Bates College Catalog: Women and Gender Studies

The material on this page is from the 2002-03 catalog and may be out of date. Please check the current year's catalog for current information.

Women's and Gender Studies

Associate Professors Kinsman (Biology), Eames (Anthropology), Rand (Art), López (Spanish), Shulman (Mathematics), and Hill (Political Science), Chair; Assistant Professors Shankar (English), Herzig (Women's Studies), and Zou (Chinese)

Women's and Gender Studies at Bates is an interdisciplinary program of study. In addition to offering women's studies and gender studies courses, as well as specialized courses in methodology, the program draws its curriculum from courses taught by faculty members from across the disciplines and interdisciplinary programs. Faculty with expertise in a wide range of fields—including art, classics, languages, history, mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences, and interdisciplinary studies—contribute to the program's curriculum.

The goal of the Program in Women's and Gender Studies is to enable students to recognize and use gender as an effective analytical tool. This approach to social, cultural, and scientific inquiry can help us understand the realities and meanings of women's lives in many cultures and historical periods. Women's and gender studies not only increases what we know about women, it enriches what we know about men enabling us to understand how gender relations—the roles and statuses assigned to men and women—structure our societies, personal interactions, and public policies. The courses offered provide a cross-cultural comparison and encourage students to view women's experiences and gender relations from the perspectives of a variety of fields. Students may choose either to major or to pursue a secondary concentration in women and gender studies.

Cross-listed Courses. Note that unless otherwise specified, when a department/program references a course or unit in the department/program, it includes courses and units cross-listed with the department/program.

Major Requirements. Any student considering a major in women's and gender studies should take Women's and Gender Studies 100 and Women's and Gender Studies 250 before the end of the sophomore year. Students must complete the following set of requirements: a total of ten courses, including Women's and Gender Studies 100, 201, 250, 400, and 458 (senior thesis). In addition, one of the ten courses must be a 300- or 400-level core course. The remainder must be chosen from the list of women's and gender studies courses that follows. Beginning with students entering in fall 2000, major and secondary concentration requirements can be fulfilled only through women's and gender studies core courses. Students graduating in 2003 may continue to use component courses, but they are encouraged to choose core courses primarily. Core courses focus directly on women, gender, and/or sexuality. Component courses include approximately one-third (or more) women's studies or gender studies content.

The women's and gender studies course list represents only those courses that are currently part of the Bates curriculum. Students may use courses—including first-year seminars and topics courses—which were listed as women's and gender studies core or component courses in a previous year, provided the catalog year is one in which the student was matriculated. No more than one Short Term unit may be counted toward the major.

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, many courses in women's and gender studies have prerequisites in other departments. Many majors also develop a focus in one division or group of departments and need to supplement their women's and gender studies courses with other courses in that area of focus. Majors should plan their schedules carefully and are urged to consult regularly with the chair to ensure that their program has both breadth and depth. Majors should consider taking Women's and Gender Studies 400 in the junior year because this course includes theoretical review, which can help prepare them for the senior thesis.

A thesis advisor is chosen by each student, in consultation with the chair, according to the subject matter of the thesis. Planning for the senior thesis and choosing a thesis advisor begin in the junior year. Majors normally write a thesis in the second semester of the senior year and, with the assistance of their advisor, submit a thesis proposal to the Committee on Women's and Gender Studies, during the semester before thesis writing begins, that is, before Thanksgiving break to enroll in 458 (or, for those beginning to write the thesis in the fall semester, by 1 April).

Pass/Fail Grading Option. Aside from the thesis, which must be taken for a grade, there are no restrictions on the use of the pass/fail option within the major.

Secondary Concentration. In the fall of their junior year, students submit to the program committee a secondary concentration proposal consisting of seven courses. Normally, a secondary concentration in women's and gender studies consists of Women's and Gender Studies 100, 201, 250, at least two 300-level women's and gender studies courses, and two other committee-approved courses.

Pass/Fail Grading Option. There are no restrictions on the use of the pass/fail option within the secondary concentration.

Courses

WGST 100. Introduction to Women's Studies. An interdisciplinary study of women's experiences in cross-cultural and historical perspective. Emphasis is given to the diversity of women's lives and to the potential for solidarity among women divided by race, class, ethnicity, age, (dis)ability, sexuality, nationality, and religion. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every other year. R. Herzig.

