Academics
Academics
Insert general "Academics" content here.
01:988:332 The Color of AIDS: The Politics of Race During the AIDS Crisis (3)
Focuses on AIDS crisis, explores relationships between illness, race, ethnicity, and gender in health policy, research, and care for communities of color.
01:988:331 Theorizing Sexuality and Gender (3)
Examines how sexuality and gender became meaningful categories in Western culture through the emergence of sexual politics and queer theory.
01:988:330 Memoir and Autobiography (3)
Involves intensive and extensive reading of several women's memoirs, all written within the last 50 years.
01:988:329 History of Race and Sex in America (3)
Feminist theories about race, gender, and nation. Focuses on U.S. nation formation, gender and American nationalism, and U.S. hegemony in a globalizing world. Examines how race and gender have independently and jointly determined life chances throughout American history." Prerequisite: 01:988:101 or 201 or 202 or 235 or by special permission. Cross-listed w/ 01:512:366
01:988:326 Psychology of Women (3)
Evaluation of some major psychological conceptualizations of women in light of current research. Bases for these formulations and their influence on the position of women today. Credit not given for both this course and 01:830:381.
01:988:325 Women on the Fringe (3)
Examines societal responses to female behavior deviating from prescribed norms of social and feminine behavior from the colonial period to the present through the use of historical narratives, literature, and film to treat such themes as heresy, madness, prostitution, adultery, criminality, drug addiction, political protest, and lesbianism.
01:988:321 Queer Contexts: Same-Sex Desire, Culture, and Representation (3)
Cultural construction and representation of same-sex desire in Western societies. Debates about identity, subjectivity, and the uses of experience included.
01:988:318 The Gendered Body (3)
- Instructor: prof joe
- Course Delivery: wwlkjdf
- Current Course Description: this is the current cousre description
Explores the processes by which the body is gendered in different cultures. How is the relationship between physical body, gender, and sexuality forged?
01:988:317 Gender and Consumption (3)
Introduces feminist approaches to consumption through readings that examine the relation of consumption to body, race, nation, and sex work. Prerequisite: 01:988:101 or 201 or 235 or permission of instructor.
01:988:312 African Feminism (3)
This course is an in-depth examination of diverse critical approaches to the development of feminism in Africa. Students will also build critical understanding of gender dialogues within African societies as experienced in their historical, cultural, social and economic contexts. Through readings, class discussions and written assignments, students will develop critical thinking, analytical, writing and speaking skills. Prerequisite: 01:988:101 or 235. Credit not given for both this course and 01:016:312.
Undergraduate Program
Undergraduate Director:Dr. Yana Rodgers
Sr. Department Administrator: Monique Gregory
The Women's & Gender Studies undergraduate program, founded in the early seventies, is one of the oldest in the nation. Currently, the program has over 200 majors and minors and serves over 1900 students annually in a wide array of core and cross-listed courses. The major, approved in 1984, introduces students to significant issues and debates in feminist scholarship, theory, and activism.
“Women’s & Gender Studies seek to enrich traditional disciplinary approaches not simply by including women but by transforming the categories, through which knowledge is produced and disseminated.”
All courses are interdisciplinary and each considers the complex dynamics among race, ethnicity, locality, class, gender, and sexuality. The readings and discussions in each class represent a wide variety of women's perspectives concerning issues such as: the conceptualization of difference, the production and recreation of femininity and masculinity, language and gender, the division of labor, women and poverty, sexual violence, reproductive rights, gay and lesbian theory, gender and popular theory, and contemporary feminist politics. Ultimately, we strive to ground both research and theory in the everyday realities of feminist activism around the globe. Women’s & Gender Studies program faculty, students and staff are active members and leaders of academic and community women’s organizations.
The WGS alumnae pursue their professional career in various fields. One-fifth of our graduates continue their education in graduate programs in different fields (political science, English, law) around the country. Many alumnae also engage in work in the area of health and pharmacy (about one fourth). Others choose law (one-fifth of the alumnae), education (one fourth) media or computer studies. Many WGS graduates continue their activist work in non-governmental organizations that engage with women and work, international politics and women’s leadership.
Graduate Program
The Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers the Ph.D., the M.A. , and a Graduate Certificate Program. The graduate program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is the joint enterprise of a diverse Graduate Faculty comprising more than 100 scholars. Our students benefit from the rich resources of the larger feminist community at Rutgers which includes 27 Ph.D. students, 21 M.A. students, and over 100 Ph.D. students in other departments who are pursuing certificates in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. In addition, the many Rutgers institutes and centers devoted to feminist research -- the Institute for Women's Leadership, the Center for American Women and Politics, the Center for Women's Global Leadership, the Center for Women and Work and the Institute for Research on Women -- enrich the opportunities for our students to gain practical skills and to broaden their knowledge of feminist research and politics.