Courses

Women’s Studies Program    BRNG 6164 
   www.cla.purdue.edu/womens-studies

ALL STUDENTS ARE WELCOME!

*IDIS 280 is recommended both as an overview for those generally interested in gender and women's issues, and as a foundational course for those committed to more advanced women's studies.  Though the content will vary in specific sections, 280 will always focus on the intersection of gender with factors such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and nationality in U.S. and global contexts.  Readings will be interdisciplinary as well as poly-disciplinary, drawing upon such CLA disciplines as literature, history, sociology, psychology, political science, communication and the arts.  Possible topics:  feminism; contemporary and older forms of patriarchy; gender, class, race and sexuality in the home, the workplace, the academy, and the media; language and culture; body image; diversity and differences among women; violence against women; women's movements, and women in politics.

IDIS 280-1   Introduction to Women’s Studies*   MWF  8:30-9:20    
K. Unruh    BRNG B254

IDIS 280-2   Introduction to Women’s Studies*   MWF  10:30-11:20   
S. Bower   REC 307

IDIS 280-3   Introduction to Women’s Studies*   MWF  11:30-12:20   
L. Graham    REC 302

IDIS 280-4   Introduction to Women’s Studies*   MWF  12:30-1:20     
M. Null    BRNG 1260

IDIS 280-5   Introduction to Women’s Studies*   MWF  1:30-2:20      
J. Truesdell    BRNG B254

IDIS 280-6   Introduction to Women’s Studies*   MWF  2:30-3:20       
J. Lindquist  BRNG B254

IDIS 280-7   Introduction to Women’s Studies*   TTh  12:00-1:15        
M. Buehler   BRNG 1260

IDIS 280-8   Introduction to Women’s Studies*  TTh  1:30-2:45          
M. Buehler    BRNG 1260

IDIS 280-9   Introduction to Women’s Studies*   TTh  4:30-5:45         
A. Lozano     BRNG B254

IDIS 380  Gender and Multiculturalism  (380-1/H C. Konrad  TTh 12:00-1:15  CIVL 2101)
This course introduces students to a broad range of issues raised by the multicultural diversity of women's lives and experiences.  It presents the voices of women from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds in the U.S. and other parts of the world to examine how race, class, sexuality, and culture interact in shaping society.  Content will vary in each section.

IDIS 480  Feminist Theory  (L. Graham  TTh 3:00-4:15  BRNG 1260) 
This course provides an overview of feminist theory.  It is divided into four general topics: (1) The role of women in traditional political thought and the emergence of modern feminist theories. (2) Considerations and contestations of identity. (3) A reexamination and a “rethinking” of basic political concepts and relationships and (4) global challenges.

IDIS 491M  Sociology  (V. Moghadam TTh 1:30-2:45 STON 215) cross-listed with SOC 339
The course introduces students to key concepts and major debates in the sociology of development and the study of globalization. In the process, we will examine Marxist, dependency, world-systems, and feminist perspectives on capitalism, imperialism, class, gender, and the prospects available to developing countries.

IDIS 492  Internship  (Staff  Hours arranged)

WOST 680  Feminist Theories and Methods  (P. Boling  TH 4:30-7:20  BRNG 1260) cross-listed POL 651
The unifying theme of this course is embodied experience, knowledge, and thinking.  We will read broadly from texts dealing with women’s and men’s bodies, modes of disciplining the body (diet, exercise, cosmetic surgery, images of beauty), differences along axes of gender, class, race and sexual orientation, issues related to motherhood, standpoint theory, work, demands for gender equality, social constructions of gender, gender as performance, and third world feminism.  There is also significant attention to research design, feminist methods and methodologies, and pedagogy; if there is a “slant” to all this, it is through the social sciences and political theory, reflecting my background as a political scientist, but I endeavor to be mindful of the variety of backgrounds from which students come to this course and inclusive in theoretical and methodological approaches.

WOST 681A  Contemporary Issues in Feminist Scholarship:  (A. Decker  W 3:30-6:20pm  BRNG 1260)
This interdisciplinary graduate seminar uses feminist theory to critically examine some of the ways in which war and militarism are deeply gendered.  We will begin by examining key theoretical debates concerning the gender politics of war.  For instance, should feminists be soldiers or pacifists?  Can military service “liberate” marginalized populations?  Here we will also consider how gender identities become militarized in peacetime and in war.  In the next section, we will examine women’s participation in revolutions, nationalist struggles, and contemporary warfare.  As part of this discussion, we will be looking at how women’s bodies have been strategically utilized as weapons of war and as symbols of peace.  We will also pay attention to the gendered dimensions of forced displacement and exile.  The third part of the course will focus on the role of the international community in waging war and maintaining peace (e.g. UN Peacekeepers, the International Criminal Court, and humanitarian aid agencies).  We will explore how each of these “bodies” is explicitly gendered.  During the final weeks of the course, we will examine questions relating to violence and memory.  How do women and men differentially experience Truth and Reconciliation Commissions?  Who becomes memorialized?  Students can expect to engage with a number of different types of texts throughout the course (e.g. films, memoirs, novels, scholarly analyses, court documents, etc.).

