Curriculum
Many departments offer courses in Women and Gender Studies and related areas. Women and Gender Studies minors may also earn credits from certain special topics courses and independent studies.
Women and Gender Studies Introduction 247 (WMST 247) provides a foundation for the minor. To complete the remaining 15 hours, you may choose any Women and Gender Studies courses, with the restriction that no more than six hours may be taken in any prefix area.
Fall 2013 Semester
- ANTH-455: Cross-Cultural Study of Women
M-W-F 1-1:50
The course is a critical review of literature on sex roles and the status of women from a cross-cultural perspective .
- ARTH-401: History of Women and Visual Culture
Correspondence Course
This course will focus on women as both subjects and creators of art, while exploring the role of the visual in constructing ideas of femininity through a variety of crucial topics and issues. This exploration will involve a historical survey of women artists and their contributions, as well as an examination of the religious, mythological and secular images of women in art. A primary focus of the course will be the critical analysis of the creation, modification and persistence of these images throughout history due to varied social, economical, technological, psychological and intellectual conditions.
- CJUS-419: Family Violence
Correspondence Course
This course explores the incidence, scope, and contributing factors in family violence. Various perspectives (feminist, psychological, sociological, historical, and legal) are examined. Topical issues include patriarchy, marital rape, domestic assault, and child sexual abuse. Coverage includes theories of violence, alternatives to violent interactions, and criminal justice system's response.
- ENGL 474/POLS 474: Literature: Feminist Politics
Online
This is an analysis of American feminism from its origins as a political movement through its current expressions in literature and literary criticism.
- HIST 492/WMST 492: Women and the North American West
T-Th 2-3:15
This course explores gender, race, and class in women's lives though the lens of region, specifically the geographic West of North America, from the Great Plains to the Pacific Coast, with a focus on the land area that became the United States. The focus is on women from Native American, Spanish, Mexican, African American, Asian American and Anglo-American cultures and their opportunities, constraints, and changing power in patriarchal systems, from the pre-contact to modern times.
- PHIL 364: Biomedical Ethics
T-TH 3:30-4:45
Ethical problems generated by recent scientific, social, and legal developments such as right to life, right to die, right to health care, genetics research and counseling, doctor patient rights and definitions of health, personhood, and death will be discussed and analyzed in terms of traditional ethical issues and concepts with an emphasis on the ethical decision making process.
- PSYC-368: Psychology of Sexuality
T-TH 2-3:15
This course investigates current social-sexual issues such as sexual initiation, contraceptive decision-making, interpersonal and social responses to STD's and AIDS, sexual aggression, erotica and pornography, and sexual satisfaction and intimacy. Prerequisites: PSYC 101 and BIOL 101.
- SOC-490: Seminar: The Woman Criminal
Correspondence Course
This is a highly focused and topical course. The format includes student presentations and discussions of reports based on literature, practices, problems, and research.
- SPCM-460: Family Communication
T-TH 9:30-10:45
This course studies systems of relational communication in a variety of family contexts, with particular emphasis on stability, continuity and change. The role of family in personal, social, and cultural development is studied, as well as changing family dynamics of power, myth, ritual, and connection.
For more elective courses offered during other semesters see our Undergraduate Catalog.