Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Courses | 2024-2025 Graduate Catalog | SIU

Film, literature, and media-based exploration of historical and contemporary texts that feature sex and scandal. Using relevant cultural and literary criticism, this class explores how "scandalous" sexualities have their own specific histories and deployments. Topics to be considered include the meaning of the word "scandal" and how different sexual relationships can appear "scandalous" in a given context. The course will question how sex and scandal intersect with race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, class, ability, and more.

Credit Hours: 3

Global study of transgender representation in film, media, literature, and performance. This course utilizes a cultural theory approach and draws from the work of scholars, activists, and artists within the areas of transgender, queer, feminist, and disability studies.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 406A) A discussion of the history of the family, creation of gender roles, and importance of sexuality from medieval times to the French Revolution.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 406B) From the French Revolution. A discussion of the history of family, creation of gender roles, and importance of sexuality from the French Revolution to the present. Fulfills the CoLA Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) requirement.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as SOC 407) Examines a range of social issues related to human sexuality and the interaction between sexuality and other social processes. Emphasis is on the relevant concepts, theories, and methods in the field of sexual studies, the social and historical construction of sexuality, and the ways in which social characteristics shape sexual behaviors and desires, sexual variation, including its causes and consequences, how basic social institutions affect the rules governing sexuality, the major moral and political controversies that surround sexuality, and the "dark side" of sexual life.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as ANTH 410L) How do humans become male and female in different societies? Can men become women and women become men? What other gender possibilities exist? Is male dominance universal? What are the sources of male and female power and resistance? Do women have a separate culture? What are the relationships between gender, militarism, and war? These and other questions will be examined in cross-cultural perspective.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PH 410) Provides detailed information on dimensions of sexuality; characteristics of healthy sexuality; anatomy and physiology; gender roles; relationships; sexually transmitted infections/diseases; contraceptive issues and concerns; sexual victimizations; and sexuality through the life cycle.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CMST 415) An exploration of advanced theories and research in gender and sexuality from communication perspectives. Course may be repeated when topics vary.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as AFR 416, CMST 416) Explore the roots, contemporary manifestations, and current embodiments of black feminist thought. Explore the works of black women to engage in critical thinking and thoughtful dialogue that positions the valuable knowledge, experiences, and perspectives of women of color at the center of inquiry while simultaneously discovering spaces for multicultural alliances. Prerequisite: CMST 301I or CMST 341 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as ANTH 426 and LING 426) This course is designed for students who have had some exposure to gender studies. It will focus on readings in language and gender in the fields of anthropological and socio-linguistics. Issues to be addressed are the differences between language use by men/boys and women/girls, how these differences are embedded in other cultural practices, and the various methodologies and theories that have been used to study gendered communication.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 437) This course explores the social, political, and cultural history of lesbians, gay men, and other sexual and gender minorities in the United States from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. Themes to be taken up in the class include: the emergence of heterosexuality and homosexuality as distinct categories of identity; the intersection between sexual identity and identities of race, class, gender, and ethnicity; the relationship between homosexuality and transgenderism; the movement for gay liberation; the creation of lesbian and gay urban and rural subcultures; representations of homosexuality in popular culture; anti-gay backlash; and AIDS.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as POLS 438) The course is an advanced seminar in public law with a focus on gender, law, and society. The course will engage with issues in feminist legal practice and the development of legal theories regarding gender. We will interrogate the relationship between theory and practice and the ways in which feminist jurisprudence has taken shape in the dynamics of this relationship. POLS 114 and 230 recommended prerequisites.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CIN 469) Course discusses aspects of the aesthetics, history, theory, and politics of media representations of gender and sexuality. Cultural texts from one or a combination of media forms, genres, historical periods, and platforms will inform the historical and theoretical consideration of media representations of gender and sexual variation with a special interest on their bearings upon the present moment. May be repeated if topics vary.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as SOC 423) Examines social science theory and research on gender issues and contemporary roles of men and women. The impact of gender on social life is examined on the micro level, in work and family roles, in social institutions, and at the global, cross-cultural level.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as POLS 456) An advance course examining gender systems and women's situations across cultures and countries. This course also studies the impact globalization has had on gender issues by looking at women's activism at international and transnational levels. Topics covered include women's political representation, gender and culture, women's social movements, gender and development, and gendered policy issues.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 448) This course explores the history of gender and the family in the United States from the late 19th century to the present. Themes to be explored include: the family and the state, motherhood, race and family life, and the role of the "family" in national politics.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHSL 450) Advanced, comprehensive course intended to supplement and expand the critical examination of topics covered in PHSL 320, Reproduction and Sexuality. The objectives of this class are to examine the physiological and behavioral basis of human reproduction and sexuality. Examining how humans reproduce from a physiological perspective including all aberrations and clinically relevant dysfunctions, as well as, the spectrum of human sexual behaviors including typical and atypical sexual behavior, paraphilias, and diversity of human relationships. Prerequisite: PHSL 320.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as MUS 450A) Explores the creative contributions of women in music, examining women's participation across a range of genres, cultural/geographic areas, and time periods. Restricted to junior/senior/graduate music major or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as AFR 452A and MUS 452A) Examines the tradition of "uppity" women's blues from the so-called "classic" blues singers of the 19th century (Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, etc.) to the contemporary blues of Saffire, Denise LaSalle and others. Explores ways blues women challenge conventions of gender and sexuality, racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Restricted to junior/senior/graduate music major or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHIL 446A) A general survey of feminist theory and philosophical perspectives.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHIL 446B) A special area in feminist philosophy explored in depth, such as Feminist Ethics, French Feminism, Feminist Philosophy of Science, etc.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHIL 446C) Explores the work of one or more specific women philosophers, for example Hannah Arendt, Simone DeBeauvoir, etc.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as RTD 464) The purpose of this course is the creation of short and long form audio documentaries by students, regardless of production background. It will introduce students to basic production techniques and diversity considerations during the making of a documentary. This course uses qualitative methods to investigate an issue or document an event, with an emphasis on observation and interview techniques. Topics will explore the role of gender, race, ethnicity, and class during the planning, gathering, and production stages of the documentary. Course open to non-majors. Lab fee: $55.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 465) Comprehensive survey of sexuality from the early modern period to the present. Examines social trends, politics, and cultural debates over various forms of sexuality. Students will engage in discussion, research, and writing. Emphasis varies by instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as EAHE 470) Seminar designed to provide students with a strong grounding in the field of college student sexuality and sexual identity, covering the lived experiences of U.S. college students, the construction of sexualized collegiate identities through U.S. history, and how institutions of higher education have attempted to regulate, control, and (intentionally as well as inadvertently) effect college student sexuality.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CCJ 460 and SOC 461) A study of women as offenders, as victims, and as workers in the criminal justice system.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 489) Following an introduction to the question of women in Islamic law and Islamic History, this course will examine the changing status and experiences of women in a number of Middle Eastern countries in the 20th century, focusing on Egypt, Iran, and Turkey. Major themes will include legal, social, and political rights, participation in social and economic life, cultural and literary production, and recent secular and Islamist women's movements.

