Women's Studies in the University of California

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


I have been writing a lot lately about the budget crisis in the University of California system. Tuition hikes, layoffs and other budget cutting measures have stirred the ire of students and faculty alike. The sad fact is that due to the reckless overspending by the wackos in Sacramento, money has pretty much run out as far as the UC system is concerned. I firmly believe that there are certain academic studies that have been badly over-emphasized and should be considered for cut-back if not elimination.

I have accumulated the course offerings of the various University of California Women's Studies departments. In some cases, the undergraduate catalog of courses was easily cut and pasted. In other cases, I have had to cut and paste the pdf link for the catalog. I would encourage the reader to peruse the classes that are taught and ask if these courses are really necessary. Some courses, in my view, could be justified, but an entire departmental chair? The reader should also ask if, after majoring in women's studies, what does that prepare a student to do in the real world-other than become a professor teaching the same nonsense to the next generation of students?


UC Berkeley

http://womensstudies.berkeley.edu/documents/GWS_Spring_CL_2010.pdf



UC Davis (Undergraduate courses)


Course Descriptions
Lower Division Courses
20. Cultural Representations of Gender (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course specified for the Women’s Studies major. Interdisciplinary investigation of how specific cultures represent gender difference. Examine a variety of cultural forms and phenomena including film, television, literature, music, popular movements, and institutions. GE credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt

25. Gender and Global Cinema (4)
Lecture—3 hours; film viewing—3 hours. The role gender plays in film history/culture in various geographical contexts and in aspects of contemporary globalization. Films from nations such as China, Colombia, Cuba, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Korea, New Zealand, and the U.S. GE credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt

50. Introduction to Women and Gender Studies (4)
Lecture—3 hours; discussion—1 hour. Interdisciplinary introduction surveys and integrates anthropological, artistic, cultural studies, historical, legal, literary, philosophical, psychological, scientific, and sociological perspectives on the study of gender and its relationship to race, sexuality, class, and other aspects of social experience. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt

60. Introduction to Feminist Interpretations of Western Thought (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. A critical introduction to major traditions of social thinking in the West from a feminist perspective. Not offered every year. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt

70. Theory and History of Sexualities (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Key issues in the social construction, organization, and reproduction of sexualities such as the intersection of sexual identity with gender, race, ethnicity, and class, and the relation between movements for sexual liberation and the regulation of the body. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div.



80. Special Topics in Women’s Studies (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. In-depth examination of a women’s studies topic related to the research interest of the instructor. May be repeated for credit when topic differs. Limited enrollment.

90X. Lower Division Seminar (2)
Seminar—2 hours. Examination of a special topic in Women’s Studies through shared readings, discussions, and written assignments. Offered in alternate years.

91. Research Seminar in the Transnational Production and Consumption of Fashion (1-2)
Seminar—1-2 hours. Preparation for a research conference. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

98. Directed Group Study (1-5)
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. (P/NP grading only.)

99. Special Study for Undergraduates (1-5)
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. (P/NP grading only.)
Upper Division Courses

102. Colonialism, Nationalism, and Women (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course specified for Women’s Studies major. Explores key dimensions of women’s relationship to colonialism and nationalism in one or more societies. GE credit: SocSci, Div

103. Introduction to Feminist Theory (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course specified for the Women’s Studies major. Introduction to the emergence of feminist theory and to key concepts in feminist theorizing. Examination of past and current debates over sexuality, race, identity politics, and the social construction of women’s experience.

104. Feminist Approaches to Inquiry (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course specified for the Women’s Studies major. Feminist applications and transformations of traditional disciplinary practices; current issues and methodologies in feminist interdisciplinary work.

130. Feminism and the Politics of Family Change (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: any Women’s Studies course or Sociology 131 or 132. An examination of contemporary conflicts over family values and the changing family from a feminist perspective. Offered in alternate years. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div

137. Feminist Interpretations of Contemporary Western Thought (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course in Women’s Studies, or consent of instructor. Introduction to deciphering, demystifying, and interpreting poststructuralist, postmodern, and postcolonial thought from a feminist perspective: applications to gender, race, sexuality, and class. Not offered every year. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.



