63 courses with the subject GSWS, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. An interdisciplinary and intersectional introduction to the perspectives and core concerns pertaining to gender, sexuality and women's studies.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Introduces students to the field of transgender studies. Introduces students to trans identities, communities and politics and explores the historical and contemporary production of gender norms and the institutions and mechanisms that police those norms.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Stresses intersectional approaches to LGBT+ and queer studies. Introduces students to a broad field of study across disciplines, cultures and historical periods.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: ENGL 295 or UNIV 200. An introduction to literature by and/or about women. Crosslisted as: ENGL 236.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. May be repeated with different topics for a total of 6 credits. An in-depth examination of specialized areas of interest in women's studies. See the Schedule of Classes for specific topics to be offered each semester.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Concurrent prerequisite: UNIV 200 or HONR 200. This course will introduce students to areas of generative struggle and critique within feminist theory. Will examine these conflicts not as moments of danger, but as constituting a key genealogy of feminism. Will be structured around important debates that constitute this genealogy of feminist theory, including: early woman of color critiques of the notion of “universal sisterhood,” debates over the “proper object” of feminist inquiry, post-structuralist approaches to theorizing the subject, queer theory’s shift toward a “subject-less critique” and transnational feminist praxis.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: GSWS 202. Examines the production and policing of gender norms, both historically and in the contemporary moment. Offers students the opportunity to delve more deeply into the field of trans studies, reading key new works in the field and developing their own substantive research projects.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Examines the sociological theories and empirical studies of men and masculinities. Topics include the relational thinking of gender inequality, hegemonic masculinity, subordinated masculinities, inclusive masculinity, hybrid masculinity, toxic masculinity, female masculinity and male femininity, and intersectional masculinities. Addresses the effects and mechanisms of masculinities in social settings, such as the workplace, family, marriage, intimacy, pop culture, politics, migration, globalization and social movements, through empirical studies. Crosslisted as: SOCY 335.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. The family in its social and cultural context. Analysis of child rearing, marriage, kinship, family crises and family change in various societies around the world. Crosslisted as: ANTH 304/SOCY 304.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Explores the historical and contemporary experiences of Black families, with a central focus on the resilience and contributions of Black families in the U.S. Engages in intersectional analysis of systems of oppression and the full range of Black family structures. Centers Black liberation and Black joy. Crosslisted as: AFAM 305/SOCY 305.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Examines how health policies produce and regulate gendered bodies and sexualities. Topics may include how colonial medicine and health policies of detection, diagnosis, surveillance, quarantine and confinement were implemented as methods of social control. Analyzes continuities between colonial medicine and more contemporary interventions that in the name of individual and communal health attempt to shape proper sexualities and gendering. Crosslisted as: AFAM 309/ANTH 309/INTL 309.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Students will learn how the arts and humanities apply to and can support or cultivate human health and wellness, both individually and in the community. In particular, the course will incorporate different disciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives from the humanities and the arts to the concepts of “health” and “care,” in their cultural, social and lived complexities, to better understand the structural and systematic forces and processes that produce or reinforce health and health care disparities. Students will analyze how the arts and humanities can help address and challenge inequities, cultivate empathy in individual interactions and practices, and imagine alternatives. Crosslisted as: AMST 312.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. This course will introduce students to the history, politics and status of women under the American legal system. Topics to be covered may include equal protection, sexual violence, the particular rights of women of color and lesbians, reproductive rights of women of color and lesbians, reproductive rights, women criminals and women in the legal profession. Crosslisted as: POLI 316.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. A study of the racial, class and gender influences on the history and development of political values, conflicts, processes, structures and public policy in the United States. Crosslisted as: AFAM 318/POLI 318.