Current Course Descriptions

This course covers some of the major issues, debates, and questions in the field of contemporary feminist theory. Readings are selected from a wide range of scholarship that represent an interdisciplinary approach and lines of inquiry that challenge the traditional boundaries between Social Sciences and Humanities. We will explore connections and disconnections between feminisms from the 1970s and continuing to the present day. We will study which questions have emerged as “new” in contemporary feminist theories, and how they have been part of a larger theory of body, including queer and trans studies, transnational studies, critical race studies, Indigenous studies, and environmental studies. During the last portion of the course, we will focus on how Indigenous peoples resist colonial domination and work toward liberation, re-existence, and resurgence of knowledge from within. Areas of focus during our final weeks include coloniality/modernity, decoloniality, and Indigenous feminisms. Through discussion threads, response papers, presentations, and a final research project, students will explore the close associations between feminist theorization and a wide range of issues, such as sex/gender transgression, sexuality, race, indigeneity, ability, neoliberalism, and earth rights.  

This class will draw on memoirs, film, photography, magazines and journals, and historical literature to investigate the representations and realities of diverse mothers in the United States today, and in the past. We will consider historical contexts as well as contemporary policy and politics that shape the experiences of mothers and the ways we interpret and judge their lives and needs. The central issues this class will address include: (1) the maternal ideal and who does (and does not) exemplify it; (2) the emotional terrain of motherhood--diverse mothers’ own feelings about pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood; (3) the ways that race, class, sexuality, and ethnicity inform the experiences of and resources available to mothers and the construction of motherhood in the United States; (4) the ways that mothers are represented (or represent themselves) in selected films, memoirs, photographs, and how we can “read” these in different historical contexts; (5) the labor of motherhood; and (6) the “value” of care work and motherhood. Together we will seek to understand the ways in which a complex and multifaceted cultural discourse about motherhood shapes diverse experiences of motherhood. Special attention will be paid to immigrant mothers, African American mothers, and low-income mothers in the twentieth-century and contemporary US.

In this capstone to the Gender and Media minor, students will develop, discuss, produce and critique a project related to gender, media, and technology. Students will articulate and present the project in written and oral formats and will have the option to also (1) create an in-depth multimedia component to the project; 2) complete an internship; or 3) complete a service learning experience.

As a 400-level, seminar-style class, this course involves a great deal of participation, independent and self-directed work, and a large-scale project that is built throughout the semester. The capstone project will address a major problem, question, or issue of interest related to gender, media, and technology, preferably one rooted in the student's major discipline. We will workshop these products together and share internship and service learning experiences during class. All internship and service learning placements must be approved by the program’s internship coordinator by the end of Week Two, or the student must do the multimedia project option for the course.