Undergraduate Courses SPRING 2012                                                                                                                       

Sex, Science and Anthropology, ANTH 106/WSGS 106
Anne Grauer
An introduction to the study of sex and gender in physical anthropology. Students will study: recent anthropological theories concerning the role of sex in human adaptation, evolution, biology and behavior; the history of physical anthropological thought concerning sex and gender; and socially constructed notions of gender influence our understanding of human biology.

Mass Media and Popular Culture, SOCL 123/WSGS 123
Talmadge Wright and Japonica Brown-Saracino
The purpose of this class is to develop critical tools for the analysis of mass media and popular culture.  Mass media and popular culture are often treated as a given, a backdrop for everyday life.  Our attempt will not be to merely describe forms of modern culture, to present their history, but to develop an understanding of how it impacts our lives, to engage in a critical analysis.  This process will not just involve reading books and articles but also watching TV news, film and other non-verbal signs.  We are going to develop novel ways to "read" popular culture and mass media for what it may tell us about the sociology of everyday life and for the manner in which race, class, and gender are socially constructed. Specifically, we will focus on the construction of male and female gender roles within a wide variety of media sources. In addition, both race, class and political economy will be examined in the production of media representations.We shall also dealing with how news stories are "framed," as well as the theories that inform this critical approach to media. Finally, we shall examine the panic over digital media and children.

Women in Religion: Spirituality (writing intensive), THEO 178/WSGS 278
Andrea Hollingsworth
This course will examine how core beliefs and practices in various religious traditions influence the identities, roles, and experiences of women in those traditions. Our attention will be centered on what is unique in women’s spiritual practices and experiences, and what women have uniquely contributed to their religious and spiritual traditions. Along the way, we will critique religious systems with respect to the experience of women by investigating ways in which religions hold women in particular esteem due to their gender, ways in which women are oppressed in their traditions, how these two things often occur simultaneously, and what this implies for women’s spirituality. Finally, we will explore how wider cultures perceive women within different religious traditions, and how those perceptions shape women’s spiritual experiences and expressions.

Women, Diaspora, Community, WSGS 201
Cristina Lombardi
The course examines the wide range of cultural expressions and community cultural resources available for women as they migrate in developed countries such as Europe and the US. It highlights how the diaspora global movement produces material and cultural changes that ultimately transform gender relations and diaspora communities at large. The course opens with a general understanding of the economic, political, and social indicators affecting women's family life, their motherhood practices, their access to the labor market, their sexuality, and their religious faith. The course pays particular attention to literacy, language acquisition, and written and visual expression as a means by which migrant women acquire visibility, prestige, and cultural agency as individuals and members of their communities.  In the final part of the course students will examine the cases of local (Chicago-based) communities and real-life stories, as well as written texts, in order to analyze the role played for women in diaspora by communal networks, literacy programs, writing practices, and literary and artistic expression.

Sociology of Sex and Gender; SOCL 271/WSGS 271
TBA
The purpose of this class is to develop critical, sociological tools for an analysis of how society is organized around sex and gender, with a specific focus on how gender intersects with race, class and sexuality. In this class, we ask important questions about what gender is, how we become gendered beings, and how our lives are impacted by our genders. We will explore how sociology moves beyond biology in understanding sex and gender, in addition to exploring various social institutions (education, workplace, family, etc.) and how they operate to maintain and/or challenge gender norms. We will place a special emphasis on the media as a location that shapes our understandings of gender, and further, how it can be a location for advocating change. Ultimately, we explore how gender at the micro level is shaped, constrained, enabled, and challenged, in addition to how it is challenging to, macro level structures.

Literature in Translation - Women in Polish Culture, POST 221-01W/WSGS 280
Anna Gasienica-Byrcyn
The Polish women’s participation in culture and their literary work have been shaped by historical events, social and political changes reflected in their writings and art. Their works express an enormous passion for existence, joy of life and love, grief of loss and rejection, desire and longing, admiration of the world’s beauty and distaste for all false ideologies.  Polish women’s literature touches upon their biographical issues dealing with the burden of corporeality, existential limitations and pressure of time. They speak in personal voice on the topics of revolution, exile, war and independence making history intimate.   In this course we will study poetry, letters, prose, and art of the major Polish women artists as well as work of exceptionally talented Polish women who play a significant role in the Polish culture.