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. This course analyzes the participation of women in American politics. Attention is given to both women's historical and contemporary roles in politics, their participation as voters and citizens, and their behavior as candidates and office holders. Additional topics may include workplace, family and education issues and reproductive rights. Crosslisted as: POLI 319.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. The course provides a survey of leading feminist political theory ideas from historic to contemporary feminist works, including feminist epistemologies, ontologies and ideas about politics, governance, government, citizenship, agency, equality, difference, sex, gender, race, nationalism, economics, family and reproduction. Crosslisted as: POLI 340.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Explores different theoretical approaches to gender and its intersections with other sources of inequality, including sexuality, race, class and age. Possible topics include masculinities, gender and the body, and how gender operates in various institutional settings, such as the economy and the family. Crosslisted as: SOCY 333.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: PSYC 101. Overview of issues in psychology relevant to women. Topics include: research methods of women's issues; sex-role socialization; women and hormones; psychological androgyny; personality theory and counseling strategies for women; women and language; women and violence; and rape and abuse. Crosslisted as: PSYC 335.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Analyzes historical changes in gender and sexuality from c. 500 BCE through industrialization. Explores the notions of femininity and masculinity as they were expressed in the economics, family structures and intellectual and religious discourse within and amid Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Germanic and Norse, and medieval Latin Christian cultures, and traces the changes brought to the medieval cultural synthesis by European colonial expansion, the reformations and the Industrial Revolution. Crosslisted as: HIST 330.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. A study of gender and sexuality in Europe since industrialization. The course offers a particular focus on the lives of European women, as well as sexual and gender minorities who by the end of the 20th century would identify as LGBTQ+. Topics will include the development of European feminisms, treatment of gender and sexuality under fascism, and the sexual revolution. Crosslisted as: HIST 331.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Analyzes historical changes in gender and sexuality from the first colonial settlements through the Civil War. Explores the changing relation of femininity and masculinity to families, economics, politics, religions, race and culture for the wide variety of peoples who inhabited, immigrated to or were forced to migrate to America and the subsequent United States. Crosslisted as: HIST 365.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Analyzes historical changes in gender and sexuality from Reconstruction to the present. Examines the relationship between gender, race, ethnicity and class within American society and the struggles for suffrage, social reform, employment opportunities and sexual freedom in the modern United States. Crosslisted as: HIST 366.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credit hours. Examines the history, key issues and contemporary scholarship of Black queer politics. Focuses on themes of justice, equity, gender, sexuality and race. Crosslisted as: POLI 347.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: ENGL 201, ENGL 202, ENGL 203, ENGL 204, ENGL 205, ENGL 206, ENGL 211, ENGL 215, ENGL 217, ENGL 236, ENGL 250, ENGL 291, ENGL 295 or NEXT 240. The study of contemporary feminist thought and feminist approaches to analyzing literature and culture. This course examines the history and development of feminist theory as a methodology in the humanities, explores several of the major theoretical trends of the past 30 years and examines applications of feminist theory to specific works of literature. Crosslisted as: ENGL 352.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. May be repeated for credit once (for a maximum of six credits) when a different group of writers is studied. Prerequisite: ENGL 201, ENGL 202, ENGL 203, ENGL 204, ENGL 205, ENGL 206, ENGL 211, ENGL 215, ENGL 217, ENGL 236, ENGL 250, ENGL 291, ENGL 295 or NEXT 240. A study of selected literature written by woman-identified writers. Crosslisted as: ENGL 353.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of six credits. Prerequisite: ENGL 201, ENGL 202, ENGL 203, ENGL 204, ENGL 205, ENGL 206, ENGL 211, ENGL 215, ENGL 217, ENGL 236, ENGL 250, ENGL 291, ENGL 295 or NEXT 240. A study of queer literature. Considers issues of history, theory, aesthetics, politics, authorship and/or interpretive communities and examines the intersection of social identities with particular attention to race/ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, class and/or nationality. Topics will vary by section. Crosslisted as: ENGL 354.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: UNIV 200 or HONR 200. Theoretical focus on cinematic works about and/or by those identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. Examines concepts of gender, sexuality and women’s studies through analysis of selected works in the medium of film as well as engages with theoretical texts in the field.