|
WST 130I: Introduction to Women and Gender Studies
Portland Professor Susan Fineran
Tuesday 7:00 – 9:30pm
PortlandProfessor Janet Gunn Tuesday/Thursday 2:45 – 4:00pm
Gorham Professor Sarah Lockridge Monday/Wednesday 9:30 - 10:45am
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. The Wednesday night Lab meets only on seven Wednesdays during the semester. 3 credits *Can be taken with WST 100 for an extra fourth credit.
WST 100: Gender, Representation and Resistance
Professor Susan Feiner
Portland Wednesday 7:00 – 8:30pm
This 1 credit interdisciplinary course will meet six (6) times during the Fall term. This course is designed to complement the interdisciplinary curriculum of Introduction to Women and Gender Studies. In addition this is a fine course for students who need 1 credit, want to see what Women and Gender Studies is about, or want some practice doing college-level writing. 1 credit
WST 280W: Women, Knowledge & Power
Professor Susan Feiner
Portland Tuesday/Thursday 11:45am - 1:00pm
This course examines the ways in which the politics of knowledge production shape our culture and its gender relations. It explores both the role of educational institutions as they function to promote antifeminist culture, and the ways women have historically resisted, subverted, appropriated, and reformed traditional bodies of thought. Throughout, attention will be given to how competition, intimidation, and other factors can inhibit the formation of feminist communities of scholars/learners. Students will practice and be encouraged to appreciate the benefits of different modes of interpretation and writing, including personal narrative, socio-historical work, and contemporary cultural analysis. Prerequisites: WST 130I or permission of instructor. 3 credits
WST 280W: Women, Knowledge & Power
Professor Sarah Lockridge
LAC Friday 9:00 - 11:30am
This course examines the ways in which the politics of knowledge production shape our culture and its gender relations. It explores both the role of educational institutions as they function to promote antifeminist culture, and the ways women have historically resisted, subverted, appropriated, and reformed traditional bodies of thought. Throughout, attention will be given to how competition, intimidation, and other factors can inhibit the formation of feminist communities of scholars/learners. Students will practice and be encouraged to appreciate the benefits of different modes of interpretation and writing, including personal narrative, socio-historical work, and contemporary cultural analysis. Prerequisites: WST 130I or permission of instructor. 3 credits
WST 355/HTY 394: American Women's Lives: 20th Century
Professor Polly Kaufman
Bath Thursday 4:00 - 6:30pm
In autobiography, biography, and biographical fiction, American women defined themselves as they confronted some of the major social issues of 20th century American life including: ethnicity, immigration, industrialization, war, and civil rights. During class meetings, each author’s work will be set into the context of her times, as well as being examined for its intrinsic content. In addition to the assigned reading and some in-class films, each student will share the life story of an additional 20th century woman with the class, setting it in the context of the themes of the course. The student’s source can be an oral history, a biography, or autobiography of a woman of her choice. 3 credit
WST 365/SOC 393: Women, Welfare and the State
Professor Luisa Deprez
Portland Wednesday 4:10 – 6:40pm
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.
The course is interdisciplinary, relying on ideas and perspectives from the fields of philosophy, political science, economics, sociology, women's studies, geography, history, education and law. It critically evaluates dominant models of social welfare benefits distribution, discriminatory sexual divisions of labor in the family and in the labor market, notions of citizenship and current "obligations" required for participation and access to rights, debates about maternalism and paternalism in welfare provision, and the demographics of poverty which are notably high among women and people of color. Particular attention is paid to issues of gender, race, and class.
