Course Descriptions
Lower Division Courses
20. Women, Society, and Culture
(4) Boris, Oaks, Rupp
Introduction to central concepts and issues in women's studies from the perspective of the social sciences. Explores the construction of gender and sexuality and the lives of diverse groups of women in the contemporary U.S. within a global context.
20H. Women, Society, and Culture Honors
(5) Boris, Oaks, Rupp
Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 20.
Lecture is concurrent with Women's Studies 20, along with a weekly honors seminar, requiring additional assignments and intensive discussion of the readings. Intended for highly motivated and well prepared students.
30. Women, Develoment and Globalization
(4) Chang, Hernandez
Examines the impact of development, policy, and globalization on women's lives. Emphasis is placed on women's activism and feminist critiques of neo-liberal measures intended to rid the third world of poverty.
30H. Women, Develoment and Globalization Honors
(5) Chang, Hernandez
Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 30.
Lecture is concurrent with Women's Studies 30, along with a weekly honors seminar, requiring additional assignments and intensive discussion of the readings. Intended for highly motivated and well prepared students.
40. Women, Representation, and Cultural Production
(4) Bobo, Hernandez, Oaks
This introductory course examines cultural representations of diverse women's lives from a humanities perspective. The focus is on women as cultural producers, subjects, and critics in literature, film, the visual arts, and music.
40H. Women, Representation, and Cultural Production Honors
(5) Bobo, Hernandez, Oaks
Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 40.
Lecture is concurrent with Women's Studies 40, along with a weekly honors seminar, requiring additional assignments and intensive discussion of the readings. Intended for highly motivated and well prepared students.
50. Global Feminisms and Social Justice
(4) Boris, Chang, Oaks, Rupp
Historical and contemporary examination of women's activism around the globe in a variety of struggles, including self-named feminist movements and other movements for social justice.
50H. Global Feminisms and Social Justice Honors
(5) Boris, Chang, Oaks, Rupp
Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 50.
Lecture is concurrent with Women's Studies 50, along with a weekly honors seminar, requiring additional assignments and intensive discussion of the readings. Intended for highly motivated and well prepared students.
60. Women of Color: Race, Class, and Ethnicity
(4) Chang, Miller-Young
Letter grade required for majors .
Examination of the interlocking dynamics and politics of gender, race, sexuality, class, and culture in the experience of U.S. women of color. Readings focus on oppositional consciousness and resistance to oppression in the scholarship and literature by women of color.
60H. Women of Color: Race, Class, and Ethnicity Honors
(5) Chang, Miller-Young
Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 60.
Lecture is concurrent with Women's Studies 60, along with a weekly honors seminar, requiring additional assignments and intensive discussion of the readings. Intended for highly motivated and well prepared students.
80. Introduction to LGBTQ Studies
(4) Hernandez
Examines LGBTQ studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Along with historical, social, cultural, political, artistic, and literary rise to prominence of sexual minorities, the goal of the course is to integrate a discussion of the continuum of LGBTQ identities within their respective social contexts and communities.
80H. Introduction to LGBTQ Studies Honors
(5) Hernandez
Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 80.
Lecture is concurrent with Women's Studies 80, along with a weekly honors seminar, requiring additional assignments and intensive discussion of the readings. Intended for highly motivated and well prepared students.
99. Independent Studies
(1-4) Staff
Prerequisites: Women's Studies 10 or 20 or 40; consent of instructor and department.
Students must have a minimum 3.0 cumulative grade-point average. May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 8 units. Students are limited to 5 units per quarter and 30 units total in all 98/99/198/199/199AA-ZZ course combined. No unit credit allowed toward the major.
Research under the direction of a faculty member. Students are offered an opportunity to conduct independent or collaborative research or to act as interns for faculty-directed research projects.
Upper-Division Courses
115. Marriage in the Ancient World (4 units)
Same course as Classics 115 and Religious Studies 103B.
Examines marriage customs and rituals in Archaic and Classical Greece, Ptolemaic Egypt, and in the Roman Republic and Imperial Periods within the context of social history, literary, historical, and epigraphic sources.
117C. Women, the Family and Sexuality in the Middle Ages (4 units)
Prerequisites: History 4B or upper-division standing. Same course as History 117C. Not open for credit to students who have completed History 117. Family structure; perceptions and ideals of intimate and familial relations; status, perceptions and experiences of women in western Europe citica 400-1400 A.D. Special attention on social, political and religious contexts.
120. Women's Labors (4 units) Boris
Letter grade required for majors and minors. Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 186EB.
Recommended preparation: upper-division standing or a prior course in women's studies.
What is women's work? How has it changed over time? How is it valued? Explores wage-earning, caregiving, sex work, housework, double days, glass ceilings, and strategies of survival and resistance among America women from various demographic, racial, and ethnic groups.
124A. Women, Gender and Sexuality in Europe, 1750-1914 (4 units)
Prerequisites: History 4C. Same course as History 124A. The roles of women, gender and sexuality in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe. Exploration of the nature of women and revolution: religious, legal, scientific, and popular conceptions of gender and sexuality; industrialization and family life, the rise of organized feminism.
