2006-2009 Courses
Foundations of Black Culture 1 (AFR U109)
Studies music, literature, visual and performing arts, and other cultural and artistic traditions as they have evolved among African, African-American, and Caribbean peoples.
Gender in the African Diaspora (AFR U185)
Studies variations in gender roles throughout the African Diaspora, from precolonial Africa to the modern United States. Areas of the African Diaspora include Africa, the West Indies, Latin America, Europe, and the Islamic world. Issues include sexuality, labor, reproduction, and social constructions of gender.
Foundations of Black Culture 2 (AFR U301)
Continues AFR U109. Provides an interdisciplinary approach to the cultural production of African-based traditions in the Americas and elsewhere in the African Diaspora. Forms of cultural production include film, theatre, the visual arts, literary arts, and dance. While several issues in theory and practice in the arts are discussed, emphasis is on the ways in which an African-based tradition is rooted in the intellectual and cultural histories of African descendants in the United States, the Caribbean, South and Central America, and Great Britain.
Arts of the African Diaspora (AFR U500)
Traces the historical development of the art forms and production practices of the African Diaspora, from traditional to contemporary styles in Africa, the Americas, and elsewhere in the African Diaspora. Emphasizes the study of art objects, the historical and social context in which aesthetic issues are shaped, and the impact of religion and external forces on creativity. Uses lectures, critiques, discussions, fieldwork, and hands-on interaction with art objects.
Contemporary Issues: Race, Science, and Technology (AFR U600)
Examines the social impact of diverse forms of technological development and application that will have sweeping effects on the everyday lives of individuals, groups, governments, and societies in the twenty-first century. The global, transforming effects of technology as it affects communities of color in the United States and internationally are explored in three main areas: the computer, DNA, and quantum revolutions. Topics include the digital divide, minority media ownership, human cloning, the “dot.com” phenomenon, race and cultural representations in cyberspace, and biopiracy. Lectures, class discussions, fieldwork, and interaction with leaders in these various fields are integral elements of the course.
Early African-American Literature(AFR U663)
Surveys the development and range of black American writers, emphasizing poetry and prose from early colonial times to the Civil War.
Nutrition (BHS U105)
Explores the fundamental role of nutrition in promoting health and introduces the use of two different diet assessment tools to assist individuals in selecting food for health promotion. Explores the nutrient composition and purposes of the food pyramid guide. Covers the physiological functions of energy-providing nutrients in the body and interrelationships.
French Film and Culture (CIN/LNF U280)
Provides an introduction to some of the qualities that have made French film one of the great national cinemas. Focuses on both form and content; relates outstanding directors’ major works to the French culture and society of their period. Conducted in English.
Film Theory (CIN U350)
Investigates the aesthetics, philosophical assumptions, and sociological context of several different approaches to filmmaking: the Hollywood cinema, the art cinema, Soviet montage, independent films, and essay films. The concluding section of the course takes film noir as a specific historical example and studies the way it combines elements from both the commercial Hollywood film and the art cinema.
Topics in Film (CIN U391)
Fall: Women in Film
Spring: Gay and Lesbian Film
Jewish Film (CIN U460)
Explores major themes and issues in American Jewish life--assimilation and intermarriage, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust--through the lens of popular film. Includes weekly screenings of films such as Annie Hall and The Producers and readings, lectures, and discussions.
Gender, Crime, and Justice (CJ U500)
Examines the topics of femininities and masculinities and their influence on participants in the criminal justice system. Also explores topics such as gender and criminological theory; the notion of gender and offending; women and men as victims of violence; and women and men as professionals within the criminal justice system.
Communication and Gender (CMN U304)
Presents a theoretical and practical examination of the differences in communication between men and women in a variety of contexts. Integrates into this analysis how media affect our understanding of gender roles.
Theories of Media and Culture (CMN U320)
Overviews key conceptual approaches that have developed for the study of the media. Investigates theories that address the role of media in culture and focuses on how cultural studies can inform our reading of both media and culture.
Rhetorical Theory and Criticism (CMN U410)
Reviews notable orations of the past three centuries, emphasizing contemporary speeches. Topics include the nature of criticism, the role of the critic, theories of speech analysis, and genres of oratory including inaugural speeches, apologies, nomination acceptance addresses, and political movement oratory.
Special Topics in Media Studies (CMN U912)
Addresses issues in communication and media as well as developments in the production of television and video. Course content may vary from year to year.
