Graduate Courses
The Women’s Studies M.A. degree is an interdisciplinary program. Please note that courses offered in related departments can vary. Thus, one week prior to registration, the Women’s Studies Center prints a list of courses that are included in the M.A. program for that semester.
The following graduate courses are offered through the Women’s Studies Center.
Women, Sexuality and Culture (WST 6312) 3 credits
Prerequisite: BA degree or approval of instructor
Course considers theoretical perspectives, social debates, and cultural representations of women’s sexualities.
Women, Violence, Resistance (WST 6327) 3 credits
Prerequisite: BA degree or approval of instructor
Course considers rape, violence, incest, battery, and murder of women as a form of social control. Topics include cultural constructions of sexuality and gender, popular cultural representations, and women’s and men’s resistance to sexual violence.
Special Topics (WST 6934) 3 credits
Reading and research in interdisciplinary women's studies topics.
e.g., V
isionary Feminist Thought (6934) 3 credits
Women, War, and Peace Building (WST 6934) 3 credits
Sex/Violence/Hollywood (WST 6339) 3 credits
This course examines why sex and violence are the two main ingredients of Hollywood cinema and how the two interact to create meanings.
Women, Environment, Ecofeminism, Environmental Justice (WST 6348) 3 credits
This course examines the history and evolution of ecofeminist and environmental justice, thought, and practice through its major womanist/feminist activists, theorists, and core issues.
Women of Color in the U.S. (WST 6405) 3 credits
Examines how issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and class shape the lives of women of color in the U.S., such as Native-American, African-American, Latin- American, and Asian-American women.
Feminist Theory and Praxis (WST 6564) 3 credits
Survey of major statements in modern and contemporary feminist theory, with attention to their application in fields that may include the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as national and global activism.
Seminar in Feminist Studies and Qualitative Research (WST 6595) 3 credits
This course is designed to examine critically the production of knowledge in formal research from a feminist perspective and to apply feminist qualitative methods to particular research questions. Students will have the opportunity to formulate their own research programs within an expanded format as well as practice certain qualitative methods, such as interviewing a subject.
Gender, Health and Power (WST 6615) 3 credits
This course assesses the role of power relations, particularly gender, ethnicity, social class, religion, and globalization in shaping the health status, the illness experiences and outcomes, and the form and substance of medical options available in local communities around the world. A focus on how health is differentially impacted for women and men will engender an examination of gender ideology in power relations.
Directed Independent Study (WST 6909) 1-3 credits
Prerequisite: Approval of Women’s Studies Director
Reading and research in Women’s Studies
Interdisciplinary topics.
Graduate Research Seminar in Women’s Studies (WST 6919) 3 credits
Prerequisite: Admission to candidacy
Graduate project in research related to internship. Must be taken simultaneously with WST 6941. Grading: S/U
Special Topics (WST 6934) 3 credits
Reading and Research in interdisciplinary women’s studies topics.
Seminar in Global Perspectives on Gender (WST 6936) 3 credits
Interdisciplinary study of gender issues and their intersection with race and class in world regions.
Feminization of Poverty (WST 6938) 3 credits
Prerequisite: BA degree or approval of instructor
Course examines issues pertaining to the feminization of poverty from a feminist and comparative perspective. Discussions will apply theoretical, historical, and empirical
frameworks to analyze the gender dimensions of poverty and ways in which these frameworks structure our understanding of the feminization of poverty.
Graduate Internship in Women’s Studies (WST 6941) 3 credits
Prerequisite: Admission to candidacy
Internship with agency or office pertaining to women’s studies.
Must be taken simultaneously with WST 6919. Grading: S/U
Master’s Thesis (WST 6971) 1-6 credits
Prerequisite: Admission to candidacy
Grading: S/U
In addition to the Women’s Studies courses, there are a range of graduate seminars that, while part of the Women’s Studies graduate program, are offered in other departments. Below is a sampling of those courses that Women’s Studies graduate students can include in their program:
School of Communication & Multimedia Studies
COM 6015: Studies in Gender and Sexuality
MMC 6705: Feminist Cultural Studies
Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
FRW 6795: Modern French Women Writers
LIT 6388: Women Writing: The Caribbean
LIT 6393: Evil and the Feminine
LIT 6575: Feminine Representation in France and Latin America
SPT 6215: Women and Theatre in Latin America
SPT 6315: Contemporary Latina Writing in the United States
SPW 6206: Latin American Women Writers
Sociology
SYD 6809 Seminar in Gender IssuesSYO 6107 Seminar in Sociology of Families in the U.S.
Some of the Special Topics graduate classes that have been offered:
Gender and Screen Culture
Gender and Technological Change
Women in Literature
Jane Austen
Literary Construction of Sexuality
Women in the Middle East