130. Perspectives on Women's Health (4 units) Oaks
Recommended Preparation: upper-division standing or a prior Women's Studies course. Letter grade required for majors and minors. Investigation of the power that medicine has in shaping health experts' and lay individuals' understandings of health and health practices. Particular attention is paid to how women's health issues come to be seen as "social problems," past and present.
131. The Politics of Women's Choices: Reproduction and Reproductive Technologies (4 units) Oaks
Recommended Preparation: upper-division standing or a prior Women's Studies course. Letter grade required for majors and minors.Exploration of theoretical, popular and political debates over reproductive technologies in terms of women's power and choices. Investigation of how cultural and historical changes in reproductive practices influence ideas about nature, society, and progress. Examination of case studies on current controversies.
142. Black Women Filmmakers (4 units) Bobo
Recommended Preparation: upper-division standing or a prior Women's Studies course. Letter grade required for majors and minors. Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 186JB. An opportunity to view films (animation, documentary, experimental and narrative), examine the specifics of media production, compare the various works produced by Black women, and acquire the skills necessary for media criticism. Satisfies Ethnicity and Writing requirements.
143. Women's Film Narratives (4 units) Bobo
Recommended Preparation: upper-division standing or a prior Women's Studies course. Letter grade required for majors and minors. Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 186JC. Examination of the dynamics of family, race, sexuality, resistance, and cultural transformation through women's novels and film adaptations, other films which have had a significant impact on the national consciousness. Satisfies Writing requirement.
144. Representation and Activism (4 units) Bobo
Recommended Preparation: upper-division standing or a prior Women's Studies course. Letter grade required for majors and minors. Not open for credit to students who have completed Women's Studies 186JD. Exploration of the strategies by which social groups resist systems of oppressions through readings and works from independent filmmakers.
147G. Gender and Power in Modern African History (4 Units)
Prerequisite: History 49 or 49B or 147A or 147B or 147Q or Women's Studies 147Q or upper-division standing.
Same course as History 147G.
Examination of gender, power, and authority among and between men and women in response to socioeconomic transformations in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Africa. Themes include interpretations of gender, organization of labor, the missionary project, the state and colonial rule.
150. Sex, Love, Romance (4 units) Rupp
May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 8 units, but only 4 units may be applied toward the major. Same course as Film Studies 162. Examination of how the media reflect and shape ideas of and about contemporary feminism. In an effort to be topical, the subjects covered will be issues of interest to feminism featured in the media during the quarter.
153. Women and Work (4 units)
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing. Same course as Sociology 153. The course will begin with readings and discussion of the sociological features of work in society. The role of women in the labor market will be explored, as well as their lives as unpaid workers in their own homes. Finally, more global issues of sexual inequality and social change will be discussed.
154A. Sociology of the Family (4 units)
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing or a prior course in Sociology. Same course as Sociology 154A. A lecture course on family and household organization, past and present. Attention to contemporary issues in the family focusing in gender, class, and cultural variation.
155A. Women in American Society (4 units)
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing. Same course as Sociology 155A. The roles and life styles of women in various American subcultures and the ideologies developing around them.
159B. Women in American History(4 units)
Prerequisites: Two quarters from History 17 A-B-C or upper division standing. Same course as History 159B. Social history of women in America from 1800 to 1900. Changing marriage, reproduction and work patterns, and cultural values about the female role. Attention to racial, class and ethnic differences. Analysis of feminist thought the several women's movements.
159C. Women in American History(4 units)
Prerequisites: Two quarters from History 17 A-B-C or upper division standing. Same course as History 159C. A continuation of Women's Studies 159A-B from 1900 to the present.
159LG. Sociology of Lesbian and Gay Communities (4 units)
Prerequisite: Upper division standing. Same course as Sociology 159LG. Not open for credit to students who have completed Sociology 146. Origins and transformation of lesbian and gay communities and social movements, with special attention to ideological development, major social problems, cultural production, race, ethnic, and political conflict.
160. Sapphistries (4 units) Rupp
A global exploration of female same-sex sexuality, from the historical Sappho through sapphists, roaring girls, romantic friends, and female husbands, to contemporary lesbians. Considers diverse lives and representations of women who desire and love other women.
162. Critical LGBTQ Studies (4 units) Hernandez
May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 8 units, but only 4 units can be applied to the major.
Examines the dynamics of the juridical, social, political, cultural representations of LGBTQ identities. Examines legal cases, policy issues, social matters as well as representations therein in literary and cultural expression in order to study the LGBTQ people in active resistance against dominant power structure.
163A. Women and Public Policy in Twentieth-Century America (4 units)
Prerequisite: History 159A or 159B or 159C or a prior course in Women's Studies. Same course as History 163A. How gender-based cultural attitudes and social roles, collective action, and economic and social change interacted to shape law and public policy with respect to work, family, and legal and reproductive rights. From 1900 through approximately 1945.