Prerequisites: SOC 210E/W with a grade of C or better and junior/senior standing, or permission of instructor. 3 credits
WST 390: Contemporary Feminist Theories
Professor Lisa Walker
Portland Monday/Wednesday 10:15 - 11:30am
This course will provide a survey of several contemporary feminist frameworks for thinking about sex, gender, and sexuality. Most of our readings will focus on “second” and “third” wave feminist theories dating from 1963 to the present; this is the period in which contemporary feminist theory emerges. In the beginning of the course, we will put these readings in historical context with reference to early and “first wave” feminism. As the course progresses, we will ask how various social institutions, such as law and government, the family, and education, are constructed through gender. We will connect gender to race, sexuality, and class, and consider how activist movements have imaged and effected change in the ways institutions are shaped around these categories. The specific strands of feminism we will study may include Marxist feminist theory, Black feminist theory, French feminist theory, feminist film theory, and “post-feminist” theory. Prerequisites: WST 280 or permission of instructor. 3 credits
WST 470: Independent Study
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. 3 credits
WST 485: Internship
Professor Susan Feiner
Students will have the opportunity to do an internship or a thesis. The internship requires students to work closely with a group, business, or organization for one semester, after which they will report to the Women's Studies Council. Prerequisites: senior standing and Women's Studies major or minor. 4-6 credits
WST 486: Thesis
Professor Susan Feiner
Students will have the opportunity to do a thesis or an internship. The thesis allows students to pursue guided research on a topic of their choosing. The minimum length for a thesis is 30 pages, and it should include a substantial bibliography. Thesis students should choose three readers, including an advisor whose interests and scholarship are in line with their own. Prerequisites: senior standing and Women's Studies major or minor. 4 credits
WOMEN'S STUDIES RELATED ELECTIVE COURSES
COM 486: Women in Film
Professor Rebecca Lockridge
Portland Wednesday 4:10 - 6:40pm
This course will explore the depiction of women in film. Films will be analyzed in the context of the political and ideological subtexts they contain. The purpose of the analysis is to understand a film and to be able to relate it to the society that it reflects and sometimes affects. Prerequisite: COM 102J and junior or senior standing/ instructor permission. 3 credits
ENG 230: Literacy Studies *Course will have special emphasis on the intersection of gender and literacy.
Professor Lorrayne Carroll
Portland Monday/Wednesday 8:45 - 10:00am
This course introduces the field of literacy studies through an examination of theories of literacy and literacy practices. The course begins with an inquiry into definitions of the term "literacy" and goes on to trace a history of its meanings and uses. In so doing, the course will explore major themes, problems, and research methods that constitute the field of literacy studies, and this exploration will help students to develop vocabularies for their own work in the field. Students will evaluate and, perhaps, reshape their own literacy practices in light of the readings, assignments and field work with community organizations. The field work will be conducted as part of a mandatory service learning component in the course: students will commit at least 1.5 hours per week for 11 weeks to working in one of several organizations in the Portland/Gorham area that provide opportunities for reading and writing to members of local senior citizen, ESL, and language minority populations. TEXTS: include Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook; Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language, and selected readings. ASSESSMENT BASED ON: a combination of summary/response papers, service learning journal entries/portfolio submissions and a final essay integrating the academic study with the service learning observations and analysis. Fulfills Language requirement. May be taken concurrently with ENG 245. 3 credits.
ENG 387: Women Writers Since 1900
Professor Nancy Gish
Portland Thursday 4:10 - 6:40pm
This course introduces students to the diverse concerns of modern and contemporary women writers. We will focus specifically on questions of identity, voice, and subjectivity and their relation to tradition. That is, how do women find ways to speak or write new work in a form traditionally identified with men? We will study the work of four women whose poetry both helps define and challenges major twentieth-century styles: Marianne Moore, Denise Levertov, Denise Riley, and Jackie Kay. The poetry will be read in relation to both their own writings and contemporary theories of poetry. These poets work in relation to specific poetic developments like Modernism, William Carlos Williams's open form poetry, current experimental and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry, and new "Barbarian" voices, respectively. We will include other selected poems for comparison. Readings include critical texts and a novel as well as poetry. Students will be responsible for class participation—including in-class writing—and for two essays, each of which will include a proposal and a revision. 3 credits
PHI 112E/W: Introduction to Feminist Perspectives
Professor Julian Murphy
Portland Monday/Wednesday 8:45 – 10:00am
Portland Monday/Wednesday 10:15 – 11:30am
To what extent do cultural assumptions about gender shape a society’s notion of rationality and justice? The course explores this question by examining feminist critiques of Western philosophy along with a selection of contemporary anti-sexist and anti-racist theories of social life. Prerequisite: ENG 100C. 3 credits
PHI 220: Philosophy of Art
Professor Kate Wininger
Portland Thursday 4:10 - 6:40pm
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 the person’s class, ethnicity, and gender influence the art work and its reception. Philosophers in the field of Aesthetics attempt to answer questions which artists, anthropologists, art historians, and critics ask about art. The works of art and philosophy considered will be draw from a wide variety of cultural contexts. 3 credits
SOC 358: Sociology of Women’s Work
Professor Cheryl Laz
Portland Thursday 4:10 - 6:40pm
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
|
![University of Southern Maine [home page]](header_left_bottom.gif){kind=small}
