Gender and Sexuality Studies

Department Website:
https://www.haverford.edu/gender-and-sexuality-studies

Students choosing a minor or independent major in gender and sexuality plan their programs in consultation with the Gender and Sexuality Director. Members of the Gender and Sexuality steering committee serve as their individual mentors. All students in the program take the core courses, "Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies" and "Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality." Other courses in the program allow them to explore a range of approaches to gender and sexual difference: critical feminist theory; women's studies; transnational and third-world feminisms; the experiences of women of color; gender and science; the construction of masculinity; gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, and transsexual studies; the history and representation of gender and sexuality in a global context.

Learning Goals

Students in the Program in Gender and Sexuality will:

understand how social hierarchies related to gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity have developed historically, cross-culturally, and transnationally.
develop a high level of fluency and rigor in understanding how issues of gender and sexuality shape our lives as individuals and as members of larger communities, both local and global.
gain competence in applying theory to practical experience for social transformation and citizenship.
become critically conversant with theories of gender and sexuality, and their intersectionality with issues of race and class.
draw upon and speak to feminist theory; women’s studies; transnational and third-world feminisms; womanist theory and the experiences of women of color; the construction of masculinity and men’s studies; lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender studies; and theories of gender as inflected by class, race, religion, and nationality.

Haverford’s Institutional Learning Goals are available on the President’s website, at http://hav.to/learninggoals.

Curriculum

Students choosing a minor or independent major in gender and sexuality plan their programs in consultation with the Gender and Sexuality Director. All students in the program take the core course, “Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies.” Other courses in the program allow them to explore a range of approaches to gender and sexual difference including: critical feminist theory; women’s studies; transnational and third world feminisms; the experiences of women of color; gender and science; the construction of masculinity; gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, and transsexual studies; the history and representation of gender and sexuality in a global context

Major Requirements

Students wishing to construct an independent major in Gender and Sexuality Studies should file a petition with the Committee on Student Standing and Programs.

Minor Requirements

Six courses distributed as follows are required for the minor at Haverford College:

An introductory course GSST H190 Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies (offered in the fall semester).
The junior seminar: GSST H290, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender (offered in the fall semester), will alternate focus between Queer Theory and Feminist Theory.
Four additional approved courses from at least two different departments, two of which are normally at the 300 level. Units of Independent Study (480) may be used to fulfill this requirement.
Of the six courses, no more than two will also form part of the student’s major. This requirement can be waived with approval of the Director, Dr. Gina Velasco.
No more than two of the six minor credits may come from institutions outside of the Bi-Co.

Neither a senior seminar nor a senior thesis is required for the minor; however, with the permission of the major department, a student may choose to count toward the minor a senior thesis with significant content in gender and sexuality.

Study Abroad

Courses taken abroad may be counted for the concentration with consent of the Director. Upon returning to the Bi-Co, students must present a syllabus, reading list, and short narrative description of the course for the Director's evaluation.

Faculty

Below are the Gender and Sexuality Studies faculty. Many other faculty also contribute courses to the program; see the Courses section for a full listing.

Sam Samore
Visiting Instructor of Gender and Sexuality Studies

Gina Velasco
Associate Professor and Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies

Affiliated Faculty

Laura Been
Associate Professor of Psychology; Director of Neuroscience

Imke Brust
Associate Professor and Chair of German

Jess Libow
Visiting Assistant Professor and Interim Director of the Writing Program

Anne McGuire
The Kies Family Professor of Humanities; Associate Professor of Religion; Coordinator of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

Lindsay Reckson
Professor and Chair of English

Debora Sherman
Assistant Professor of English

Linda Strong-Leek
Professor

Terrance Wiley
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion and African and Africana Studies

Susanna Wing
The William Penn Foundation Professor in Political Science; Professor of Political Science; Coordinator of African and Africana Studies

Thelathia "Nikki" Young
Vice President for Institutional Equity and Access

Steering Committee

Kathryne Corbin
Associate Professor and Chair of French and Francophone Studies

Molly Farneth
Professor and Chair of Religion

Gina Velasco
Associate Professor and Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies

Courses at Haverford

Africana Studies Courses

AFST H235 AFRICAN POLITICS (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Wing

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Analysis of political change in Africa from the colonial period to contemporary politics. Selected case studies will be used to address central themes including democracy, human rights, gender, interstate relations, economic development, and globalization. Prerequisite(s): one course in political science or consent of the instructor.

AFST H264 THE OPPOSITIONAL GAZE: ART TRAVERSING THE BINARY (1.0 Credit)

Qrescent Mali Mason

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Through a survey of visual, literary, and performance arts primarily by Black and Latina women (e.g., Lorraine O’Grady, Adrian Piper, Christina Sharpe, Ana Victoria Jiménez) this course seeks to theorize the many dimensions of the oppositional gaze, with a focus on the ways these thinker-artists challenge, critique and disrupt various binaries that they identify with the history of western philosophy. Crosslisted: AFST,VIST.

