Summer/Fall 2013 Courses

Women & Gender Studies Summer 2013 Course Listings

WST 101: Introduction of Women & Gender Studies

Portland, MoTuWe, 12:30-3:45PM,  5/13/13-6/5/13, Prof. Sarah Lockridge

Online, 7/1/12-8/16/13, Prof. Kim Simmons

This course explores from a variety of perspectives the following inter-related themes and topics: the economic, political, and social status of women as a group and in discrete cultural contexts; the politics of representation, or how ideas about femininity and feminism are promoted throughout the media and other vehicles of culture; the construction of “consciousness,” both through the media and through feminist tactics; women and collective action in the past, present, and future. Students are expected to practice their writing skills through formal essays. 3 credits. Satisfies core requirement for socio-cultural analysis.   

WST 245/PHI 220: Gender in African Literature and Art 

Online, 5/13/13-6/28/13, Prof. Kate Wininger

Intellectual, cinematic and literary movements will be examined through generations of thinkers in African national, cultural and geographical settings. The course will look at films and texts from West Africa (Senegal), East Africa (Kenya), and Southern Africa (Zimbabwe and Botswana) dealing with theory, fiction, and visual culture.  Throughout the course we will be concerned with the contrast between the representations and realities of the lives of African men and women, trying to understand how people perceive themselves and act upon their varied situations and struggles. Important recent controversies in Postcolonial theory are explored such as critiques of Western Feminisms, debates about local same gender relationships, concepts of gender fluidity, and environmental sustainability. *Fulfills Non-Western Requirement

WST 245/PHI 221: Philosophy of Film                                             

Portland MoTuWe, 12:30PM - 3:45PM, 7/1/13-7/24/13, Prof. Jason Read                                         

This course concentrates on the construction of meaning in the context of cinema. Major emphasis is placed on cinema as a product of social construction. Issues to be discussed include perception, memory, images, and the use of social stereotypes. 3 credits.  

WST 320: Maine New Leadership

Portland, Prof. Wendy Chapkis

This course must be taken in conjunction with the Maine NEW Leadership program offered by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.  Applications for the Maine NEW Leadership program must be submitted by March 16, 2013. FMI contact Lauren Webster, 780-4862 / wgs@usm.maine.edu    

WST 345/CMS 498: Cinema and Women

Online, 5/13/13-6/28/13, Prof. Rebecca Lockridge

This course examines representations of women in feature‐length films produced in the US and in other countries around the globe between 1960 and the present. Some of the films discussed will offer resistance to social, political and intellectual marginalizing and silencing in patriarchal cultures, others are embedded in it. Student will analyze these differences by comparing scholarly research on topics that match the cinematic theme depicted in the film. The course is also designed to increase media literacy as students learn to recognize the interface between technology, culture, media, and politics as they appear in the narrative structure and in cinematic techniques—shot distance, camera angle, lighting, perspective, editing, montage—of visual rhetoric. 3 credits

WST 365/CRM 317: Gender and Aging

Online, 7/1/12-8/16/13, Prof. Susan Fineran

This course is designed to inform students about aging issues that differentially affect women and men. Students will analyze the sources and manifestations of both healthy and problematic aging and apply concepts drawn from the behavioral and social sciences, and from clinical and community practice. This course will incorporate knowledge of the bio-psycho-social aspects of the aging process and the interplay of interpersonal, environmental and cultural forces that influence aging. Students are expected to acquire skills in assessing individual behavior of older persons based on application of theoretical ideas to contemporary situations and enhance their human service practice with older adults and their families. Service Learning experience may be available to undergraduate students in the course (10 hours). 3 credits

Women & Gender Studies Fall 2013 Course Listings

WST 101: Introduction of Women & Gender Studies

Gorham, M/W 9:30-10:45AM,  Prof. Sarah Lockridge

Portland, TH 4:10-6:40PM,  TBA

Portland, M/W 2:45-4:00PM, Prof. Sarah Lockridge

Online,  Prof. Kim Simmons

This course explores from a variety of perspectives the following inter-related themes and topics: the economic, political, and social status of women as a group and in discrete cultural contexts; the politics of representation, or how ideas about femininity and feminism are promoted throughout the media and other vehicles of culture; the construction of “consciousness,” both through the media and through feminist tactics; women and collective action in the past, present, and future. Students are expected to practice their writing skills through formal essays. 3 credits. Satisfies core requirement for socio-cultural analysis.

WST 201: Women, Knowledge & Power

Portland, TH 7:00-9:30PM, Prof. Nancy Gish

This course examines the ways in which the politics of knowledge production shape culture and gender relations. It explores the ways women have historically resisted, subverted, appropriated and reformed traditional bodies of thought. Prerequisites: WST 101I, EYE 109 or permission of instructor. 3 credits. Satisfies core requirement for cultural interpretations.

WST 245/ANT 299/TAH: Women, Arts and Crafts Producers, and Global Tourism

Gorham, M/W 11:00 - 12:15PM, Prof. Sarah Lockridge

This course explores the role of women who produce arts and crafts for the global tourist market.  All over the world, women are improving their socio-economic status, investing in their families, and contributing to community development through their involvement in perhaps the largest-scale movement of goods, services, and people in human history.  We will learn about the historical and contemporary experiences of women from many different cultures in North and South America, Africa and other international settings.  Course content may include themes of cultural heritage, culture change, traditional versus tourist art, gender inequality and community development. *Fulfills Non-Western Requirement

