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Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies


The Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate major and minor in a challenging and supportive intellectual environment. The program emphasizes the interdisciplinary study of women, gender, and sexuality that acknowledges differences such as race, class, disability, and national belonging. Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies develops students' skills of critical thinking and analysis, writing and research, imagination and creative expression. The program offers four core courses and a diverse range of cross-listed courses in African American Studies, Anthropology, Art History, Dance, English, Film Studies, History, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, Sociology, and Theater Studies. Some of the WGSS courses are large lectures with small discussion sections that are open to students across Emory College. Other courses are taught in small seminar settings to encourage the active exchange of ideas between teachers and students. WGSS has an Honors program that provides students with opportunities for independent research. 

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Concentrations

Faculty

Chair
Falguni Sheth
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Sameena Mulla
Core

Courses

WGS 100-Level Courses

This course is an introduction to gender, sex, and power in the contemporary world.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This course is an introduction to gender, sex, and power in the contemporary world.


Credit Hours
4
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

For first-year students only. Entry level seminar focusing on a specific topic.


Credit Hours
3
GER
FS
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

WGS 200-Level Courses

This course is an introduction to the theories, themes and questions in the interdisciplinary field of women's, gender, and sexuality studies. The course is required for all majors and minors.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HA
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of sexuality studies.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of sexuality studies.


Credit Hours
4
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This interdisciplinary course explores the history, politics, and cultures of transgender, intersex, and gender variant people in North America and beyond. It demonstrates that trans and intersex people have been central to the development of the contemporary analytics of sex, gender, and sexuality.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HA
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

African women's history is rich and layered. In this course, we examine historical changes women faced from precolonial, colonial and postcolonial Africa. We read primary and secondary sources, with the goal of understanding historical changes and problematizing ahistorical gender analysis.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSCE
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • HIST 222
  • AFS 222

African women's history is rich and layered. In this course, we examine historical changes women faced from precolonial, colonial and postcolonial Africa. We read primary and secondary sources, with the goal of understanding historical changes and problematizing ahistorical gender analysis.4


Credit Hours
4
GER
HSWE
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • HIST 222W
  • AFS 222W

An examination of the nature, causes, and consequences of sex roles in our society, including how male and female roles are learned through socialization, and how they affect work and family.


Credit Hours
3
GER
SS
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • SOC 225

Introduces students to cutting-edge theories of sex, gender, and power, and examines how competing ideas about sex and sexuality shape our elections, laws, and public policies in sometimes unexpected ways. Students will research and debate six contemporary controversies involving sex and gender.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This course introduces students to the cross-cultural study of gender and sexuality, providing anthropological perspectives on femininity, masculinity, heteronormativity, gender variance, same sex relations, and various theories and methods that are relevant to the study of these phenomena.Students who have taken ANT_OX 265 may not repeat this course for credit.


Credit Hours
3
GER
SS
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • ANT 265

Offerings vary each semester.


Credit Hours
1 - 4
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Offerings vary each semester.


Credit Hours
1 - 5
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

WGS 300-Level Courses

This course will explore feminist theory by tracing how feminist ideas have circulated through different methods, approaches, and perspectives. It may include a range of global and transnational perspectives.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This course is an introduction to the gender politics of mental illness. The course will also investigate how race, sexuality, and psychopharmaceuticals shape the experience and politics of mental illness.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This course explores the American legal system from a queer and feminist perspective, and asks how we might approach questions of gender, race, and sexuality in relation to justice. We engage both critical scholarship and legal cases as we follow the key debates in queer and feminist legal theory.


Credit Hours
3
GER
None
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

The aim of this course is two-fold: (i) to introduce students to the core concepts of Freudian psychoanalysis, and (ii) to relate these to feminist theories of gender and sexuality.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

How does race manifest itself in law? How does whiteness become a form of property? How do race and gender function in relation to each other? we will explore various theoretical and philosophical readings on race, gender, and various institutions that are integral to racial discourses.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HAPE
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This interdisciplinary course demonstrates how histories of settler colonialism, imperialism, racial "science," and enslavement generated racial categories that were inherently sexed and gendered. It asks how these histories influence the contemporary experience of racialized sexuality.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSCE
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

How are citizenship and recognition construed throughout the history of political theory? How are individual's gender, race, and ethnicity noted implicitly or explicitly in "universalist" political frameworks? In this course, we will explore dominant theories to show how non-recognition works.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HAP
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Cross-cultural ethnographic study of women's religious lives, including ritual and leadership roles, forms and contexts of religious expression, and negotiations between dominant cultural representations and women's self-representations.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • REL 328
  • ANT 328

Cross-cultural ethnographic study of women's religious lives, including ritual and leadership roles, forms and contexts of religious expression, and negotiations between dominant cultural representations and women's self-representations.


Credit Hours
4
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • REL 328W
  • ANT 328W

Cross-cultural examination of how language reflects, maintains, and constructs gender identities. Topics include differences in male/female speech, the grammatical encoding of gender and childhood language socialization.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • ANT 325
  • LING 333

India's women are presented in extreme images: spiritual or victimized. We shall consider the limitations of extreme and romanticized images, and open up new approaches in order to bring to life rich and diverse feminine figures.