EN/WS 121G. Asian American Women Writers. This course examines fictional, autobiographical, and critical writings by Asian American women including Sui Sin Far, Gish Jen, Maxine Hong Kingston, Trinh Minh-ha, Bharati Mukherjee, Tahira Naqvi, Cathy Song, Marianne Villanueva, and Hisaye Yamamoto from a sociohistorical perspective. Students explore their issues, especially with concerns of personal and cultural identity, as both Asian and American, as females, as minorities, as (often) postcolonial subjects. The course highlights the varied immigration and social histories of women from different Asian countries, often homogenized as "Oriental" in mainstream American cultural representations. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. Not open to students who have received credit for English 121G or Women's and Gender Studies 121G. Offered with varying frequency. L. Shankar.

RE/WS 200. Women's Journey: Still Waters Run Deep. Women in biblical literature, post-biblical literature, and in the oral literature of the Middle East are not silent bystanders. They actively define the world around them and pursue their own relationship with the divine, their environment, and the search for perfection. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. Not open to students who have received credit for Women's and Gender Studies 200 or Religion 200. Normally offered every other year. M. Caspi.

AA/WS 201. African American Women and Feminist Thought. African American history, like European American history, omits the struggles and contributions of its women. Using historical perspectives, the individual and collective experiences of African American women are examined. Particular attention is given to developing knowledge and understanding of African American women's 1) experiences of enslavement, 2) efforts at self-definition and self-sufficiency, 3) social and political activism, and 4) forging of Afra-American/multicultural/womanist/feminist thought. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 201 or Women's and Gender Studies 201. Normally offered every other year. Staff.

HI/WS 210. Technology in U. S. History. A survey of the development, distribution, and use of technology in the United States from colonial roadways to microelectronics, using primary and secondary source material. Subjects treated include the emergence of the factory system; the rise of new forms of power, transportation, and communication; sexual and racial divisions of labor; and the advent of corporate-sponsored scientific research. Enrollment limited to 40. Not open to students who have received credit for History 210 or Women's and Gender Studies 210. Normally offered every other year. R. Herzig.

CM/WS 219. Greek Myths and the Psychology of Gender. Ever since Freud argued that Sophocles' Oedipus Rex revealed the most important feature of human development, the Oedipal crisis, psychologists have used Greek myths to understand the human psyche and sexual difference. What do myths tell us about men, women, femaleness, maleness, in ancient Greece or today? Students examine and criticize how influential psychologists such as Freud have interpreted Greek myths and thereby influenced Western notions of gender and sex. This course emphasizes psychological interpretations of Greek myths. It therefore differs from and complements Classical and Medieval Studies 218 (Greek and Roman Myths). Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Classical and Medieval Studies 265. Offered with varying frequency. L. Maurizio.

INDS 239. Black Women in Music. Angela Davis states, "Black people were able to create with their music an aesthetic community of resistance, which in turn encouraged and nurtured a political community of active struggle for freedom." This course examines the role of black women as critics, composers, and performers who challenge externally defined controlling images. Topics include: black women in the music industry; black women in music of the African diaspora; and black women as rappers, jazz innovators, and musicians in the classical and gospel traditions. Cross-listed in African American studies, music, and women's and gender studies. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 239, Music 239, or Women's and Gender Studies 239. Normally offered every other year. L. Williams.

INDS 250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry. Interdisciplinarity involves more than a meeting of disciplines. Practitioners stretch methodological norms and reach across disciplinary boundaries. Through examination of a single topic, this course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods of analysis. Students examine what practitioners actually do and work to become practitioners themselves. Prerequisite(s): two courses in women's and gender studies, African American studies, or American cultural studies, one of which must be an introductory course in any one of the programs. (i.e. WGST 100 or AAS 140). Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and women's and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 40. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 250, American Cultural Studies 250, or women's and Gender Studies 250. Normally offered every year. R. Herzig. Course prerequisite modification beginning Fall 2003.

HI/WS 252. A Woman's Place: Region and Gender in the United States, 1800-1950. We often take the northeast as a given perspective in American history, thereby marginalizing people and events of other places. This course undermines the northeastern standard in women's history, by considering not only the social construction of region and gender, but by giving attention to the histories of diversely "placed" women. Using a case study approach, this course looks at women from the early 1800s through to the present and the way they shape, traverse, and contest the American geographies they inhabit or are assigned, whether public or private, rural or urban, temporary or lifelong. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. Offered with varying frequency. M. Creighton.