Gender & Sex: Difference and Similarities, PSYC 238/WSGS 238
Jeffrey Huntsinger
What are the psychological and behavioral differences between men and women? What is the origin of these gender differences? How do they affect the lives of men and women in work, relationships, etc.? This class will engage psychological research and theory to examine the influence of gender on the lives of men and women. Emphasis will be placed on understanding gender as a social psychological construct.

Families, SOCL 240/WSGS 242
Courtney Irby
The purpose of this class is to develop critical tools to examine the definition of family, understand how family has changed and the explore diversity within this institution. Over the course of this class, we will learn to sociologically examine both the ideology of family life and the diversity of lived experiences within family life. Towards this end, we will study the impact of structural forces and social change on family life; learn about how family life is shaped by other important social categories such as race, class and gender; and finally, examine the hopes and pressures facing the next generation as they begin to build their own families.

Inequality in Society; SOCL 250/WSGS 250
David Embrick
An examination of the process and resulting structure by which people become differentiated from one another and arranged in graded strata with varying degrees of wealth, power, and prestige. Emergence and maintenance of social classes, class conflict, social mobility, and changes over time in the system as a whole. Attention will be given to the most influential classical traditions dealing with stratification as well as to modern theories.

Women in Literature: Deconstructing the Diva, ENGL 283-13W/WSGS 283
Melissa Bradshaw
Revered and reviled, imitated and appropriated, divas are perhaps the most visible women in our culture.  On the one hand, as a woman who stares down cameras and sings loudly and unabashedly, the diva represents empowerment: she is loud, courageous, and often outrageous.  On the other hand, the diva is also a figure of extreme appropriation: consumed and absorbed into people’s lives, she is the object of obsessive fandom.  In shaping her own identity, the diva often serves as a vehicle for shaping others’.  Through fiction, drama, biography, autobiography, film, and performance theory, this class will explore the paradoxes and problems of the “woman with a voice” and her place in contemporary conceptions of femininity.

Women in Literature: Contemporary Memoir, Engl 283-14W/WSGS 283
Sherrie Weller
Memoir, as a literary genre, has garnered much critical attention in the last decade (both positive and negative).  But what exactly is memoir?  What characteristics does it have that are different than fiction, or straight non-fiction and autobiography?  If an author is writing from memory, and oftentimes memory is hazy, or at the least subjective, what is the 'truth' in memoir? Is there any material or issue that is still considered taboo when women write about their lives?  These are some of the questions we will address during the semester while reading a selection of creative non-fiction memoirs by a wide range of contemporary female writers. One of the themes we will investigate is the concept of secrets and silence that pervade many of the texts we will focus on.  Some writers may include: Patricia Hampl, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary Karr, bell hooks, Kathryn Harrison, Marjane Satrapi, Alice Sebold, Jill Christman, and Anne Fessler.  Crosslisted with Women’s Studies, English 283 is designed to meet the “literary knowledge and experience” requirements of the Loyola Core.  Focusing on literature written by 20th century women authors, this course is designed to help students gain knowledge of women’s lives and writings; to show them the difference gender makes to the writing, reading, and interpretation of literature; to train them in the analysis of literature; and to teach them how to describe, analyze, and formulate arguments about literary texts.

Women in Literature, Special Topic: Illness and Gender, ENGL 283-15W/WSGS 283 
Suzanne Bost
I have chosen the topic of illness since it is a frequent motif in literature and since it highlights several important themes for Women’s Studies and Gender Studies. Illness is often stigmatized as a sign of weakness or invoked as contagion to justify fears of outsiders. Our experiences of illness are shaped by cultural expectations, gender norms, eroticism, and spiritual beliefs. Women have a particular relationship to illness through their stereotypical roles as sufferers and as familial (as opposed to professional) caregivers.  We will explore these themes, among others, in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals, Cherríe Moraga’s Heroes and Saints and Waiting in the Wings, Nancy Mairs’s Carnal Acts, and Julia Alvarez’s Saving the World.  Assignments will include three brief papers, regular in-class exercises, and a final exam.

