Course Descriptions
GWST 1010 Introduction to Gender and Women's Studies
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Gender and Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary field aimed at developing a critical understanding of gender as a category of analysis in scholarly enquiry and social dynamics. Paying close attention to the experiences and perspectives of women, students have the opportunity to examine history, social structures, the sciences, language, literature, culture from the illuminating perspective of gender. In all these areas, Gender and Women's Studies investigates how gender intersects with other variables such as race, class, and cultural difference. This introductory course provides an overview of some of the central topics of Gender and Women's Studies, such as the sex/gender distinction, understanding sexualities, the social construction of motherhood, changing definitions of masculinity and femininity, and the place of sex and gender cross-culturally.
FORMAT:
GWST 1015 Gender and Diversity
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course continues from "Introduction to Gender and Women's Studies" to focus particularly on the many ways that gender as a social system interacts with other systems of power and inequality. We all make sense of our lives through multiple identities that combine in shifting ways to define our opportunities for action and the limits we face. Identities based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, class, sexuality, disability, nation, or religion are blended in varied ways for individuals, but they are not just individual self-perceptions. They are also elements of larger social systems. Topics may include the multiple identities of the body; race, gender, and violence; diversity and work; contemporary transformations of the family; and gender and globalization.
FORMAT:
GWST 1070 Modern Russian Culture and Civilization
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Conducted in English. The cultural history of 20th century Russia.
NOTES: Meets Writing Requirement (when taken in combination with
RUSN 1020.03), 3 hours
FORMAT COMMENTS: Meets Writing Requirement when taken in combination with
RUSN 1020.03.
GWST 2000 Directed Readings in Gender and Women’s Studies
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Readings and research in Gender and Women’s Studies on selected topics. In exceptional circumstances, and with the permission of both the Gender and Women’s Studies Coordinator and the Instructor concerned, students may arrange to take appropriate courses for credit in Gender and Women’s Studies that are not otherwise available as one term courses in Gender and Women’s Studies. To find out how to register in one of these courses, please see http://www.dal.ca/gwst.
FORMAT COMMENTS: Variable
PREREQUISITES: Permission of the GWST Coordinator and instructor
GWST 2011 Queering Foundations
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This class will introduce you to concepts in queer theory, which are analyses that challenge identity categories by examining how those identities are constructed socially. Weekly lectures will bring a critical lens to how gender and sexuality are constructed historically and contemporarily, and in relation to other markers, such as race, ethnicity, or socio-economic class. Readings will introduce queer theory terms and demonstrate how to analyze language in relation to power. You will discuss the theory we read, reflect on its connection to your own experience, and apply the theories to contemporary representations of gender and sexuality.
FORMAT:
GWST 2066 Women, Gender and Music
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course explores the variety of ways in which gender shapes musical discourse. The role of gender in music will be examined through three broad topics: the history of female contributions to music as musicians, composers, patrons and listeners; musical constructions of gender, race, class and sexuality; and feminist criticism in recent musical discourse. No formal training in music is required.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
MUSC 3066.03
GWST 2110 Special Topics in Gender and Women's Studies
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This is a Special Topics course which will explore various areas of current research on a broad topic in Gender and Women's Studies or gender theory. Topics will vary by year. The course is open to students from all disciplines.
FORMAT: Lecture
GWST 2150 Philosophy of Disability
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Disability scholars argue that there is no other marginalized identity as universal and ubiquitous as disability. If we live long enough, we will all experience disability at some point in our lives. The disability rights movement invokes the slogan, “Nothing about us without us,” to capture the importance of centering and amplifying the voices of people with disabilities in conversations and initiatives to ameliorate, rectify, and prevent their own oppression. Hence, any critical identity studies or social critique must recognize the experience and politics of disability and ableism, while showing how disability can be reclaimed and empowering. This course will introduce students to theories and concepts fundamental to critical disability studies such as normalcy, cure, transhumanism, accessibility, queer-crip theory, eugenics/newgenics, and more.
FORMAT: Lecture
CROSS-LISTING:
PHIL 2150
GWST 2170 Philosophy of Sex and Love
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course offers an examination of key concepts and questions related to love and sexual desire. Topics will include the nature of desire, of romantic love, and of sexual orientation. We will take up questions in sexual ethics and politics, and look at selected concepts such as trust and betrayal, sexual objectification, and perversion.
FORMAT: Lecture
CROSS-LISTING:
PHIL 2170.03
GWST 2191 Gender Across Cultures
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Applying theoretical perspectives drawn primarily from anthropology, this course considers the social and historical constructions of gender and sexuality in different cultural contexts. The course provides an overview of the anthropological study of gender as a universal yet culturally specific identity and set of relations and expectations. Themes around which the course will be organized will likely include the relationship between gender and the following; identities and markers of social difference, notably sexuality; kinship, reproduction, and the family as cultural institutions; labour, class and the global political economy; and gender politics and power relations. Students taking this course will consider the importance of looking beyond the western experience for understanding questions of gender, sexuality, and power. Approved with International Development Studies.
FORMAT: Lecture
LECTURE HOURS PER WEEK: 3
PREREQUISITES: One of
SOSA 1002.03,
SOSA 1003.03, FYP, or 3 credits of GWST at any level
CROSS-LISTING:
SOSA 2191.03
GWST 2192 Gender, Sexuality and Society
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course introduces students to the sociological study of gender and sexuality. It explores how socio-economic and cultural conditions— particularly in contemporary Canada— shape our understandings and experiences of gender and sexuality and how both intersect with age, ethnicity, class and other markers of identity. Specific topics to be examined may include the interconnected histories of sexuality and gender expectations in western societies, representations of gender and sexuality in the contemporary media, the family as a changing social institution and/or the social organization of intimate relationships, and different forms of gender and sexual activism and the notions of justice that they represent. Students taking this course will gain an in-depth understanding of gender and sexuality as evolving socially constructed concepts that have real and multiple effects.
