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Women's and Gender Studies (WGST)

Director: Professor Barbara Allen

Assistant Professor: Meera Sehgal

Committee Members: Barbara Allen, Carol Donelan, Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, Clara Hardy, Annette Igra, Diane M. Nemec Ignashev, Annette Nierobisz, Meera Sehgal, Parna Sengupta, Kathryn Sparling

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 Concentration 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, an entry point to the major, is a topical introduction 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, Women's and Gender Studies 396, 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 a Major

Total of 66 credits

One introductory course, Women's and Gender Studies 110

One methodology course, Women's and Gender Studies 200 or 234

One capstone seminar, 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 Women's and Gender Studies 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 Courses

WGST 100. The Politics of Women's Health This course will explore the politics of women's health from the perspective of women of different races, ethnicities, classes and sexual orientations in the U.S. The organization of the health care system and women's activism (as consumers and health care practitioners) shall frame our explorations of menstruation, sexuality, nutrition, body image, fertility control, pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause. We will cover basic facts about the female body and pay particular attention to adjustments the body makes during physiological events (i.e. menstruation, sexual and reproductive activity, and menopause). We will focus on the medicalization of these processes and explore alternatives to this medicalization. 6 cr., S/CR/NC, SS, RAD, FallM. Sehgal

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 cr., HU, RAD, Winter,SpringA. Igra, D. Nemec Ignashev

WGST 200. Feminist Ways of Knowing 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 cr., SS, WinterM. Sehgal

WGST 234. Feminist Theory Feminism has to do with changing the world. We will explore feminist debates about changing the world using a historical framework to situate feminist theories in the context of the philosophical and political thought of specific time periods and cultures. Thus, we will follow feminist theories as they challenged, critiqued, subverted and revised liberalism, Marxism, existentialism, socialism, anarchism, 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 cr., SS, RAD, FallB. Allen

WGST 396. Transnational Feminisms This course examines the field of transnational feminist theorizing and the practices of global feminisms. Using a comparative feminist solidarity model, we will learn how to cross the borders of nation, race, class and sexuality to engage with differently situated people. We will focus on postcolonial feminist critiques of the western feminist lens and start developing self-reflexivity in terms of learning how to situate one's identity and work transnationally. We will map out the transnational dimensions of gender, race, class and sexuality, focusing in particular on nationalism, religious fundamentalism, militarism, globalization, and the politics of resistance. 6 cr., ND, RAD, SpringM. Sehgal

WGST 400. Integrative Exercise 6 cr., ND, Fall,Winter,SpringStaff


Other Courses Pertinent to Women's and Gender Studies

ARTH 220 Gender and Genre in the Floating World: Japanese Prints

ARTH 223 Women in Art (not offered in 2009-2010)

ASLN 231 Intercultural Texts: Japanese and Indian Women Writing Abroad (not offered in 2009-2010)

CAMS 225 Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream

CAMS 226 The Melodramatic Imagination: Visual Storytelling in Popular Media and Fine Art (not offered in 2009-2010)

CLAS 114 Gender and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity

ENGL 318 The Gothic Spirit (not offered in 2009-2010)

ENGL 319 The Rise of the Novel

ENGL 327 Victorian Novel

ENGL 395 Seductive Fictions

FREN 241 Marginality and Renaissance in Francophone America

HIST 222 U.S. Women's History to 1877 (not offered in 2009-2010)

HIST 223 U.S. Women's History Since 1877 (not offered in 2009-2010)

HIST 229 Gender and Work in U.S. History (not offered in 2009-2010)

HIST 259 Women in South Asia: Histories, Narratives, and Representation (not offered in 2009-2010)

HIST 330 Gender, Ethics and Power in Medieval France (not offered in 2009-2010)

JAPN 234 Modern Japanese Novel in Translation: Mothers/Daughters; Fathers/Sons (not offered in 2009-2010)

JAPN 236 Classical Japanese Fiction: The Tale of Genji and Its World in Translation (not offered in 2009-2010)

POSC 275 Identity Politics in America: Ethnicity, Gender, Religion (not offered in 2009-2010)

POSC 355 Contemporary Feminist Thought: Identity, Culture and Rights* (not offered in 2009-2010)

PSYC 224 Psychology of Gender

RELG 224 Women and Christianity (not offered in 2009-2010)

RELG 230 Feminist Theologies

RELG 236 Gender and Religion in the African Diaspora (not offered in 2009-2010)

RELG 244 Prophetesses and Prostitutes, Murderesses and Matriarchs: Gender Roles in the Hebrew Bible (not offered in 2009-2010)

RELG 258 Women and Buddhism (not offered in 2009-2010)

RELG 284 The Virgin of Guadalupe (not offered in 2009-2010)

RELG 322 Gender and God-Talk: Christian Feminist Theologies (not offered in 2009-2010)

SOAN 226 Anthropology of Gender

SOAN 395 Ethnography of Reproduction

SPAN 244 Spain Today: Recent Changes through Narrative and Film

SPAN 255 Women Dramatists in Latin America: Staging Conflicts (not offered in 2009-2010)

SPAN 344 Women Writers in Latin America: Challenging Gender and Genre (not offered in 2009-2010)

THEA 351 Women Playwrights/Women's Roles (not offered in 2009-2010)