Spring: Identity and Media
Introduction to Language and Linguistics (ENG U150/LIN U150)
Introduces students to their unconscious linguistic knowledge about sentence structure (syntax), meaning (semantics), word forms (morphology), and speech sounds (phonology). Examines other issues related to language such as the black English/standard English debate, women’s and men’s language, “talking” chimpanzees, “talking” computers, and the nature/nurture controversy.
Survey of American Literature 1 (ENG U223)
Surveys the major American writers and major literary forms and works from the colonial period to the Civil War. Includes works by such writers as Bradstreet, Taylor, Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Douglass, Stowe, Melville, and Emerson.
Linguistic Analysis (ENG U350)
Focuses on the three core areas in the study of language in this workshop: syntax, morphology, and phonology. Examines the regularities that lie inside each language user’s mind, with a slant toward “doing” linguistics: playing with data, analyzing it, and ultimately explaining it.
Topics in Literature: Black Women Writers (ENGU399)
This course will examine four themes prevalent in the construction of black womanhood in North America and the Caribbean. These themes--Body, Voice, Memory, and Movement--provide a center from which to explore the variety of black women's writing since the middle of the twentieth century. In this course we will look at the many ways black women "write" themselves, and what preoccupations dictate the subject matter of their writing. We will also examine popular representations of black women through film, photography, and music.
Language and Gender (ENG U456)
Investigates the relationship between language and gender. Topics include how men and women talk; the significant differences and similarities in how they talk; why men and women talk in these ways; and social biases in the structure of language itself. A background in linguistics is not required.
Shakespeare on Film (ENG U489)
Examines various treatments of Shakespeare’s plays on film. Focuses on how directors use cinematic techniques to transfer Shakespeare’s plays from the stage to the screen.
Major Figure (ENG U600)
Examines in detail the work of one major writer.
Spring: Toni Morrison
Sixteenth-Century English Literature (ENG U610)
Concentrates on sonnets, love lyrics, and narrative poetry principally by Wyatt, Sidney, Marlowe, Spenser, and Shakespeare.
Shakespeare (ENG U611)
Covers a selection of the major plays of Shakespeare, including both tragedies and comedies.
Shakespeare (ENG U612)
Studies the romantic comedies, problem comedies, and romances, ranging from _The Merchant of Venice_ to _The Tempest_..
Shakespeare's Tragedies (ENG U613)
Studies the nature of the tragic hero, the questioning of social norms, and the landscape of chaos, ranging from Julius Caesar to Coriolanus.
Multiethnic Literature of the United States (ENG U671)
Explores contemporary literature by and about writers from distinctive American ethnic groups (for example, Native, Asian, African, Latino/Latina, Jewish, Italian, or Arab). Features a variety of works that reflect an evolving recognition of the artistically and culturally diverse nature of American literature.
Asain-American Literature (ENG U672)
Introduces students to significant American writers of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, South Asian, and Southeast Asian descent. Emphasizes works published since the 1960s. Pays close attention to prevalent themes, socio/historical contexts, and literary artistry.
Gay and Lesbian Literature (ENG U675)
Studies poetry and fiction that has as its central theme gay and lesbian experience as seen from the perspectives of various eras. Examines authors from premodern and modern eras as well as contemporary writers.
Junior/Senior Seminar (ENG U710)
Explores an important topic in literature, such as the writer and the audience, the canon and its revisions, or the historical relations between feminism and the novel. Enrollment preference is given to English majors needing the course to complete the major.
Spring: Gender, Sex, and the Rhetoric of Science
Ethnic Relations, Cultural Identity, and Human Services (HS U350)
Introduces and sensitizes students to the forms, practices, and effects of racism and discrimination on the various populations in the United States and presents frameworks for understanding and working with people with histories of discrimination and different cultural identities. Pays special attention to human services with diverse populations in schools, prisons, and employment assistance programs.
Third World Women (HST U204)
Explores the complex gender dynamics of women in non-Western societies during the years of Western imperialist domination, nationalist resistance struggles, and postcolonialism. Begins by deconstructing the term "Third World" and seeing how that term can be read against the context of imperialism. Examines gender constructs in the Third World through a variety of written and visual materials including autobiographical accounts, ethnographies, historical fiction, films, and slides. Topics include patterns of gender domination and female resistance; the interplay of race and gender hierarchies under colonial rule; the Western gaze and representations of Third World "primitive" women; and the feminization of labor and the global economy, reproductive strategies, and sex trafficking.
