Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary program that uses gender and sexuality as central frameworks for exploration, analysis, and action. GSWS affirms the commitment among its students and faculty to promote social justice and deconstruct assumptions about gender and sexuality that reproduce inequality.
Students interested in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies should consider enrolling in one of the courses listed for our program on the First-Year Student website.
Courses
CLAS 199-F08
Women and Power in the Ancient Mediterranean
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies
This course examines gender ideologies, systems of social power, and the ways in which women were either systematically excluded from or worked their way into positions of power in the ancient Mediterranean. Discussions of gender theory and the origins of the gender binary within early states will foreground regional case studies focusing on gender roles and women’s rights in Egypt, Greece, Persia, Rome, the Levant and Mesopotamia. The course then explores themes such as the interplay between Orientalism and the ancient and modern receptions of specific women of power, like Cleopatra and Semiramus, how the introduction of monotheistic religions altered these gendered systems, and how women resisted or assisted in the construction of empires. We will analyze primary source texts written both by and about women, as well as artifacts and art historical sources to compare how certain power systems, institutions, and historical circumstances facilitated women’s rise to power over others, and what effects these systems are still having today.
GSWS 120
Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
Introduces students to the discipline of Women's and Gender Studies by analyzing women's roles and women's contributions to society and culture from the perspective of recent scholarship on women. Special attention focused on the complex interactions between gender and other social divisions such as race, class, and sexual orientation. The following issues are among those considered: the politics of women's work, the representation of women's bodies in the media, violence against women, healthcare and reproductive rights, global feminism, and the history of feminist movements in the U.S. Deliberately includes in its scope broader constructions of gender, such as concepts of masculinity.
RELS 118
New Testament
Common Area: Historical Studies or Studies in Religion
Introduction to early Christian literature and thought in light of the historical, literary, and religious milieu of the Greco-Roman world, including Judaism. Topics discussed include the diverse of representations of Jesus, the emergence of the category "Christian," and the genres of New Testament and other early Christian books. Contemporary approaches are addressed, but the primary focus is the ancient texts themselves.
THEA 136
Horror Films, Sex & Gender
Common Area: Arts
This course is designed to examine the horror film using Queer, Gender, and Feminist theory. The course will explore seminal works from the genre and examine the horror film's evolution using these critical lenses. The goal is for students to develop a foundational understanding of the conventions of the genre and its relationship to evolving notions of identity.