138. Transnational Studies of Dress, Fashion, and Gender (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course in Women’s Studies or Textiles and Clothing 7, 107, or 174. Dress and fashion as cultural communication, aesthetic expression, capitalist commodity. History, sociology, semiotics of fashion. Fashion as means of gender oppression and liberation. Use of dress in identity construction across cultures. Clothing workers on the global assembly line. Not offered every year. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.



139. Feminist Cultural Studies (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course in Women’s Studies or American Studies. The histories, theories, and practices of feminist traditions within Cultural Studies. (Same as course American Studies 139.) GE credit: SocSci, Div, Wrt.

140. Gender and Law (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course in Women’s Studies. Exploration of women’s legal rights in historical and contemporary context, discussing a variety of legal issues and applicable feminist theories. Topics include constitutional equal protection, discrimination in employment and education, sexual orientation discrimination, and the regulation of abortion. GE credit: SocSci, Div.

158. Contemporary Masculinities (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course specified for the Women’s Studies major. A multicultural study of contemporary trends in masculinity and the economic, social and political forces that have shaped them. Topics may include men’s movements, ethnic nationalist masculinities, and images of masculinity in popular culture. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div.

160. Representations of Women of Color in Cinema (4)
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; film viewing—3 hours. Prerequisite: course 20 or another film course. The representations of women of color in commercial and independent films from a feminist perspective. GE credit: ArtHum, Div.

162. Feminist Film Theory and Criticism (4)
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; film-viewing—3 hours. Prerequisite: one course from the Women’s Studies major and Humanities 10 or consent of instructor. Historical overview of and contemporary issues in feminist film theory, including representation, spectatorship, and cultural production. Film stars, women filmmakers, and the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, and class in films and their audiences. Offered in alternate years. GE credit: ArtHum, Div.

164. Topics in Gender and Cinematic Representation (4)
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; film-viewing—3 hours. Prerequisite: one course from the Women’s Studies major and Humanities 10 or consent of instructor. Examination of a specific topic within the broad rubric of gender and cinema. Possible topics include Latinas in Hollywood; gender, nation, cinema; and gender and film genre. Topics vary. May be repeated twice for credit when topic differs. Offered in alternate years. GE credit: ArtHum, Div.

170. Queer Studies (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: course 20, or 50, or 70, or consent of instructor. Study of queer sexualities, identities, theories, practices. Alternative sexualities as historical, social, and cultural constructions in intersections with race, gender, class, nationality. Interdisciplinary exploration of sexual liberation and the regulation of sexuality through history, theory and expressive cultural forms. GE credit: ArtHum, or SocSci, Div, Wrt. Not offered every year.

Comment: When I was growing up, the word "queer" was a pejorative. Now it's in fashion?


178A-F. Transnationalism and Writing by Women of Color (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course in Women’s Studies, or consent of instructor. Writings by women of color in a transnational framework, understood in their cultural, socio-economic, and historical contexts. The interrelation among gender, writing, nationalism, and transnationalism, with focus on women’s writing in specific geographic/national locations and their diasporas: (A) The Arab World; (B) Asia; (C) The Caribbean; (D) Africa; (E) Diasporic Women Writers in Europe; (F) Topics on Women Writers of Color. Not offered every year. GE credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.

179. Gender and Literature (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course in Women’s Studies, or consent of instructor. Role of literature, especially novels, in constructing, challenging, and transforming normative genders in society. Transhistorical and transnational focus on gender in its intersections with race, class, sexuality, and politics. Not offered every year. GE credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.

180. Women of Color Writing in the United States (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: course 20 or 50. Literature, especially novels, written by contemporary women of color in the United States, understood in their socio-economic, cultural and historical contexts. GE credit: ArtHum, Div.

182. Globalization, Gender and Identity (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: course 50. Feminist theories on affects of gender on self and identity and cross cultural study as it intersects gender with race, class, ethnicity. Impact of globalization processes on gender and identity. Offered in alternate years. GE credit: SocSci, Div, Wrt.

184. Gender in the Arab World (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: course 50. Examination of the history, culture, and social/political/economic dynamics of gender relations and gendering in the Arab world. GE credit: SocSci, Div, Wrt.

187. Gender and Social Policy (4)
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: upper division standing and a course in Women’s Studies. The role of gender in the creation of social policies, especially with respect to issues brought into the policy arena by contemporary feminism. Offered in alternate years. GE credit: SocSci, Div.