Courses Related to Women’s Studies  Fall ‘08 

COM 381/H  Gender and Feminist Studies in Communication  (R. Jensen  TTH 12:00-1:15)
This course will cover major communication events in U.S. history that shaped and continue to shape perceptions of gender. Students will analyze arguments that speakers have made about feminism, as well as textual and visual appeals that speakers used to influence policy. Starting with an analysis of Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” (1792), this course will provide students with an advanced knowledge of the history of the three waves of feminism.

EDCI 513E Teaching Bodies  (T. Johnson TH 4:30-7:20)  cross-listed ENGL 696T
In a deliberately poststructural double move, the course’s title can be understood in two ways:  Much of the material is about teaching the students whose bodies populate our classrooms, which is a different approach from most methods courses that emphasize teaching subject-area content.  In another sense, the course is about the bodies who teach, with the goals of acknowledging that teachers do in fact have bodies and examining how the patriarchal educational system works to suppress and silence teachers’ materiality.  Goals of the course include:

• Developing an understanding of and sensitivity toward adolescent girls’ issues such that teachers can better serve their female students’ needs.
• Becoming familiar with current research about gender inequities in schools.
• Learning about how a feminist pedagogy differs from traditional teaching and reflect upon how teachers might implement all or aspects of a feminist philosophy in their own practice.
• Examining the roles and effects of teachers’ and students’ bodies and sexualities in the classroom.
• Reading what adolescents themselves have to say and consider the implications for teaching.

EDST 506  History of Women’s Education  (A. Knupfer  T 6:00-9:00 p.m.)
This course will examine the formal and nonformal experiences of female education in the U.S. from 1640 to the present.  Access to formal schooling, selected curricula, and linkages between gender-related ideologies and educational and occupational opportunities will be emphasized.  Although the course functions much like a survey course, attention will also be given to the diversity of women's education based upon race, ethnicity, social class and regionalism.

HIST 329  History of Women in Modern Europe (W. Walton  MWF 10:30-11:20 AM  UNIV 117)
This course examines the history of women in modern Europe from 1789 to the present, analyzing both women’s experiences, and the social and cultural constructions of femininity.   It also attends to different contexts of class, ethnicity, and nationality in the history of European women.  Subjects covered include women’s participation in revolutions, state interventions in the family, working lives of women, ideals and practices of sexuality, the middle-class model of domesticity and women’s responses to it, the rise of feminist movements, women in socialism, women and gender in imperialism, the experiences of two world wars, women under fascism, women in the transition from communism to capitalism, and contemporary feminisms in Europe. The objectives of this course are twofold: one, to help students learn a part of history often not covered in other history courses, and two, to encourage students to think critically about the past, its interpretation, and its influence on their own lives.  Exams, writing assignments, and class discussions are intended to develop students' analytical skills, and to improve their writing and verbal communication abilities.

HIST 492D: Seminar in Historical Topics: Women in African History (A. Decker TTH 12:00-1:15)
This course introduces students to the complex and richly layered histories of African women.  It is concerned with the historical forces shaping African women’s lives, as well as the ways in which women have been active agents in the making of their own histories.  Students can expect to engage with a number of different types of texts (e.g. films, memoirs, novels, scholarly analyses, and primary sources).  Please note that this is a discussion-based seminar and will fulfill the writing-intensive requirement

IDIS 373B/ENGL 396 B  Black Women Writers  (J.Dorsey  TTH 3:00-4:15)
This course surveys the writings of Black women from Africa and the African Diaspora, from the nineteenth century to the present. Using several writing forms--novels, plays, poems, autobiographies, and political essays--representative countries include: Cameroon, Nigeria, England, France, the United States, Cuba, Jamaica, Antigua, and Brazil. The course emphasizes various dimensions of family relations and friendship, on the one hand, and the changing constructions of sociopolitical identity among Black women at various times and in settings, on the other.

POL 360 Women and the Law  (P. Boling  TTH 10:30-11:45)
This course examines how the law affects women and men with regard to a number areas of life:  gender discrimination, equality under the law, sexual harassment, affirmative action, family law (marriage, divorce, unconventional relationships), rape, and reproductive choice.  It spans many fields:  constitutional and federal statutory law; labor, criminal, and family law, and legal thought.  I use the Socratic method, and will call on each of you several times during the semester to discuss cases and the ideas, issues, and legal doctrines presented by each day's readings.  Since close familiarity with the cases and other materials is essential for such discussion, you will be expected to read and "brief" the cases or other materials assigned for that day before you come to class.