Fall 2024 gender, sexuality and women's studies courses

October 30, 2023

The following courses are being offered for the fall 2024 semester.

GSW 2100: Introduction to Queer Studies

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary academic field of Queer Studies. The course begins with an overview of queer terminology and identities, and includes units on queer history, queer theory, contemporary queer issues, and queer art.

Offered: Offered every term
Credits: 3
Satisfies general education requirement: Diversity Equity Incl Inquiry

GSW 2500: Humanities Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality, and Women

Focusing on literature, art, and other media from different historical periods and geographical locations, students will examine strategies and artistic forms used to represent diverse lived experiences of gender and sexuality.

Offered: Offered every term
Credits: 3
Satisfies general education requirements: Cultural Inquiry, Diversity Equity Incl Inquiry, Philosophy Letters

GSW 2570: Writing about Literature: Women Writers

Introduction to major themes and issues of writing by and about women. Reading and writing about representative fictional and non-fictional works.

Equivalent: ENG 2570
Offered: Offered every term
Credits: 3
Satisfies general education requirements: Cultural Inquiry, Diversity Equity Incl Inquiry

GSW 2600: History of Women, Gender and Sexuality in the Modern World

Drawing on different methods of historical analysis, students apply a comparative perspective to understanding the experiences of women and constructions of gender and sexual identity.

Equivalent: HIS 2605
Offered: Offered every term
Credits: 3
Satisfies general education requirement: Diversity Equity Incl Inquiry, Global Learning Inquiry

GSW 2650: Gender and Crime

Critical examination of gender-related issues in criminal justice; impact on defendants, inmates, victims, and criminal justice personnel; relation to policy issues.

Equivalent: CRJ 2650
Offered: Offered every term
Credits: 3
Satisfies general education requirement: Diversity Equity Incl Inquiry

GSW 2700: Social Science Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality, and Women

Students will explore the ways political, social, and cultural institutions shape gender, sexuality, and women's experiences within a local and global context.

Offered: Offered every term
Credits: 3
Satisfies general education requirements: Diversity Equity Incl Inquiry, Social Inquiry

GSW 2750: Diversity Issues in Criminal Justice

Critical examination of gender, race, class, and ethnicity issues in criminal justice; impact on defendants, inmates, victims and criminal justice personnel; relation to policy issues. No credit after CRJ/GSW 3750.

Equivalent: CRJ 2750
Offered: Offered yearly
Credits: 3
Satisfies general education requirement: Diversity Equity Incl Inquiry

GSW 3000 (CRN 17239): LGBTQIA+ Detroit

Focusing on current LGBTQIA+ themes and topics in Detroit today, students will learn from and about current change agents in the city, ranging from non-profit organizations to business and community leaders to the social drag scenes and more. This course may include trips off campus.

Offered: Offered intermittently
Credits: 3

GSW 3000 (CRN 17709): LGBTQ Health

This course allows students to explore the social determinants of health along with a range of health outcomes and challenges in LGBTQ communities and the implications for public health research, policy, and practice.

Equivalent: PH 3900
Offered: Offered intermittently
Credits: 3

GSW 3100: Womxn of Color: Social Activism and Power

This course will explore how Womxn of Color have impacted the trajectory of the social justice movement in the US through scholarship and sisterhood, despite racism, sexism, and classism. During this interdisciplinary study, learners will look at the history of Womxn of Color in the feminist movement and how it parallels the current movement. This course will answer the questions, “what has been done?” and “where do we go from here?”

Offered: Offered intermittently
Credits: 3

GSW 3200: Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies

This course is an introduction to key themes and methodologies within the interdisciplinary and overlapping fields of feminism, gender studies, and queer theory, with a focus on both foundational readings and contemporary experiences. In addition to exploring and evaluating diverse methods of inquiry into the intersectional experiences of gender and sexuality, the course will help develop critical reading and writing strategies in gender, sexuality and women's studies.

Offered: Offered every term
Credits: 3

GSW 3240: Queer Film and Media

Queer voices have been an integral part of cinema since its inception in the late nineteenth century. Students in this course will study the intersections of queer lives with the industry and artistry of film and media. To do this, we will revisit film history with an eye for the queer experience, identify landmark works and key pioneers of queer cinema, consider how queer representations have shifted across decades, and analyze the integral themes and styles of queer media.

Equivalent: COM 3240
Offered: Offered yearly
Credits: 3

GSW 3300: Black Women Writers

Students will explore the writings of Black women across a broad range of genres, which may include poetry, short stories, drama, essays, and novels. Offered Intermittently.

Equivalent: AFS 3300
Offered: Offered yearly
Credits: 3

GSW 3990: Directed Studies

Individually-designed research projects, developed with a supervising professor and approved by the program director.

Offered: Offered every term
Credits: 1-3

GSW 5030: CAMP

Despite its common linguistic use, and perhaps overuse, the aesthetic category “camp” remains a nebulous category for understanding literature, art, and performance. So much so that the statement “It’s camp!” and the reciprocal question “Is it camp?” have both proliferated in contemporary internet slang and meme culture. CAMP, the course, will explore conceptualizations of camp from Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” and Esther Newton’s Mother Camp through to contemporary investigations and renegotiations of the term and its uses. We will consider a range of cultural objects through which to better understand (or not understand) camp. This includes poetry, literature, film, television, drag, popular music, and more. At the end of the course, we will probably still not know what camp truly means. Which is, in fact, camp.

Offered: Offered intermittently
Credits: 3

GSW 5110: Black Women in America

In this course, students investigate the social, cultural, artistic and economic development of Black women in America; topics may include: racism, sexism, marriage, motherhood, feminism, and the welfare system

Equivalent: AFS 5110
Offered: Offered yearly
Credits: 3

GSW 5200: Feminist, Gender, and Queer Theory

This course evaluates foundational texts within feminism, trans studies, and queer theory, focusing on the overlapping and distinct facets of these critical frameworks, with emphasis on how they shape and are shaped by other modes of social difference, such as race, class, nationality, conceptions of the body, capitalism, imperialism and colonialism.

Prerequisites: GSW 3200 with a minimum grade of C
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students
Offered: Offered fall and winter
Credits: 3

GSW 5400: Contemporary Singlehood

This course is a discussion-based seminar that explores social scientific communication and gender studies research on singlehood and relationships in the 21st century. We will study contemporary trends in singlehood, marriage, childfree adulthood, polyqueer relationships, asexuality, and more. This course takes an intersectional approach to class topics, exploring a range of theories applied to the study of intimate relationships. We will consider how social policy, gender and sexual socialization, media messages, religious values, and shifting gender norms shape partnership today. This course is open to a limited number of qualified upper-level undergraduates interested in the challenge of a graduate-level learning environment.

Equivalent: COM 7010
Offered: Offered intermittently
Credits: 3

GSW 5500: Internship in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies

Internship in a public or private organization related to gender, sexuality, or women's studies.

Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students
Offered: Offered every term
Credits: 4

GSW 5990: Senior Project Seminar

Scholarly research project or internship combined with scholarship, resulting in a substantial paper. Students meet with the instructor several times during the semester.

Prerequisite: GSW 5200
Offered: Offered yearly
Credits: 4

GSW 7200: Feminist, Gender, and Queer Theory

Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to graduate-level students
Offered: Offered fall and winter
Credits: 3

Featured program(s)

Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies (BA)

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