JA/WS 255. Modern Japanese Women Writers. In its beginnings, Japanese literature was considered a female art: the greatest writers of the classical period were women, while men at times assumed a female persona in order to write. How do Japanese women writers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries portray the complexities of today's world? How do they negotiate the gendered institutions of the society in which they live? What values do they assign to being a woman, to being Japanese? What significance does the female canon hold for them as modern and postmodern writers? Students consider issues such as family, power, gender roles, selfhood, and the female body in reading a range of novels, short stories, and poems. Authors may include Enchi and Fumiko, Ohba Minako, Kurahashi Yumiko, Tsushima Yuko, Tawara Machi, Yamada Eimi, and Yoshimoto Banana. Readings and discussion are in English. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Japanese 250. Normally offered every other year. S. Strong.

INDS 260. U.S. Latina/Chicana Writings. This course rests on two conceptual underpinnings: Gloria Anzaldua's Neueva Mestiza", and the more recent "U.S. Pan-latinidad" postulated by the Latina Feminist Group. The literary and theoretical production of Chicanas and Latinas is examined through those lenses. Particular attention is given to developing a working knowledge of the key historical and cultural discourses engaged by these writings, and the various contemporary United States Latina and Chicana positionalities vis à vis popular ethnic representations. The course also examines the function given to marketable cultural productions depending on the different agents involved. Open to first-year students. Cross-listed in American Cultural Studies, Spanish, and Women's and Gender Studies. C. Aburto Guzmán. New course beginning Fall 2003.

TH/WS 264. Voice and Gender. This course focuses on the gender-related differences in voice from the beginning of language acquisition through learning and development of a human voice. A variety of interdisciplinary perspectives is examined according to the different determinants of voice production-physiological, psychological, social interactional, and cultural. Students explore how race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and age affect vocal expression. Students also analyze "famous" and "attractive" human voices and discuss what makes them so. Recommended background: Theater 263 and/or Women's and Gender Studies 100. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Theater 264 or Women's and Gender Studies 264. Normally offered every other year. K. Vecsey.

AA/WS 266. Gender, Race, and Science. Examines the intersections of gender and race in the norms and practices of modern science. Using methods drawn from philosophy, history, sociology, and anthropology, the course investigates: 1) participation in the sciences by white women and people of color; 2) the formation of scientific concepts of racial and sexual difference; and 3) the influence of gender and race on key scientific categories such as nature, objectivity, and experimentation. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Women's and Gender Studies 266. Normally offered every other year. R. Herzig.

HI/WS 267. Blood, Genes, and American Culture. The course places recent popular and scientific discussions of human heredity and genetics in social, political, and historical context. Topics include racial categories of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, eugenics, the "gay gene," cloning, reproductive rights, the patenting and commercialization of genetic material, The Bell Curve, and the Human Genome Project. Recommended background: course work in biology. Enrollment limited to 40. Not open to students who have received credit for History 267 or Women's and Gender Studies 267. Offered with varying frequency. R. Herzig.

AN/WS 275. Gender Relations in Comparative Perspective. A comparative analysis, utilizing new feminist approaches in anthropology and women's studies, of the social construction of gender in contemporary societies, with a focus on West African, East Asian, and North American notions of gender identity and gender relations. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Anthropology 275 or Women's and Gender Studies 275. Normally offered every year. E. Eames.

AN/WS 276. Sex, Desire, and Culture. Is sexuality an innate, universal category of human experience? What determines the object of an individual's desire? How does the body become "sexed," reflecting social and objective notions of sexuality and gender? An introduction to the anthropology of sexuality this burgeoning field of study, this course explores the history of the field-the influential figures and dominant theories-and contemporary perspectives in the cross-cultural study of sexuality. A central premise of this course is the understanding that sexuality is a dynamic force, mediated by historical and cultural factors. Topics include ritualized sexual behavior, sexual identity, alternative sexualities (e.g., two-spirit), and the body modifications. Recommended background: coursework in Anthropology. H. Lindkvist. New course beginning Winter 2003.

AR/WS 287. Women, Gender, Visual Culture. This course concerns women as makers, objects, and viewers of visual culture, with emphasis on the later twentieth century, and the roles of visual culture in the construction of "woman" and other gendered identities. Topics include the use of the visual in artistic, political, and historical representations of gendered and transgendered subjects; the visualization of gender in relation to race, ethnicity, nationality, class, age, sex, and sexuality; and matters of censorship, circulation, and resources that affect the cultural production of people oppressed and/or marginalized by sex and/or gender. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 287. Normally offered every other year. E. Rand.