NOTES: Note: Given it's focus on contemporary Canadian society, this course may not be approved as an IDS class.
FORMAT: Lecture
LECTURE HOURS PER WEEK: 3
PREREQUISITES: One of
SOSA 1002.03,
SOSA 1003.03, FYP, or 3 credits of GWST at any level
CROSS-LISTING:
SOSA 2192.03
GWST 2216 Women Artists in Early Modern Europe
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course considers the unique challenges women who aspired to be artists and patrons faced in Europe between c.1500 and 1700. Examining the careers of individual artists demonstrates the diverse strategies women used to access training, market their skills, and otherwise advance their artistic careers. We will see how women patrons had to overcome similar obstacles to establish themselves as knowledgeable collectors of art. The course further interrogates the reasons why women artists and patrons were forgotten or outright erased from academic art history. While European women artists form the backbone of the course, case studies of non-European women artists from the early modern period will also be analysed. Readings will include seminal texts by feminist art historians as well as current research generated by women-focused exhibitions.
FORMAT: Lecture
CROSS-LISTING:
EMSP 2216.03
GWST 2217 Women and the Economy
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course studies questions such as: Have economic conditions improved for women in Canada over the past 30 years? Is there gender discrimination in the Canadian labour market? What are the economic consequences of divorce? Are women more likely than men to be poor? Are there inequalities within families?
FORMAT: Lecture
PREREQUISITES:
ECON 1101.03,
ECON 1102.03 with minimum grades of C
CROSS-LISTING:
ECON 2217.03
GWST 2222 Fictions of Self Discovery
CREDIT HOURS: 3
A study of literary works (chiefly novels, but also possibly including short stories or short story collections) that portray the crises and conflicts involved in coming of age, finding a vocation, and the search for identity. Works from the nineteenth century to the present may be included, by authors writing in English in a variety of national traditions and global contexts. Typical themes include childhood experience and education, familial and romantic relationships, identity formation (cultural, gender, sexual), occupational issues and challenges.
PREREQUISITES: Any class or combination of classes that satisfies the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Requirement.
CROSS-LISTING:
ENGL 2222.03
EXCLUSIONS: ENGL 2221X/Y.06
GWST 2300 Making Gender: Sex and Gender in Pre-Modern Europe
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course examines the diverse and fascinating ways western cultures have shaped what it meant to be a woman or a man. Beginning in the time of the Roman Empire and continuing to the age of the French Revolution, the course examines such topics as eunuchs, fasting saints, female ‘popes’, changing notions of the physical differences between the sexes, and early struggles for women’s rights.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
HIST 2614.03
GWST 2301 Making Gender: Male and Female from the American Revolution to the Present
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course examines the diverse and fascinating ways western cultures have shaped the meanings of gender. The history of women informs us about the once little-known history of femininity. And, as a result, historical changes in definitions of masculinity become visible. The meanings of gender are explored in this course through topics such as: the doctrine of separate spheres, respectability, the family wage, the homosexual, imperialism, citizenship, welfare dependency, and infertility.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
HIST 2615.03
GWST 2310 Women and Gender in Early Modern Science
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course will explore the roles of women, and questions about women’s nature, in the development of early modern science. The course will consider several interrelated aspects of scientific culture in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries: first, we will look at the place of women in the scientific institutions of the time. Although women were, for the most part, excluded from universities and scientific academies, some women were able to do scientific work through their participation in salons and craft guilds. The second part of the course will look at the contributions of some particular women to the fields of physics, astronomy, botany, and medicine. We will then examine how science interpreted sex and gender. We will pay special attention to the biological sciences and their treatments of sex differences, conception, and generation. We will consider how these biological theories were influenced by, and at the same time used to uphold, various political and social structures. Finally, the course will explore the ways in which gender and nature were portrayed in the broader cultural context. We will, for example, discuss the ways in which women were depicted as scientists and as symbols of science in art and literature.
CROSS-LISTING:
EMSP 2310.03,
HSTC 2310.03
GWST 2320 Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
CREDIT HOURS: 3
The period of European history from 1500 to 1800 saw the rise of modern science and philosophy. It was also a period in which thousands of witch trials and executions were carried out. This course will seek to understand how these seemingly contradictory developments could have occurred simultaneously. The course will examine changing conceptions of the witch and witchcraft in their historical, intellectual, cultural, religious and political contexts. The course will pay special attention to early modern notions of gender and sexuality and their influence on the witch hunts and witch trials.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
EMSP 2320.03,
RELS 2420.03
GWST 2350 Feminisms: The First Three Waves
CREDIT HOURS: 3
In this course we will consider major developments in feminist theory from the 19th century to the present, concentrating on primary philosophical and literary texts. We will read representative works from all three waves, and consider black, lesbian, and postcolonial feminisms, as well as writing by trans* authors.
FORMAT: Seminar
CROSS-LISTING:
CTMP 2350
GWST 2412 Human Sexuality
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course is concerned with biological, cultural, ethical, historical, psychological, religious and semantic aspects of human sexuality. Four themes are threaded throughout the course - diversity in gender roles and in sexual attitudes, behaviours and customs; critical thinking; making responsible decisions; sexual health. The course is designed to support positive integration of sexuality into the lives of individuals and to foster the prevention of sexuality-related problems, at all stages of life.
FORMAT:
LECTURE HOURS PER WEEK: 3
CROSS-LISTING:
HPRO 4412.03