Credit Hours: 3

Exploration of a research project under the supervision of a faculty member having graduate faculty status. The project must result in a written research report, which is filed with the Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Restricted to senior standing. Special approval needed from the instructor and Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Credit Hours: 2-6

This course gives students the opportunity to serve the community through direct engagement with organizations and services that center issues of gender and sexuality. The setting may be in one's own field of study or in general content areas recognized by the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Students will devise their service plan in communication with the Coordinator of the WGSS program. Prerequisite: WGSS 201.

Credit Hours: 1-3

Advanced study of a topic of interest in LGBTQ+ Studies not offered through regular course listings.

Credit Hours: 3

Supervised readings in selected content areas in LGBTQ+ studies. This is a capstone, synthesizing experience for students in LGBTQ+ studies. Prerequisite: WGSS 201.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as THEA 504A) Performance is more prevalent in society than ever before. Performance, in this class means: theatre, mass media, social media, entertainment, digital humanities, and everyday life. This course considers questions such as: How can performance help gender equality? How does literary, media, and performance theory relate to struggles for social justice? What does it mean to live in a "dramatized society"? Students will gain an understanding of the economic, psychological, and political strategies behind performance and theory that seeks to intervene in unjust social structures. Restricted to graduate standing or special approval from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as SOC 507) Examines the emerging body of work in the fast-growing field of sexuality studies. While the course focuses on sociological research, it takes a few side trips into other disciplines. We begin by discussing the evolution of theory and methodology in the sexual sciences. After briefly considering the contributions of early sexologists and the work of Sigmund Freud, we will survey the sociology of sexuality from its beginnings in quantitative research, through classical sociological theory, social constructionism, and feminism. We'll then examine Foucault's radical rethinking of sexuality and grapple with the challenges of queer theory. The second part of the course will take up several substantive areas in the sociology of sexuality, drawing on cutting edge quantitative and qualitative research.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CMST 515) How communicative activity creates and sustains human beings as gendered. Emphasis on gaining familiarity with contemporary research on gendering from a particular perspective (e.g., ethnography, performance, phenomenology, qualitative methods, rhetorical criticism). May be repeated when perspective varies. Perspective announced prior to each offering.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as ANTH 525) This seminar explores a broad range of theoretical readings centering on the human body. Once the province of medical science and certain schools of philosophy, recent research in the social sciences and the humanities position "the body" as a primary site of socialization, gendering, social control.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as EAHE 535I) A seminar for specialized study of administrative practice and policy in gender in higher education.