Women in America (HST U242)
Examines gender relations in America from the colonial period to the present, with attention to how race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality shaped gender and particularly the experience of women. Looks at how contemporary issues such as pay inequity, the gender gap in political participation, sexual harassment, intersecting gender and racial inequalities, the glass ceiling, and debates over reproductive rights all have profound historical roots. Uses documentary sources, literature, film, and other visual materials to examine topics such as the encounters of Native American women with white settlers, African-American women’s experience of slavery, women’s participation in revolution and war, the experience of industrialization, women’s struggles for civil and political rights, women’s private lives, and sexuality.
Chinese Civilization in Her Own Eyes (HST U256)
Presents an historical analysis of gender dynamics and roles in China from late imperial times to the present. Examines notions of masculinity and femininity in Confucian culture, patriarchal practices including foot binding, chastity arches, and arranged marriages, and the ways in which the Chinese empire becomes feminized in the eyes of its elite as a result of Western intrusions. Explores women’s efforts to acquire “personhood” and the rights of citizens during the period of nation building and to negotiate state regulatory powers over their labor, sexuality, and reproduction in recent times.
Modern China (HST U350)
Explores the far-reaching political, economic, and social changes in China from 1800 to the present. Examines the decline of the empire, the impact of the West, the rise of nationalism and industrialization, the changing roles of women, the origins of rural revolution, and establishing the communist state.
Gender & Society in Modern Europe (HST U372)
Examines the importance of gender difference in European societies from 1700 to the present. Explores the historical development of masculinity and femininity in European societies, with attention to social class and national differences. Looks at the importance of gender in the emergence of nation-states, in major democratic and socialist revolutions, in economic change, in claims for and the exercise of citizenship rights, and in the policies of welfare states. Explores how gender and race shaped women’s agency, their engagement with imperialism and contacts with non-Europeans, women’s participation in war and totalitarian regimes, their private lives and sexuality, and the significance of European Union policies for gender equality today.
American Jewish History (HST U431)
Examines Jewish political, social, and cultural history from the arrival of the first group of Jews at New Amsterdam in 1654 to the present. Themes include immigration, adaptation, family life, religion, anti-Semitism, Zionism, the Holocaust, and American-Israeli relations.
Introduction to Women's Studies (INT U103)
Examines various perspectives on the social construction of gender-what it means socially to be a woman or man-and the ways in which gender is a central organizing principle in our lives. In other words, examines, analyzes, and challenges gender differences, gender stereotypes, and gender inequalities. Seeks to understand and change the gender hierarchies that shape and constrain people’s lives. Also inquires into the ways in which women deploy their gender identities to participate in social movements, both political and religious, to address issues of women’s health and control over reproduction, as well as to challenge social norms in their roles as writers, artists, and activists.
Topics in Women's Studies (INT U441)
Highlighting activism, one of the important legacies of the feminist movement, this course offers both sociological and historical knowledge about women’s actions in civil society. “Personal is political” will be a starting point for us to look at the connection between the individual and society. We will learn various strategies and motivations of feminist activists through both individual and collective accounts. The activist aspect of this course will also provide students with an opportunity to participate in service learning. The applied learning experiences will count toward the University’s experiential education requirement in Arts and Sciences. This class also qualifies as a diversity course in the School of Business.
Women's Studies Module (INT U451)
Permits specialized women’s studies topics to be studied as part of more general courses.
Language and Culture (LIN/SOA U412)
Focuses on the anthropological study of linguistics. Presents basic theories of sociolinguistics and explores language in its social context. Includes animal communication; language learning; language and mind; cognitive and symbolic anthropology; the ethnography of speaking, speech, and boundaries; multilingualism; language and gender; language and ethnicity; language and social class; and pidgins and creoles. Includes several field assignments.
Language and Gender (LIN U456)
Investigates the relationship between language and gender. Explores how men and women talk; the significant differences and similarities; why men and women talk in these ways; and the social biases in the structure of language itself. A background in linguistics is not required.
Spanish Culture (LNS U150)
Examines chronologically the forces that have forged Spanish culture and have made Spain the nation it is today. Traces the development of Spain from the prehistoric caves of Altamira to the present. Observes past and present concerns such as divorce and abortion in a Catholic country, education, the role of women, linguistic diversity, separatism and terrorism, and the incorporation of Spain into the European Community. Incorporates history, sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, and politics. Conducted in English.
Women in Music (MUS U106)
Examines the multifaceted role of women in music from the Renaissance to the present. Discusses the fact that for centuries women have been active and influential patrons, composers, teachers, conductors, and performers in Europe and the United States. Examines their contributions to classical and popular music and to jazz, with emphasis on such widely varying figures as Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, Germaine Tailleferre, Billie Holiday, Carla Bley, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Pauline Oliveros, Sarah Caldwell, Antonia Brico, and Nadia Boulanger.