AFST H302 BLACK QUEER STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Kevin Quin

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This seminar examines the intellectual and political issues at stake in the field of black queer studies. Black queer studies consists of theories and methods that examine how race, gender, and sexuality intersect in ways that shape our everyday lives. We will explore foundational texts, central themes, and key debates within black queer studies in relation to other fields of thought including queer of color critique, African diaspora studies, and trans studies. Crosslisted: GSST.

AFST H319 BLACK QUEER SAINTS: SEX, GENDER, RACE, CLASS AND THE QUEST FOR LIBERATION (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

Drawing on fiction, biography, critical theory, film, essays, and memoirs, participants will explore how certain African American artists, activists, and religionists have resisted, represented, and reinterpreted sex, sexuality, and gender norms in the context of capitalist, white supremacist, male supremacist, and heteronormative cultures. Crosslisted: Africana Studies, Religion Prerequisite(s): 200-level Humanities course, or instructor consent

(Offered: Spring 2026)

AFST H329 BELL HOOKS SEMINAR: BLACK FEMINIST AUTOTHEORY AND CRITICAL PHENOMENOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Qrescent Mali Mason

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course will be a survey of the critical phenomenological work of Black feminist philosopher bell hooks, with a concentration on how hooks’ theory is intertwined with her lived experience. Crosslisted: AFST,GSST. Pre-requisite(s): 200- Level Philosophy course or Instructor Permission

Anthropology Courses

ANTH H275 RACE AND REPRESENTATION IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING (1.0 Credit)

Zeynep Sertbulut

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression; B: Analysis of the Social World

This is an introductory cross-listed (Visual Studies/Anthropology) production course on the theory and practice of documentary filmmaking through an exploration of race onscreen. The objective of the course is to enable students to build a critical awareness of the ways in which film and media in general perpetuate racist discourses and representations and explore how students can challenge such representations through their own filmmaking practices. As inspiration, we will watch and study a wide variety of innovative documentary films that bring alternative voices and histories to screen and read/watch filmmaker interviews. Classes will combine elements of a studio (sharing and critiquing filmmaking work in progress) and seminar (discussing weekly themes). Crosslisted: VIST. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors, then Anthropology majors/minors, then Film Studies minors

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Asian American Studies Courses

ASAM H203 ASIAN AMERICAN QUEER AND TRANS STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Gina Velasco

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Asian American Queer and Trans Studies. As such, we will focus on scholarship and cultural production at the intersection of Asian American Studies and Queer/Trans Studies. Throughout the course, we will draw on a range of theoretical and ethnographic texts, as well as forms of queer Asian American cultural production (primarily film and performance). Crosslisted: GSST,ASAM. Lottery Preference: Preference given to Gen Sex and Asian American Studies minors.

Comparative Literature Courses

COML H245 PERFORMANCE, LITERATURE AND THE ARCHIVE (1.0 Credit)

Lindsay Reckson

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

The ‘archive,’ as both an institutional and performance practice and a theoretical concept, has been one of the most studied sites in performance and literary studies. The hegemonic, patriarchal institution of the archive that constructs and perpetuates the canon and the master narratives of history while, marginalizing, silencing, and erasing the subaltern and the subcultural has been contested by the poststructuralist philosophers and critical theorists of the late 20 th and early 21 st century. A new concept of the archive transpired in the interdisciplinary fields of postcolonial, gender, cultural, and performance studies, one that is more utopian and more inclusive and is not limited by dominant repressive power structures and ideologies. This archive does not merely revisit the past to excavate the eradicated traces and silenced voices, but also, perhaps more importantly, opens the potential for a formerly unimaginable, and yet-to-be-imagined future.

COML H257 ANTIGONE’S ECHOES: ACTIVISM AND THE LAW FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO TODAY (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Farmer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Where should the law come from, the individual or the state? How can you protest an unjust system, and how can an ancient story help you do it? Who owns a “Classic”? These are just a few questions that Sophocles’ Antigone has raised for philosophers and playwrights from the Enlightenment to today. We'll read several versions of the Antigone myth and explore this character’s enduring relevance to theories of gender, performance, world literature, and politics. Crosslisted: COML,PEAC.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

COML H262 EUROPEAN FILM (1.0 Credit)

