Gender Studies Course Offerings
For more information on requirements or prerequisites, please consult the individual instructor.
SPRING 2011
Gender Studies/Interdisciplinary
ID 260.001: Sex & American Culture
Instructor: Traci Abbott
Despite the assumption that sexual acts are personal experiences conducted in private, every day we witness the public battle over what we should or should not do, show, or talk about. This course examines the relationship between sexual identity, sexual expression, and gender to ask who gets to decide what is moral or immoral, appropriate or inappropriate, and obscene or artistic. Is what ways do political systems, religious and educational institutions, and the entertainment industry define, regulate and categorize sexual behavior? What is the role of personal agency and responsibility? We will study different assumptions about the origins and function of gender and sexuality and then more closely examine sexual values in current debates like sexual content in entertainment, gay marriage, the regulation of pornography, and access to sex education, birth control, and abortion using a wide variety of readings from various perspectives as well as documentaries, essays, and autobiographies.
English and Media Studies
LIT 381.01 & 02: Sitcom Nation: The American Family in Fiction and Film
Instructor: Jennifer Gillan
The nurturing nuclear families of television sitcoms such as Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best are often idealized by contemporary Americans anxious about and frustrated by contemporary family conflicts and complexities. The media converts these anxieties into consumable types (e.g., the deadbeat dad) and positions them against the sitcom ideal of the self-sacrificing mother and tough, but loving father. By analyzing literary and cinematic responses to “classic” TV sitcom representations of American familial and cultural norms, this course explores the entrenchment of and challenges to gendered (and race- and class-based) family ideals. It addresses the impact of consumerism and the media on people’s perceptions of the ideal American family and their own distance from its norms. In addition to considering social and historical issues related to representation, the course compares how literary and cinematic metaphors function and examines issues related to form (short story, poem, memoir, sitcom, or long-arc serial drama). While it focuses primarily on textual and cultural analysis, the class raises some media industry issues, such as trends in sponsorship (e.g., corporate- sponsored “beneficial” families) and trends in form (e.g., the displacement of the sitcom by the prime-time serial on the broadcast television schedule).
CIN 380.E01: Male Image in American Cinema
Instructor: Ken Stuckey
This course examines how masculinity functions in cinematic narratives centered on Hollywood’s “leading men.” Students identify and critique notions about what makes a male protagonist heroic or even more simply what makes him a functional citizen. This critique necessarily leads to a larger discussion about the evolving concepts of American culture, and how and why mainstream film champions the popular cultural impulse of rebellion. The course emphasizes the theoretical approaches of formalism (close reading) and deconstruction to relate a gendered reading of each character to these larger social conceptions. Films examined may include High Noon, Strangers on a Train, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Midnight Cowboy, The Shining, American Beauty, and Collateral.
History
HI 358.E01 U.S. Women’s History
Instructor: Laura Baines-Walsh
This course will examine U.S. women’s history from the colonial era to the present. Course material will offer a broad perspective on women’s lives, especially their work lives and economic contributions, as they have changed over time.
Law, Taxation, and Financial Planning
LA 105.01: Race and the Law
Instructor: Michelle Rowland
Examines the role of the law both as a force in maintaining the second-class citizenship of racial minorities and as a tool in dismantling racial discrimination throughout society. Considers the law as an instrument of oppression of racial minorities through historical reviews of laws and court decisions that have treated whites and non-whites differently; examines legal efforts to liberate and empower racial minorities. Focuses on selected topics particular to Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and African Americans, as well as legal issues common to all racial minorities (hate crimes, housing segregation, equal education opportunity, discrimination in the criminal justice system, workplace discrimination, affirmative action). Looks at the intersection of gender and race to identify issues unique to female members of racial minorities.
LA 309: Labor and Employment Law
Instructor: John Hayward
Introduces the student to labor and employment laws that govern the rights of employers and employees in the workplace. Federal and state statutes, leading court and agency decisions are examined. Topics include union representation, collective bargaining, unfair labor practices, the right to strike, dispute resolution, the erosion of the doctrine of employment-at-will, minimum wage law, occupational safety regulation, drug and alcohol testing, plant closing laws, employer-related immigration issues, and public sector employment topics. Fair employment practice law encompasses race, sex, religion, national origin, handicapped and age discrimination including the topics of equal pay for equal work, affirmative action and sexual harassment.
Management
MG 340D.E01: Human Trafficking and Slavery Project
Instructor Shawn Hauserman
Human trafficking and slavery is at epidemic proportions throughout the world today. This course will explore the driving factors behind this phenomenon and provide consulting services to a local nonprofit whose mission is to work towards eradicating the trafficking and slavery of humans. The focus of the course will be to provide organizational assessment and strategic recommendations to improve and strengthen the non-profits operations.
Natural and Applied Sciences
NASE 112.H01: Evolution, Human Genetics and Behavior
Instructor: Lynn Arenella
In this interactive honors seminar, students critically analyze in papers and student-led class discussions readings from a wide variety of sources not normally used in traditional science classes. In readings about the Salem witch trials, satanic cults, recovered memories of abuse, UFOs, and the FDA drug approval process, students examine the scientific process. Students will critically debate the application of evolutionary thinking to modern problems in evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics: Is there an evolutionary explanation for rape? Is there a gay gene? Each student will be responsible for collaboratively teaching one seminar focused on one gene or group of genes on one chromosome as a means to understand a basic concept of human genetics, including its potential application to a wide range of other topics.
PS 333.01: Gender Psychology
Instructor: Joyce Aronson
The goals of this course are for the student to gain a better understanding of the development of men and women, and the psychological issues involved in understanding the way they operate in the world today. The course will explore in some depth several theoretical stances of gender development and Psychology; the students will gain a better understanding of how that impacts upon them as men and women. This course will focus the common issues that come in the professional and personal life. The course will compare and contrast gender influenced behavior between women and men. We will explore alternatives to the old problems between the genders, and find new ways to deal with each other because of new levels of understanding the course will generate.
