The study of texts written by women from Spanish America raises broad questions concerning representations of sexuality and gender, the gendered uses of language and literary conventions, aesthetics, psychology, and social issues. Materials from a variety of fields (literary and cultural theory, history, sociology, anthropology, feminist studies) are brought to bear on the primary texts by authors including María Luisa Bombal, Rosario Castellanos, Rosario Ferré, Elena Poniatowska, Luisa Valenzuela, Diamela Eltit, Carmen Boullosa, Isabel Allende . Campus visit by one of the authors or a literary translator planned. Reading response papers, two essays, research term paper. Class taught in English.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 210

The study of texts written by women from Spanish America raises broad questions concerning representations of sexuality and gender, the gendered uses of language and literary conventions, aesthetics, psychology, and social issues. Materials from a variety of fields (literary and cultural theory, history, sociology, anthropology, feminist studies) are brought to bear on the primary texts by authors including María Luisa Bombal, Rosario Castellanos, Rosario Ferré, Elena Poniatowska, Luisa Valenzuela, Diamela Eltit, Carmen Boullosa, Isabel Allende . Campus visit by one of the authors or a literary translator planned. Reading response papers, two essays, research term paper. Class taught in English.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 210

This course contests its title. There is language and literature/film that records how language has failed as a means of (human) species adaptation toward conflict resolution in domestic and international contexts. This course, following the observations of Virginia Woolf in Three Guineas (1939), tries to document the language/literary connections between domestic violence and war making. In domestic situations, violence is protected by traditions of privacy and male governance of households; in public situations, there has been an inertia throughout recorded history in enacting the ideal announced in Isaiah: "[nations] shall not learn war any more." In our own society genres of popular and elite culture teach the necessity and glory of war through literature, film, toys, sports, and ideals of heroic behavior. Our normal ways of speaking still presuppose violence and war as a "last resort" in solving domestic and international antagonisms.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 505

Class will explore the cultural and social dimensions of health and illness including the political and economic dimensions. Particular attention will be placed on how social change affects peoples' health and the delivery of health care. We will also pay critical attention to the practice of Western biomedicine and it's developing role in various societies. Students will use the concepts and methods of anthropology to examine these processes. Coursework will include exams, papers based on independent research, and class participation.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 525

Addresses current issues related to the education and developmental needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer students in K-12 schools and in higher education. Examines heterosexism, gender oppression, and homophobia in schools, and analyzes schools as sites for transforming or transmitting cultural values/norms related to gender and sexuality. Explores historical, legal, social and political trends that have an impact on schools' ability to address these issues and examines connections and intersections among heterosexism, gender oppression, homophobia, sexism and racism in schools, with a focus on specific concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students, parents, and educators in the educational setting. (Offered: Occasionally (next offered fall 2014))

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 431

This course will examine literary, artistic, and theoretical representations of gender and sexuality as they have changed in the course of the 20 Century. The focus will be on texts from Western Europe and the US, but we will also consider other perspectives. From the New Women to French Feminists and transnational feminism. from homophile societies to “queer nation and gay marriage, from Sigmund Freud to Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, we will explore the contested and politically charged debates around gender and sexuality that have shaped our views of identity over the last century.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 206

How do human beings experience, make sense of, cope with and shape birth illness, and death in their own lives and in the lives of those who are close to them? Historical and contemporary examples from North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

BUILDING: | ROOM:

This course will examine literary, artistic, and theoretical representations of gender and sexuality as they have changed in the course of the 20 Century. The focus will be on texts from Western Europe and the US, but we will also consider other perspectives. From the New Women to French Feminists and transnational feminism. from homophile societies to “queer nation and gay marriage, from Sigmund Freud to Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, we will explore the contested and politically charged debates around gender and sexuality that have shaped our views of identity over the last century.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 206

This course introduces students to some of the major British novelists during the nineteenth century such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy. The course will situate these novelists within the aesthetic and historical concerns of the period and cover an array of topics (e.g. the rise of the novel, the marriage plot as a narrative device, capitalism, gender, sexuality, race, and empire).

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 205

This course will provide a general introduction to the history, artistry and politics of East European film. We will begin by considering the place of East European film in the context of contemporary film studies and the industry structure of state socialist film making. We will then explore individual films from a regional (not national) perspective, considering how they confront issues such as the burden of history and ethics, the tensions between modernity and tradition, the struggle between creativity and censorship, as well as the reluctant feminism of state socialism and representations of gender and sexuality.

