FGSS 2010 - Introduction to Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

(CA-AS, SCD-AS)

Fall, Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Fall: K. McCullough, J. Newman; Spring: J. Newman.

Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary program focused on understanding the impact of gender and sexuality on the world around us and on the power hierarchies that structure it. This course provides an overview of key concepts, questions, and debates within feminist studies both locally and globally, focusing mainly on the experiences, historical conditions, and concerns of women as they are shaped by gender and sexuality. We will read a variety of texts–personal narratives, historical documents, and cultural criticism–across a range of disciplines, and will consider how larger structural systems of both privilege and oppression affect individuals’ identities, experiences, and options. We will also examine forms of agency and action taken by women in the face of these larger systems.