representation. All lectures, readings, and discussions are in English. Vinay Swamy.
Prerequisite(s): First-Year Writing Seminar and one 200-level course.
By special permission.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2018/19.
|
| |
-
WMST 385 - Women, Culture, and Development
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 385 , LALS 385 and SOCI 385 ) This course examines the ongoing debates within development studies about how integration into the global economy is experienced by women around the world. Drawing on gender studies, cultural and global political economy, we explore the multiple ways in which women struggle to secure wellbeing, challenge injustice, and live meaningful lives. Light Carruyo.
Not offered in 2018/19.
|
| |
-
WMST 387 - Muslim Feminist and Womanist thought and Praxis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as RELI 387 ) This seminar explores the work of Muslim thinkers and activists who critically take up issues of gender and sexuality in Islamic contexts. These thinkers, who often identify as feminist or womanist, challenge Western feminist orthodoxies as well as certain religious frameworks, drawing on Islamic traditions in order to imagine and work towards a capacious gender justice. We read feminist and womanist interpretation of Qur’an and hadith, Islamic history, theology, ethics, spirituality and law, and explore how Muslim gender activists in a range of global contexts relate to intellectual traditions of Islamic feminism. We consider the interventions of Muslim feminists and womanists for gender theory and activism more broadly. Key themes include marriage, parenthood, and divorce, religious authority, colonialism and race, tradition, political activism, spiritual practice, and history of sexuality. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
yes
One 2-hour period.
|
| |
-
WMST 399 - Senior Independent Study Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Prerequisite(s): For independent study: 2 units of work in Women’s Studies or from the list of Approved Courses.
Permission of the director is required for all independent work.
|
Yiddish: I. Introductory |
| |
-
YIDD 105 - Beginning Yiddish Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Yearlong course YIDD 105-106 .
|
| |
-
YIDD 106 - Beginning Yiddish Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Yearlong course YIDD 105 -106.
|
Yiddish: II. Intermediate |
| |
-
YIDD 210 - Intermediate Yiddish Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course 210-YIDD 211 .
|
| |
-
YIDD 211 - Intermediate Yiddish Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course YIDD 210 -211.
|
Yiddish: III. Advanced |
| |
-
YIDD 310 - Advanced Yiddish Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
|
| |
-
YIDD 311 - Advanced Yiddish Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
|
| |
Page: 1 <- Back 10 … 13
| 14
| 15
| 16
| 17
| 18
| 19
| 20
| 21
| 22
| 23
|
|
|
Print this Page