Imke Brust

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course will explore what role film plays in the conceptualization of the European Union. After a brief historical overview, we will familiarize ourselves with a variety of important European film movements after 1945. Our class discussion will cover important European film movements such as German Expressionist Film, Italian Neorealism, French New Wave, Czech New Wave, New German Cinema, and Dogma 95. In addition, we will be watching films from Poland, the Netherlands, and the Balkans. Towards the end of the semester we will discuss how the accelerated integration of the European Union since the 1990s has affected film production within the European Union and what aesthetic, and political ideas shape contemporary European films. Furthermore, this class also aims to highlight transnational aspects of European film in particular in light of the recent European refugee crisis. This course is taught in English with an extra-session in German. (Taught in English with an extra session in German.) Crosslisted: Coparative Literature, German

COML H270 THE ART OF SPORTS: ANCIENT AND MODERN (1.0 Credit)

Ava Shirazi

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course explores the visual and poetic life of sports, ancient and modern. It brings together cultural criticism, visual analysis, and historical study to theorize the beauty of athletics. Concepts of the body, gender, race and performance, and tropes such as "for the love of the game," "feel for the game" and "poetry in motion" will organize our work on the sensory and aesthetic dimensions of sports. No prior expertise in classics, art or sports necessary. Crosslisted: COML,VIST.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

COML H301 TOPICS IN MIDDLE ENGLISH: RACING ROMANCE (1.0 Credit)

Maud McInerney

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Considers the construction of genders and sexualities in the medieval period. Crosslisted: English, Comparative Literature

COML H322 POLITICS OF MEMORY IN LATIN AMERICA (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An exploration of the dynamics of memory, narration, censorship and oblivion after a period of state violence either under a dictatorship or an official democracy. This course analyses and compares literary genres (testimonies, diaries, poetry and fiction), visual archives, documentary films, practices and projects of memory (Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Museo de la Memoria in Chile, Museo Casa de la Memoria Indómita in Mexico, “sitios de memoria” and digital resources). Students will be able to compare debates, outcomes and current controversies of production of memory in Chile after the coup and dictatorship of Pinochet, and in Mexico after the repression of the student movement of ‘68 and the guerrilla movement. This course is conducted in Spanish. Cross-listed: Spanish, Comparative Literature, PJHR

COML H377 PROBLEMS IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE: IMPERIAL INTIMACIES (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course mobilizes the concept of “imperial intimacies” to theorize the rich historical, imaginative, and political horizons of imperialism. Taking our cue from Hazel Carby’s book of the same name—and from what Lisa Lowe has influentially described as The Intimacies of Four Continents—this interdisciplinary class will study literary works (novels, memoir, poetry, film) that bring into critical focus the lasting contradictions and critical challenges of colonial and postcolonial literature and culture. Crosslisted: English, Comparative Literature Prerequisite(s): Two 200-level English courses or instructor consent

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Classical Studies Courses

CSTS H209 CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Farmer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An introduction to the primary characters and stories of Greek and Roman mythology including cosmic creation, Olympian and other deities, and heroes both as they appear in Greek and Roman literature and art and as they are later represented in modern art, music, and film. Crosslisted: Classical Studies, Comparative Literature, Religion

CSTS H225 DANGEROUS WOMEN IN ANTIQUITY (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

How do intersecting identities (race, ethnicity, class, gender) contribute to labelling a woman or group of women as dangerous? In this course we will examine various types of “dangerous” women from antiquity, and explore how these women embody both the idea of repressed sexuality, hidden knowledge, and peril. We’ll first investigate mythological and legendary figures such as Medusa and Clytemnestra, then turn to more historical figures such as Cleopatra and Boudicca. Lottery Preference: Classics Majors and Minors

CSTS H231 QUEER ROAD-TRIP FILMS, ANCIENT AND MODERN (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

The queer road-trip film has been gaining popularity as an outlet for exploring non-normative sexuality further marginalized on the road. We will examine the phenomenon of the queer road-trip narrative, approaching it from an unlikely starting point: the Ancient Mediterranean novels Satyrica and Leucippe and Clitophon. Both of these ancient novels dramatize road trips and travel narratives involving different combinations of queer characters; we'll pair them with a curated selection of contemporary queer road-trip films. Crosslisted: GSST,VIST.

CSTS H257 ANTIGONE’S ECHOES: ACTIVISM AND THE LAW FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO TODAY (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Farmer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

(Offered: Spring 2026)

CSTS H270 THE ART OF SPORTS: ANCIENT AND MODERN (1.0 Credit)

Ava Shirazi

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

(Offered: Fall 2025)

English Courses

ENGL H101 THEORIES OF THE NOVEL (1.0 Credit)

Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course introduces students to the genre of the novel in English with a focus on desire, loss, and literary form. In order to ask the questions, ‘Why and how do we read novels? What does this experience enable?” we will interrogate theories of the novel, its early formation and contemporary forms. We will also consider changing cultural representations of subjectivity, nation, race, gender, and ways of reading. How is the reader variously constructed as witness to (and participant in) desire and its demise? How do developments in narrative voice influence the idea of fiction as a didactic, pleasurable, speculative and/or imaginative space? What is the novel’s role in effecting social change across centuries and geographies? Open to majors and non-majors—no prerequisites. Limit: 20 students.

