| FGSS 106 |
First-Year Writing Seminars: Writing about Literature: Women and Writing |
| TBA |
Staff |
3.0 credits |
Also ENGL 105 |
| See www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute/ for the course descriptions. |
| FGSS 201 |
Introduction to Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies |
| TR 10:10-11:25 |
Staff |
4.0 credits |
|
| The goal of this course is to develop college-level writing and reading skills. In this course we will explore alternate genders and sexualities from an anthropological perspective in both Western and non-Western contexts. Our subject will be cross-dressing, transsexuality, homosexuality and third genders. Using accounts on transgender identities, ethnographies, biographies, and film, we will examine how in particular contexts what we gloss as transgender can inform larger issues, such as the relationship between the individual and society, society and culture, and the local and the global. We will examine the myriad ways that gender and sexuality are constructed to critically analyze what gender and sexuality mean in relation to other features of daily life. Student writing will include essays problematizing the sex/gender dichotomy, cross-cultural comparisons, and a final project examining the usefulness of transgender as a category. |
| FGSS 202 |
Introduction to Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theories |
| TR 11:40-12:55 |
D. Reese |
4.0 credits |
Also VISST 203 |
| This course introduces students to critical approaches in feminist scholarship to the cultural, socioeconomic, and political situation(s) of women. Particular attention will be paid to the conceptual challenges and dangers posed by attempts to study women without taking account of relations between race, class, and gender in ideological and social formations. Readings will draw on work in various disciplines and will include literary texts and visual images. |
| FGSS 224 |
The French Experience |
| TR 11:40-12:55 |
C. Howie |
4.0 credits |
Also FREN 224 |
| The French Experience is inevitably a misleading title: as if there were only one experience to speak of, and only one France: as if we could say with any precision what these are and why they might matter. This course intends to give students the chance to see that France has meant many different things to many different folks over time. From the Middle Ages to modernity, we'll take a look at a handful of texts—literary, historical, philosophical—that have wrestled with issues of identity and community. In the process, we'll have a chance to engage with what, if anything, France could mean for us now. Note to FGSS students: we'll be especially concerned with how women get talked about—and how they do the talking—from the medieval poet Marie de France, through the possessed nuns of Renaissance history, to the Francophone graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi. All readings and discussion in English. |
| FGSS 246 |
Contemporary Narratives by Latina Writers |
| TR 11:40-12:55 |
D. Castillo |
4.0 credits |
Also LSP 246, SPANL 246 |
| This course offers a survey of narratives by representative Latina writers of various Latino ethnic groups in the United States including Chicana, Chilean, Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican. We will investigate the parallel development of a Latina perspective on personal, social, and cultural issues alongside that of the U.S. ethnic liberation/revitalization movements of the 1960s through to contemporary feminist activism and women of color movements. We will investigate these works as artistic attempts to deal with such issues as culture, language and bilingualism, family, gender, sexuality, and domesticity. We will account for regional distinctions and contributions. Readings may include works by Julia Alvarez, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Cristina Garcia, and others. |
| FGSS 249 |
Feminism and Philosophy |
| TR 10:10-11:25 |
N. Sethi |
4.0 credits |
Also PHIL 249 |
| An introduction using a variety of texts (philosophical, historical, literary, legal, and political) to feminist thought. Special attention will be paid to sexual difference and the social construction of gender, and to how we frame various issues (e.g., whether pornography is primarily an issue about freedom of expression or about equal protection). |
| FGSS 273 |
Women in American Society, Past and Present |
| MW 10:10-11:00 |
|
3.0 credits |
|
| A survey of women’s experiences in America from the seventeenth-century to the present. Among the topics to be discussed are women’s familial roles, the changing nature of household work, racial and ethnic differences in women’s experiences, the women’s rights movement, employment of women outside the home, and contemporary feminism. |
| FGSS 284 |
Sex, Gender, and Communication |
| TR 2:55-4:10 |
|
3.0 credits |
|
| Explores the personal, career, social, and economic implications of male and female gender categories. Topics include theories of male and female gender construction, social structures, personal relationships, and gender concerns in the workplace. |
| FGSS 307 |
Afro-American Women: Slavery-Freedom |
| TR 10:10-11:25 |
|
4.0 credits |
Also AM ST 303, HIST 303 |
