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Academic Year 2005/2006

Sophomore Seminar: Gender and History
WMST 269 SP
Crosslistings:
HIST 179

This sophomore seminar is designed to introduce students to the use of gender as a category for historical analysis. The course highlights research skills, critical thinking, and debate about the nature and connections among gender and history. It provides a thematic overview of current research topics in the study of women, men, gender, and sexuality, as well as new methods and approaches to conventional topics of interest to historians: power, agency, experience, social movements, events, and ideas. Students learn how to write histories that focus on women's experiences and acquire tools for analyzing the ways in which politics construct gender and gender constructs politics. They also develop critical thinking about the assumptions, practices, and rhetoric of the discipline of history, discovering how the writing of history is not simply a record of changes in the social organization of gender but also, a participant in the production of knowledge and perceptions of sexual difference. Throughout the course, attention will be paid to the intersection of gender with other primary modes of power: race, class, sexuality, nationalism, and ethnicity. The course is especially appropriate for prospective history and women's studies majors.

MAJOR READINGS

Joan Scott, GENDER AND THE POLITICS OF HISTORY
Judith Walkowitz, CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT: NARRATIVES OF SEXUAL DANGER IN LATE-VICTORIAN LONDON
George Chauncey, GAY NEW YORK: GENDER, URBAN CULTURE, AND THE MAKING OF THE GAY MALE WORLD
Judith Leavitt, TYPHOID MARY
Philippa Levine, PROSTITUTION, RACE, AND POLITICS: POLICING VENEREAL DISEASE IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Barbara Goldsmith, OTHER POWERS: THE AGE OF SUFFRAGE, SPIRITUALISM, AND THE SCANDALOUS VICTORIA WOODHULL
Anna Davin, GROWIN G UP POOR
Christine Stansell, CITY OF WOMEN

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Written response papers, midterm, final, individual research paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Attendance and class participation. This course is a gateway to the Women's Studies major.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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