ENGL H207 CRUISING HOME: QUEER KINSHIP IN THEORY AND PRACTICE (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities

In this course, we will explore historical and contemporary questions of kinship as they intersect with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, and queer practices of building home, community, and social movements. Considering kinship as both site of violence and liberation, our texts will include political theory; literary texts—including novels, plays, poetry, and memoirs; and popular and experimental films and videos. Crosslisted: Peace, Justice, and Human Rights; English

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ENGL H234 A QUEER AND TRANS MIDDLE AGES (1.0 Credit)

Danielle Allor

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

What stories about queer and trans people circulated in the medieval period, and what does this body of literature tell us about the social construction of sexuality, gender, and embodiment? In this course, we will read medieval literature featuring lesbian, gay, transgender, and asexual characters alongside documents of historical queer and trans people and contemporary queer theory and trans studies scholarship. All texts will be read in modern English translation. Crosslisted: GSST.

ENGL H245 PERFORMANCE, LITERATURE AND THE ARCHIVE (1.0 Credit)

Lindsay Reckson

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

ENGL H258 DESIRE AND DOMESTIC FICTION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NOVEL IN THE 19TH C. (1.0 Credit)

Debora Sherman

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course is designed as an introduction to the novel and to narrative theory in a trajectory loosely inscribed from the late 18th to the mid19th century, beginning with Richardson’s Pamela and culminating in George Eliot’s extraordinary and exemplary Middlemarch. These several novels propose both an epistemology—what we know—as well as an affective sensibility, or a structure of feeling, and we might question their purpose: to amuse, to entertain, certainly, but to educate, to compel, to convince us of a certain understanding of the world. As well, the course will look at the purchase of contemporary critical investments upon the act of reading itself or how reading is inflected through different models of critical and theoretical discourse: how narrative economies shape and determine the nature of our experience or what we can know of our experience; how narrative determines a subject "self" and how these selves are then transected by race, gender, class, and other social and political determinants; how narratives manage the less obvious and sublimated worlds of desire and the body's disruptions; how narratives negotiate the grotesque, the spectacular, and the sensational; and finally, how these variously constituted needs and desires become constructions of “textual knowledge”.

ENGL H269 THE QUEER NOVEL BEFORE STONEWALL (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An examination of non-normative sexualities and gender identifications as the guiding thematic and formal force in a series of U. S. novels.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

ENGL H281 FICTIONS OF EMPIRE (1.0 Credit)

Keishla Rivera-López

Division: Humanities

Through the study of fiction, this course will explore how various writers negotiate questions of empire, nation, (neo)colonialism, displacement, and migration.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ENGL H286 LITERATURE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS (1.0 Credit)

Jeremy Gallion

Division: Humanities

We will examine memoirs, essays, and poetry by American writer/activists whose works illuminate the formation of -- and tensions between -- civil rights struggles, peace movements, feminist organizing, and LGBT movements. Readings include Baldwin, Rukeyser, King, Rich, Malcolm X, Lorde, Moraga and Stringfellow.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ENGL H309 AGAINST DEATH: OPPOSING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE (1.0 Credit)

Lindsay Reckson

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

Advanced inquiry into creative and critical responses to the death penalty in the United States from the 1830s to the 1970s. Our aim is to explore the relationship between art and social protest, and to examine how capital punishment has manifested U.S. histories of race, class, gender, religion, and sexuality. Readings in primary historical materials, literary and cultural analysis, and critical theory. Pre-requisite(s): Freshman writing, plus one 200-level ENG course; or freshman writing plus PEAC101 or PEAC201. Crosslisted: ENGL and PEAC

ENGL H362 TOPICS IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: WRITING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE (1.0 Credit)

Gustavus Stadler

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

A seminar on the literary portrait, examining mostly non-fiction by Anglo-American and African American writers from the late 19th century to the present. Topics include the erotics of portraiture, portraiture and the archive, portraiture and personal/historical trauma, collective portraiture, satire/critique, data portraits, modernist/post-modernist portraiture. We’ll frequently refer to visual forms of portraiture, including painting, photography, video art, and cinema. Regular writing assignments will include our own experiments in writing about others.

