Women's Studies (WMST)
Director: Professor Dana J. Strand, fall and winter; Associate Professor: Clara Hardy, spring
Adjunct Senior Lecturer: Jane T. McDonnell
Committee Members: Barbara Allen, Chiara Briganti, Carol Donelan, Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, Clara Hardy, Anna Igra, Jennifer C. Manion, Diane M. Nemec Ignashev, Éva Pósfay, Kathleen Ryor, Rachel Filene Seidman, Kathryn Sparling, Dana J. Strand
The Women's Studies Program provides an interdisciplinary meeting ground for exploring questions about women and gender that are transforming knowledge across disciplinary lines in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Its goal is to include gender, along with class, sexual orientation and race, as a central category of social and cultural analysis. Courses focusing on women are offered by the departments of Asian Languages and Literatures, Classics, English, German and Russian, Romance Languages and Literatures, History, Media Studies, Music, Religion, Philosophy, Political Science, Art, Sociology and Anthropology, as well as Women's Studies itself. Carleton offers both a Major and a Concentration in Women's Studies that allows students to complement their major field with an interdisciplinary focus on women and gender. All courses are open to all students, if they have fulfilled the prerequisites.
Women's Studies 110, an entry point to the major, is a topical introduction to the field. Women's Studies 200 provides the theoretical and methodological tools for advanced work on women and gender. The capstone course, Women's Studies 395, offers students the opportunity to study a topic in depth and to produce a substantial research paper. The major culminates in a senior comprehensive project, directed by advisors from two disciplines, that builds on the skills and interests developed in previous coursework in women's studies. Each student devises an appropriate program of courses in consultation with the major advisor.
Requirements for a Major:
Core Courses:
One introductory course, Women's Studies 110
One methodology course, Women's Studies 200
Two courses in a specific discipline
One Capstone Seminar, Women's Studies 395
Comprehensive Exercise, Women's Studies 400
Elective Courses:
Two elective courses in any one division excluding the discipline of core courses (Arts and Literature, Humanities, Social Science)
Three elective courses from the Women's Studies list below:
Total of 66 credits.
NOTE: At least three courses in addition to Women's Studies 395 should be taken at the 300-level.
Women's Studies Courses
POSC 353. Feminist and American Separatist Movements* Cross-listed with AMST 353,WMST 353. Within a feminist framework we will contrast social protest movements such as the Black Panther Party and Radical Zionism that appear to elevate racial or ethnic identity above gender concerns with lesbian feminist strategies that include an analysis of race and class as well as those feminist strategies that do not. In each case we will look at the multifaceted intersections of gender, race, class, and ethnicity. Prerequisite: Women's Studies 110 or Political Science 122. 6 credits cr., SS, Not offered in 2000-2001.
POSC 354. Feminist Political Theory* Cross-listed with WMST 354. This seminar will cover the major developments in feminist theory as that theory relates to authority (political) relationships. Liberal, radical, Marxist and socialist-feminist critiques and their antecedents in political philosophy will be analyzed in the course. Feminist theory applied to or derived from psychoanalysis, cognitive development, moral reasoning, and theology will also be discussed. Prerequisites: Women's Studies 110, Political Science 122, or any theory class. 6 credits cr., SS,RAD, Not offered in 2000-2001.
POSC 355. Contemporary Feminist Thought: Identity, Culture and Rights* Cross-listed with WMST 355. In the course we will look at the contemporary debate in multiculturalism in the context of a variety of liberal philosophical traditions, including contractarians, libertarians, and Utilitarians. These views of the relationship of individual to community will be compared to those of the communitarian and egalitarian traditions. Research papers may use a number of feminist theory frameworks and methods. Prerequisites: Women's Studies 110 or any political theory, feminist philosophy, or political philosophy course. 6 credits cr., SS, Not offered in 2000-2001.
POSC 358. Women and War* Cross-listed with WMST 395. Ancient and modern political philosophers view the duty to defend one's country as an essential part of citizenship. In many modern liberal democracies, military service is also considered an essential individual right. While women have often been exempted or precluded from military service, they nevertheless have played important symbolic and actual roles in warmaking. The status of woman as the nurturer of the warrior and the potential for women to be warriors raise a number of questions in feminist theory and democratic theory that this advanced seminar will examine. 6 credits cr., SS, Winter—B. Allen