Past and Current Courses with Queer Content: (check with departments on availability)
COMM 230 Understanding Identity
3.00 credits
Our intersecting identities emerge from an array of communicative, performative, and cultural practices and they are tied up in everyday communication contexts such as interpersonal interactions, media platforms, and social movements. Through communication we align ourselves with common interests and communities, and this course will provide a theoretical foundation for understanding audiences, our performances of self, and our negotiation of the two. The course also invites students to explore how our identities are shaped and interpreted in ways outside our control. Fall and Spring.
COMM 320 Resistance, Struggle, & Power
3.00 credits
Communication is the central means for contesting and reconfiguring structural forms of power relations among social groups, and this class focuses on power dynamics and imbalances across social institutions such as law, education, medicine, economics, media, and religion. Students engage the concepts of hegemony (the production of consent for dominant power relationships) and counter-hegemony (the struggle against dominant social arrangements). As such, the course invites students to consider the interplay of communication, culture, and social institutions in maintaining, resisting, and transforming the persistent inequalities of power and disproportionate distribution of cultural and political capital. Fall.
CRES 380 Special Topics
3.00 credits
Selected topics in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies.
CRES 301 Intersectionality and Race
3.00 credits
Framed through the lens of intersectionality, or what key theorist Kimberle Crenshaw describes as “a heuristic term to focus attention on the vexed dynamics of difference and the solidarities of sameness in the context of antidiscrimination and social movement politics,” this course examines the impact of Intersectionality Theory as a major framework in the field of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. While Intersectionality Theory and its theoretical and practical antecedents are used in a variety of disciplines, it has particular centrality in CRES and the intellectual and social movements that led to the development of this field. Furthermore, Intersectionality has shaped the theoretical and methodological foci of CRES, producing both pedagogy and scholarship that centralizes a critical, multi-axis approach to racial inequity.
CRIM 361 Crime & Gender
3.00 credits
An exploration of the ways in which gender influences who is and is not considered criminal, why women are often socialized to be the victims of crime and men the perpetrators of such actions, and how such behaviors are used to maintain and support pre-existing inequalities. As such, special attention will also be paid to how issues of social class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation often temper these societal outcomes.
EDPE 312 Hlth Mthds Diverse Populations
3.00 credits
This course prepares future health, fitness and physical educators to develop and implement health programs that will meet the needs of all their students. Introduction and application of a variety of teaching styles and strategies, classroom/group management skills, assessment protocol, and program activities appropriate for health will be covered. It will also allow students to observe, review, plan, and deliver instruction, evaluate instruction and provide meaningful learning experiences to a diverse population in school and community educational programs. Particular attention will be given to K-12 national and state health standards.
EDPE 205 Sport & Act in Diverse Society
3.00 credits
A comprehensive understanding of the ways in which people differ - including race, sex, age, mental and physical ability, weight, religion, sexual orientation, and social class - and how these differences can influence sport organizations. This course offers specific strategies for managing diversity in social organizations and work groups, provides an overview of different types of diversity training which can be implemented in the workplace, and outlines legal issues related to diversity.
HIST 390 Disease and Desire in Islam
This course investigates how medieval Muslims made use of poetry, prose, art, religious, and scientific literature to understand their own bodies and those around them, especially in terms of disease and desire. Topics to be studied include medieval Islamic interest in the sex lives of prophetic figures, the thrills of travel, the science of sexual gratification, as well as changing medical and religious attitudes about race, class, gender, and queer sexuality. Students of all levels are welcome; no prerequisite knowledge of these topics is required. Designations: Global Studies, Social Justice. Cross-list equivalent: WGST 380
HIST 393 History of Islamic Medicine
How were theories and practices of medicine from Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian Antiquity received in medieval Islamic societies? How did these medical discourses transform in step with the changing political, social, and sexual experiences of Muslims living from premodernity until today? In this course, students will investigate these questions by exploring ancient scriptures, medieval treatises on medicine, modern works of medical anthropology, graphic novels set during the Arab Spring, and various other genres describing medical ethics, drug use, sexual practices, dieting, and mental illness in Islamic societies. Students will come to understand how ideas of health, disease, social class, race, sexuality, and gender changed throughout the history of these societies while remaining in conversation with the evolving discourse of medicine. Designations: Social Justice and Global Studies.
PHIL 442 Philosophy of Sex & Gender
3.00 credits
Analyzes the concepts of sex, sexuality, and gender by working with authors across traditions and disciplines. We will be particularly concerned with the roles that sex, sexuality and gender have on identity formation/subversion while also questioning whether some or all of these concepts are essential/natural or socially constructed.
POLS 341 Feminist Thought
3.00 credits
Analyzes several varieties of feminist theory to explore how conceptions of women, gender and feminism have changed and have structured women’s opportunities to participate fully in politics and the economy. Central questions include: the nature of sex/gender and sex/gender difference; what is feminism; who identifies as a feminist; and how gender identities are mediated by our class, race, and ethnic identities. Fall.
PSYC 416 Psychology of Gender
3.00 credits
A review of both the theory and empirical literature investigating the psychology of gender, including biological cognitive, developmental and psychosocial models.
RELI 376 Christian Sexual Ethics
3.00 credits
Explore Christian perspectives on the ethical dimensions of human sexuality and issues of gender. Offered every semester.