Nursing with Women and Families (NUR U302)
Emphasizes the promotion of health for women and their families. Self-care and empowerment are an integral focus in examining women’s health from a developmental perspective. The nursing process provides the framework for students to assess and intervene therapeutically in promoting healthy childbearing and the health of the woman during the life span. Emphasis is placed on caregiving of the woman, the fetus, and the infant within the family environment. Concepts of human development of individual, family, and community form the context in examining the caregiving role of the professional nurse. Discusses the effects of cultural, social, economic, and ethical influences and the impact of health-care technology.
Goddesses, Witches, Saints, and Sinners: Women in Western Religions (PHL U140)
Begins with an analysis of the theory that original Western religion was goddess centered. Examines image, text, and ritual in the ancient world to analyze this theory and to explore what some scholars call the patriarchalization of these primal religions. Looks at the way that goddesses of the ancient world became saints or sinners under the newly constituted patriarchy. Includes a consideration of scripture such as the Hebrew Bible, Greek Testament, and Qu’ran as well as noncanonical texts.
Sound, Music, and Religion (PHL U230)
Explores the relationship between religion, sound, and musical expression. Particular attention is paid to the interpretive and symbolic understandings of sonic expressions of religiosity including chanting, mantra use, choir and congregational singing, and speaking in tongues. Objectives are to familiarize the students with some of the key sonic expressions within the Christian, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions, to explore the methods of studying musical and sonic theology, and to analyze these traditions’ own debates about the use of sound and music in religious practice.
Islam (PHL U280)
Explores the history of Islam, its conflicts with the West in past and present, Islamic beliefs, the future of Islam as a world religion, and relations of Islamic faith. Examines social, political, and legal issues as well as the more familiar religious and theological questions.
Cults and Sects (PHL U390)
Offers an examination of the varieties of religious experience from the perspectives of sociology and psychology of religion. Focuses on such cultic and sectarian groups as Christian Science, the American Shakers, the Unification Church, the Hare Krishna movement, and the Black Muslims. Provides students the opportunity to acquire critical investigative tools with which to analyze different religious expressions.
Gender and Politics (POL U375)
Explores the relation between what is and what ought to be-and why-in the roles of women in American politics. Examines the traditional roles of women in politics, the suffrage movement, the woman as citizen and voter, the role of gender in achieving power and in political efficacy, and the place of women in politics. Also covers political action to promote women’s issues and modern feminism.
Psychology of Women (PSY U200)
Introduces students with little or no background in psychology to the current theories and research on the psychology of women. Critically examines psychological, biological, and social influences on gender differences, gender roles, and gender stereotypes in the light of scientific evidence and individual experience. Assesses their consequences for society. Uses the unique perspective generated in the field of the psychology of women to evaluate the traditional research methods in psychology as wll as the major psychological theories formulated to explain women and the differences between women and men. Emphasizes critical thinking skills.
Psychology of Women (PSY U302)
Introduces students with little or no background in psychology to the current theories and research on the psychology of women. Critically examines psychological, biological, and social influences on gender differences, gender roles, and gender stereotypes in the light of scientific evidence and individual experience. Assesses their consequences for society. Uses the unique perspective generated in the field of the psychology of women to evaluate the traditional research methods in psychology as wll as the major psychological theories formulated to explain women and the differences between women and men. Emphasizes critical thinking skills.
Food, Behavior, and Eating Disorder (PSY U306)
Investigates what starts and stops eating behavior. Examines taste, nutrition, metabolism, the brain, food experiences, and societal factors that control feeding behavior. Emphasizes the biological/psychological interaction in normal eating and in pathological eating, such as anorexia, bulimia, and extreme obesity.
Psychology and Film (PSY U354)
Uses selected films to investigate psychological subjects including human development over the life cycle (particularly childhood and adolescence), family dynamics, sexuality, and psychopathology (trauma, anxiety and eating disorders, and psychosis).
Developmental Psychology (PSY U404)
Examines change throughout the life span in social relationships, emotional functioning, language, cognition, and other psychological domains, with emphasis on infancy through adolescence. Introduces major theories of development. Stresses the interaction of social and cognitive factors in development, and the interaction of the developing person with the environment. Also explores individual and cross-cultural differences in patterns of development, and research issues in developmental psychology.
Psychology of Language (PSY U464)
Provides a basic introduction to psycholinguistics. Topics include the nature and structure of languages, processes involved in the production and comprehension of language, the biological bases of language, and aspects of language acquisition. Examines current theories of language processing and related experimental findings.
