Gender and Sexuality Studies: 2009-2010
Description
Gender and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary bi-college program that draws on the faculties of both Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges in a variety of traditional disciplines, such as Anthropology, Biology, Economics, English, German, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Spanish, and Religion, as well as interdisciplinary programs such as Africana Studies, Comparative Literature, East Asian Studies, and the Growth and Structure of Cities. Students graduate from the program with a high level of fluency and rigor in their understanding of the different ways in which issues of gender and sexuality shape our lives as individuals and as members of larger communities, both local and global.
Courses in the program draw upon and speak to feminist theory and women’s studies; transnational and third-world feminisms; womanist theory and the experiences of women of color; the construction of masculinity and men’s studies; lesbian, bisexual, gay, queer, transgendered/ transsexual studies; and gender as it is inflected in and by class, race, religion, and nationality.
Students choosing a concentration, minor, or independent major in Gender and Sexuality plan their programs in consultation with the Gender and Sexuality Coordinator on their home campus. Each year, approximately thirty students pursue either a Minor or Concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and several design an independent major for themselves in the field.
Concentrators, minors and majors have gone on to do advanced work in all of the undergraduate disciplines, in law, medicine, and theology, as well as into employment in a variety of related areas.
Coordinators
Assistant Professor Theresa Tensuan, Coordinator at Haverford
Associate Professor Lazaro Lima, Coordinator at Bryn Mawr
Requirements
Six courses distributed as follows are required for the concentration:
(1) An introductory course intended for first and second-year students with no prior knowledge of the field such as Independent College Programs 190: Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies: Inventing Gender. This introductory requirement may also be met with a variety of courses, such as Philosophy 115: Introduction to Feminist Theory, English 286: Sex/Gender/Representation: an introduction to theories of sexualities, or Political Science 242: Women in War and Peace. Equivalent courses at Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, or the University of Pennsylvania are also acceptable.
(2) The core course, 290:Perspectives on Gender, a course intended for juniors and seniors who have completed other work in the program. This interdisciplinary course is team taught by two faculty members, one from Haverford, one from Bryn Mawr, from different disciplinary backgrounds.
(3) Four additional approved courses from at least two different departments, two of which are normally 300 level. Units of Independent Study (480a, b) may be used to fulfill this requirement.
Minor Requirements
Requirements for the minor are identical to those of the concentration, with the stipulation that no courses in Gender and Sexuality will overlap with courses taken to fulfill requirements in the student's major.
Neither a senior seminar nor a senior thesis is required for the concentration; however, with the permission of the major department, a student may choose to count toward the concentration a senior thesis with a significant focus on the theoretical and critical issues foregrounded in gender and sexuality studies.
Students wishing to construct an independent major in Gender and Sexuality Studies will have to make a proposal to the College Committee on Student Standing and Programs (CSSP).
Gender and Sexuality Studies at Haverford Include:
Anthropology 202a: Among Men: Constructions of Masculinity
Z.Ngwane
Anthropology 204a: Anthropology of Gender
N.Uygen
Anthropology 244a: Anthropology of China
M.Gillette
English 206b: American Autobiography
T.Tensuan
English 270a: Portraits in Black: The Influence of an Emergent African American Culture
C.Zwarg
English 279a: Contemporary Women Writers
T.Tensuan
English 302b: Speaking in Tongues: The Poetics of Ecstasy
M.McInerney
English 363b: “The Awful Rehearsal”: Traumas of Freedom in US Literature
C.Zwarg
General Programs 290a: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality Studies (offered at Bryn Mawr Fall 2009)
History 204: History of Gender and US Women to 1870
B.Saler
Independent College Programs 281b: Violence and Public Health
K.Edwards
Independent College Programs 305b: African Masculinities
R.Talmor
Philosophy 106b: The Philosophy of Consciousness and the Problem of Embodiment,
K.Wright
Philosophy 332a: Topics in Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy: Philosophies of Pain and Passion
J.Miller
Political Science 123b: American Politics: Difference and Discrimination
S.McGovern
Political Science 229b: Latino Politics
C.Beltran
Religion 221a: Women and Gender in Early Christianity
A.McGuire
Religion 301a: Letters of Paul in Cultural Context
A.McGuire
Religion 308a: Mystical Literatures of Islam
T.Zadeh
Spanish 334a: Gender Dissidence in Hispanic Writing
I.Burshatin
Courses at Bryn Mawr
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ANTH B101 Introduction to Anthropology
ANTH B102 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ARCH B234 Picturing Women
ENGL B210 Renaissance Literature: Performances of Gender
ENGL B270 American Girl: Childhood in U.S. Literature 1690-1935
ENGL B367/HART B367 Asian American Film, Video and New Media: The Politics of Pleasure
FREN B201 Le Chevalier, la dame, le pretre
GERM B245 Approaches to German Literature and Culture: Post-War Austria
GERM B321 Advanced Topics in German Cultural Studies: Picturing Gender
GNST B290 Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality
HIST B292 Women in Britain since 1750
PHIL B252/POLS B253 Feminist Theory
PSYC B340 Women's Mental Health
SOCL B217 The Family in Social Context
SOCL B225 Women in Society
SPAN B218 Border Crossing Narratives
SPAN B265 Escritoras espanolas
SPAN B309 La mujer en la lit Siglo Oro
SPAN B310 Modernidad y Lit Mexicana
Other Gender and Sexuality Studies courses regularly offered at Haverford:
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Anthropology 216: Women and Power
Anthropology 245: Love and the Market
Biology 247: Human Genetics, Ethics, and Public Policy
Biology 248: Disease and Discrimination
East Asian Studies 262: Chinese Social History
East Asian Studies 310: Religion and Gender in Pre-Modern Japan
Economics 224: Women in the Labor Market
English 254a: Pre-Raphaelites, Aesthetes, & Decadents; Gender and Sexuality in 19th Century Literature
English 260b: Another Country: Queer Sexualities in the American Novel
English 263: 19th Century Women’s Narratives
English 277: Postcolonial Women Writers
English 281: Fictions of Empire
English 284:Sex/Gender/Representation
English 286a: Arts of the Possible: Cultures of Social Justice Movements
English 301: The Hundred Years War and the Production of Literary Culture
English 347b: Spectacle and Spectatorship in 18th Century London
English 362: Genius and Gender in 19th Century U.S. Culture
English 364: After Mastery
English 381: Textual Politics: Marxism, Feminism, and Deconstruction
English 383: American Autobiography: Life During Wartime
German 262: The Male Body in Contemporary Cinema
History 229: Gender, Sex, and Power in Early Modern Europe
History 231: The Age of Enlightenment
History 354: Law, Crime, and the Police in Early Modern Europe
Independent College Programs 135: Introduction to Feminist Theory
Independent College Programs 190: Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies: Inventing Gender
Independent College Programs 244a: Quaker Social Witness
Philosophy 105: Love, Friendship and the Ethical Life
Philosophy 155: Introduction to Feminist Theory
Philosophy 229: Latino Politics in the U.S.
Philosophy 231: Continental Feminist Philosophy
Philosophy 258: Philosophy of the Body
Political Science 235: African Politics
Political Science 359: Feminist Political Theory
Religion 204: Women and Judaism
Religion 221: Women and Gender in Early Christianity
Religion 223: Body, Sexuality, and Christianity
Religion 301: Jerusalem: History and Representation
Religion 303: Evangelicalism, Anti-Slavery, and Feminism in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Religion 330: Seminar in the Religious History of African American Women
Spanish 324: Sexual Minorities in the Spanish Speaking World
Spanish 352: Evita and her Sisters