Women in Polish Film, POST 284-002/WSGS 280
Zbigniew Banas
The course on Women in Polish Film will examine the various roles of female characters in Polish films, as well as provide an overview of the careers of the most important Polish women directors.
Significant attention will be paid to the most relevant type of a female protagonist in the Polish culture, the “Polish Mother,” and her conflicted duties toward her family and her country.  Other historically important character types discussed in the class will include women at the time of war, Solidarity heroines, and women in post-communist Poland.
The list of accomplished Polish women filmmakers comprises such names as Agnieszka Holland, Wanda Jakubowska, Barbara Sass, Dorota Kedzierzawska, and Malgorzata Szumowska.  Each one of these directors offers a different aesthetic, socio-political, and historical perspective on life in Poland, especially as it pertains to the situation of women.  The cumulative format of their works allows for a comprehensive cinematic and cultural analysis of Polish realities.

Women, Law and Public Policy, PLSC 319/WSGS 319
Susan Mezey
The purpose of this class is to examine the formulation and implementation of public  policymaking that governs the legal status of women and men in America. Focusing on federal court decisions as well as legislative and executive actions,  the class will deal with the following topics:  constitutional legal equality; equal employment opportunity, including equal pay and sexual harassment; educational equality; and reproductive rights. Class discussion is an important component of this class. In addition to examinations, grades will be based on a research paper and class participation.  Students will present their research papers to the class at the end of the semester. 

Women and Politics from a Comparative Perspectives, PLSC 300/WSGS 355
Richard Matland
In many countries women hold 30-40% of the major political positions and female heads of state are increasingly common; on the other hand there are countries (such as the United States) where there has never been a female head of state and representation is far lower.  Why are women so poorly represented in some countries?  Does political representation matter?  We spend time on both of these questions looking at explanations for the considerable variation in women's access to positions of formal political power across countries The course will also look at the impact women have when they are in office.  That is, does it really matter what level of representation women have and in what manner does policy output change when women are present. The course considers these questions not just in the developed countries, but also in the developing world. 

History of U.S. Sexuality; HIST 392/WSGS 320
Joseph Lapsley
This course provides a historical introduction to sexual behaviors and attitudes in the United States from the colonial period to the present.  The primary emphasis concerns the impact of social and political change on sexual norms and behavior.  Particular attention is paid to changing standards of sexual morality and their effect upon the structure and organization of the American family and physical intimacy over the past three and one-half centuries.  As the American population and its institutions changed, so did the boundaries of sexual behavior and ideology.  This course seeks to discover and define those evolving boundaries and thereby better comprehend the ongoing transformation of the family, sexuality and personal identity in the United States.  Since sexual behavior, ideas and identity define much of the current political and social landscape of the United States, those issues will be studied in their historical context. The course is chronologically structured and interwoven with topical themes, beginning with the colonial period and ending with contemporary America.  The more important topics include changing gender roles and their impact on sexual relationships, courtship and marriage, the evolution of birth control and abortion, the role of medicine and politics in defining appropriate norms and forms of sexuality, the rise of sexology as a scholarly discipline, social communities and subcultures defined by alternative sexual behaviors, and so-called "deviant" forms of sexuality.

Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Art; FNAR 360/WSGS 360
Marilyn Dunn
This course examines issues related to women, art, and society in early modern Europe (15th-17th centuries).  The term "picturing" is used flexibly to include a study of women as  subject matter, viewers, producers, and patrons of art.  Visual culture provides a vehicle to examine attitudes about gender and the role of women in Renaissance and Baroque culture and society.  A multi-disciplinary approach will be employed to explore how gender as a social, political, and psychological category was reflected in visual culture as well as how art served to construct and reinforce concepts of gender.  In the context of art and patronage we will also investigate the possibilities for female agency.  The examination of the construction of gender in the historical past serves to provide perspective on contemporary issues of gender.  One of the class projects focuses on the extraordinary and daring artist Artemisia Gentileschi and critically analyzes the constructions of her artistic identity in relation to a feminist discourse through an examination of her representation in films and other sources and her treatment in art historical sources.

Special Topics in Women's Studies: Globalization and Its Discontents, WSGS 397/ANTH 361
(Previously named Passages: Migration through Gender and Culture)
Professor Ana Croegaert
Globalization and Its Discontents
This course provides a gender-focused overview of the contemporary Global Era, post-1990. Culture, both as a category of analysis and as a mode of expression and production, will be our primary lens. Topics we will examine include neoliberalism, refugee and diaspora configurations, consumption practices, transnational social movements, the War on Terror, the Global City, human trafficking, and the global trade in sex work. We will be especially attentive to how these global processes shape - and are shaped by - gender practices at the local level. Students will select semester research projects in consultation with the Instructor.

