Women's and Gender Studies

The Women's and Gender 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, sexuality and race, as a central category of social and cultural analysis. Courses focusing on women and gender are offered by the departments of Asian Languages and Literatures, Classics, English, German and Russian, French and Spanish, History, Cinema and Media Studies, Music, Religion, Philosophy, Political Science, Art, Sociology and Anthropology, as well as Women's and Gender Studies itself. Carleton offers both a Major and a Minor in Women's and Gender 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 and Gender Studies 110 or Women's and Gender Studies 112, entry points to the major, are topical introductions to the field. Women's and Gender Studies 200 and 234 provide the theoretical and methodological tools for advanced work on women and gender. The capstone course 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 advisers from two disciplines, that builds on the skills and interests developed in previous coursework in Women's and Gender Studies. Each student devises an appropriate program of courses in consultation with the major adviser.

Requirements for the Women's and Gender Studies Major

Total of 66 credits

  • One introductory course, Women's and Gender Studies 110 or 112
  • One methodology course, Women's and Gender Studies 200 or 234
  • One capstone seminar, Sociology/Anthropology 325, Sociology/Anthropology 395, Women's and Gender Studies 310, Women's and Gender Studies 389 or Women's and Gender Studies 396
  • Comprehensive Exercise, Women's and Gender Studies 400
  • In addition to these 24 credits, students must complete an additional 42 credits from the offerings listed below. Of these 42, no more than 12 credits should be at the 100-level and at least 12 credits should be at the 300-level. Ordinarily, no more than 18 credits may be applied to the major from outside of Carleton.

Students will plan these courses in consultation with the Program Director or a designated faculty adviser when they declare their major, and review their plan each term. The major they design should provide both breadth of exposure to Women's and Gender Studies across fields and depth of study in one discipline (normally at least two courses in one area or from one department).

Women's and Gender Studies Minor

The Women's and Gender Studies minor offers students the opportunity to complement their major field with an interdisciplinary focus on women and gender.

Requirements for the Women's and Gender Studies Minor

Six courses will be required from the following three groups. The range of courses must include at least two disciplines.