189. Special Topics in Women and Gender Studies (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Prerequisite: one course from the Women’s Studies major. In-depth examination of a women’s studies topic related to the research interests of the instructor. May be repeated once for credit when topic differs. Not offered every year.

190. Senior Seminar (4)
Seminar—4 hours. Prerequisite: senior standing in Women’s Studies. Capstone course for senior Women’s Studies majors, which focuses on current issues on feminism as they impact theory, public policy, and practice.

191. Capstone Seminar (4)
Seminar—4 hours. Prerequisite: course 104 or Textiles and clothing 107, and course 194HA, course 199, or Textiles and Clothing 199, or consent of instructor. Revision, completion, and presentation of senior research or creative project. Creating a multimedia website for publishing research and creative projects. GE credit: Wrt.

192. Internship in Women’s Studies (1-12)
Internship—3-36 hours; written report. Prerequisite: completion of a minimum of 84 units and consent of instructor; enrollment dependent on availability of intern positions with priority to Women’s Studies majors. Supervised internship and study in positions/institutional settings dealing with gender-related problems or issues, as for example, a women’s center, affirmative action office, advertising agency, or social welfare agency. Final written report on internship experience. (P/NP grading only.)

193. Gender and Global Issues Internship Seminar (2)
Seminar—2 hours. Prerequisite: course 192 concurrently. The ethics of working in communities and community projects, emphasizing feminist understandings of activism, communities, globalization, multiculturalism, and the politics of institutions, agencies, and organizations. May be repeated for credit. (P/NP grading only.)

194HA-194HB. Senior Honors Project in Women’s Studies (4-6)
Independent study—12 hours. Prerequisite: senior standing, Women’s Studies major, and adviser’s approval. In consultation with an adviser, students complete a substantial research paper or significant creative project on a Women’s Studies topic. (Deferred grading only, pending completion of sequence.)

195. Thematic Seminar in Women’s Studies (4)
Seminar—4 hours. Prerequisite: two courses specified for women’s studies major. Group study of a topic, issue or area in feminist theory and research involving intensive reading and writing. May be repeated for credit when topic differs. Limited enrollment. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div.

197T. Tutoring in Women’s Studies (1-4) Tutoring—3-12 hours. Prerequisite: upper division standing and consent of director. Leading small, voluntary discussion groups affiliated with a Women’s Studies course. May be repeated for credit for a total of 8 units. (P/NP grading only.)

198. Directed Group Study (1-5)
Prerequisite: upper division standing; consent of instructor. (P/NP grading only.)

199. Special Study for Advanced Undergraduates (1-5)
Prerequisite: upper division standing; consent of instructor. (P/NP grading only.)

Graduate Courses
200A. Current Issues in Feminist Theory (4)
Seminar—4 hours. Current issues in feminist theory; techniques employed to build feminist theory in various fields.

200B. Problems in Feminist Research (4)
Seminar—4 hours. Prerequisite: course 200A with a grade of B+ or better. Application of feminist theoretical perspectives to the interdisciplinary investigation of a problem or question chosen by the instructor(s). May be repeated for credit when subject area differs.

201. Special Topics in Feminist Theory and Research (4)
Lecture/discussion—4 hours. Explores in depth a topic in feminist theory and research related to the research interests of the instructor. May be repeated for credit when topic differs. Limited enrollment.

250. Cultural Study of Masculinities (4)
Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor. Interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the social and cultural construction of masculinities; attention to the effects of biology, gender, race, class, sexual and national identities; criticism of oral, printed, visual, and mass mediated texts, and of social relations and structures. (Same course as American Studies 250.)

299. Special Study for Graduate Students (1-12)
(S/U grading only.)

Professional Course
396. Teaching Assistant Training Practicum (1-4)
Prerequisite: graduate standing. May be repeated for credit. (S/U grading only).



UC Irvine



"Gender and popular culture permeate almost every aspect of our lives. The moments and ways they come together are powerful in shaping how we come to think of who we are and what we should aspire to be. This course will teach you to critically analyze gender as it has been encoded primarily in US popular culture and as it interrelates to commonly held and frequently unquestioned assumptions about race, class, gender, and sexuality.


