Course Descriptions:
WMS 105 Gender in the Everyday World
Prerequisite: ENG 101
This course is an interdisciplinary and global exploration of women’s experiences in work and family, health and sexuality, creativity and politics. In looking at these subjects, it acknowledges the history of women’s subordination and examines women’s contributions toward social change. It also looks at social and cultural images of women around the world and recognizes that individual experience and opinions can be the starting point for knowledge and growth. This course will emphasize collaborative learning in line with the tenets of feminist pedagogy.
BIO 103/WMS103 Women’s Health
Prerequisite: Eligibility for ENG101
This three-credit course focuses on the biology of women. Specific topics include reproduction, birth control, genetics (gender determination, sexual orientation, sex change), conception to birth, women’s health and body systems, aging, women in science and scientific research.
ENG160/ WMS 106 Introduction to Literature by Women
Prerequisite: ENG 101
The course will focus on the works of female writers. Its purpose is to allow students to develop a sense of the range, variety and quality of the writing of those women whose voices are not always included in literary canons. Authors are considered from both historical and feminist perspectives.
ENG 265/WMS 265 Women’s Autobiography
Prerequisite: ENG102 or permission of instructor
Traditionally, autobiography has been viewed as a direct and true reflection of a person’s life. This course is designed around current theories that question that view and posit, instead, autobiography as a construction of self. Through a focus on a diverse cross-section of 20th Century Women’s Autobiographies, we will analyze how gender, sexuality, race, class, and location affect what is written and how it is written. We will also ask how are these women’s identities shaped by their placement in the text and in society? How do these women use their writing to modify or strengthen the ways that society has positioned them?
HIS 215/WMS 215 History of Women in the United States
Prerequisite: HIS 101, 102, 201 or 202
This course examines the position of women in the United States from the mid-19th century to the present. Topics of study will include the origins and issues of the woman’s rights movement in the mid-19th century, the women’s suffrage movement culminating in the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, woman in factory work during World War II, the women’s movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, and women in the United States today. Topics to be considered will include women and politics, women and the law, women and patterns of work, women and business, women and religion, women and athletics, women and homemaking, women and assertiveness, women and sexuality, women and aging, women and divorce, and women and affirmative action.
PHL 123 Ethics: Feminist Perspectives
This course critiques the impact traditional moral theories and practices have on women’s lives. We examine the ways separating the public from the private realm and reason from emotion continue to dominate ethical thought and behavior. Lastly, we address the power and pervasiveness religious traditions, political and economic power, violence and media have to influence social norms.
PHL 125 Feminism
This course will explore the plurality of theories and narratives on feminism from the philosophical perspective, as well as practically through the lived stories of women. Class sessions will consist of a mixture of methods of presentation (lecture, first-person narrative, and dialogue), with the aim of using theoretical constructs as a springboard for the plurality of experiences and narratives of the feminine.
PSY 211/WMS 211 Psychology of Women
Prerequisite: PSY 111; PSY 112 recommended
A survey and examination of current research and theories about women and sex roles. The course examines sex differences from the biological, psychoanalytic, learning and sociological perspective. Topics include attitudes toward women, motherhood, relationships, women and work, sexuality, marriage, love and the biology of women.
PSY 250/ WMS 250 Psychological Aspects of Human Sexuality
Prerequisite: PSY 111; PSY 112 recommended
Scientific study of human behavior including psychological and physiological components of sexuality. Topics include cross-cultural perspectives of sexuality, sexual response systems, developmental and social perspectives of gender, sexuality throughout the life cycle, and reproduction.