| We will pay special attention to how beliefs about masculinity and femininity create and enforce a system of gender difference and inequality. We will attempt to reveal the “common sense” world of gender that surrounds us by exposing the workings of institutions, such as family, the classroom, and workplace. Next we will explore how gender stereotypes and the interactions between and among women and men create and recreate gender. We will briefly examine the link between gender, friendship, and sex/sexuality. Finally, we will consider the possibilities of a “degendered” or less gendered society. |
| FGSS 313 |
Special Topics in Drama & Performance |
| MW 2:55-4:10 |
S. Warner |
4.0 credits |
Also THETR 313, ENGL 276 |
| An intensive study of a particular dramatist, period, form or problem in drama and/or performance. Topics, prerequisites and formats will vary from year to year. This semester the course will focus on two 20th century Afro-American women playwrights, Adrienne Kennedy and Suzan-Lori Parks |
| FGSS 321 |
Sex and Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective |
| MWF 11:15-12:05 |
K. March |
4.0 credits |
Also ANTHR 321 |
| An introduction to the study of sex roles cross-culturally and to anthropological theories of sex and gender. The course examines the relative positioning of the sexes in social, political, economic, ideological, cultural, and biological aspects of culture; we emphasize the diversity in gender and prospects for change around the world. In addition to lectures, films and videos, participants will work in small discussion sections (maximum of eight) to prepare practical field exercises, short papers and critical assessments of other course materials. |
| FGSS 350 |
Contemporary Issues in Women’s Health |
| TR 11:40-12:55 |
A. Parrot |
3.0-5.0 credits |
Also PAM 350 |
| This course deals with the history of women in medicine and the historical and cultural treatment of women’s health problems. Health care research and the exclusion of women from research trials and protocols are also addressed. Reproductive issues, alternative approaches to treatment, medical problems, ethical issues, cancers, factors that contribute to post-traumatic stress disorders, health promotion behaviors, political issues, and routine medical recommendations are also discussed in depth. Students may take the course for a fifth credit by attending a discussion section every other week and observing seven facilities (i.e., birthing center, mammogram and ultrasound center, wellness center, hospital labor and delivery unit, Lamaze class, women’s self defense class, etc.) that provide a variety of women’s health care |
| FGSS 353 |
Monsters A-X |
| MWF 10:10-11:00 |
K. Long |
4.0 credits |
Also FREN 353, COM L 353 |
| This course is taught in English and will explore the classical, medieval, and early modern sources for our notions of the monstrous, including strange beasts, wild men, demons, witches, and cyborgs. What do these figures tell us about our own attitudes towards racial and gender differences, towards other species, and towards nature more generally? Finally, what do these figures tell us about our idea of what constitutes life? Texts to be considered will include Aristotle, On the Generation of Animals, Pliny’s Natural History, Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain, Ambroise Paré’s On Monsters and Marvels, Beowulf, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and various episodes of the X-Files (Detour, Bad Blood, Il Mundo Gira, etc.), as well as critical material from Donna Haraway (Simians, Cyborgs, andWomen, and Primate Visions), Judith Butler (Gender Trouble), and Julia Kristeva (Powers of Horror). |
| FGSS 369 |
Fast Talking Dames & Sad Ladies |
| W 2:30-4:25 |
L. Bogel |
4.0 credits |
Also ENGL 369, FILM 369 |
| Students must be free to attend Monday and/or Tuesday late-afternoon screenings. There is a $30 film fee. Limited to 15. For permission, email ldb4@cornell.edu. In this seminar focusing on sassy or subdued heroines of Hollywood’s 1940s films and current films, we will work to define romantic comedy and melodrama as genres; as vehicles for female stars; as ways of viewing the world. Psychoanalytic and feminist analyses of these films will help us pose questions about gender and culture, about gendered spectatorship, about the relation of these films to American culture, about Hollywood’s changing constructions of “woman,” the “maternal,” and the “feminine,” and about representations of desire, pleasure, fantasy, and ideology. Required weekly screenings of such films as Gilda, The Lady Eve, Reckless Moment, Notorious, The Women, The Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, Mrs. Dalloway, The Hours, First Wives’ Club, All About My Mother, Silence of the Lambs, Far From Heaven, and The Deep End. |
| FGSS 370 |
Gender and Age in Archaeology |
| MW 2:55-4:10 |
N. Russell |
3.0 credits |
Also ANTHR 369, ARKEO 369 |
| In recent years, feminist theory has begun to have an impact on archaeological thought. It is now recognized that gender is likely to have been a relevant dimension of social organization in past societies. Some archaeologists are also trying to take into account the differing interests and experiences of children, adults of reproductive age, and the elderly. This course will not be limited to any period or geographical area, but will range widely in examining how feminist theory has been applied to archaeological data and models. We will consider whether it is necessary to identify women and men, adults and children in the archaeological record in order to take gender and age into account. We will also examine the uses of archaeological data by contemporary feminists. |
| FGSS 385 |
Gender and Sexual Minorities |
| M 7:30-10:00 |
|
3.0 credits |
Also HD 384 |
| This course introduces students to theories, empirical scholarship, public policies, and current controversies with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, sexual questioning, and other sexual minority populations. The major focus is on sexual development, lifestyles, and communities with additional emphasis on ethnic, racial, gender, and class issues. Videos supplement the readings and lectures. |
| FGSS 399 |
Undergraduate Independent Study |
| TBA |
Staff |
1.0-4.0 credits |
|
| Prerequisites: one course in Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and permission of a faculty member in Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. |
| FGSS 404 |
Women Artists |
| T 2:30-4:25 |
J. Bernstock |
4.0 credits |
Also Art H 466 |
| This seminar will be devoted to a study of the work of women artists from antiquity to the present. The works of the most important women artists from each period will be studied in relation to the changing roles of women in society. Readings by feminist critics are a major part of the course. |
| FGSS 410 |
Health and Survival Inequalities |
| TR 2:55-4:10 |
A. Basu |
4.0 credits |
Also SOC 410, D SOC 410 |
| Historical inequalities in health and survival continue to exist today. This course will cover some of the markers of such inequalities, including religion, class, race, gender and age and examine some of the biological, socioeconomic and political determinants of these differences. Macro as well as individual and family level determinants will be examined. Policy prescriptions will be evaluated and new innovative approaches proposed. |
| FGSS 411 |
Devolution and Privatization: Challenges for Urban Public |
| WF 10:10-11:40 |
M. Warner |
4.0 credits |
Also CRP 412 |
| Devolution and decentralization of government services are international trends. This seminar will review these trends in a national and international context and focus on the local public sector response in the United States. Concerns for efficiency as well as changing notions of the appropriate role for the public sector drive these shifts. Privatization is perhaps the most controversial form of restructuring. We will review the theoretical rationale for privatization and legal, political and practical concerns which have arisen with its implementation. Special attention will be given to the ability of privatization to address social welfare services. |
| FGSS 412 |
Women’s Histories in French and Francophone Literature |
| W 2:30-4:25 |
M.C. Vallois |
4.0 credits |
Also FREN 422 |
| Based on a limited number of texts the course will re-examine the differing relations between literature, history, genre and gender practice and theory across time. Through close analyses of some of our most important gendered and non-gendered stories, we will attempt to resituate the roots of the fables of identity of our modernity. Examples of case studies may include: the Memoirs of and legends around Marguerite de Valois; Salon writing and fairytales; juridical writings and revolutionary pamphlets, Romantic and exotic short stories, domestic and pastoral novels. |
| FGSS 416 |
Gender and Sex in Southeast Asia |
| W 12:20-2:15 |
T. Loos |
4.0 credits |
Also ASIAN 416, HIST 416 |
| Students consider the relationships among colonialism and gender and sexual identity formation in Southeast Asia. Using material from a wide range of fields including anthropology and literature, the course complicates a simplistic East/West and male/female binary.
|
| FGSS 422 |
New York Women |
| T 12:20-2:15 |
M. Rossiter |
4.0 credits |
Also HIST 445, S&TS 422 |
| Over the centuries New York State has been the site of activity for a great many women of consequence. This course is a one-semester survey of the past and present activities and contributions of rural and urban women in a variety of fields of interest to Cornell students—politics, medicine, science, the law, education, business (including hotels), entertainment, communications, government, labor, religion, religion, athletics, the arts and other areas |
| FGSS 446 |
Women in the Economy |
| TR 1:25-2:40 |
F. Blau |
3.0 credits |
Also ILRLE 445, ECON 457 |
| Examines the changing economic roles of women and men in the labor market and in the family. Topics include: a historical overview of changing gender roles; the determinants of the gender division of labor in the family; trends in female and male labor force participation; gender differences in occupations and earnings; and the consequences of women’s employment for the family. |
| FGSS 462 |
Diversity and Employee Relations |
| MW 1:25-2:40 |
Q. Roberson |
4.0 credits |
Also ILRHR 463 |
| Explores the policies, programs and practices used by employers to promote the fair treatment of employees, especially those not covered by collective bargaining contracts. Includes such policies as organizational justice and the protection of employee rights of such programs as work/life balance, and worker health and safety; and elements of such practices as employee communication and conflict resolution. Also examines individual and organization climate factors that are important to the management of diversity in business organizations. Considers variations in employee relations and diversity management practices and the effects of these practices on relevant individual and organization outcomes |
| FGSS 463 |
Feminist Theory/Law & Society |
| T 2:30-4:25 |
A.M. Smith |
4.0 credits |
Also GOVT 463, AM ST 459 |
| Feminist theory presents unique challenges to the student of politics interested in State structures, legal systems and public policy. While liberal democratic State theory takes for granted the separation between the “private” and “public” spheres, feminist theory submits that distinction to a thorough interrogation. Feminists also insist that the “personal is political.” An individual woman might decide to use contraception or to practice safer sex in a highly intimate context, but feminist theory brings to light the fact that social movements, cultural trends, changes in the health care field, governmental agencies, and legal doctrine have set the stage for that personal decision. Feminist theory is therefore situated in a privileged position to shed new light on some of the most interesting issues in contemporary politics, such as same-sex marriage, abortion, the HIV and AIDS epidemic, stem cell research, access to health care, discrimination in the workplace, and poverty policy. In this seminar, we will explore feminist theory’s interrogation of State theory. We will pay particularly close attention to the feminist theory that explores the intersection between racism and sexism in America today. |
| FGSS 499 |
Senior Honors Thesis (for Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies seniors only) |
| TBA |
Staff |
1.0-8.0 credits |
|
| To graduate with honors, a major must complete a senior thesis under the supervision of a faculty member in Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and defend that thesis orally before an honors committee. To be eligible for honors, students must have at least a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 in all course work and a 3.3 average in all courses applying to their Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies major. Students interested in the Honors program should consult the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the spring semester of their junior year or very early in the fall semester of their senior year. |
| FGSS 604 |
Passionate Politics: Affect, Protest, Performance |
| R 1:25-3:20 |
S. Warner |
4.0 credits |
Also THETR 606, ENGL 652 |
| This course explores the relationship between affect, performance and political engagement. What role have emotions played in social movements? In the success or failure of political leaders? How do affects such as shame, pride, fear, anger, alienation, compassion, sentimentality, boredom, disgust and paranoia inspire us to act or to refrain from acting? What role do race, class, gender, and sexuality play? Readings may include Plato, Seneca, Augustine, Weber, Durkheim, Freud, Adorno, Jameson, Tompkins, Fanon, Berlant, Ahmed, Ngai, and Massumi. |
| FGSS 605 |
Camp, Kitsch and Trash |
| W 1:25-3:20 |
N. Salvato |
4.0 credits |
Also THETR 605, ENGL 651 |
| This graduate seminar investigates three key terms for twentieth-century aesthetic thought and performance theory: camp, kitsch, and trash. As we analyze the various meanings assigned to these terms (and the performances articulated under their banners), we will also consider histories of taste; the traffic between popular culture and “high art”; and the relationships among material artifacts, identity politics, and community formations. Issues of class, race, gender, and sexuality will be foregrounded. Authors include Adorno, Bourdieu, Broch, Butler, Debord, Greenberg, Ludlam, Newton, Sedgwick, Sontag, Waters, and Warhol |
| FGSS 611 |
Devolution and Privatization: Challenges for Urban Public |
| WF 10:10-11:40 |
M. Warner |
4.0 credits |
Also CRP 612 |
| Devolution and decentralization of government services are international trends. This seminar will review these trends in a national and international context and focus on the local public sector response in the United States. Concerns for efficiency as well as changing notions of the appropriate role for the public sector drive these shifts. Privatization is perhaps the most controversial form of restructuring. We will review the theoretical rationale for privatization and legal, political and practical concerns which have arisen with its implementation. Special attention will be given to the ability of privatization to address social welfare services. |
| FGSS 616 |
Gender and Sex in Southeast Asia |
| W 12:20-2:15 |
T. Loos |
4.0 credits |
Also ASIAN 616, HIST 616 |
Students consider the relationships among colonialism and gender and sexual identity formation in Southeast Asia. Using material from a wide range of fields including anthropology and literature, the course complicates a simplistic East/West and male/female binary. |
| FGSS 618 |
The Psychology of Moral Development and Education |
| T 12:20-2:15 |
D. Schrader |
4.0 credits |
Also EDUC 616 |
| This seminar focuses on theoretical issues in moral development as related to the educational process. We explore moral psychology from cognitive developmental, social contextual, feminist psychology and normative approaches and methods. Topics of focus vary by semester, yet all semesters ground the discussion in theoretical and empirical studies of the development of moral reasoning, gender differences, cultural contextual differences, the relationship between moral judgment and moral action, the development of the self in relation to others and to society, and moral education. Issues of assessment of moral reasoning, and the use of narrative and moral discourse for understanding moral orientation, are examined. This course takes a life-span perspective, however emphasis is on development in adolescence through adulthood. |
| FGSS 622 |
Women’s Histories in French and Francophone Literature |
| W 2:30-4:25 |
M.C. Vallois |
4.0 credits |
Also FREN 622 |
| Based on a limited number of texts the course will re-examine the differing relations between literature, history, genre and gender practice and theory across time. Through close analyses of some of our most important gendered and non-gendered stories, we will attempt to resituate the roots of the fables of identity of our modernity. Examples of case studies may include: the Memoirs of and legends around Marguerite de Valois; Salon writing and fairytales; juridical writings and revolutionary pamphlets, Romantic and exotic short stories, domestic and pastoral novels. |
| FGSS 628 |
Love, Loss, and Lament in the Renaissance |
| W 3:35-4:25 |
B. Correll |
4.0 credits |
Also ENGL 625 |
| In the ongoing project of writing the history of the emotions, the early modern period is a source of rich material. This seminar is concerned with the study of early modern textsliterary, philosophical, medical/scientificthat deal strikingly with passion and emotion, grief and melancholia. We read texts on love, friendship, death, and the humors, paying close attention to the gender and sexuality issues so central to them in representing bodies and subjects. Of special concern to us is the male-authored, female-voiced complaint included at the end of sonnet sequences: Shakespeare’s Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint, Daniel’s Delia and The Complaint of Rosamond. But reading will include plays and poems of Shakespeare, Spenser, Webster, Marlowe, Donne, Ford, Wroth, and Ovid; essays of Montaigne and Bacon; Burton’s compendious Anatomy of Melancholy; and modern theoretical writing by Freud, Kristeva, and Butler. |
| FGSS 631 |
Sex and Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective |
| M 12:20-2:15 |
K. March |
4.0 credits |
Also ANTHR 621 |
An introduction to the study of sex roles cross-culturally and to anthropological theories of sex and gender. The course examines the relative positioning of the sexes in social, political, economic, ideological, cultural, and biological aspects of culture; we emphasize the diversity in gender and prospects for change around the world. In addition to lectures, films and videos, participants will work in small discussion sections (maximum of eight) to prepare practical field exercises, short papers and critical assessments of other course materials. |
| FGSS 670 |
Gender and Age in Archaeology |
| MW 2:55-4:10 |
N. Russell |
4.0 credits |
Also ANTHR 669, ARKEO 669 |
| In recent years, feminist theory has begun to have an impact on archaeological thought. It is now recognized that gender is likely to have been a relevant dimension of social organization in past societies. Some archaeologists are also trying to take into account the differing interests and experiences of children, adults of reproductive age, and the elderly. This course will not be limited to any period or geographical area, but will range widely in examining how feminist theory has been applied to archaeological data and models. We will consider whether it is necessary to identify women and men, adults and children in the archaeological record in order to take gender and age into account. We will also examine the uses of archaeological data by contemporary feminists. |
| FGSS 691 |
Gender and Sexuality in Early Modern Europe |
| W 12:20 - 2:15 |
K. Long |
4.0 credits |
Also FREN 690 |
| Is there a norm in depictions of sex and gender in early modern Europe? The conservative (Aristotelian) model of sex difference presents the male as the ideal form, with the female as a defective or lacking version of the male, but the ground for this distinction shifts constantly. This seminar proposes an examination of the “deviance” already present in this model, and played upon by early modern treatises on gender and sexuality. We will also examine the gap between theoretical presentations of gender and accounts of clinical examinations of the gendered body. Texts considered will include medical treatises (Ambroise Paré, Jacques Duval, Jean Riolan), satirical and other literary works (Rabelais, Le Tiers livre, Michel de Montaigne’s Essais, and the works of Marie de Gournay, as well as Thomas Artus’s L’Isle des hermaphrodites), alchemical works, as well as some political material and popular pamphlets. Topics to be discussed will include transsexualism, the politics of gender identity, and monstrosity and gender. Most texts will be in French; the seminar will be conducted in English. |
| FGSS 699 |
Topics in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies |
| TBA |
Staff |
4.0 credits |
|
| Independent reading course for graduate students only on topics not covered in regularly scheduled courses; permission of instructor required. Students develop a course of readings in consultation with a faculty member in the field of Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies who has agreed to supervise the course work. |