WST 245/PHI 220: Philosophy of Art

Portland, TH 4:10-6:40PM,  Prof. Kate Wininger

Online,  Prof. Kate Wininger

What makes a person creative? What do artists think about their art? How do critics evaluate a work? If art is created for a cultural ritual or healing, is it to be understood differently? How do the circumstances of a work’s creation and reception effect its evaluation? How does a person’s class, ethnicity, or gender influence art work and its reception? Philosophers in the field of Aesthetics attempt to answer questions which artists, art historians, anthropologists, and critics ask about art. The works of art and philosophy considered will be draw from a wide variety of cultural contexts. 3 credits

320/ENG 366: Libertines

Portland, M 4:10-6:40PM, Prof. Lucinda Cole

To examine libertine literature of the long eighteenth century is to confront some of the period’s most important philosophical and religious controversies, among them the nature of the soul, sex, reason, and God.  Following the restoration of Charles II in 1660, such topics became part of the intellectual repertory of educated writers. Two of these writers are John Wilmot, earl of Rochester, and Aphra Behn, the first professional woman writer in English, whose works will be explored in considerable detail here. We will read the classic of English pornography, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure; or Fanny Hill, within and against the context of libertine literature. The last part of the course focuses upon French libertine literature whose most infamous representative is, of course, the Marquis De Sade. Since “libertine”  refers both to transgressive sexual behavior and to modes of what the early moderns called “free thinking,” we will throughout the course explore the relationships between sexuality and politics. *Fulfills Pre-1800 Requirement

WST 355/HTY 364: History of Women in the United States

Portland, T/TH 1:15-2:30PM, Prof. Eileen Eagan

A chronological survey of the evolving role of women in the development of the United States from the colonial period to the present with focus on the rise of feminism and women's movements. Cr 3.       

WST 365/SOC 393:  Women, Welfare and the State

Portland, T 4:10-6:40, Prof. Luisa Deprez

The welfare state is often conceptualized as a state committed to modifying the play of social or market forces in order to achieve greater equality: in the broadest sense, a collection of programs designed to enhance and advance human well-being.  Among the programs offered are social insurance and assistance programs that provide income protection and supportive services to persons experiencing unemployment, retirement, disability, ill health, death of a family breadwinner, or poverty as well as programs of education, housing, nutrition, and health.  Not all state interventions, however, are aimed at, or actually produce, greater equality among citizens. This course explores the gender bias of social welfare policy in the US, revealing a welfare state whose adherence to central elements such as the Protestant work ethic, "family values", and a laissez-faire economy excludes over half the population.  Programs established under the presumption that they secure protection for and maximize independence of women (and men) instead reflect the gender regulatory functions of the welfare state which exacerbate women's dependent status. From both historical and theoretical perspectives, the course examines the emergence and development of the American welfare state and assesses its impact on women's lives.  Policies such as Social Security and TANF (welfare) are examined as are policies focused on education and employment and work. 3 credits                

WST 345/CRM 317: Gender and Crime

Portland, M 4:10-6:40, Prof. James Messerschmidt

Portland, W 4:10-6:40, Prof. James Messerschmidt

This course concentrates on gender and its relation to crime. It explores such issues as histories of gender inequality, the gendered character of criminological theory, and how gender is related to a variety of crimes such as rape, violence in the family, crimes by women, property crimes, and corporate crimes. Prerequisite: CRM 215J. 3 credits

WST 365/SOC 558: Sociology of Women’s Work

Portland, T/TH 2:45-4:00, Prof. Cheryl Laz                    

This course will introduce students to theoretical and empirical literature on women’s work in the aid labor force, on their unpaid labor in the home, and on the relationship between these two kinds of “women’s work.” The course emphasizes the diversity of women’s work and the interconnections among race-ethnicity, class, and gender through a detailed examination of professional women, blue-collar women, and “pink-collar” employees. Additional topics include occupational segregation, earnings differentials, poverty, law and public policy, and labor militancy. Prerequisite: SOC 210E/W with C or better or permission of instructor. 3 credits

WST 380/SOC 380: Politics of Difference

Portland, TH 4:10-6:40, Prof. Wendy Chapkis

This course will introduce students to some of the complex relationships among the histories and goals of Western feminism and those of specific non-dominant cultures, inside or outside the United States. Central to the course are the ways that “differences” are embedded and enacted in the context of power relations in the larger society. While the specific content of this course is flexible, it will treat the advantages and disadvantages of using gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality as categories of analysis. Assignments should reinforce those skills learned in WST 280. Prerequisites: WST 280 or permission of instructor. Offered fall semester only. 3 credits

WST 445/CMS 484: Activism and Film

Portland, W 4:10-6:40PM, Prof. Rebecca Lockridge

This course examines activist film as an alternative form of cinema. For example, what techniques of representation do feminist film directors employ as strategies for resisting social, political/economic, intellectual marginalizing and silencing of marginalized peoples typical of patriarchal cultures?  How do feminist films frame topics such as race, ethnicity, nationality, class, disability, age, gender, sex and sexuality?  What knowledge is produced? In this course, films from Hollywood to independent documentaries made in countries around the globe provide examples of the multiple perspectives, identities, and assumptions about spectatorship provided in activist films.  Essays by film theorists structure class discussions and written critiques.The particular context of the film’s production, levels of desire effected by the context, and meanings constructed by the cinematic techniques are examined.The course is also designed to increase media literacy as students learn to recognize the interface between technology, culture, media, and politics as they appear in the narrative structure and in cinematic techniques such as shot distance, camera angle, lighting, perspective, editing, montage. Prerequisites:  CMS 102J and CMS 103, and junior or senior standing or by permission of instructor. Cr. 3.

WST 470: Independent Study

Prof. Wendy Chapkis

This course provides junior and senior students with the opportunity to pursue a project independently, concentrate on a particular subject of concern, or conduct individually arranged reading or research studies under the advice and direction of a faculty member. Prerequisite:  junior or senior standing and permission of the director.  1-4 credits