Social and Political Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality

Catalog description

Offered autumn. The course is designed to introduce students to the broad fields of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies through an overview of a number of the theoretical and experiential perspectives of WGSS from a social science perspective. Students will analyze the history of feminism, women’s studies, gender studies, and the growing field of queer studies; biological and psychological theories of gender; the social construction of gender as a product of history and culture; the relationship between gender and other categories of difference (race, sexual orientation, class, ethnicity); family and work; gender-based violence; the relationship between politics, economics, and gender; the representation of gender in popular culture; health and reproduction; and activism.