EN/WS 297. Feminisms. The course develops the ability of students to analyze gender in relation to other issues, including race, class, and sexuality. Topics include the multiple theories of how these issues intersect in literature, including black feminism, socialist feminism, queer theory, deconstruction, and psychoanalytic theory. Some attention will be paid to media feminism: both the brand of feminism popular in current movies and TV shows, and media reactions to feminism. Not open to students who have received credit for EN/WS 395L. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. (Critical Thinking.) C. Malcolmson. New course beginning Fall 2003.

PY/WS 343. Women, Culture, and Health. This course examines a variety of perspectives on women's health issues, including reproductive health, body image, sexuality, substance use and abuse, mental health, cancer, AIDS, heart disease, poverty, work, violence, access to health care, and aging. Each topic is examined in sociocultural context, and the complex relationship between individual health and cultural demands or standards is explored. Prerequisite(s): Psychology 211 or 303. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Psychology 343 or Women's and Gender Studies 343. Offered with varying frequency. K. Low.

WGST 350. Walking the Edge: About Borders. What happens to identity when we move beyond conventional definitions of space, region, territory, or nation? What happens when a hybrid or mestiza subject defies traditional categories of nationality, ethnicity, race, or gender? This seminar explores the fluid, unpredictable dynamic of "borderlands," those places where identity and relationships are always in process. The course raises questions about representations and expressions of those who inhabit the borderlands—women of color, women of mixed heritage, women of multiple nationality—in order to reconceptualize notions of the self. Prerequisite(s): one women's and gender studies or literature course. Enrollment limited to 20. Offered with varying frequency. C. Aburto Guzmán, M. Rice-DeFosse.

WGST 360. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every year. Staff.

WGST 365. Special Topics. A course or seminar offered from time to time and reserved for a special topic selected by the Committee on Women's and Gender Studies. Staff.

WGST 365A. Science and Colonialism. From the collection of flora to the observation of astronomical phenomena, Western sciences came of age as part of the ethos of European colonialism. This reading-intensive course examines connections between scientific observation and experimentation and projects of European expansion from the seventeenth century to the present. Prerequisite(s): one course in women's and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 22. Offered with varying frequency. R. Herzig.

PL/WS 365B. Sex, Love, and Marriage. This seminar focuses on differing feminist conceptions of love, sexuality, and marriage and other domestic partnerships. Readings include critical examination of writings on both heterosexual and homosexual relationships and their political and cultural implications. Prerequisite(s): one course in philosophy or women's and gender studies. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. S. Conly.

EN/WS 395E. Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Known among Victorians as the "Queen of the Circulating Libraries," Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) was immensely popular in her day. Reading a selection of Braddon's best- and lesser-known works, students explore the reasons for her popularity. They consider the subversive and conservative strains in Braddon's writing, her aims and accomplishments as a "sensation novelist," and the significance of her own unconventional lifestyle. Readings include a number of Braddon's novels, short stories, and plays, as well as biographical and critical studies. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Written permission of the instructor is required. L. Nayder. New course beginning Fall 2003.

EN/WS 395L. Feminist Literary Criticism. This seminar examines feminist literary theories and the implications and consequences of theoretical choices. It raises interrelated questions about forms of representation, the social construction of critical categories, cross-cultural differences among writers and readers, and the critical reception of women writers. Students explore the use of literary theory through work with diverse texts. Enrollment limited to 15. Written permission of the instructor is required. Not open to students who have received credit for English 395L or Women's and Gender Studies 400B. Normally offered every year. L. Shankar, C. Malcolmson, C. Taylor.

EN/WS 395S. Asian American Women Writers, Filmmakers, and Critics. This seminar studies from a literary and a sociohistorical perspective the fiction, memoirs, and critical theories of Asian American women such as Meena Alexander, Rey Chow, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Ginu Kamani, Maxine Hong Kingston, Lisa Lowe, Bapsi Sidhwa, Cathy Song, Shani Mootoo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Joy Kogawa, and Hisaye Yamamoto. It explores their constructions of personal and national identity, as hybridized Asians and Americans, and as postcolonial diasporics making textual representations of real and "imaginary" homelands. Films by Trinh T. Minh-ha, Indu Krishnan, Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair, Jayasri Hart, and Renee Tajima are also analyzed through critical lenses. Enrollment limited to 15. Written permission of the instructor is required. Not open to students who have received credit for English 395S. Offered with varying frequency. L. Shankar.