  • Women's and Gender Studies 110: Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies or Women's and Gender Studies 112: Introduction to LGBT/Queer Studies
  • Four courses (24 credits) from the list. A variety of courses are by visitors or offered only occasionally and may be considered. Contact the director for consideration of other courses to satisfy this requirement.
    • AFST 120 Gender and Sexuality in the African Diaspora (not offered in 2019-20)
    • AFST 220 Intersectionality (not offered in 2019-20)
    • AMST 225 Beauty and Race in America
    • ARTH 214 Queer Art
    • ARTH 220 The Origins of Manga: Japanese Prints (not offered in 2019-20)
    • ARTH 240 Art Since 1945 (not offered in 2019-20)
    • BIOL 101 Human Reproduction and Sexuality (not offered in 2019-20)
    • CAMS 225 Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream (not offered in 2019-20)
    • CAMS 258 Feminist and Queer Media
    • CLAS 214 Gender and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity
    • DANC 266 Reading The Dancing Body (not offered in 2019-20)
    • ECON 257 Economics of Gender
    • ENGL 217 A Novel Education (not offered in 2019-20)
    • ENGL 218 The Gothic Spirit
    • ENGL 227 Imagining the Borderlands (not offered in 2019-20)
    • ENGL 319 The Rise of the Novel
    • ENGL 327 Victorian Novel
    • ENGL 345 Queer Literature
    • FREN 241 The Lyric and Other Seductions (not offered in 2019-20)
    • FREN 347 Gender and Sexuality in the Francophone World
    • GERM 221 (not offered in 2019-20)
    • HIST 122 U.S. Women's History to 1877
    • HIST 123 U.S. Women's History Since 1877
    • HIST 142 Women in Modern Europe (not offered in 2019-20)
    • HIST 229 Working with Gender in U.S. History (not offered in 2019-20)
    • HIST 236 Women and Gender in Europe before the French Revolution (not offered in 2019-20)
    • HIST 259 Women in South Asia: Histories, Narratives, and Representations (not offered in 2019-20)
    • HIST 270 Nuclear Nations: India and Pakistan as Rival Siblings
    • HIST 280 African in the Arab World (not offered in 2019-20)
    • HIST 310 Black Women Intellectuals (not offered in 2019-20)
    • HIST 359 Women in South Asia: Histories, Narratives, and Representations (not offered in 2019-20)
    • IDSC 203 Talking about Diversity
    • MUSC 210 Women and Gender in Western Art Music
    • PHIL 120 Philosophy of Sex (not offered in 2019-20)
    • PHIL 122 Identity and Leadership
    • POSC 276 Imagination in Politics: Resisting Totalitarianism (not offered in 2019-20)
    • POSC 280 Feminist Security Studies
    • POSC 324 Rebels and Risk Takers: Women and War in the Middle East*
    • POSC 359 Cosmopolitanism (not offered in 2019-20)
    • PSYC 383 The Social Psychology of Gender: Playing by the "Gender" Rules (not offered in 2019-20)
    • RELG 161 The Jewish Bible
    • RELG 221 Judaism and Gender (not offered in 2019-20)
    • RELG 227 Liberation Theologies (not offered in 2019-20)
    • RELG 228 Martyrdom (not offered in 2019-20)
    • RELG 232 Queer Religions (not offered in 2019-20)
    • RELG 233 Gender and Power in the Catholic Church (not offered in 2019-20)
    • RELG 234 Angels, Demons, and Evil
    • RELG 238 The Sacred Body (not offered in 2019-20)
    • RELG 265 Religion and Violence: Hindus, Muslims, Jews (not offered in 2019-20)
    • RELG 287 Many Marys
    • RELG 353 Saints, Goddesses, and Whores (not offered in 2019-20)
    • SOAN 114 Modern Families: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Family
    • SOAN 226 Anthropology of Gender (not offered in 2019-20)
    • SOAN 257 Culture and Politics in India (not offered in 2019-20)
    • SOAN 323 Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment (not offered in 2019-20)
    • SOAN 325 Sociology of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction (not offered in 2019-20)
    • SOAN 395 Ethnography of Reproduction
    • SPAN 244 Spain Today: Recent Changes through Narrative and Film
    • WGST 112 Introduction to LGBT/Queer Studies
    • WGST 140 Politics of Women's Health
    • WGST 180 Power and Desire: Gender Relations in the Middle East (not offered in 2019-20)
    • WGST 200 Gender, Power and the Pursuit of Knowledge
    • WGST 234 Feminist and Queer Theory
    • WGST 240 Gender, Globalization and War
    • WGST 241 India Program: Gender & Sexuality in India (not offered in 2019-20)
    • WGST 310 Asian Mystiques Demystified (not offered in 2019-20)
    • WGST 396 Transnational Feminist Activism (not offered in 2019-20)
  •  Capstone Seminar: Sociology/Anthropology 325, Sociology/Anthropology 395, Women's and Gender Studies 310, Women's and Gender Studies 389 or Women's and Gender Studies 396. Other advanced seminars may be substituted for the designated capstone seminar only with the approval of both the instructor and the Women's and Gender Studies director.

