HELP 2015-16 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG] Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Contract All Courses | Print this Page

Taylor 125
541-552-6750
 

Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSWS) at Southern Oregon University is an interdisciplinary program emphasizing the teaching and study of gender, sexuality, and women in society, culture, and history. The courses in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies examine the numerous ways in which gender and sexuality intersects with multiple social forces and shapes human experience.

Students learn about themselves and the world through critical thinking and personal and social empowerment. Integrating various disciplines, GSWS provides a supportive and challenging liberal arts education through a distinct interpretive framework. At SOU, GSWS emphasizes the relationship of classroom learning to social awareness and community involvement. In addition to providing general education courses, the program offers a minor, drawing on courses from departments and programs housed across the university. We also participate in the Interdisciplinary Studies Major, as both a primary and secondary field.

Students may also enroll in the Interdisciplinary Studies Major with Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies as either a primary or secondary area. For more information about the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies minor, contact the program coordinator.

Program Requirements

Programs

Minor

• •  Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Minor

Courses

Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies

• GSWS 201 - Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies

  ---

  4 credits
  Provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. Sources and readings are drawn from recent scholarship on gender and its implications for a number of disciplines. Topics may include exploring cultural assumptions about gender, sexuality and women; examining historical and contemporary experiences of women and other genders; analyzing the ways gender, sex, and sexuality are related to race, class, national origin, (dis) ability, body size and other social identities, as well as ways to prevent and/or remedy gender discrimination. Approved for University Studies (Explorations Strand F–Social Science). Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule.
• GSWS 301 - International Women’s Movements

  ---

  4 credits
  Examines contemporary feminist movements worldwide. Explores the emergence or re-emergence of feminist organizing in the U.S., Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Topics include the relationship of religion, race, class, and sexual orientation to conceptualizations of feminism worldwide; women’s rights as human rights; economic development, transnational corporations and their impact on women’s roles; and sexual rights and reproductive freedom. Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Prerequisite(s): Completion of all lower division University Studies requirements.
• GSWS 302 - Contemporary U.S. Women’s Movements

  ---

  4 credits
  Explores the origins of contemporary feminist movements in the U.S. Examines such controversial topics as pornography, date/acquaintance rape, sexual harassment, abortion, and reproductive rights. Studies the history of feminist social movements, organizations, and the development of feminist social theory. Includes the contributions of feminists of color and lesbian feminists and looks at the ways in which race, class, and sexual orientation affect women’s lives. Approved for University Studies (Integration - Strand J). Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule.
• GSWS 341 - Queer Studies

  ---

  4 credits
  Provides introduction to queer studies across various disciplines. Beginning with the terms and concepts used in queer studies, examines socio-historical constructions of sex, sexuality, and gender, as well as the intersection of race, social class, and ability, and how this relates to identities. Investigates the application of different approaches to queer studies. Examines queer theory in terms of sexual identity and sexual politics and explores the theoretical and empirical applications of queer theory; in other words, queering theory. Topics may include exploring how and why the concepts of “sex” and “sexuality” changed over time; what the various research and theoretical approaches to the study of sexual diversity are; how gender, race, and social class intersect with conceptions of sexuality; why it is beneficial to examine normative concepts, structures, and theories through a “queer” lens. May be applied to the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies minor. Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Prerequisite(s):
  GSWS 201
    or instructor approval.
• GSWS 342 - Queer Communities

  ---

  4 credits
  Provides an overview of queer lives and communities with a primary focus on the contemporary U.S. Theoretical, historical, social and cultural frameworks will inform the basis of learning how queer people negotiate their lives and identities outside of the traditional concepts of sexuality and gender. The study of queer lives will include a focus on the intersections of ethnicity, race, class, sex, and gender among gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and other sexual and gender identities. Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Prerequisite(s): GSWS 201 .
• GSWS 343 - Gender and the Body

  ---

  4 credits
  Explores how bodies are gendered in social contexts with an emphasis on U.S. and Western culture. Examines gendered bodies and their link between the self, personal identity, and society, how bodies serve as means of social control, as well as sites of transformation and resistance, and how we utilize bodies to understand and create “difference.” Considers the implications for various social groups of the increasing focus on the body in American society. Explores topics that may include the racialization of gender and sexuality, body image and the impact of popular culture, reproductive practices, the social construction and production of femininity and masculinity, food, eating, and fat politics, (dis)ability, sports, “deviant” bodies, transgendered bodies, and intersexuality. May be applied to the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies minor. Approved for University Studies (Integration Strand J). Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Prerequisite(s): SOAN 204  or GSWS 201  and completion of all lower division University Studies requirements. (Cross-listed with SOAN 343 .)
• GSWS 399 - Special Studies

  ---

  1 to 18 credits
  Credits to be arranged. Repeatable. Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule.
• GSWS 401 - Research

  ---

  1 to 5 credits
  Stresses the development of research and writing skills. Research projects must be approved by the program coordinator and/or Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Council.  Repeatable. Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule.
  Restricted to Junior standing and above.
• GSWS 405 - Reading and Conference

  ---

  1 to 4 credits
  Credits to be arranged. Repeatable. Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Restricted to Junior standing and above.
• GSWS 407 - Seminar

  ---

  1 to 4 credits
  Credits to be arranged. Repeatable. Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Restricted to Junior standing and above.
• GSWS 409 - Practicum

  ---

  1 to 16 credits
  Practicum must be approved by the program coordinator and/or Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Council. Repeatable for a maximum of 16 credits. Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule.
• GSWS 410 - Feminist and Queer Theory in Action

  ---

  4 credits
  Examines the relationship between feminist and queer theory and related action, application, or activism. In addition to class readings, attendance, participation, and assignments, all students are required to engage in thirty hours of projects or placements that may include service learning, community-based learning, or independently devised individual or group projects involving social and cultural action on issues related to gender, sexuality, and/or women/girls. In-class time is divided between analyses of diverse feminist and queer theories and activism and collective discussion of student projects. Required of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies minors and IIMs whose primary field is gender, sexuality, and women’s studies.  Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Junior standing or above. Prerequisite(s): GSWS 201  or permission of instructor.
• GSWS 417 - Sexual Politics in U.S. History

  ---

  4 credits
  Examines historical changes in and struggles over the meaning, regulation, and politics of sexuality in the United States from the period of settlement to the present. Explores the relationship of gender, race, class, and region to sexual experience and identity. Focuses on the rise of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identity and politics. Also investigates debates over issues such as sex education, birth control, prostitution, pornography, AIDS, and the moral panics elicited by these issues. Topics vary each term.  Approved for University Studies (Integration - Strand J). Grading option designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Prerequisite(s):  Junior standing or above, or instructor permission.
• GSWS 501 - Graduate Research

  ---

  4 credits
  Graduate Research. Grading option is designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Must be eligible to take Graduate level coursework.
• GSWS 505 - Reading and Conference

  ---

  1 to 4 credits
  Credits to be arranged. Repeatable. Grading option is designated on a CRN basis each term. Students should consult current term schedule. Must be eligible to take Graduate level coursework.

Contract All Courses | Print this Page