ENGL H377 PROBLEMS IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE: IMPERIAL INTIMACIES (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Gender and Sexuality Studies Courses

GSST H190 INTRODUCTION TO FEMINIST AND GENDER STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course introduces students to major debates and issues within the interdisciplinary field of Feminist and Gender Studies. We will explore what feminist scholars have illuminated about the construction of gender and sexuality in multiple historic, present-day, and global contexts. Students will examine feminist debates about how race, class, and religion shape gender and sexuality in unequal ways. And, students will develop the skills to analyze how gender and sexuality have been regulated, reinforced, and transgressed in diverse settings.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

GSST H192 INTRODUCTION TO TRANS STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Transgender (Trans) Studies is an interdisciplinary field that explores understandings of sex and gender through the discussion of lived trans experiences and theoretical tools to analyze gender, desire, embodiment, and identity. Students will learn to situate and assess assumptions about gender and sexuality, categories of identity, and social location. This course will raise questions about the social, political, cultural, legal, and historical rhetoric surrounding gender diversity in the U.S. context.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

GSST H194 THE QUEER RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RACE AND SEXUALITY: INTRODUCTION TO QUEER STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Maurice Rippel

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course is designed to introduce students to the academic field and cultural contexts of Queer Studies through a focus on race and sexuality as identities/locations/markers positioned within the social structure of the United States. Our aim is to understand major concepts and vocabulary in Queer Studies, to situate and assess human experience within diverse theoretical frameworks, and to interrogate assumptions about sexuality and race as categories of identity.

GSST H202 QUEER OF COLOR VISUAL CULTURE (1.0 Credit)

Gina Velasco

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course explores the representation of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality within multiple forms of visual culture, including film, video, and mass media. In particular, we will examine the politics of representation in visual culture produced by and about queer communities of color. Drawing on queer studies, feminist studies, ethnic studies, visual culture studies, and film studies, this course will introduce students to the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of queer of color studies. Throughout the course, students will develop their skills of visual analysis, which they will integrate with their analysis of written texts. Lottery Preference: Gender and Sexuality concentrators

(Offered: Fall 2025)

GSST H203 ASIAN AMERICAN QUEER AND TRANS STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Gina Velasco

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

GSST H210 QUEER GLOBALIZATION (1.0 Credit)

Gina Velasco

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Focusing on the relationship between queer genders and sexualities to migration, globalization, and transnational belonging, this course draws mainly on three bodies of interdisciplinary scholarship: queer of color scholarship, queer globalization scholarship, and diaspora and transnational studies. We will begin by exploring the history of LGBT and queer identities in the West. We will then define concepts of nation and diaspora, focusing on the relationship between sexuality, migration, and citizenship. Lottery Preference: Gender and Sexuality Studies concentrators.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

GSST H231 QUEER ROAD-TRIP FILMS, ANCIENT AND MODERN (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

GSST H234 A QUEER AND TRANS MIDDLE AGES (1.0 Credit)

Danielle Allor

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

GSST H262 WOMEN AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE EARLY MODERN ERA (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Women played an important yet often neglected role in the development of early modern philosophical thought. Despite social barriers, they remained at the center of philosophical conversations by writing influential letters and publishing philosophical novels, plays, and poems, in addition to more standard philosophical genres. This course seeks to revive women's voices from 17th-19th century European philosophy. We will cover various topics (mind/body, education, happiness), with a special focus on early modern feminism. Pre-requisite(s): One 100-level course in Philosophy

GSST H290 INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER (1.0 Credit)

Gina Velasco

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Explore the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, and embodiment in our time. Our focus is principally on the USA, though we make some forays into international conversations. Readings are drawn from a smattering of the most recent developments in academic research and theory, as well as from science fiction, activism, popular culture, and new media. We work to bring the personal into the classroom, and to take what we learn out into the world.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

GSST H302 BLACK QUEER STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Kevin Quin

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

GSST H316 WOMEN AND THE ARMED STRUGGLE IN LATIN AMERICA (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

An examination of socialist armed struggles in 1970s, women’s rights and feminist movements in Latin America. A comparative study of literary texts, testimonials and documentary films addresses theoretical issues such as Marxism, global feminism, hegemony and feminisms produced in the periphery. This course is conducted in Spanish. Cross-listed: Spanish, Gen/Sex, and PJHR Prerequisite(s): One 200-level, preferred 300- level course, or instructor consent

GSST H329 BELL HOOKS SEMINAR: BLACK FEMINIST AUTOTHEORY AND CRITICAL PHENOMENOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Qrescent Mali Mason

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

History Courses

HIST H204 WOMEN, GENDER, AND AMERICAN SOCIETY TO 1870 (1.0 Credit)

Bethel Saler

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course surveys the history of American women from the colonial period through 1870. We will consider and contrast the lives and perspectives of women from a wide variety of social backgrounds and geographic areas as individuals and members of families and communities, while also examining how discourses of gender frame such topics as colonization, slavery, class identity, nationalism, religion, and political reform. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