Women's and Gender Studies Courses

WGST 110 Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies This course is an introduction to the ways in which gender structures our world, and to the ways feminists challenge established intellectual frameworks. However, because gender is not a homogeneous category but is differentiated by class, race, sexualities, ethnicity, and culture, we also consider the ways differences in social location intersect with gender. 6 credits; HI; Winter, Spring; Meera Sehgal, Iveta Jusova
WGST 112 Introduction to LGBT/Queer Studies This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary examination of sexual desires, sexual orientations, and the concept of sexuality generally, with a particular focus on the construction of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities. The course will look specifically at how these identities interact with other phenomena such as government, family, and popular culture. In exploring sexual diversity, we will highlight the complexity and variability of sexualities, both across different historical periods, and in relation to identities of race, class, and ethnicity. 6 credits; HI, IDS; Fall; Candace I Moore
WGST 130 Politics of Sex The politics of sex are everywhere--in media, law, medicine, and everyday life. To say that sex is political is to imply that sex intersects with other interests--nation and market building, globalization, and so forth. In this course, we will explore various "sex panics," as they ask us to revisit the boundaries of the "normative" in relation to sex and its intersections with race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, and ability. Sex panics--and, as we'll also explore, "sex scandals" occasion not only the revision of discourses on sex but on identity, politics, and cultures more broadly. 6 credits; NE, IDS; Not offered 2019-20
WGST 140 Politics of Women's Health This course will explore the biopolitics of women’s health in the context of the U.S. health care system and the roles that female-assigned and women-identified people play as health-care consumers, practitioners and feminist activists in women’s health and reproductive justice movements. We will pay particular attention to the social construction, medicalization and politicization of physiological processes such as menstruation, sexual activity, reproduction and menopause. Some questions we will consider are: How do class, race, gender, sexuality and disability intersect to produce inequalities in women’s health and in their access to the health care system?  How do different communities of women mobilize for reproductive justice? What impact does the medicalization of reproductive processes have on women’s health? Why and how is violence against women a mental and physical health issue? 6 credits; SI; Fall; Meera Sehgal
WGST 180 Power and Desire: Gender Relations in the Middle East This course investigates how gender identities and relationships between “men” and “women” have been articulated, constructed, and refashioned throughout the Middle East. Starting with problematizing fixed notions of gender and sexuality, we map prominent attitudes through visiting a diverse array of sources from the Qur’an, Sunna, and legal documents to historical and anthropological case studies, literature, and film from across the region. Exploring notions of femininity and masculinity, as well as attitudes towards homosexuality and transgendered populations, we witness their implications in case studies and stories, from a divorce court in Iran to a vampiric dystopia. 6 credits; SI, IS, WR2; Not offered 2019-20
WGST 200 Gender, Power and the Pursuit of Knowledge In this course we will examine whether there are feminist ways of knowing, the criteria by which knowledge is classified as feminist and the various methods used by feminists to produce this knowledge. Some questions that will occupy us are: How do we know what we know? Who does research? Does it matter who the researcher is? How does the social location (race, class, gender, sexuality) of the researcher affect research? Who is the research for? How can research relate to efforts for social change? While answering these questions, we will consider how different feminist researchers have dealt with them. 6 credits; SI, IS; Fall; Meera Sehgal
WGST 234 Feminist and Queer Theory We will explore feminist and queer debates about changing the world using a historical framework to situate these theories in the context of the philosophical and political thought of specific time periods and cultures. Thus, we will follow feminist and queer theories as they challenged, critiqued, subverted and revised liberalism, Marxism, critical race theories, multiculturalism, postmodernism and post-colonialism. We will focus on how theory emerges from and informs matters of practice. We will ask: What counts as theory? Who does it? How is it institutionalized? Who gets to ask the questions and to provide the answers? 6 credits; S/CR/NC; HI, IDS, WR2; Spring; Candace I Moore
WGST 240 Gender, Globalization and War This course examines the relationship between globalization, gender and militarism to understand how globalization and militarism are gendered, and processes through which gender becomes globalized and militarized. We will focus on the field of transnational feminist theorizing which both "genders the international" and "internationalizes gender." We will take up the different theoretical and disciplinary approaches to this project, as well as the perspectives and methods put forth for studying gender, race and class transnationally. We will explore how economic development, human rights, and the politics of resistance (particularly in the NGO sector) are gendered. 6 credits; SI; Spring; Meera Sehgal
WGST 241 India Program: Gender & Sexuality in India This course explores gender and sexuality as key institutions that structure and stratify Indian society through intersections with other systems of stratification (like class, caste, and region). We will focus on family and gender relations, heteronormativity, homosociality and queer subversions as well as feminism, women's and queer movements--situating these historically and regionally in South Asia. We will also consider how gender and sexuality in India have been represented in the western imagination. Toward the end of the course, we will pay close attention to the gendered and sexualized politics of globalization, economic development and tourism in India. 6 credits; SI, IS; Not offered 2019-20
WGST 243 Women's and Gender Studies in Europe Program: Situated Feminisms: Socio-Political Systems and Gender Issues Across Europe This course examines the historical emergence and contemporary conditions of women’s, feminist and LGBTQ activisms in four different Western and East Central European countries. We will study the impact of the European colonial heritage on the lives of women and minorities in various European communities, as well as the continuing legacies of the Second World War, the Cold War and of the EU expansion into Eastern Europe. We will zoom in onto such topics as reproductive rights, LGBT and queer politics, homonationalism, backlash against “gender ideology,” sex work, trafficking, immigrant/refugee issues, challenges faced by women of color and by Jewish people in Europe, the legacy of state socialism in Eastern Europe, as well as the implications of European feminisms in the history of colonialism. These topics will be addressed both comparatively and historically, stressing the ‘situated’ nature of women’s, feminist and LGBTQ issues and responses and taking into account the different sociopolitical national frameworks in which they occur. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the WGST Europe Program required. 8 credits; NE, IS; Fall; Iveta Jusová