WGST 400. Junior-Senior Seminar. This seminar is an advanced inquiry into feminist theories and methods. Drawing on work in several disciplinary fields, students ask how using gender as a category of analysis illuminates and/or changes the questions of other disciplines. Students also investigate the development of core theories and methods within women's and gender studies. Required of all majors. Normally, one 400-level seminar is offered each year.

WGST 400C. Understanding Disease. Some recent scholars have argued that most human diseases have specific genetic or biochemical etiologies. Others have claimed that "disease" as such does not exist outside human cultural practices and perceptions. This course considers debates about the nature, causes, and consequences of human disease, situating specific illnesses in their historical and cultural contexts. Students examine the rise of third-party insurance; the birth of the germ theory and biomedical model of disease; the professionalization of medical care; practices of representation; and the role of class, gender, and race in disease research and treatment. Prerequisite(s): five core courses in women's and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. R. Herzig.

WGST 400D. Global Feminisms. A seminar exploring feminist movements in an international context. Topics include divisions of labor and the "global assembly line," immigration and transnationalism, and postcolonialism and cultural imperialism. Students analyze local and international feminist activism and examine multiple definitions of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationhood. Prerequisite(s): five core courses in women's and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 15. Written permission of the instructor is required. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

WGST 457, 458. Senior Thesis. The research and writing of an extended essay or report, or the completion of a creative project, under the supervision of a faculty member. Majors normally register for 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both Women's and Gender Studies 457 in the fall semester and 458 in the winter semester. Normally offered every year. Staff.

Short Term Units

JA/WS s21. Geisha Fantasy: Representations of An Icon. This course examines the stereotypes of the cultural category of geisha in film, literature, visual culture, and the performing arts. Students locate the discourse surrounding the geisha in both Japan and the United States, which leads to themes of "orientatalism" (differentiating self and other in a way that hierarchizes the self), "self- orientalism," and nihonjinron (doctrine of a Japanese essence). Students focus on historical contexts in which the category of geisha was formed and developed largely as a projection of male desire and male fantasy, and explore the homogenizing and dichotomizing of racial and sexual identities in the construction of the geisha. Readings are conducted in English. L. Winston. New unit beginning Short Term 2003.

WGST s24. Technology in New England. A historical survey of the development and use of technologies in New England, focusing on gendered divisions of labor. Students travel to regional historic sites, factories, and corporations in order to examine the machines and processes under consideration. Topics include colonial manufactures, early textile production, extractive industries, infrastructure development, and biotechnology. Enrollment limited to 12. Offered with varying frequency. R. Herzig.

EN/WS s26. Felicia Skene. This unit examines the life and writings of the largely forgotten Victorian novelist and social reformer, Felicia Skene (1821-1899). Students investigate Skene's life story and read a number of her works, including The Inheritance of Evil, Or, the Consequence of Marrying a Deceased Wife's Sister (1849) and "Penitentiaries and Reformatories" (1865). Focusing on the novel Hidden Depths (1866), students research the subject of Victorian prostitution, its primary theme, and engage in the research necessary to produce a new edition of that work. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Not open to students who have received credit for English s26 or Women's and Gender Studies s26. Offered with varying frequency. L. Nayder.

PS/WS s32. Global Flows: Sex, Politics, and War. Globalization processes underlie profound changes in politics from the state to "private" lives. This unit focuses on sex-as an aspect of international trade, war, and politics—to uncover how power is structured, used, and challenged in the global age. Sex trafficking, militarized prostitution, birth control, and human rights campaigns are some of the topics through which students examine flows of people, ideas, capital, and political strategies. In doing so, students ask: How do gender relations and gender ideology affect global restructuring? How does globalization shape notions of manhood, womanhood, and the ways people live out those ideas in sex lives, politics, and war? Recommended background: any of the following, Political Science 168, 171, 222, 232, 234, 235, 243, 245, 289, 329, 345, 346, 347, 352, 383, Women's and Gender Studies 234 or s25. Enrollment limited to 20. Offered with varying frequency. L. Hill.

WGST s50. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every year. Staff.

The following courses meet the 2002-2003 requirements for the women's and gender studies major.