First-Year Seminar in Women's Studies

Catalog description

WMNST 83N First-Year Seminar in Women's Studies (3) This course introduces first-year students to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Students develop an understanding of a feminist approach to understanding stratifications of power and privilege in society not only impact but co-constitute constructions of gender and sexual identity that are sometimes at odd with an individual's lived experience. Students learn that social variables such as gender, age, social class, religion, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and place of residence affect the way people view the world, behave and communicate. Students will develop the ability to locate, organize, and evaluate information about these identity intersections from a variety of sources, and use them to synthesize and analyze their own lived experience as a gendered being. Through the reading of texts, discussions, debates, and individual and collaborative projects, students are introduced to: feminist analysis of current topics and issues in women's and gender studies; to using women's and gender studies as a discipline and form of critical engagement; to the concepts of interdisciplinary vs. multidisciplinary research and scholarship; to intersectional analysis of identity, power, and oppression; to scholarly conduct and responsibilities Students will be expected to develop an understanding of current issues and debates within and beyond the field of women's and gender studies as they relate to contemporary fiction and nonfiction writing as well as feminist thought through social media. Students will recognize that social variables such as gender, age, social class, religion, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and place of residence affect the way people view the world, behave, and communicate. Students will develop the ability to locate, organize, and evaluate information about these identity intersections from a variety of sources and use them to synthesize and analyze their own ideas as well as come to an understanding regarding the stratification of power and privilege in society.