HIST H218 WOMEN AND WAR IN THE ANCIENT WORLD (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Women have traditionally been viewed as passive actors in the male-dominated field of war. They serve as catalysts for war, as in the case of Helen of Troy, or spoils of conquest. In this course, we will explore both the well-known traditional martial roles assigned to women in the Classical world, as well as the less-discussed, and perhaps more surprising, roles: warrior, spy, aggressor. Lottery Preference: None

HIST H246 HISTORY OF SEXUALITY IN THE U.S. (1.0 Credit)

Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This 200-level course will explore both "classic" and recent writings on the history of sexuality, focusing on questions of politics, power, and authority in order to understand the regulation of sexual practices, the social implications of sexual activity and identity, and the experiences, ideas, and conflicts that have shaped modern gay, lesbian, and transgender identities. Lottery Preference: History majors, Gen Sex concentrators, then Sophomores

HIST H291 INDIGENOUS WOMEN: GENDER, ETHNICITY AND FEMINISM IN LATIN AMERICA (1.0 Credit)

Marlen Rosas

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course gives students an introduction to the themes and debates in the intersectional fields of Gender and Women’s Studies, Race, Ethnic and Indigenous Studies, Latin American History, and Feminist Theory. Pre-requisite(s): None Lottery Preference: History majors, first and second year students, LAILS, and GenSex concentrators, with first priority for History and LAILS.

Peace, Justice and Human Rights Courses

PEAC H211 DECOLONIAL THEORY: INDIGENEITY AND REVOLT (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Ramey

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course is an introduction to “decoloniality,” a mode of critical theory that examines and attempts to systematically undermine the notion that ascendance to power of European modernity (including contemporary American culture) can be understood without a constitutive and ongoing relation to colonial domination. This includes domination on the basis of race, gender, religion, and a variety of other ways that modern systems of rationality, governance, normalcy, order, and accumulation have been constructed through practices of domination and subjugation. The course focuses specifically on the American context, including the interplay between the African continent and North and South America. Key writers from Afro-diasporic, Afro-Caribbean, and indigenous Latin American perspectives will be studied in depth. While introducing students to salient currents in decolonial thought, the course will also examine relations between decolonial and postcolonial thought, as well as between decolonial theory and recent work in feminist and query theory.

PEAC H257 ANTIGONE’S ECHOES: ACTIVISM AND THE LAW FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO TODAY (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Farmer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

(Offered: Spring 2026)

PEAC H281 FEMINIST POLITICAL ECONOMY (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Ramey

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course is an introduction to current debates in radical feminism. Beginning with the psychanalytical, Marxist, and Black Radical feminists of the 1960’s and 70’s, the course outlines contemporary radical feminist positions on race, gender, consumption, domesticity, care, labor, ecology, and the prospects of collective life within and beyond capitalist planetary endgame. Crosslisted: POLS. Pre-requisite(s): PEAC 101 or 201 or any PHIL or POLS class, or consent of instructor. Lottery Preference: PJHR and GenSex students first

(Offered: Fall 2025)

PEAC H309 AGAINST DEATH: OPPOSING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE (1.0 Credit)

Lindsay Reckson

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

PEAC H316 WOMEN AND THE ARMED STRUGGLE IN LATIN AMERICA (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

PEAC H329 AFRO-ASIAN SOLIDARITIES (1.0 Credit)

Prea Persaud Khanna

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This interdisciplinary course analyzes the relationship between Black and Asian communities in the Americas, highlighting moments of solidarity and unity and areas of divergence and conflict. Moving from slavery to indentureship to U.S. immigration, particularly post 1960s, students will examine the rhetoric of the yellow peril, the myth of the model minority, the rise of Black Power movements, orientalist stereotypes, and anti-blackness within the Asian (inclusive of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean) community. Pre-requisite(s): PEAC 101 or 201 or consent of instructor Lottery Preference: PJHR, AFST, and FGSTC students

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Philosophy Courses

PHIL H214 FEMINISM (1.0 Credit)

Qrescent Mali Mason

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An examination of feminist philosophy in the lived world through reading Living a Feminist Life, The Argonauts, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, and Freedom is a Constant Struggle to answer, What does it meant to do feminist philosophy? Prerequisite(s): 100 level Philosophy course or instructor's approval

PHIL H262 WOMEN AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE EARLY MODERN ERA (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

PHIL H264 THE OPPOSITIONAL GAZE: ART TRAVERSING THE BINARY (1.0 Credit)

Qrescent Mali Mason

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

PHIL H329 BELL HOOKS SEMINAR: BLACK FEMINIST AUTOTHEORY AND CRITICAL PHENOMENOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Qrescent Mali Mason

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

PHIL H372 TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY AND INTERSECTIONALITY (1.0 Credit)

