This course will examine the economic activities of women in traditional societies that preceded and laid the foundations for early industrialization. In a variety of pre-industrial societies from Europe, Africa, and the Americas, we will examine closely the participation of women as they contributed to their community’s economic and social well being. The course will investigate the claim that women’s economic contribution was a primary determinant of the nature and pace of the shift from “household work” to “market places,” and ultimately to a “market economy.”

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 203

The diversity of feminist thought and practice in its importance in forming Women's Studies, in its impact on other disciplines, and in its articulation with lives and social practices.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 540

An isolated country parsonage. A half mad father. A profligate brother addicted to drugs. Three uniquely gifted sisters who burned their hearts and brains out on the moors, but not before leaving us some of the most passionate and revolutionary literature of the 19th c. This is the stuff of the Brontë legend. This course will explore the continuing appeal of the Brontës and the peculiar fascination that they have exercised on the literary imagination. Looking intensively at some of the best-loved novels of all time, we will explore the roots and reaches of the Brontë myth. We will also consider the Brontës’ legacy in in some of the many adaptations (and continuations) of their work in print and on the screen. And we will look at our seemingly insatiable appetite for new tellings of the Brontës’ life stories. The course, then, will consider not the only the Brontës’ literary productions, but also our culture’s production and reproduction of “the Brontës” over the years.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 205

An isolated country parsonage. A half mad father. A profligate brother addicted to drugs. Three uniquely gifted sisters who burned their hearts and brains out on the moors, but not before leaving us some of the most passionate and revolutionary literature of the 19th c. This is the stuff of the Brontë legend. This course will explore the continuing appeal of the Brontës and the peculiar fascination that they have exercised on the literary imagination. Looking intensively at some of the best-loved novels of all time, we will explore the roots and reaches of the Brontë myth. We will also consider the Brontës’ legacy in in some of the many adaptations (and continuations) of their work in print and on the screen. And we will look at our seemingly insatiable appetite for new tellings of the Brontës’ life stories. The course, then, will consider not the only the Brontës’ literary productions, but also our culture’s production and reproduction of “the Brontës” over the years.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 205

The aim of this course is two-fold: First, to develop an understanding of the extraordinary variety of ways meaning is produced in visual culture; secondly, to enable students to analyze and describe the social, political and cultural effects of these meanings. By studying examples drawn from contemporary art, film, television, digital culture, and advertising we will learn techniques of analysis developed in response to specific media and also how to cross-pollinate techniques of analysis in order to gain greater understanding of the complexity of our visual world. Grades are based on response papers, class attendance and participation, and a midterm and a final paper. Occasional film screenings will be scheduled as necessary in the course of the semester.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 205

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? How do experts manage birth, illness, and death in the lives of others and in the aggregate? Historical and contemporary examples from North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

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Understanding social psychology of modern & contemporary Western/American family experience, & especially its means of abetting the concealment, repression, & suppression of people's emotional lives. Study of the films combines with the readings seek to develop critical understanding of the nuclear family & the conditions it may create for child-rape, racism, homophobia, murder & self-destructive behavior such as substance abuse, self- mutilation, & suicide. Sometimes the violence is arbitrary, sometimes inevitable, sometimes incomprehensible. Each case the course's attention is on the personal & collective machineries of repression, resulting rage in many individuals & frequent (now often familiar) violent results. Readings incl; Nancy Chodorow, Alice Miller, Kristin Kelly, & Stephanie Coontz. Films are taken from: A Price Above Rubies, A Thousand Acres, All My Sons, American Beauty, American History X, Bastard out of Carolina, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Dolores Claiborne, and others.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 208

The seminar considers the extent to which people assimilate the language of literature into ordinary usage. As we read, language, fantasy, and thought in literature combine in a social and political gesture. For most literature, we remember stories and characters, but rarely words. Literary language acts on us mostly without our awareness. With attention to a variety of genres of fiction, poetry, drama, and popular song lyrics, the seminar estimates the social and political speech action of literary language. Seminar members are invited to re-use the language of the works on the reading list by placing this language in new contexts and then comparing the new usages with those experienced in reading. Works on the reading list, which raise issues of language action, suggest how such actions appear in any literature. Authors studied include Dickinson, Kafka, Lawrence, Morrison, Olds, Orwell, Pinter, and Shakespeare. Obscene language is considered as a model of how literary language is politically active.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 218

This seminar course is based on research on and discussion of a variety of issues of contemporary concern in Japan, including national, ethnic and racial identity; changing gender and sex roles; the family and generational conflict; immigration and work; the emperor system, war, and memory; cultural authenticity; and Japan's changing roles in Asia and in the world. Readings on issues begin with articles in the online English-language editions of Japan's main news media, extend outward to reports in the US news media, and eventually to popular and scholarly English-language studies of the issues involved. Grading is based on participation in informed discussion of issues raised in class (20%), and on four papers on issues to be chosen by each student with the instructors permission (20% each).