Modes of popular culture enable certain ways of being in the world while marginalizing others. How is your sense of gender constructed by the kinds of popular media and consumer goods that surround you? How are your desires shaped by what is available to watch, play, listen to, and buy? How are contemporary entertainments shaped by earlier histories of spectacle and display from the nineteenth century, which were embedded in the practices of slavery and empire? How do your desires shape and remake the objects and images that circulate for different purposes than originally intended? How are your relationships with others influenced by the popular amusements that surround you? To answer these questions, we will carefully study how our negotiations of gender norms are shaped through several prominent sites of popular culture: advertising, television, film, performance, music, print media, and the Internet. You will learn to decode and interpret the gendered messages and meanings in select examples from each of these sites. You will also learn to understand how political and economic inequalities in the culture industries structure our choices, especially in terms of what it means to inhabit or resist norms of masculinity and femininity."




WOMN ST (S10) 100C KEY CONCEPTS IN FEMINIST CULTURAL STUDIES KANG, L.
Feminist cultural studies attempts an interdisciplinary examination of how various forms of culture—literature, art, film, journalism, television, video, music, design, architecture—shape our world views and everyday experiences of embodiment, desire, work, play, social interaction, place and space. Utilizing a multiperspectival study of political economy, textual meanings, and audience reception, this course will examine the following key concepts: aesthetics, built environment, consumption, discourse, emotional branding, fashion, globalization, habitus, ideology, just-in-time, knowledge, leisure, mobility, neoliberalism, orientalism, postsuburban, queer, representation, spectacle, taste, urban, value, work, xenophobia, youth, zone. We will focus on specific cases studies located in Orange County and Southern California and trace their connections to transnational and global networks of production, consumption, exchange, and movement.



WOMN ST (S10) 120C ENGENDERING COLONIAL BODIES SHAH, P.
This course focuses on the relation between power and the body; specifically how colonialism produces gender through something that we call a “body.” We will explore how discourses of health, sexuality, fashion, and popular culture construct gendered, sexualized, and raced bodies in colonial and postcolonial times, ending with a examination of the bodies produced in a global "age of terror."





WOMN ST (S10) 157B QUEER LIVES&KNOWLDG SCHEPER, J.
How does the queer past inform and shape the queer present and future? This course looks at the elaboration of non-normative sexual identities, practices, and communities from the 19th century to the present. Focusing on scholarship by queer theorists of color (Black Queer Studies Reader; Jose Munoz’s Disidentifications) this course foregrounds thinking about sexuality and gender in relation to histories of colonialism, slavery, diaspora, and nationalism. In the nineteenth century, categories for non-normative sexualities were popularized by legal-medical discourse that linked discourses of sexual pathologization to scientific racism and colonial spectacles of the body. How have these histories shaped twenty-first century debates, characterized by provocative headlines such as “Gay is the New Black.” This course examines the uses of history by queer subjects to produce queer political responses that perform across differences of race, class, nation, and gender and produce ways of knowing that resist pathologizing practices in order to imagine queer futures. How do ideas of “ephemera” and “disappearance”; “publics” and “counter-publics” interact with impulses to “archive” and “perform” racialized queer experience? Exploring the concept of queer cultural recycling, this course foregrounds visual and cultural production and the interplay of queer theory and practice across various cultural, political, and artistic mediums and contexts.





WOMN ST (S10) 158B WOMEN OF COLOR KIM, K.


WOMN ST (S10) 170 GENDER & JPN LIT KLEIN, S.


WOMN ST (S10) 171 GENDER, FEMINISM, AND HISTORY STAFF
From the Salem witch trials to 21st century gender-based workplace
>> discrimination, U.S. law has incorporated and influenced social
>> constructions of gender. This course examines the intersections of
>> law and gender by analyzing the gender assumptions that shape the way
>> law is written and interpreted, and the impact that law has on
>> society's notions of gender in areas including family, workplace,
>> pornography, and abortion.
cross listed with Histroy 146H, 28155
>>


WOMN ST (S10) 174 BABES IN BOLLYWOOD SHROFF, B.
In this class we analyze selected films from the Bombay film industry (the popular Hindi cinema) referred to as Bollywood Film. We examine the films as historical, social and cultural texts that represent a national consciousness. Within this context we explore issues of gender and interrogate how the "babes" are represented as self-sacrificing mother, devout daughter/daughter-in-law, chaste woman/wife among other representations.
We examine how this popular cinema negotiates national identity, family values, and communal identity, at the same time that it creates grand song and dance spectacles. Further questions we address are: how have Bollywood representations of women and men transformed from the 1950's to the present? How and why is sexuality expressed through songs, revealing costumes and suggestive dances? We will engage with the unique and different film language that emerges from our study of Bollywood cinema.