163B. Women and Public Policy in Twentieth-Century America (4 units)
Prerequisite: History 159A or 159B or 159C or a prior course in Women's Studies. Same course as History 163B. How gender-based cultural attitudes and social roles, collective action, and economic and social change interacted to shape law and public policy with respect to work, family, and legal and reproductive rights. From World War II to the present.
171CN. French Feminism in the Nineteenth Century (4 units)
Same course as French 171X. Women's new positions in the public sphere of power following the French Revolution and their changing personal and collective aspirations throughout the century. Rights of women, women's voice and writing (journalism and autobiography), feminism, socialism and revolution. Taught in English.
180. Feminist Critiques of Inquiry (4 units) Hernandez, Williams, Tomlinson
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing. Open to majors and minors. Letter grade required for majors and minors. Assessment of key methods and assumptions of discipline-based knowledge production, and readings of feminist critiques of such methodologies and epistemology. Satisfies GE requirements for Area E2, Ethnicity and Writing.
181. Key Issues in Feminist Theory (4 units) Boris, Tomlinson
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing; a major or minor in Women's Studies. Letter grade required for majors and minors. Readings in feminist theories since de Beauvoir, to frame and interpret selected contemporary social, cultural, and political movements and the roles of women within U.S. domestic and/or transnational territories. Satisfies GE requirements for Area D.
182. Feminist Research and Practice (4 units) Oaks, Miller-Young
Prerequisite: Wm St 181 and Upper-division standing; a major in Women's Studies. Open to minors with consent of instructor. Letter grade required for majors and minors.Intended to be the culminating experience for Women's Studies majors. A seminar focusing on participants' individual research on selected social and cultural topics, with faculty mentors or though internships in women-identified organizations.
185AA-ZZ. Gender and Culture (4 units)
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing. May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 12 units provided letter designations are different. Seminar on selected topics in women's studies, with a humanities emphasis. Letter grade required for majors and minors. Consult the program office regarding proposed course topics.
186AA-ZZ. Gender and Society (4 units)
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing. May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 12 units provided letter designations are different. Seminar on selected topics in women's studies, with a social science emphasis. Letter grade required for majors and minors. Consult the program office regarding proposed course topics.
190. Women's Community Organization (4 units)
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing; open to Women's Studies majors only. May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 6 units, but only 4 may be applied toward the major.Combines independent service in an organization serving the women's community with reflection and analysis under the supervision of a faculty member. Students will conduct observations and write a term paper. Readings relevant to the internship experience are required.
195HA. Senior Honors Project (2-4 units)
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Students must have a minimum 3.0 university GPA and a minimum 3.5 departmental GPA; 4 to 8 units required in honors sequence; minimum of 2 units per quarter.
Students design, research, write, and present original work on a topic of choice under supervision of a women's studies faculty mentor. Emphasis is placed on project design and initial research.
195HB. Senior Honors Project (2-4 units)
Prerequisites: Women's Studies 195HA; upper-division standing.
Students must have a minimum 3.0 university GPA and a minimum 3.5 departmental GPA; 4 to 8 units required in honors sequence; minimum of 2 units per quarter.
Students design, research, write, and present original work on a topic of choice under supervision of a women's studies faculty mentor. Emphasis is on data gathering and organization.
195HC. Senior Honors Project (2-4 units)
Prerequisites: Women's Studies 195HA or 195HB; upper-division standing.
Students must have a minimum 3.0 university GPA and a minimum 3.5 departmental GPA; 4 to 8 units required in honors sequence; minimum of 2 units per quarter.
Students design, research, write, and present original work on a topic of choice under supervision of a women's studies faculty mentor. Emphasis on writing thesis and preparation for presenting results to an audience of women's studies peers and faculty members.
196. Senior Seminar (4 units)
Prerequisite: Women's Studies 180 and 181; open to Women's Studies majors only. May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 8 units.A senior seminar intended for majors in their senior year that permits some analytic synthesis across themes in women's studies. Topics will vary with instructor.
198. Readings in Women's Studies (4 units)
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing; completion of two upper-division courses in Women's Studies. Students must have a minimum 3.0 grade-point average for the preceding three quarters and are limited to 5 units per quarter and 30 units total in all 198/199/199RA courses combined. Students may apply a maximum of 4 units of 198/199 courses combined to the major. Directed readings in women's studies under the guidance of a faculty member in the program. Students wishing to enroll should prepare a short written plan of study.
199. Independent Studies in Women's Studies (4 units)
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing; completion of two upper-division courses in Women's Studies. Students must have a minimum 3.0 grade-point average for the preceding three quarters and are limited to 5 units per quarter and 30 units total in all 198/199/199RA courses combined. Students may apply a maximum of 4 units of 198/199 courses combined to the major. Women's Studies 199 may be repeated for credit to a maximum of 12 units, but only 4 units may be applied toward the major. Independent research and writing under the guidance of a faculty member in the program. Students wishing to enroll should prepare a short written plan of study.