Credit Hours
3
GER
None
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • MESAS 337

Cross-cultural study of gender and women's lives in diverse cultures, including the United States; comparative study of work, child-rearing, power, politics, religion, and prestige.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • ANT 324

This course will examine sexual violence and gender in conflict, transitional justice, and post-conflict.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • AFS 345

Overview of theories, case studies, and social policies related to men and women's health in resource-poor countries.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • SOC 347

This undergraduate course on the contributions of women in music explores the power of perspective in historical narrative, gender and control in music, how spiritual tradition is intertwined with music, and how women in music are perceived cross-culturally.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • MUS 356

This undergraduate course on the contributions of women in music explores the power of perspective in historical narrative, gender and control in music, how spiritual tradition is intertwined with music, and how women in music are perceived cross-culturally.


Credit Hours
4
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • MUS 356W

Overview of the role of gender in defining and shaping politics, political systems, political beliefs, political behavior, and public policy in the American and/or international context.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • POLS 357

Comprehensive analysis of legal issues relevant to women's status in society. Constitutional and statutory law addressed.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • POLS 358

This course will use the text of the Tale of Genji as a centerpoint from which to explore various issues in poetry, aesthetics, the visual arts, religion, history, politics, and gender in Japanese cultural history.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • JPN 361
  • EAS 361

This course will use the text of the Tale of Genji as a centerpoint from which to explore various issues in poetry, aesthetics, the visual arts, religion, history, politics, and gender in Japanese cultural history.


Credit Hours
4
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • JPN 361W
  • EAS 361W

This course familiarizes students with the multiplicity of the female voices that (re-)emerged in Japanese literature from the Meiji period (beginning 1868) to the late twentieth century. Texts are in English translation.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HAP
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • JPN 360
  • EAS 367

This course familiarizes students with the multiplicity of the female voices that (re-)emerged in Japanese literature from the Meiji period (beginning 1868) to the late twentieth century. Texts are in English translation.


Credit Hours
4
GER
HAPW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • JPN 360W
  • EAS 367W

This course surveys the rich and varied tradition of women's literature that developed throughout imperial Chinese history (roughly from the 1st c. AD to the early 20th c.)


Credit Hours
3
GER
HAP
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • CHN 368
  • EAS 368

This course surveys the rich and varied tradition of women's literature that developed throughout imperial Chinese history (roughly from the 1st c. AD to the early 20th c.)


Credit Hours
4
GER
HAPW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • CHN 368W
  • EAS 368W

This course centers on caste, a socio-religious system of hierarchy that has a long history in South Asia. We will approach caste as a system of power, and view it from an intersectional lens, understanding its relationship with other power structures such as race, religion, gender, and labor.


Credit Hours
3
GER
ETHN
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • MESAS 378

This course centers on caste, a socio-religious system of hierarchy that has a long history in South Asia. We will approach caste as a system of power, and view it from an intersectional lens, understanding its relationship with other power structures such as race, religion, gender, and labor.


Credit Hours
4
GER
CWE
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • MESAS 378W

Offerings vary each semester.


Credit Hours
1 - 4
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Offerings vary each semester.


Credit Hours
1 - 5
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

WGS 400-Level Courses

Advanced seminar for juniors and seniors only on selected topics in women's, gender, and sexuality studies.


Credit Hours
1 - 4
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Advanced seminar for juniors and seniors only on selected topics in women's, gender, and sexuality studies.


Credit Hours
1 - 5
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This course explores the life, literary work, and legacy of novelist Alice Walker.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HAP
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • AAS 483

This course explores the life, literary work, and legacy of novelist Alice Walker.


Credit Hours
4
GER
HAPW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • AAS 483W

Offers students the opportunity to learn across boundaries by combining a weekly seminar with hands-on work experience in a variety of possible organizations dealing with gender issues in such areas as law, politics, health care, labor, environment, family, and sexuality.


Credit Hours
2 - 4
GER
XA
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Exploration of selected topics pertaining to women, gender, and feminist theory. Each year the seminar has a specific theme that is designed to integrate central questions, topics, and problems of method. This course is offered only in the fall and is open to seniors who are Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies majors or minors.


Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Exploration of selected topics pertaining to women, gender, and feminist theory. Each year the seminar has a specific theme that is designed to integrate central questions, topics, and problems of method. This course is offered only in the fall and is open to seniors who are Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies majors or minors.


Credit Hours
4
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Independent research for students eligible and selected to participate in the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Honors Program. (Fulfills postfreshman writing requirement after completion of the honors thesis.)


Credit Hours
4
GER
XA
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Independent research for students eligible and selected to participate in the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Honors Program. (Fulfills postfreshman writing requirement after completion of the honors thesis.)


Credit Hours
1 - 8
GER
CW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Offered every semester by special arrangement with a member of the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies core or associated faculty.


Credit Hours
1 - 8
GER
None
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Offered every semester by special arrangement with a member of the WGSS faculty. Students undertake their own independent research project or assist with the faculty member's on-going research, or some combination thereof. Variable credit: 1 credit hour requires 3-4 hours of research per week. Permission from WGSS faculty supervisor required prior to enrollment. Graduate students instructors may not serve as faculty advisor.


Credit Hours
1 - 4
GER
None
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None