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: UNIV 200 or HONR 200. Experiential seminar held at a local correctional institution that connects students to inmates as learning partners. Examines the history and development of American prisons in context, supplementing theoretical studies with the lived experiences of inmates.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Concurrent prerequisite: GSWS 201. Challenges the taken-for-granted beliefs about the naturalness of sexuality and, instead, considers the relationship between and among individual sexualities, sexual (sub)cultures, institutions and politics. Links the contemporary context for sexual lives, experiences and feelings with the history of sexuality in the United States, focusing on how sex and power interact. Covers a wide range of topics, including but not limited to sexual identities (e.g. LGBQA+ and plurisexualities); racism, White Supremacy and desirability; abortion, birth control, reproduction and sterilization; relationships, intimacies and kinship (including non-monogamies); commercial sex, pornography, prostitution and sex work; sexual health and “disease”; and sexual exploitation and violence.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: ENGL 201, ENGL 202, ENGL 203, ENGL 204, ENGL 205, ENGL 206, ENGL 211, ENGL 215, ENGL 217, ENGL 236, ENGL 250, ENGL 291, ENGL 295 or NEXT 240. Explores the variety of ways African-diasporan women and woman-identified writers gained self-expression in the midst of gender and race oppression from slavery to the present. Also explores the rise of Black feminist discourse as a project of reclaiming and giving voice to writers who had previously been silenced or suppressed. Crosslisted as: ENGL 355.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Concurrent prerequisite: GSWS 201. Introduces students to the study of ethics from a “mujerista” feminist perspective. Focuses on decolonial philosophies from Latin American and Latinx perspective as centered on community and from the organizational perspectives of women in the Latin American and Latinx community. Emphasizes the inherent connections between liberation theory and political action that have inspired decolonial thought.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. A study of women and global politics, providing both a feminist re-examination of traditional international-relations theories and a comparative analysis of the political, legal and economic status of the world's women. The impact of women on global political institutions such as the United Nations will be addressed as well as other feminist and grass roots means of taking political action. Crosslisted as: POLI 366/INTL 368.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. The course surveys major Islamic debates on women and gender from the emergence of Islam to the present, examining sacred texts, legal traditions, and shifting interpretations. It traces Muslim women’s movements from the nineteenth century onward, highlighting key issues such as family law, veiling, feminism and female religious authority. The course also examines the power dynamics behind claims to “save Muslim women.” Crosslisted as: ANTH 371/INTL 371/RELS 371.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Examines the role of gender as it relates to crime and justice. Special attention will focus on the gendered experiences of practitioners, offenders and victims within the criminal justice system in terms of processing, adjudication and institutional responses. Crosslisted as: CRJS 382.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Explores the popular music industry, the celebrity industry, Black Twitter, divas and the racial politics of beauty to offer a critical context for Beyoncé, divadom and Black female performance.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Explores the boundaries between nightlife, queer worldmaking and subcultural media. Explores queer nightlife as a space where transgressive performances of the self are made possible via music, media, fashion and performance. Through close readings and sustained cultural analysis, students acquire a critical understanding of the potentialities of queer "after hours" in the making of subcultural identity and emerging aesthetic practices.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Examines a broad range of forced and coerced labor in Africa and selected parts of the Americas, including the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, from around the 17th century to the 20th century. The role that gender and race played in slavery and coerced labor will be given particular attention. Crosslisted as: AFAM 390/HIST 380.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. May be repeated with different topics for a maximum of 12 credits. An in-depth examination of specialized areas of interest in gender, sexuality and women's studies. See the Schedule of Classes for specific topics to be offered each semester.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Examines attempts to challenge traditional Western ways of knowing and to propose alternative feminist methods for research. Students will engage in critical, autobiographical and/or creative projects that address some of the central questions posed by the class about what constitutes research, evidence and authoritative knowledge.