Credit Hours: 1-3

(Same as SOC 542) Overview of the theoretical approaches, substantive issues, and techniques of research and measurement in the study of American family life. Approaches include structural functionalism, conflict theory, and the feminist critique. Among the substantive topics are family roles and relationships, kinship, relationships of the family to other institutions and family change.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as SOC 544) Examines major theories, themes, and research methods on the intersection of gender, race, class and sexuality. Topics may include: construction of gender, race, class and sexual identities; work; social movement; intersection of family and work; parenting and reproduction; historical and cross-national dimensions.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as SOC 545) This course is designed to investigate how gender structures the workplace, as well as how men and women both reproduce and negotiate gender at work. Focusing on select topics, we will develop an understanding of workplaces as gendered organizations and discuss sex segregation, wage inequality, the glass ceiling, the glass escalator, sex work, men and women in nontraditional occupations, the body at work, emotional labor, aesthetic labor, immigration and work, globalization, and unemployment and welfare. Also, this class will take an intersectional approach to analyzing and discussing issues of gender inequality at work; meaning, we will take seriously how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality to shape both inequality and resistance at work.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as ANTH 546, LING 545) This course examines the study of language in society with a particular focus on how linguistic practices are part of the construction of gender and sexual identities, ideologies, social categories, and discourses. Anthropological theories applied to the study of language, gender, and sexuality will be covered along with a variety of methodological approaches.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as SOC 547) This graduate seminar is a sociology of gender course that focuses on changes in the subfield itself and in peoples' lived experiences in terms of gender, gender relations, and gender stratification. Readings and discussions will trace the development of the sociology of gender over the last several decades. We will discuss how ideas and theories have changed over the years including changes in concepts and in how sociologists define, problematize, and theorize about sex and gender as traits, identities, relations, structures, and systems. We will also explore 'objective' or actual change (or lack of change) related to gender in individuals, groups, and societies.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PSYC 550) This course will focus on the psychology of gender within a feminist perspective and using a feminist approach. The term feminism, as used here, primarily implies that we will consider information and ideas for more diverse than simple empirical data. In our reading and discussion, we will consider politics, discrimination, the history of science, the history of patriarchy, the development of theory and ideas in general and the development of feminism in particular, and objective versus subjective views of science, and within these contexts, we will consider and study the psychology of gender.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as KIN 560) This course explores psychological and sociological dimensions underlying the concept of gender and critically examines how gender relates to sport and physical activity. Students will be introduced to non-traditional as well as traditional research that addresses the issue of gender in various physical activity contexts.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHIL 565) An examination of major figures and problems in continental feminism, focusing on metaphysical, ethical, political, and aesthetic theories in the works of Beauvoir, Kristeva, Irigaray, Butler, and Kofman.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as EAHE 575) The goal of this course is to provide an overview of women in higher education. Topics that will be considered are: feminism's impact on women in higher education; the division of labor for women (including faculty and professional staff positions); historical and sociological perspectives of access to higher education including curriculum and pedagogy.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as EAHE 576) This course is a readings-based seminar covering concepts of masculinity as demonstrated by collegiate men in the United States. The readings in this course cover cultural as well as identity elements of what being a "college man" means (and how that definition has changed over time and contexts). The readings consist of historical, contemporary and theoretical scholarship concerning collegiate masculinity.

Credit Hours: 3

Supervised readings in selected advanced subjects. Special approval needed from the instructor and the Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Credit Hours: 1-3

Concentration on a topic of interest not offered through the regular course listings. Special approval needed from the instructor and the Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Credit Hours: 1-3

This course explores how pandemics affect the social construction of race, gender, sexuality, and identity. Students will discuss the role of religion in health care and science and how women in religious contexts were primary caretakers during the Plagues, the Flu of 1918-1920, and the polio epidemic. The course will consider how the burden of care falls on women and sexual minorities in churches, mosques, synagogues, indigenous religious spaces and affiliated organizations in all times of public health crises, including during the Covid-19 pandemic. Students will also learn how religion has played both a divisive and positive role in the prevention and care of HIV/AIDS, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. The course will consider research from the fields of medicine, history, English, political theory, sociology, environmental humanities, and cultural theory.

Credit Hours: 3

Critical examination of masculinity in a global context. The course will explore the constructed nature of masculinity at the intersections of race, sexuality, class, national, and religious identifications. Takes an interdisciplinary approach and includes texts from the fields of history, sociology, English, film and media studies, and the visual arts.

Credit Hours: 3

This course provides students with supervision in their work toward course development in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. The instructor of record will meet with practicum members on a regular basis, and, together, they will work towards the research and syllabus construction necessary for a WGSS course. Pedagogical strategies will also be covered. Must have consent of the Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Graded by S/U only.

Credit Hours: 1-3

This course introduces students to the past, present, and potential future of feminism and its various permutations. Readings are designed to stress historical, intellectual, and contemporary issues in order to inspire in-class discussion and to provide foundations for written assignments. Emphasis varies by instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

This proseminar introduces graduate students to the field of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS). The approach is both interdisciplinary as well as multidisciplinary. The course guides students through a process by which they build a detailed map of the intersection between their course of study and the field of WGSS. Emphasis varies by instructor.

Credit Hours: 3