Women in the Criminal Justice System, CRMJ 370/WSGS 395
Gipsy Escobar
This course explores three areas relative to women in the criminal justice system: (1) women as offenders, including range, intensity, and growing nature of female criminality; (2) women as victims of crime, including sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking; and (3) women as professionals in the criminal justice system, focusing on women working in corrections, policing, and the courts. Students will be able to describe the extent, nature, and theories of female criminality and victimization and how this is consistent with and different from male criminality and victimization. In addition, students will be able to identify the hurdles women experience when entering professions in the criminal justice system, and how they overcome these obstacles.

Women/Religion/Ethnography, THEO 393/WSGS 397
Tracy Pintchman
This course will explore women's religiosity from the perspective of ethnographic materials.  The focus of the class will be on women's appropriations and interpretations of their own religious traditions and the ways that these might reflect concerns and experiences particular to women, especially in gender-segregated societies. Materials will be drawn from a variety of religious traditions.
Since this is a 300 level course, there will be a fairly heavy load of weekly reading. You should budget about four hours a week for coursework, not including class time.  You will need more time, of course, for writing papers and studying for exams.

Domestic Violence; CRMJ 373/WSGS 392
Loretta Stalans
In this class, you will be acquainted with two major perspectives on domestic violence:  family violence and feminist theory.  These perspectives are used to discuss the prevalence of domestic violence against men and women as well as the origins of domestic violence.  The course focuses primarily on responses to intimate violence between couples with an emphasis on men's violence toward women, though lesbian and gay violence as well as the effects on children will be covered.  This course examines how victims, criminal justice professionals, health professionals, and legislators make decisions about how to handle the violence.  The lectures, discussions, and readings are intended to provide a critical analysis of responses to domestic violence by health providers, the public, criminal justice professionals and legislators. Students will be acquainted with the complex situational and personal considerations surrounding battered women's decisions to leave or stay with an abusive partner.  The class also examines ethnic and cultural variation in the responses to and definitions of domestic violence across the world.

Feminist Methodologies, WSGS 399
Beth Myers
This is a project-oriented course that represents the culmination of the WSGS major. Students will be exposed to feminist theory and method and complete and execute a project proposal. The theme for the course is sexual violence, broadly defined. The course is partially team-taught, with a few visiting faculty and campus/community-based advocates as guest lecturers who will inform the student’s knowledge about sexual awareness across disciplines, the campus, and the community. The goal is to initiate students into feminist research through a focus on sexual violence as practiced in the field and for the students to ultimately conduct research of their own.  For the fall 2011 semester, the projects will be centered at the Wellness Center at Loyola University Chicago which received a CCRT Grant. Ultimately, working in groups, students will create a project proposal to be defined in greater detail during the class through student-staff-faculty collaboration. The project must (1) demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach; (2) draw on theory and scholarship in women’s studies and gender studies; and (3) reflect the intentional use of feminist methodologies in practice. 

GRADUATE COURSES

Feminist Methodologies/Foundations of Women's Studies; WSGS 402
Over recent decades, issues of gender and sexuality have become integral parts of the     academic enterprise.  This class investigates how ideas about women, gender and sexuality have developed, paying particular attention to how education and knowledge itself have defined gender.  Three foundational dimensions of feminist practice studied are consciousness of inequality, critical analysis of structures of inequality and transformation of consciousness and structures from inequality to mutuality.  Topics include the history of the exclusion of women from the academy; the exclusion of women's writings from various academic disciplines and canons; the history of women's education; the intellectual history of women's studies as an interdisciplinary force within the academy; and feminist theories, methods and methodology.
 
Global Feminisms; WSGS 450
WSGS 450 will focus on Asian Feminisms (special emphasis on postcolonial/postmodern/ poststructuralist thought) and incorporate extensive content about China (including Japan, Phillipines), Indian subcontinent, and Muslim Women. The course will also incorporate lectures and discussions on suitability and application of different feminist thought to sub groups of women from across the globe. The focus will be to examine global needs of women and social interventions in a feminist/womanist/identities frame of reference. The course material includes feminist writings, fiction from and about women (primarily Asia); and documentaries, in addition to lectures and presentations.
 
Sociology of Gender; SOCL 426
This course surveys sociological and related scholarship on women and gender relations. The course begins by tracing the emergence of gender analysis in the feminist movement and in the critique of conventional sociology. The focus is on selected texts which take up central and emerging themes, issues, and debates. These may include the social construction of gender identity and sexuality; cultural aspects of gender relations; women's paid and unpaid work and the gendered division of labor; the family, reproduction, and parenthood; race, class, and feminism; gender and poverty; the sociology of masculinity; and sexual violence.