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: 21 credits in gender, sexuality and women's studies or permission of the instructor. Students are required to produce a senior research project on a topic related to the theme of the seminar.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisites: GSWS 201; and UNIV 200 or HONR 200. Examines LGBTQ health and wellness, broadly defined. Examines core health issues, such as physical and mental health disparities, health care access, wellness practices and policy/care systems dimensions. Focuses on multiplicative marginalization and how race, ethnicity, class, gender, rurality, poverty, immigration and adolescence, among other factors, impact core health issues.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Overviews the psychological research on women's health. Topics include health behavior change, personality and individual differences, cognitive factors, disease-specific behaviors and interventions. Crosslisted as: PSYC 414.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisites: DANC 103, DANC 104 and UNIV 200. This course will focus on performance as apt method for analysis of notions/experiences of Blackness. Students will read scholarly texts which contend with the ubiquity of Black death and gratuitous violence alongside sonic, visual and written texts by significant cultural contributors — including works by Rihanna, Dapper Dan, Cardi B, Beyonce and Janet Mock — in order to examine and contend with expressions of complex personhood by people who exist under the constant threat of annihilation. The course focuses on embodied knowledge — that is, the harnessing of insight derived from lived experiences of hegemonic racial, gender, sexual and class subjection — and how such wisdom is transformed into strategies, tactics and tools that enable black people to acquire the human and material resources needed for survival. Crosslisted as: DANC 415.
Semester course; 3 seminar hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. The course explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and gender, race and power from a feminist and critical theory perspective. Students will examine how AI systems reinforce existing inequalities, from biased algorithms in hiring and policing to the erasure of marginalized voices in data collection. Through interdisciplinary readings, case studies and hands-on analysis, Questions will be investigated, such as: Who designs AI? Whose knowledge is prioritized? How do race, gender and sexuality shape technological development and deployment? Issues of surveillance, digital labor and automation while envisioning ethical and just alternatives will be critically engaged. The course is designed for students interested in technology, social justice and feminist critique and inquiry. By the end of the semester, students will develop analytical tools to assess AI’s societal impact and propose pathways for equitable technological futures.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: UNIV 200 or HONR 200. Theoretical focus on black feminist thought, spanning the first wave of feminism in the U.S. from the late-19th and early 20th century onward. Though primarily U.S.-focused, this course examines black feminist thought globally, as well as that of lesbians, transgendered or queer individuals, foregrounding topics such as race, gender, class, sexuality, activism, liberation, labor and social movements. Also examines the history and development of black feminist thought, considers it as a methodology in the humanities and social sciences, explores several of its major theoretical trends of the past 100 years and examines its applications to cultural phenomena and current events.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Examines representations of gendered Asian American sexualities in literature (novels, short stories, an autobiographical novel, poetry and a play), as well as visual texts (graphic novels, films and video). Pays particular attention to how the texts participate in and challenge the constitution of Asian American subjectivities in the contexts of (neo)colonialism, neoliberal restructuring and the emergence of pan-Asian and feminist movements in the United States.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: UNIV 200 or HONR 200. A study of relationships between gender and language focusing on such issues as differences between the ways women and men use language, relationships between language and power and ways in which language reflects and reinforces cultural attitudes toward gender. May not be used to satisfy the literature requirement of the College of Humanities and Sciences. Crosslisted as: ENGL 452/LING 452.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisites: UNIV 200 or HONR 200. Explores the experience and portrayal of women and gender-nonconforming people in varied religious and spiritual traditions. Study focuses on how these traditions’ practices, teachings and aesthetic traditions bear upon people’s social, economic, political, creative and spiritual lives. Special attention is given to social justice movements that emerge in connection with globalization and religious fundamentalism. Crosslisted as: INTL 453/RELS 453.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. The course examines contemporary and historical understandings of sex and gender and how they have shaped art and artists. Crosslisted as: ARTH 357.