WOMN ST (S10) 190 GENDER AND CRAFT BRYAN-WILSON, J.
Gender and Craft

Why is sewing considered female labor? What kind of man works with wood? How might we understand knitting as queer? This undergraduate seminar examines theories of craft from a feminist perspective, weaving together issues like sexuality, domesticity, politics, pleasure, and bodily effort. Though our emphasis will be on contemporary craft, art, and culture (including an artist who makes pornographic embroidery, a transvestite potter, do-it-yourself environmentalism, and anti-war craftivism), we will also examine important historical precedents such as the Bauhaus.




WOMN ST (S10) 190B QUEER LATINO/O FICT VARGAS, DEBORAH
The course represents an introduction to queer sexualities through Latina/o fiction writings. The texts assigned are intended to engage with the dynamic construction of "queer Latinidad" in order to highlight issues and themes pertaining to the lived experiences of those who identify with the category "Latino" (as well as Boricua, Mexicano, Cubano, Chicano, Tejana, etc.). The novels we will read center notions of belonging and displacement in relationship to dominant constructions of Latina/o "community" by raising critical questions pertaining to: color, masculinities, language, (im)migration, colonization, exile, homophobia, social class, citizenship, and family, to name a few. The goal of the course is to introduce students to key Latina/o Studies queer writers as well as to learn to critically engage with fiction as a significant mode of knowledge production that addresses social, political, and cultural tensions in contemporary society. this course is cross listed with Chc/Lat 129, Course code 61170
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WOMN ST (S10) 197 SENIOR SEMINAR MAHMUD-ABDELWA, L.
This seminar provides graduating seniors with the opportunity to synthesize into an independent research project the arguments and ideas they have developed over the course of their undergraduate education in the Women's Studies major. The course will be organized as an intensive research and writing workshop. In addition to completing weekly written assignments, students will also be expected to work collaboratively by reading and peer-reviewing each other’s drafts. At the end of the quarter, students will be required to present their original research publicly to the Women's Studies community.
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UC San Diego

Graduate Course Offerings
512: Latinas in the Americas

515: Women: Myth, Ritual and the Sacred

521: Life Cycles of Women

522: Women: Madness and Sanity

530: Women's Movements and Activism

535: Lesbian Lives and Cultures

536: Gender, Race, and Class

553: Women and the Creative Arts

565: Women: Health, Healing and Medicine

572: Women and Violence

580: Women, Development and the Global Economy

581: Women's Experiences of Migration

590: Feminist Thought

595: Seminar in Women's Studies

601: Foundations of Feminist Scholarship

602: Methods of Inquiry in Women's Studies

603: Advanced Feminist Theory

604: Gender, Culture and Representation

605: Women, Relationships, and Social Policy

606: Narrating Women's Lives

607: Privilege and Oppression

608: Body Politics

609: Transnational Economics and Gender

611: Gender and Diaspora

696: Selected Topics in Women's Studies

701: Seminar in Women's Studies

797: Research

799: Thesis or Project

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UC Riverside

http://www.womensstudies.ucr.edu/








Get the message?

UCLA

http://womensstudies.ucla.edu/

UC Santa Barbara


http://www.registrar.ucsb.edu/majors/0809-versions/Womens-Studies-BA-2008.pdf


UC Santa Cruz Feminist Studies

http://feministstudies.ucsc.edu/courses/Courses09-10-4.pdf

My final question is this: Are these courses really in the interest of women-or just liberal politics in general? Do these courses, with all their emphasis on the "victimization" of women in the US and Western society, really address real issues and problems that truly affect women in other societies in other parts of the world? I think the answer is a clear no. Why is that?

Political correctness.

This is our tax dollars at work, folks. And it's not just here in the UC system. This is what you will find in universities all over the US.