BUILDING: HYLAN | ROOM: 101

'Transnational sisterhood' or cultural imperialism? Legitimate ritualized practice or outdated violent ritual? Genital cutting, female circumcision, female genital surgery? The controversy over this practice already begins with the act of its naming. If there seems to be a consensus about the physical violence imposed on the female body, why is it that western feminist discourse is suspected of perpetuating the mutilation African voices? This course seeks to provide an understanding of the context in which a fragmented 'transnational sisterhood' allows for a proliferation of mutilated discourses on mutilated postcolonial bodies. Readings and Films include Alice Walker (Warrior Marks), Florence Ayissi Fauziya Kassindja (Do They Hear You When You Cry), Maryse Conde and more critical and theoretical readings from African, French and North American authors. In English.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 209

This course introduces students to some of the major British novelists during the nineteenth century such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy. The course will situate these novelists within the aesthetic and historical concerns of the period and cover an array of topics (e.g. the rise of the novel, the marriage plot as a narrative device, capitalism, gender, sexuality, race, and empire).

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 205

'Transnational sisterhood' or cultural imperialism? Legitimate ritualized practice or outdated violent ritual? Genital cutting, female circumcision, female genital surgery? The controversy over this practice already begins with the act of its naming. If there seems to be a consensus about the physical violence imposed on the female body, why is it that western feminist discourse is suspected of perpetuating the mutilation African voices? This course seeks to provide an understanding of the context in which a fragmented 'transnational sisterhood' allows for a proliferation of mutilated discourses on mutilated postcolonial bodies. Readings and Films include Alice Walker (Warrior Marks), Florence Ayissi Fauziya Kassindja (Do They Hear You When You Cry), Maryse Conde and more critical and theoretical readings from African, French and North American authors. In English.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 209

Exploration of the ways males and females differ in interaction, theories of development of sex differences, consequences for social change.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 203

Improve strength, flexibility and self-awareness of the body. Includes meditative movement, dance technique, improvisation and rhythm identification through music and drumming.  Dance forms such as Egyptian, Turkish, and American Tribal will be taught.  Traditional costuming will be addressed. History, art, and culture from these countries will be explored and experienced.  Discourse and research topics will explore issues of gender, body image, historical perspectives and Orientalism. 

BUILDING: SPURR | ROOM: DANCE

This course examines the impact of globalization on women in and from the Muslim world through the lens of visual art and literature. The class will focus on the work of women artists and writers from countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria and Turkey to draw out interconnected themes such as migration, citizenship, cultural belonging, women’s roles within the family, and the role of religion in daily life and ritual. We will focus on specific histories and individual experiences to counter monolithic representations of the “Muslim world” or generalizations about “Muslim women.” We will study art and writing that shed light on political conflicts that have impacted the lives of women artists and writers from the Muslim world, many living in diaspora. We will strive to locate shared values and ideals that can come together as a global feminism across cultural divides.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 540

Students interested in Independent Studies should contact the Women's Studies Department.

BUILDING: | ROOM:

Interested students should contact the Women's Studies Department.

BUILDING: | ROOM:

Independent research with substantial supervised research and written work in gender and women's studies. This research should be directed toward work in WST 397.

BUILDING: | ROOM:

Independent research with substantial supervised research and written work in gender and women's studies. This research should be directed toward work in WST 397.

BUILDING: | ROOM:

It is the student's responsibility to arrange the internship with the organization and to find a professor as an advisor for the internship. Organization/Companies currently offering internships are Afterimage, Alternatives for Battered Women, Center for Dispute Settlement, City Council of Rochester, Division of Human Rights, Gay Alliance of Genesee Valley, Monroe Districts Attorney's Office, Planned Parenthood, St. Joseph's Villa, Sojourner House, Susan B. Anthony House, TV Dinner/Metro Justice, Urban League of Rochester, Visual Studies Workshop, Wheatley Library Branch and the YWCA. Position descriptions are available in Lattimore 538.

BUILDING: | ROOM:

Independent research with substantial supervised research and written work in gender and women's studies.

BUILDING: | ROOM:

BUILDING: | ROOM:

Juniors and seniors only or prerequisite course in African American Literature, American Literature or Women's Studies. Interested students should contact the Women's Studies Department.

BUILDING: | ROOM:

Open only to senior majors or by permission of instructor. Honors in Research recognizes the completion of a distinguished thesis, research paper of approximately 35 pages researched and written under the direction of the faculty advisor, and approved by the faculty advisor and second reader. It is expected that this thesis will be based on research undertaken through WST 393H and WST 394H, and completed in WST 397.

BUILDING: | ROOM:

Students interested in Independent Studies should contact the Women's Studies Department.

BUILDING: | ROOM: