Academics: Course Info, Fall 2009 Courses
| FGSS 1106 | First-Year Writing Seminar Writing about Literature: Women and Writing |
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| TBA | Staff | 3.0 credits | Also ENGL 1105 |
| See www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute/ for the course description after August 1st. | |||
| FGSS 2010 | Introduction to Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | ||
| TR 10:10-11:25 | J. Juffer | 4.0 credits | |
| Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary program focused on understanding the impart of gender and sexuality on the world around us and on the power hierarchies that structure it. In this class we focus mainly on the experiences, historical conditions, and concerns of women as they are shaped by gender and sexuality both in the present and the past. We will read a variety of texts, personal narratives, historical documents, and cultural criticism, to name a few across a range of disciplines. In so we will consider how larger structural systems of both privilege and oppression affect individuals’ identities, experiences, and options, and simultaneously we will examine forms of agency and action taken by women in the face of these larger systems. | |||
| FGSS 2490 | Feminism and Philosophy | ||
| TR 11:40-12:55 | N. Sethi | 4.0 credits | Also PHIL 2490 |
| 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 2840 | Sex, Gender, and Communication | ||
| TR 2:55-4:10 | L. Van Buskirk | 4.0 credits | Also COMM 2840 |
| 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 3210 | Sex and Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective | ||
| MWF 11:15-12:05 | K. March | 4.0 credits | Also ANTHR 3421 |
| 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 3250 | Queer Performance | ||
| MW 2:5-4:10 | S. Warner | 3.0 credits | Also THETR 3260, VISST 3260 |
| 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 3440 | Male and Female in Chinese Culture and Society | ||
| TR 10:10-11:25 | S. Sangren | 4.0 credits | Also ANTHR 3554 |
| This course explores the culture of gender, sex roles, and domestic relations in late imperial and modern Chinese societies. Readings and lectures range from ethnographic descriptions of the dynamics of Chinese family life, kin relations, and socialization to representations of male and female in mythologies and ritual activities. The course also considers developments subsequent to political changes in China. Although the course’s analytical focus is anthropological, readings will draw from the writing of historians literary theorists, and political scientists as well. A premise of the course is that understanding sex and gender in China is essential to understanding Chinese culture and its most fundamental values. The course also aims to introduce students interested in China to techniques of anthropological analysis. | |||
| FGSS 3510 | Caribbean Literature: Migrating Subjects | ||
| TR 2:55-4:10 | C. Boyce Davies | 4.0 credits | Also ASRC 3510, ENGL 3510 |
| This course examines representative oral and written literature of the Caribbean. The growing body of literature by Caribbean women writers will be an important consideration in the context of the largely male-oriented tradition that existed up to the 1980's. We will examine the writings of Caribbean communities abroad as we broaden the meanings of what is Caribbean. Traditional and contemporary oral/folk/urban forms of creative expression and film expression will be features of our ongoing analysis. We will attempt to bring to the campus available Caribbean writers. We will pursue some of the themes that have been current in Caribbean literature and the particular relationships of Caribbean literature to the construction of American and/or English literatures and the definitions of Caribbeanness. Our sub-theme focuses on the discourses of migration which have garnered substantial in recent years and is a fundamental feature of the construction of Caribbean identities. | |||
| FGSS 3600 | Gender and Globalization | ||
| TR 2:55 - 4:10 | L. Benería | 4.0 credits | Also CRP 3650, LATA 3650 |
| This course will invite students to think globally about gender issues and to trace the connections between global, national and local perspectives. Emphasis will be given to: understanding processes of globalization (economic, political, cultural); discussing the ways in which these processes interact with the dynamics of gender differentiation; understanding how globalization has affected women's and men's paid and unpaid work; discussing the significance of women's location in global markets; looking at the importance of culture and the social construction of gender in shaping the ways in which globalization affects people's lives and gender relations; introducing regional differences and similarities; discussing the gender dimensions in the debates on "the clash of civilizations;" and introducing questions of global governance and examining specific cases that illustrate women's role in the shaping of international debates. | |||
| FGSS 3720 | Food, Gender, Culture | ||
| TR 10:10-11:25 | K. McCullough | 4.0 credits | Also AMST 3720, ENGL 3721 |
| In addition to nourishing the body, food operates as a cultural system that both produces and reflects cultural values and hierarchies as well as group and individual identities. In this class we will examine foodways—the behaviors and beliefs attached to the production, distribution, and consumption of food—in order to explore the way food practices help shape our sense of our gender, race, sexual orientation, and national identity. In doing so we will analyze a variety of texts from across the disciplines, focusing primarily on literature and film but ranging into the fields of anthropology, sociology, and history as well. Some questions under discussion will be: How does food function symbolically? How does it work to either preserve or transform cultural identity? How do factors such as gender, class, race, and religion shape the foods we eat and the circumstances in which we eat them? How does food serve both to produce community and to alienate? Why might a novelist or filmmaker choose to focus on food (or a chef) in order to tell a particular tale? How do writers use the language of food to explore issues such as gender, sexuality, class and race? What can a study of food tell us about these identity categories and others in the contemporary US? | |||
| FGSS 3850 | Gender and Sexual Minorities | ||
| M 7:30-10:00 | K. Cohen | 3.0 credits | Also HD 3840 |
| 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 3990 | Undergraduate Independent Study | ||
| TBA | Staff | 1.0-4.0 credits | |
| Prerequisites: one course in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and permission of a faculty member in Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. | |||
| FGSS 4000 | Senior Seminar in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | ||
| W 10:10-12:05 | S. Martin | 4.0 credits | |
| Required for Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies majors. This course, loosely organized around technologies of reproduction, will examine how globalization and innovations in medicine and biotechnology change the ontology of the body to create new ethical dilemmas for feminists in law, policy, and the politics of everyday life. We will address questions such as: Do new biotechnologies free us from the limits of our bodies? How do they alter social relations? What "truths" does the human genome project tell us about ourselves and society? How does stem cell research fix and stretch the terms of gender and embodiment. Although the topic/focus of this course will vary with the instructor, it will always be treated as a broad capstone course for majors. | |||
| FGSS 4040 | Women Artists | ||
| T 2:30-4:25 | J. Bernstock | 4.0 credits | Also ARTH 4610 |
| 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 4100 | Health and Survival Inequalities | ||
| TR 2:55-4:10 | A. Basu | 4.0 credits | Also SOC 4100, D SOC 4100 |
| 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 4110 | Devolution, Privatization, and the New Public Management | ||
| WF 10:10-11:40 | M. Warner | 4.0 credits | Also AEM 4330, CRP 4120, CRP 6120, and FGSS 6110 |
| 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 4141 | Women's Activism and Social Change in the Twentieth Century U.S. | ||
| M 2:30-4:25 | T. Carroll | 4.0 credits | Also HIST 4141 |
| The purpose of this seminar is to examine women's leadership in movements for social change. We will approach this topic through the study of historical examples, drawn primarily from the twentieth century United States. During the term, we will examine activists from a variety of movements including those mobilizing on issues relating to economic justice, race relations, sexual identity, peace, gender equality, public health, and social welfare. Careful attention will be paid to the political awakening of female leaders, the communities and constituencies they served and drew their power from, the patterns, styles, and skills of women in leadership positions, and the unique challenges and rewards these women experienced because of their gender, as well as their race and class. Even though women's leadership has traditionally been undervalued or gone unrecognized altogether by contemporaries and historians alike, this course will demonstrate that women have left an inspiring and instructional legacy of leadership for us to study. | |||
| FGSS 4220 | New York Women | ||
| T 12:20-2:15 | M. Rossiter | 4.0 credits | Also HIST 4450, STS 4221 |
| 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 4530 | 20th Century American Women Writers of Color | ||
| M 10:10-12:05 | S. Wong | 4.0 credits | Also AAS 4530, AM ST 4530, ENGL 4530 |
| In this course, we'll be reading literature--primarily novels--produced by hemispheric American women writers of the mid- to late twentieth-century. We will look at how these writings articulate concerns with language, home, mobility, and memory, and at how the work is informed by the specificities of gender, race, region and class. Readings may include work by Leslie Marmon Silko, Sandra Cisneros, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Jamaica Kincaid, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ann Petry, Fae Myenne Ng, Carolivia Herron, Helena Maria Viramontes, and Shani Mootoo. | |||
| FGSS 4990 | Senior Honors Thesis (for Feminist, Gender, and 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. Students must have at least a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in all course work and a 3.3 average in all courses applying to their FGSS major. Interested students should consult the DUS in the spring semester of their junior year or very early in the fall semester of their senior year. | |||
| FGSS 6060 | Moral Psychology and Education | ||
| T 12:20-2:15 | D. Schrader | 3.0 credits | Also EDUC 6160 |
| This seminar focuses on theoretical and applied issues in moral development. We explore the relationship between thought and action in real life contexts, and how to educate people to be increasingly aware of the ethical and moral aspects of decision making that affect their own and others' lives, and the moral climate of their community or organization. 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 6110 | Devolution, Privatization, and the New Public Management | ||
| WF 10:10-11:40 | M. Warner | 4.0 credits | Also CRP 4120 |
| 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 6207 | Black Feminist Theory | ||
| W 2:00-4:25 | C. Boyce Davies | 4.0 credits | Also ASRC 6207, COML 6465 |
| This course examines black feminist theories, paying particular emphasis on the cross-cultural experiences of women as expressed both theoretically and creatively. It follows the chronologies and variations of modern black feminisms, beginning with the U.S. articulations and moving towards how particular feminist positions are constructed and theorized in other locations across the African diaspora such as Black British feminism, Caribbean feminism, African feminism. Thus we will explore the various theories and texts within their socio-political and geographical frames and locations, analyzing these as appropriate against or in relation to a range of feminist activisms and movements. | |||
| FGSS 6304 | Marriage and Divorce in the African Context | ||
| M 2:00-4:25 | J. Byfield | 4.0 credits | Also ASRC 6304 |
| Marriage was the widely expected norm within African societies. The institution was an important marker of adulthood, linking individuals and lineages in a network of mutual cooperation and support. Marriage practices and their concomitant gender expectations varied significantly between societies, and over time. As a result, marriage and divorce are especially rich terrain for exploring social history, women's agency, discursive constructions of 'woman', masculinity, and gender relations of power. This course explores some of the newest scholarship on marriage by Africanist scholars. The readings demonstrate the wide cultural variety in marriage as well as the dynamic relationship between marriage and historical change. They especially highlight women's roles and expectations in marriage, masculinity and the ways men and women negotiated the rules and boundaries of marriage. | |||
| FGSS 6400 | Science, Technology, Gender: Historical Issues | ||
| T 2:30-4:25 | S. Seth | 4.0 credits | Also STS 6401, HIST 6410 |
| This course explores three aspects of the literature on Gender, Science and Technology: 1) The historical participation of women (and men) in scientific work, 2) the embodiment of scientific, medical and technical knowledge, and 3) feminist critiques of scientific knowledge. We will examine the origins of modern western science in the scientific revolution, considering the claim that “science,” by its very nature, is an androcentric enterprise. The rise of scientific and medical disciplines and professions in the nineteenth century will provide a focus for discussions of the systematic exclusion of women from the production of scientific knowledge at precisely the point that women’s bodies become the object of intensive scientific study. In later weeks, we will discuss so-called “post-modernist” critiques of science, and will debate the possibilities for “feminist science.” This course is intended both to familiarize students with some of the major scholarly issues around gender, science, and technology—one of the most vibrant, exciting and challenging areas of research in Science and Technology Studies—and to allow students to reflect on their own (gendered) experiences and expectations in encountering science, technology, and medicine as students, laboratory workers, patients, and consumers. | |||
| FGSS 6470 | The Theatricality of Gender, Philosophy and French Literature | ||
| TBD | M.C. Vallois | 4.0 credits | Also FREN LIT 6470 |
| Selecting specific case studies from the time of Descartes and Marie de Gournay to Derrida and Butler, the seminar will examine the relationship between philosophical discourse and the theatricality of sexuality and gender in literary, juridical, scientific and other historical French and Francophone texts. The period of the Long Enlightenment (XVII-XVIIIth Centuries) which witnessed the questioning of cartesian philosophy by the materialists philosophers will be central to the seminar. The goal of this inquiry is, however, to reframe the problematics of sexual differenciation as historical representation and production. The preceding and succeeding moments of intellectual inquiries (the libertine age as well as the age of the social sciences) will bring new light to the Nature/Culture and Universal/ particular debate through the reading of these texts by contemporary theorists of our Modernity, such as Michel Foucault, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Derrida, Gayatri Spivack Judith Butler, Monique David-Menard. Primary texts could include the works of Marguerite de Valois, Madame de Lambert, Montesquieu, Diderot, Germaine de Stael, George Sand, Simone de Beauvoir and Helene Cixoux. | |||
| FGSS 6544 | Gender & Politics | ||
| W 2:30-4:25 | S. Martin, S. Mettler | 4.0 credits | Also GOVT 6544 |
| What role does gender play in political behavior, law, and public policy? How can we explain the variation in that role across historical and national contexts? This course considers the social, cultural, and institutional mechanisms through which states structure gender roles and relations. It also investigates how gender regimes influence patterns of political activism and social change. We will examine puzzles such as why greater gender equality is found in some political contexts than others, and why states feature different configurations of rights and restrictions with respect to gender, for example with some granting relatively high degrees of social equality while restricting reproductive freedom, and vice versa. Specific attention will be given to how gender categories and debates shape the discipline of political science, shaping the questions we ask and the answers we find. | |||
| FGSS 6990 | Topics in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | ||
| TBD | 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. | |||