RELI 377 Ethics, Human Rights & Glbztn
3.00 credits
Focus on religious and ethical responses to issues arising in relation to globalization, and specifically, the topic of human rights.
RELI 487 Special Topics: Culture Ethics
3.00 credits
Seminar-format, upper-division selected topics in Religious Studies in the areas of either Religion, Culture, and Society or Ethics. Topic to be determined by instructor.
SOCI 244 Sex, Gender and Society
3.00 credits
Explores theories and research on the constructions of masculinity and femininity and how these influence our individual lives and social institutions.
SOCI 283 Sociology of Health & Medicine
3.00 credits
This course examines the social context of health, illness and health care. Particular attention will be paid to the effects of culture and social inequality on health, the interaction of various health care professionals and political debates about the health care system.
SOCI 342 Sociology of Family
3.00 credits
Examine images and practices of family life in American society. Use historical material to show how ideals about family life have developed. Discuss definitions of "family" as political, with a special emphasis on the politics of gender. Connect debates over how to define and understand family with decisions about social policies.
WGST 193 FYS: Various Topics
3.00 credits
The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces new 91³Ô¹ÏÍø students to the University, the Core Curriculum, and 91³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Jesuit mission and heritage. While the seminars will be taught by faculty with expertise in particular disciplines, topics will be addressed in a way that illustrates approaches and methods of different academic disciplines. The seminar format of the course highlights the participatory character of university life, emphasizing that learning is an active, collegial process.
WGST 201 Sex, Gender & Society
3.00 credits
Explores theories and research on the constructions of masculinity and femininity and how these influence our individual lives and social institutions.
Equivalent:
WGST 202 Gender, Difference, & Power
3.00 credits
This course examines the construction and practice of gender in various contexts, with an emphasis on the intersection of gender, race, sexuality, nationality, and (dis)ability. Using an interdisciplinary methodology to understand, analyze and critique gendered power dynamics in society from a sociological, political, anthropological, and historical perspective, this course specifically explores topics such as cultural performances of feminine and masculine behavior, sexuality, women’s rights, militarism, family life, globalization, environmental issues, representation, and social change.
WGST 252 Feminist Christian Doctrine
3.00 credits
An introduction to the academic discipline of Christian theology, and the way in which the Christian community makes believing possible and meaningful for contemporary people of faith. Particular attention is given to the impact of feminist scholarship on the doing of Christian theology.
WGST 280 Special Topics: Transgender Social Movements
3.00 credits
Though they didn’t always use that term, transgender individuals have a long history of movement-building and activism within the United States. This course explores the longer trajectory of transgender organizing within North America, studying how changing cultural and medical understandings of sex and gender impacted individuals whose presentation and identity ran contrary to these prevailing norms. For the first half of the course, we’ll examine how these individuals organized to challenges such dominant understandings and advocate for their rights throughout the mid to late 20th century. In the final weeks, we’ll consider current struggles for transgender rights in light of this longer history, and what insights it might offer for future activist work.
WGST 280 Special Topics: Intro to LGBTQ Studies
3.00 credits
This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary examination of sexual desires, sexual orientations, and the concept of sexuality generally, with a particular focus on the construction of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities. This course will look specifically at how these identities interact with other phenomena such as government, family, and popular culture. In exploring sexual diversity, we will highlight the complexity and variability of sexualities, both across different historical periods, and in relation to identities of race, class, and ethnicity.
WGST 303 -isms:Racism,Classism, Sexism
3.00 credits
This course examines the intersections of race, class and gender with respect to a wide range of issues in the United States and in relationship to the transnational context. While emphasizing race, class and gender, other categories of difference will be woven throughout (sexuality, gender identity, disability, etc.). We will use an interdisciplinary lens to explore social stratification; globalization and neoliberalism; the historical process of racialization; social class, sex, sexuality, gender across time, cultures, gender ideologies, and feminisms. We will analyze how race and ethnicity are reproduced, maintained, contested, resisted in social relations, institutional structures, and cultural practices.
WGST 304 Feminism and Science
3.00 credits
This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Feminist Science and Technology Studies. Students will learn what the field of FSTS has to say about various social justice issues, such as equity for women in science, the history of the science of human difference, how human values shape science in action for better or worse, and what feminism has to offer the scientific endeavor The course will explore a series of interrelated questions: How do scientific understandings of human difference (gender, race, sexuality, etc.) shape who participates in science, historically and in the present moment? What is the relationship between politics, culture, and science? What are some of the experiences of women and other minoritized people in science fields? How have the sciences been used to perpetuate injustice (war, environment, unethical human subjects, research)? Can the sciences be used to advance social Justice? How can feminism shape the culture and practice of science? And, what do the sciences have to offer feminist thought?
WGST 352 Psychology of Gender
3.00 credits
A review of both the theory and empirical literature investigating the psychology of gender (including biological cognitive, developmental, and psychosocial models).
WGST 401 Feminist Thought
3.00 credits
Analyzes several varieties of feminist theory to explore how concepts of women, gender, and feminism have changed, and the effects of these changes on the lives of women and men. Explores the interactions between sex, gender, social class, race, and ethnicity. Invites students to consider future possibilities for eliminating gender inequalities. Fall.