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 163

This seminar course is based on research on and discussion of a variety of issues of contemporary concern in Japan, including national, ethnic and racial identity; changing gender and sex roles; the family and generational conflict; immigration and work; the emperor system, war, and memory; cultural authenticity; and Japan's changing roles in Asia and in the world. Readings on issues begin with articles in the online English-language editions of Japan's main news media, extend outward to reports in the US news media, and eventually to popular and scholarly English-language studies of the issues involved. Grading is based on participation in informed discussion of issues raised in class (20%), and on four papers on issues to be chosen by each student with the instructors permission (20% each).

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 163

Blending clear-eyed social commentary with a faith in romantic love, festooning mordant satire with enchantedly happy endings, Jane Austen's novels subsist on contradiction and enjoy more popularity than ever. This course will place Austen in the context of her times while also analyzing her continued appeal. Readings include Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion, as well as novels by such authors as Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Anne Radcliffe, and the Brontes. This course can fulfill the pre-1800 requirement for the English major.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 525

Blending clear-eyed social commentary with a faith in romantic love, festooning mordant satire with enchantedly happy endings, Jane Austen's novels subsist on contradiction and enjoy more popularity than ever. This course will place Austen in the context of her times while also analyzing her continued appeal. Readings include Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion, as well as novels by such authors as Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Anne Radcliffe, and the Brontes. This course can fulfill the pre-1800 requirement for the English major.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 525

Traditional Folkloric roots of Middle Eastern Dance, focusing on specific Bedouin dance styles of North Africa (Raks Shaabi). Discourse and research will address issues of gender and body image. Improving strength, flexibility and self-awareness of the body, the class work will include meditative movement, dance technique, choreography and improvisation. No prior dance experience necessary.

BUILDING: SPURR | ROOM: DANCE

What does it mean to be human? What political, economic, religious, social, or sexual rights might be part of different people's working definitions? This course will look at both a) the historical development of conflicting theories of human rights and b) more contemporary debates about their ideal extent, their exercise, and their enforcement. Special topics will include debates over the meaning of the American and French Revolutions, the fight to design an International Declaration of Human Rights in the aftermath of World War II, the history of organizations such as Amnesty International, and the controversy around UN events such as the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, and the 2000 and 2005 Millennium Summits in New York City.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

What does it mean to be human? What political, economic, religious, social, or sexual rights might be part of different people's working definitions? This course will look at both a) the historical development of conflicting theories of human rights and b) more contemporary debates about their ideal extent, their exercise, and their enforcement. Special topics will include debates over the meaning of the American and French Revolutions, the fight to design an International Declaration of Human Rights in the aftermath of World War II, the history of organizations such as Amnesty International, and the controversy around UN events such as the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, and the 2000 and 2005 Millennium Summits in New York City.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

Queer Theory emerged out of the intersection of conceptualizations of gender/sexuality advanced by feminist scholars, early LGBT scholarship, and theories of postmodernism. Queer theory has not only attempted to recuperate non-dominant sexualities, but perhaps more tellingly, has sought to deconstruct the assumed correlation between sex, gender, and sexuality. In other words, what ought we to do with bodies that do not conform to binary gender norms? How might we understand sexuality if it is a contingent practice with open-ended objects? In what ways can we understand the embodiments of gender/sexuality as a “performance”? How have queer identities been informed by other socially significant forms of identity (such as: race, class, gender, nationality, etc)?

BUILDING: HARK | ROOM: 210

This course explores how ideas about gender and sex have shaped past and present approaches to health and medicine. We will consider the effects gender, race, and class have had on medical knowledge and practices, with particular emphasis on women’s bodies and women’s health. Topics will include the social and cultural constructions of gender, the politics of human sexuality, women’s interventions in the fields of health and medicine, and reproductive politics. This is a writing-intensive course and may be counted toward the University of Rochester’s Women’s Studies major, minor, or cluster.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 456

The study of women and gender through specific topics that change each semester.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 540

The course provides an in-depth study of Susan B. Anthony and the world in which she lived. In addition to focusing on the major political issues that occupied Anthony and her coworkers—women’s rights, abolition, and temperance—the class will explore the social and cultural world of America during the century between Anthony’s birth (1820) and the adoption of the 19th Amendment (1920), with special emphasis on American musical life during this time. The seminar-style course will incorporate in-class presentations and discussion, field trips, and writing assignments ranging from short response papers to a final research paper. No prerequisite. Humanities/writing intensive.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 540

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

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Interested students should contact the Women's Studies Department.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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