Collaboration among the Healing Professions: Hearts, Hands, and Minds in Chorus IPS 458/WSGS 497
Both medicine and ministry combine art and science, caring and competency. Both share some roots and some common beliefs. Both are, at their best, at the service of human well-being. Current high tech, low touch approaches in our society provide an invitation for medicine, ministry, and other healing professions to find new collaborations in their related services. This course will explore connections and possible collaborations among healing professions in their orientation toward human wholeness. Participants in this course will be expected to read appropriate texts and be present for discussions. They will also be expected to feed back, in a manner of their choosing, discoveries and conclusions relating to one facet of the course of greatest interest or use to them.
 
Topics in Modern Ireland: Women and Revolution in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries; HIST 425/WSGS 497
By the turn of the twentieth century, a generation of remarkable women recognized that the elevation of women to full citizenship in a democratic future was fundamental to the creation of a new world in old Europe. This course will examine the role of women revolutionaries in the transformation of Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and will compare the role of women in the Irish revolution to that of women in the Russian revolution.
 
Liberalism and Feminism; PHIL 480/WSGS 497
This course will examine the liberal and feminist traditions in contemporary social and political philosophy.  We will begin by considering the foundational liberal social contract theory of John Rawls.  We will then address the ways that feminists have incorporated and rejected liberal thought within their theories of justice and care.  The course will also address radical feminist approaches that question the dominant liberal rights-based framework.  We will consider issues such as distributive justice and the family, the gendered basis for care and caregiving, multiculturalism and feminism, and liberal versus radical feminist positions on pornography.  Readings for the course will draw from the Anglo-American tradition in philosophy, possibly including works by John Rawls, Susan Moller Okin, Martha Nussbaum, Eva Kittay, Catharine MacKinnon, and Shulamith Firestone.
 
Ethnicity, Race and Culture: Diversity in Human Experience; SOWK 502/ WSGS Elective as taught by Priscila Freire                                                                                                                            This foundation course provides an introduction to ethnic and racial inter-group relations and cultural diversity, with an emphasis on the four largest communities of color in the United States: Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos.  Students will have an opportunity to examine diversity across and within groups along the following dimensions: gender, class, cultural values, family structure, group history, sexual orientation, and migration history, level of acculturation, color, language, and religion/spirituality.  These cultural components will be discussed in relation to the institutions of the larger society to these groups.  Implications for practice with individuals, families, and communities are examined, as are policy and research implications, With its focus on communities of color and culturally responsive practice, this course builds on the knowledge regarding human behavior and development over the course of the life span, social policy, and social work practice presented in other foundation courses

Gender and Social Policy; SOCL 520/WSGS 497
In this seminar we will explore the relationship of gender and social policy from a variety of interrelated levels and standpoints.  Students will become familiar with key concepts and the developing cross national and comparative analysis of the welfare state and gendered citizenship.  Second, we will explore how the differing social, political and economic roles of men and women impacted and were embedded in the development and implementation of social welfare policies.  Third, the course will analyze various American social welfare policies and systems with a “gender lens.”  Finally, we will explore recent thinking on issues of social policy and sexuality. 

Issues in the Treatment of Women; SOWK 619/ WSGS Elective
This is an advanced clinical social work elective that builds on foundation social work courses. The focus of the course is the identification and application of clinical social work assessment and intervention relevant to practice with women. The circumstances of women are directly relevant to the studies of children and families, as well as health and mental health, sense they generally are the primary caregivers for others in our society. This general fact influence the health and mental health of women, men, and children. The general topics for the course are chosen specifically to cover the various arenas and circumstances of women’s lives. For example: family and other relationships, sexuality, mental health/illness, poverty and oppression. Practice issues include:  1) Battering;  2) Wife rape;  3) Alcohol abuse;  4) Sexual abuse;  5) Severe and persistent mental illness; and  6) Eating disorders and others.

Practicum; WSGS 498
This supervised field experience allows students to work with a women's political, cultural or educational organization or project. It gives students an opportunity to learn about public and private sector responses to women's issues and concerns. Prerequisite: One Women's Studies course. Permission of the Women's Studies program director is required. Students interested in this course should see the director as soon as possible.