WGST 244 Women's & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Cross-Cultural Feminist Methodologies This course is devoted to selected questions of (1) theory: what are the contours of feminist research in the social sciences and the humanities? and (2) practice: how does one actually conduct feminist research and, more specifically, how does one conduct feminist research cross-culturally? We will explore some of the following questions: What is the relationship between methodology and knowledge claims in feminist research? How do language and narrative shape experience? How do the practices of interpretation intersect with questions of the authority of the researching subject and her respondents? What are the power interests involved in keeping certain knowledges marginalized/subjugated? How do questions of gender/sex/ethnicity/class, as well as of national and cultural location, figure in these debates? And how is the traditional social science relationship between the researcher and the examined objects redefined within frameworks of feminist research? We will also pay close attention to questions arising from the hegemony of English as the global language of academia and of WGS as a discipline, and will reflect on what it means to move between different linguistic communities, with each being differently situated in the global hierarchies of power. The course will be centered around feminist approaches to these epistemological and methodological cross-cultural questions, foregrounding such schools of thought and such concepts as social constructivism, standpoint theory, situated knowledges, intersectionality, queer epistemology, and cross-cultural communication as a feminist practice. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the WGST Europe OCS Program required. 8 credits; NE, IS; Fall; Iveta Jusova
WGST 310 Asian Mystiques Demystified This class will focus on the topic of Asian sexuality and gender, considering traditional, transnational, and transgressive representations of Asian sexualities, femininities, masculinities and bodies. Often associated with paradoxical images of sensuality, spirituality, repression, and femininity, Asian sexuality has a long history, shaped by enduring colonial imaginaries and our transnational, capitalist present. Tracing a genealogy of Asian mystiques, we will study classical sources that have served as "prooftexts" for these images, and will then focus our attention on Asian literature, film, art, religious traditions, and social movements that have produced their own, often alternative, conceptions of Asian sexualities and gender. 6 credits; HI, IS; Not offered 2019-20
WGST 325 Women's & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Continental Feminist, Queer, Trans* Theories This course frames several central debates in feminist and queer theory in the context of historical and recent local and global pressures on feminist and LGBTQ scholarship and activism across Europe. Addressing the impact of Anglo-American influences in Women’s/Gender Studies, the course examines European, including Eastern European, approaches to key gender, ethnicity, and sexuality topics, raising questions about the transfer of feminist concepts across different cultures and languages. Some of the topics and themes explored include nationalism and gender, gendered dimensions of Western and Eastern European racisms, the historical influence of psychoanalysis on Continental feminist and queer theories, the implications of European feminisms in the history of colonialism, the biopolitics of gender, homonationalism, as well as Eastern European socialist/communist theories of women’s emancipation. Unique to the WGSE program is a focus on theories exploring symbolic (and gendered) dimensions of Eastern Europe as a location, and on Eastern European feminist responses and contributions to WGS scholarship. This course works hand in hand with the Situated Feminisms and Cross-Cultural Feminist Methodology courses taught on the WGSE program, and it centrally informs and frames the independent research that students conduct while in Europe. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the WGST Europe OCS program required. 8 credits; NE, IS; Fall; Iveta Jusova
WGST 389 Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Popular Culture This course will read representations of racial, gender, and sexual minorities in popular culture through the lenses of feminist, critical race, postcolonial, and queer theories. Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in the late 1980s to describe an approach to oppression that considered how structures of power act multiply on individuals based upon their interlocking racial, class, gender, sexual, and other identities. “Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Popular Culture” takes up the charge of intersectional analysis—rejecting essentialist theories of difference while exploring pluralities—to interpret diversity (or lack thereof) in film, television, and digital media. Prerequisite: Women's and Gender Studies 110 or 112 or Cinema and Media Studies 110 or instructor consent. 6 credits; HI, WR2, IDS; Winter; Candace I Moore
WGST 391 Independent Field Research in Europe This project is to be self-designed, and the topic and methodology as well as form of the presentation will be determined by the individual student’s major, research interests and needs. It should build on readings and work done by European women and/or sexual and ethnic minority populations, feminist and/or queer theory, feminist research, cross cultural theory and (if applicable) principles of field research. It should be transnational, cross-cultural and comparative, and ideally should involve active field work. Drawing on skills developed in the feminist and queer theory and methodology seminars, students will select appropriate research methods and will conduct a sustained research project based on resources located/developed by the student in three of the countries visited. The progress of each research project will be evaluated at regular intervals in relation to parameters established in conjunction with the Program Director (or an external project supervisor if applicable). Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Carleton-Antioch Program required. 8 credits; NE; Fall; Iveta Jusova
WGST 396 Transnational Feminist Activism This course focuses on transnational feminist activism in an era of globalization, militarism and religious fundamentalism. We will learn about the debates around different theories of social change, the challenges and pitfalls of global sisterhood and the various "pedagogies of crossing" borders. We will explore case studies of how feminists have collaborated, built networks, mobilized resources and coalitions for collective action, in addition to the obstacles and constraints they have encountered and surmounted in their search for gender and sexual justice. 6 credits; SI, IS, WR2; Not offered 2019-20; Meera Sehgal
WGST 400 Integrative Exercise 6 credits; S/NC; Winter, Spring