WOMEN'S STUDIES

Professors: Sue Fisher (Sociology), Laura Grabel (Biology), Gertrude Hughes (English), Marilyn A. Katz (Classical Studies), Jill Morawski (Psychology), Nancy Schwartz (Government), Ann-Louise Shapiro (History), Elizabeth Traube (Anthropology), Ellen Widmer (Asian Languages and Literatures, East Asian Studies), Janice Willis (Religion)

Associate Professors: Mary Ann Clawson (Sociology, American Studies), Christina Crosby (English), Patricia Hill (History, American Studies), Elizabeth Milroy, (Art, American Studies), Wendy Rayack (Economics), Ashraf Rushdy (English, African American Studies), Hope Weissman (College of Letters)

Assistant Professors: Karen Bock (English), Susan Hirsch (Anthropology, African Studies), Cecilia Miller (History, College of Social Studies), Ellen Nerenberg (Romance Languages and Literatures), Cynthia Novack (Dance), Catherine Poisson (Romance Languages and Literatures), Claire Potter (History, American Studies), Gary Shaw (History)

Adjunct Professor: Gale Lackey (Physical Education)

Visiting Instructor: Jessica Shubow

The Women's Studies Program is administered by a Steering Committee composed of three faculty members (the program chair and two others) and three student majors. The program sponsors an annual symposium, faculty seminars, and the Diane Weiss Memorial Lecture.

Major program: The Women's Studies Program offers one course at the introductory level, which does not have prerequisites, Women's Studies 101. This is the prerequisite for Feminist Theory-Women's Studies 209. Introduction to Women's Studies is the primary route into the major and should be taken during the first or second year. Majors are declared second semester of the sophomore year; the student should have taken one or more cross-listed courses in addition to the Introduction. Feminist Theory should normally be taken in the first semester of the junior year. A student will normally declare a major in Women's Studies in the second semester of the sophomore year, at which point she or he will be assigned a faculty adviser; the following fall (the first semester of the junior year) the student, in consultation with the adviser, develops a proposal for the concentration. This will consist of a brief (1-2 pages) explanation of the concentration and a rationale for the selection of courses. The concentration proposal must be approved by the adviser by the end of the fall semester. The senior year is devoted to completion of the course work for the concentration, work on a senior essay or thesis, and participation in the senior seminar.

Core Courses

Every major must take the following courses:

1. Introduction to Women's Studies. Introduces students to major issues and approaches in Women's Studies through selected works in the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences. Modes of understanding "women's nature," sexuality, personal relationships, and public roles, as well as the ways in which the study of gender has changed traditional scholarship, are examined. The course addresses the way in which gender is articulated with race and class.

2. Feminist Theory. What is the relation of feminism and theory, or theory and politics? How have feminist theorists understood the significance of sexual difference? This course considers the articulation of feminism with Marxist, psychoanalytic, and deconstructive theories and examines current efforts to theorize the complex intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, and rationality.

3. Senior Seminar. Engages students at an advanced level with the problems, theories, and methods that constitute the field of Women's Studies and define its interdisciplinarity.

Areas of Study

1. Gender and History. Contemporary women's history involves both a process of recovery--the documentation and restoration of the female past--and redefinition--through the introduction of gender as a category of analysis fundamental to the historical understanding of both women and men. Courses offered explore both aspects of women's history in the specific context of the instructor's area of specialization.

2. Gender and Society. Introduces students to major social scientific perspectives on gender. Topics might include socialization, intellectual and personal development of women and men, theories of gender inequality, and analysis of the major social institutions organizing gender relations, such as the family, the labor market, and the polity.

3. Gender and Representation. Gender as a social category in relation to theories of representation. These theories have been used fruitfully as tools of analysis in the study of fine arts, literature, film, music, dance, and popular culture.

4. Science and Gender. The scientific study of sexual difference and gender including work in genetics, physiology, sociobiology, psychology, and primatology. Also included here are studies of scientific explanation--the historical, philosophical, and sociological analysis of science as knowledge about sex and gender.

Requirements

Introduction to Women's Studies (WMST 101); Feminist Theory (WMST 209); and the Semior Seminar (WMST 405).

Areas of study: A distribution requirement of two courses from two different Women's Studies areas of study categories; the courses must be from two different disciplines, and should not overlap in their content with courses that make up the student's concentration in the major.

Concentration: Four courses forming the area of "concentration." They should represent a coherent inquiry into some issue, period, area, discipline, or intellectual approach. Normally the courses will be drawn from various departmental offerings and will be selected in consultation with an adviser. Courses that are relevant to the theme of the concentration need not necessarily be primarily about women or gender.

Senior research: Completion of a senior essay or thesis, a theme or topic related to the concentration is required (one or two credits). Anyone who wishes to undertake an honors thesis must have an average of B+ in the courses that count for the major. A transcript must be submitted to the Women's Studies Steering Committee in the second semester of the junior year with five courses marked that meet (or will meet by the end of the semester) these requirements.