Developing Education and Intervention Programs for Eating Disorders (PSY 536)
Offers students the opportunity to apply the concepts learned in PSY U364 about eating disorders in college populations to their own and neighboring campuses. Students conduct a research project in which they design and implement an education, information, and prevention program for at-risk populations including school athletes, dormitory residents, and students coping with academic and social stresses. Students interested in early intervention focus on middle and high school curricula, while other students develop media, Internet, and other educational materials designed to promote awareness and behavioral change.
Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East (SOA U200)
Familiarizes students with Middle East culture and society by way of an anthropological tour of the region. Urban, rural, and pastoral communities are examined, particularly focusing on their response to social change both from within and outside the region. Topics within these three broad spatial divisions include family, kinship, and gender; tourism, business, and livelihoods; and popular culture, religion, and social movement.
Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies (SOA U220)
Offers an interdisciplinary introduction to Latinos and people of Latin American and Caribbean origin in the United States as well as to the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean. Dispels a series of powerful myths associated with U.S. Latinos and in Latin American and Caribbean society, such as racial inferiority, poverty, machismo, and violence. Introduces the construction of Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean identities as well as the politics, economics, history, and culture.
Gender & Sex: A Cross Cultural Perspective (SOA U302)
Examines popular and scientific notions about sex, gender relations, family, and kinship. Examines why our images of family, masculinity, and femininity are not universal by analyzing the patterns of sex roles, sexual practices, and kinship in other cultures. Discusses how and why relations between men and women change during times of socioeconomic and political change.
Social Movements in the Third World (SOA U307)
Surveys cultures that are undergoing (or have undergone) social movements in the face of Western influences such as colonialism and globalization. Uses an array of case studies from Latin America, Africa, and North America.
Sociology of the Family (SOC U255)
Focuses on families historically and across cultures and classes. Considers changes in contemporary families in terms of gender, family composition; women’s labor force participation, divorce, cohabitation, and other transformations.
Sociology of Violence (SOC U256)
Examines the interpersonal and structural causes and consequences of violent behavior, from individual acts of aggression to large-scale societal conflict. Topics include multiple homicides, sexual assault, international conflict, hate crimes, juvenile violence, mass media violence, and domestic assault. The relative effectiveness of various interventions at the individual and group levels are discussed.
Violence in the Family (SOC U256)
Examines physical, emotional, and sexual violence in families. Covers definitions, prevalence, causes, prevention, and treatment of specific cases of domestic violence as well as social policy issues and problems of legal intervention.
Women in Jewish Culture (SOC U259)
Uses some of the tools of contemporary feminist theory and methodology to focus on questions about the resurgence of ethnic/religious identities in the United States and the meaning of this for contemporary Jewish women. Analyzes the changing relationship of women to Judaism by trying to recover Jewish women’s experiences in America since the turn of the century. Accomplishes this by looking at some key institutions-work, family, religion, the feminist movement, the media, literature, and film.
Gender in a Changing Society (SOC U260)
Considers why and how gender is constructed in American society, and looks at different theories of gender. Topics include the expression of gender in everyday life; its development in childhood; its centrality in the traditional family and the workplace; and sexuality and its role in violence against women.
Women Working (SOC U273)
Considers the fact that differences in the labor force experiences of men and women workers generally go unrecognized, and the work experience most common to women-household work-is rarely analyzed. Covers women’s market and nonmarket activities, their rewards, and their problems, in addition to empirical and theoretical analyses of the work roles of women. Underscores the differences between work experiences of men and women.
Sociology of Popular Culture (SOC U297)
Presents a sociological analysis of popular culture, focusing on the relationship between popular culture and social institutions such as religion, law, education, economy, and family; the organizations and artistic communities that produce popular culture such as the music industry, advertising, media, and television; and personal and political issues raised by popular culture.
Feminist Perspectives on Society (SOC U402)
Examines social science and interdisciplinary feminist literature that focuses on women in families and at work, and that deals with physical issues including violence against women and abortion. Incorporates the perspectives of women of color. Considers and evaluates women’s views of social life as well as recognizes the differences among women.
Race, Class, and Gender (SOC U520)
Considers the intersection of race, class, and gender in social structure, institutions, and people’s lives. Utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to focus on the socially constructed nature of these concepts and how they shape and create meaning in individual lives. Difference with an emphasis on inequality and varying life chances is a central concept for understanding our society and is central to our work. Requires a significant amount of reading and the class is run like a seminar with students expected to participate, take responsibility, and write a paper.
Seminar in the Family (SOC U530)
Explores issues facing contemporary families including combining work and family, single motherhood, fathers and children, family violence, and differences among families of different ethnicities, cultures, and classes.