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New classes–sci fi, pop culture, Islam, explicit sex & politics and more!

Collage of pictures related to new classes

The WGS department is growing and we are adding new classes as part of this growth. Check them out below!

Class names

WGS 199 – Gender and Pop Culture – NO PREREQS!
WGS 331 – Sci/Technol & Gender – The Fembot, Women, and the Construction of Difference in Film and Media
WGS 399 – Gender and Muslim Modernity – NO PREREQS!
WGS 410/510 – Feminist Science Fiction – NO PREREQS!
QST/ WGS 422/522 – Advanced Queer Theory & Cultural Studies
QST/ WGS 422/522 – Explicit Sex and Politics

See below for full descriptions. Registration is now re-opened for all students regardless of class standing–don’t miss these very special new classes!

WGS Class Schedule

Descriptions

WGS199: Gender & Popular Culture – “Welcome to the Whedonverse: Feminism, Fandom, and Popular Culture”
Professor Edmond Chang

This class will take up the challenge of reading, exploring, and critiquing popular culture through the lenses of scholarship, television, film, and everyday media.  Specifically, we will look at the works and fandoms of Joss Whedon—including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Avengers—to unpack and analyze the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and other formations.

WGS 331 – Gender, Science, and Technology: The Fembot, Women, and the Construction of Difference in Film and Media
Professor Margaret Rhee

In this course, we will investigate the cinematic and media representations of the female robot—the fembot. Drawing from theorist Donna Haraway’s essay, “The Cyborg Manifesto,” we will analyze representations of the robot and themes such as gendered labor, sexuality, and intimacy through a feminist and science and technology lens.

WGS 399 – Gender and Muslim Modernities
Professor Nadia Loan

This course aims to introduce students to the diversity of gender roles in various parts of the Muslim world and the role of contextual forces such as colonialism, nationalism, globalization etc. in forging gender identities. In the first half of the course we will consider how colonial and nationalist regimes participated in shaping and redefining gender relations as well as notions of the feminine in the Muslim world. The second half of course will look more closely at the manner in which gender and identity is interwoven with and produced through new and emerging political, cultural and religious practices in the present.

WGS 410/510 – Feminist Science Fiction
Professor Carol Stabile

In the words of author and linguist Suzette Haden Elgin, “SF is the only genre of literature in which it’s possible for a writer to explore the question of what this world would be like if you could get rid of [X], where [X] is filled in with any of the multitude of real world facts that constrain and oppress women.” Science fiction has also provided a space for feminist writers to explore relationships with science, technology, and identity, unfettered by the sexist constraints of professions or institutions and outside the generic conventions of other types of fiction.In this course, we will be looking at feminist science fiction as a form of theory, as a strategy for thinking critically about the present and imagining “what this world would be like” under different circumstances.

QST/ WGS 422/522 – Advanced Queer Theory & Cultural Studies
Professor Edmond Chang

This advanced class will offer an intensive survey of the key terms, texts, and questions of the interdisciplinary fields that make up queer theory and cultural studies, paying particular attention to recent debates and conversations.  Through the lenses literature, scholarship, new and old media, and even popular culture, we will engage gender, sexuality, race, nation, (dis)ability, technology, and other identities and intersectionalities.

QST/ WGS 422/522 – Explicit Sex and Politics
Professor Margaret Rhee

This course on “Explicit Sex and Politics” draws upon the work of queer feminist writers and activists such as Kathy Acker, Juana Maria Rodriguez, Samuel Delany, Audre Lorde, and Joel Tan. Through close examination of these texts and queer theory, we will explore questions of power, culture, and representations of queer sex as activist strategy. When is “explicit” sex a feminist and queer activist strategy? How does sex border our notions of queer activism and the “romance” of community?

Register today and secure your seat!