Qrescent Mali Mason

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course will attempt to determine how and to what extent intersectionality may fit into the discipline of philosophy. Focusing on the ethical dimensions of the concept, we will determine the conceptual difficulties philosophy brings to bear on intersectionality. Prerequisite(s): 200 level Philosophy course or Instructor's Approval

Political Science Courses

POLS H235 AFRICAN POLITICS (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Wing

Division: Social Science,Social Justice
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World,

(Offered: Spring 2026)

POLS H242 WOMEN IN WAR AND PEACE (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Wing

Division: Social Science

Analysis of the complex issues surrounding women as political actors and the ways in which citizenship relates to men and women differently. Selected cases from the United States, Africa, Latin America, and Asia are studied as we discuss gender, domestic politics, and international relations from a global perspective. Prerequisite(s): one course in POLS or instructor consent

POLS H281 FEMINIST POLITICAL ECONOMY (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Ramey

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

(Offered: Fall 2025)

POLS H342 THE POLITICS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Wing

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Advanced course explores the politics of gender and sexuality in comparative perspective. Includes readings in feminist theory and methods and examines the state and power structures through a gender sensitive lens. Cases primarily from Africa, Europe and the United States. Crosslisted: Gender and Sexuality concentration. Prerequisite(s): Previous course in gender and sexuality and Domain B (or SO), POLS 242 (Women in War and Peace) recommended.

Psychology Courses

PSYC H328 NEUROBIOLOGY OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR (1.0 Credit)

Laura Been

Division: Natural Science
Domain(s): C: Physical and Natural Processes

An examination of the neurobiology underlying sexual behavior. This seminar will focus on systems-level understanding of the neural regulation of both pre-copulatory and copulatory behavior, drawing from primary literature in invertebrate, rodent, and human model systems. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100 and PSYC 217, or instructor consent

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Religion Courses

RELG H119 BIBLE, RACE AND SEXUALITY (1.0 Credit)

Naomi Koltun-Fromm

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course focuses on the interpretive history and historical contexts of a selection of biblical passages which form the core of "biblical" understandings of race, gender and sexuality. In comparative and historical textual exploration students will learn the variety of ways these texts have been understood across time and community, as well as how these same texts continue to provoke new interpretations and new understandings of race, gender and sexuality. Lottery Preference: Ten spaces reserved for first years.

RELG H209 CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Farmer

Division: ,Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

RELG H209 CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Farmer

Division: ,Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

RELG H221 WOMEN AND GENDER IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY (1.0 Credit)

Anne McGuire

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An examination of the representations of women and gender in early Christian texts and their significance for contemporary Christianity. Topics include interpretations of Genesis 1-3, images of women and sexuality in early Christian literature, and the roles of women in various Christian communities.

RELG H258 FEMINIST JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT (1.0 Credit)

Molly Farneth

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An exploration of gender in Judaism and Christianity through a study of feminist and queer thinkers who critique and contribute to these traditions. Topics include sex/gender difference, the gender of God, and the nature of divine authority. Prerequisite(s): Familiarity with philosophical and/or theoretical inquiry is recommended

(Offered: Spring 2026)

RELG H259 GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN ISLAMIC TEXTS AND PRACTICES (1.0 Credit)

GT H

Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course introduces students to the different views of gender and sexuality in Islamic thought, and situates these views within Muslim histories and societies. We will draw on primary sources, historiographical work, ethnographies of Muslim societies, fiction, poetry, and play. One major focus will be on homosexuality in Islam and Muslim societies. In the course of this examination we will also have a chance to question what “homosexuality” is and whether this term can be applied cross-culturally and cross-religiously. To think critically about homosexuality in Islam will thus compel us to reconsider homosexuality and Islam at once.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

RELG H303 RELIGION, LITERATURE AND REPRESENTATION: THE PARABLES OF JESUS (1.0 Credit)

Anne McGuire

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This seminar offers close reading and analysis of the parables of Jesus in the New Testament gospels and the Gospel of Thomas. The class will consider various modes of interpretation, including comparative study, redaction criticism, theological interpretation, and literary analysis of the parables as extended metaphors or allegories.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

RELG H312 RITUAL AND THE BODY (1.0 Credit)

Molly Farneth

Division: Humanities

An exploration of the meaning and function of ritual, and of the ways that rituals shape bodies, habits, and identities. Special attention will be given to the relationship between ritual and gender. Readings include Durkheim, Mauss, Bourdieu, Butler, and Mahmood. Prerequisite(s): at least one 200 level in the department, or instructor consent

RELG H319 BLACK QUEER SAINTS: SEX, GENDER, RACE, CLASS AND THE QUEST FOR LIBERATION (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Sociology Courses

SOCL H106 GENDER, POWER, AND POLICY (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The primary objective of this first-year seminar is to explore the social construction of gender and violence in the US. Gendered issues of conduct we will focus our attention on this semester include abortion, sexual discrimination in the workplace, rape or sexual assault, and domestic violence. Lottery Preference: First-year and sophomore students have priority over juniors and seniors.