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: UNIV 200. Explores gender and sexuality in diverse religious and spiritual traditions. Study focuses on how these religions’ practices, teachings, and aesthetic traditions bear upon people’s experiences and understandings of gender, sexuality and reproduction. Specific attention is given to the experience and portrayal of women and queer people. Crosslisted as: ANTH 459/INTL 459/RELS 459.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Concurrent prerequisite: GSWS 201, UNIV 200 or HONR 200. Analyzes representations of HIV/AIDS in literature in English from Eastern and Southern Africa. Pays particular attention to how authors depict the anxieties and conflicts provoked by HIV/AIDS around gender, sexualities, racism, modernity, global inequities and urbanization. Features fiction, autobiographies, poetry and short stories that challenge stigmatization, commemorate the lives lost and demand that readers both bear witness and respond to the narratives.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Concurrent prerequisite: GSWS 201, UNIV 200 or HONR 200. Explores some of the complexities of HIV/AIDS archives and the counter-histories that they attempt to preserve, produce and disseminate. Further analyzes works that represent themselves as metaphor and medium of the archive and that address some of the central contradictions of HIV/AIDS archives and their processes.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Concurrent prerequisite: GSWS 201 or UNIV 200. Focuses on how the intersections of history and identity are reflected through writing, film and visual art, as expressions of Latin feminist thinking. Will use the method of “testimonio,” or testimony, as a political tool that has gathered the lived experience of politically persecuted vulnerable communities in Latin America, and continues as a method of validating lived experience or biography as text.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. May be repeated with different topics for a total of 12 credits. An in-depth examination of specialized areas of interest in women's studies. See the Schedule of Classes for specific topics to be offered each semester.
Semester course; 1-6 lecture hours. 1-6 credits. May be repeated for a maximum of six credits per semester; maximum total of six credits in all independent study courses. Enrollment is restricted to students of junior and senior standing who have acquired a minimum of 12 credits in gender, sexuality and women's studies courses. Determination of the amount of credit and permission of the instructor and coordinator must be obtained prior to registration for the course.
Semester course; variable hours. 1, 2 or 3 credits. May be repeated for a maximum total of 6 credits. Prerequisites: internship credit is limited to students with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 and junior or senior status. Directed internship, local or abroad, or other approved study-abroad experience with the objective to provide real-life experience. Determination of the amount of credit (based on hours or effort required) and permission of departmental internship coordinator must be obtained prior to registration for the course. Graded pass/fail.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. This seminar provides an overview of the theories of feminisms.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. This course explores the implications of feminist theorizing across disciplinary and cultural contexts for both epistemology (theories of knowledge) and methods (theories and approaches in the research process). Students will examine how knowledge and power intersect, how gender theory and feminist politics influence research, how the knower influences knowledge production and how social location shapes inquiry. Students will experiment with feminist methods and approaches to researching issues related to gender, sexuality and women, and ethical considerations as these issues affect vulnerable populations.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. This course examines and explores constructions of human sexuality (sexualities) and theorizes how these constructions operate within contemporary culture.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. The course will provide students with a historic and contemporary understanding of the laws, policies and politics surrounding gender and sexuality in the United States. Students will understand how law and public policy have impacted the lives of women and LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. as well as the political dynamics surrounding the legal regulation of issues related to gender and sexuality.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. This seminar takes as a starting point an understanding of culture as the expressive practice of meaning making that lies at the intersection of art, imagination, technology, space and politics.
Semester course; 1-3 lecture hours. 1-3 credits. Course may be repeated with different topics as approved. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. An in-depth study of a selected topic in gender, sexuality and/or women's studies. See Schedule of Classes for specific topics to be offered each semester.
Semester course; variable hours, variable credit. Maximum 4 credits per semester. Maximum total of 4 credits in all independent study courses. Prerequisites: completion of 6 credits in gender, sexuality and women's studies courses.
Source: Virginia Commonwealth University's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 59