SOCL H235 CLASS, RACE, AND EDUCATION (1.0 Credit)

Mark Gould

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

An examination of the effects of class and race on educational and occupational outcomes, emphasizing the contemporary United States.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Spanish Courses

SPAN H211 CONTEMPORARY FEMINISMS IN LATIN AMERICA (1.0 Credit)

Lina Martinez Hernandez

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course, taught by Lina Martinez Hernandez offers a panoramic overview of contemporary feminist movements in Latin America, with special attention given to the intersection of political intervention and performance, literary, and artistic practices. We review movements in response to and resisting Euro-centric feminist traditions, as well as movements that respond to Latin American ideological and cultural tropes including, “nacionalismo”, “mestizaje” and “machismo”. As we move through the history of 20th and 21st century movements, we explore the different languages created by feminists through their modes of intervention, languages that allow us to speak differently about issues including: reproductive rights, femicide, neoliberalism, anti-racism, south-south networks of connection, queerness, among others. The course will be taught in English, with materials in English, Spanish, and Spanglish. Lottery Preference: Students follow application process of 360 Cluster

SPAN H316 WOMEN AND THE ARMED STRUGGLE IN LATIN AMERICA (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

SPAN H322 POLITICS OF MEMORY IN LATIN AMERICA (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

SPAN H329 FEMINIST FUTURES: SPECULATIVE FICTIONS OF LATIN AMERICA (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An exploration of twentieth and twenty-first century feminist science fiction from Latin America and the Caribbean. Through novels, short stories, performances, and films, students will evaluate how the genre of science fiction addresses questions of gender, sexuality, race, class, and colonialism. Students will consider how feminist science fictions (re)imagine gender and sexuality in the future and the progression or regression that awaits. Pre-requisite(s): One 200 level Spanish course Lottery Preference: Majors; minors & LAILS concentrators.

SPAN H331 LIMINAL BODIES: EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPES AND GENDER IN PAN-MEDITERRANEAN LITERATURES AND CULTURES (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

The course explores gender in late medieval to 17th century Iberia, including canonical and lesser-known works, texts written by women, cultural materials, plays, and popular chapbooks. It will delve into specific analyses of the liminal representations of gender and sexuality in Ibero-romance materials, including a critical review of the limitations and liberties afforded by gender and giving special attention to the thematical evolution of gender across centuries in Pan-Mediterranean literatures and cultures. Taught in Spanish. Pre-requisite(s): Completed 102 or placement exam in 200-300 level courses or instructor consent. Lottery Preference: None

Visual Studies Courses

VIST H108 REAL WORK & DREAM JOBS: VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS AND THEORIES OF WORK (1.0 Credit)

Division: First Year Writing

An entry into theories of work, thinking critically and historically about the role of work in society, the promise of art as an ideal form of work, and the structural persistence of gendered, classed, and racial divisions of labor. Open only to first-year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing.

VIST H231 QUEER ROAD-TRIP FILMS, ANCIENT AND MODERN (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

VIST H232 BLAQUEER EYE: THE LOOK AND FEEL OF REAL (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Beginning with behind-the-scenes documentary of a female illusionist pageant The Queen (1968) and ending with the cancellation of HBO’s ballroom reality television competition show Legendary (2021), this course finds interest in the textured lives of gender and sexually creative African descendants in the U.S. and how their lives have been translated into the terms black, queer, and trans in public imagination. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors, then Film Studies minors

VIST H264 THE OPPOSITIONAL GAZE: ART TRAVERSING THE BINARY (1.0 Credit)

Qrescent Mali Mason

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

VIST H270 THE ART OF SPORTS: ANCIENT AND MODERN (1.0 Credit)

Ava Shirazi

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

(Offered: Fall 2025)

VIST H275 RACE AND REPRESENTATION IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING (1.0 Credit)

Zeynep Sertbulut

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression; B: Analysis of the Social World

(Offered: Fall 2025)

VIST H308 HOW TO READ BLACK FEMME AVATARS (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course is an in-depth and engaged study of Uri McMillian’s book Embodied Avatars: Genealogies of Black Feminist Art and Performance (NYU Press, 2015). In it, McMillian presents a history of visual and performance artists like Ellen Craft, Lorraine O’Grady, Adrian Piper, Nicki Minaj, whose oeuvres can be understood through the lens of black feminist study and theory. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors

VIST H309 THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ARDMORE (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Through close looking, performance experiments, and scholarship on reality television in general and the Housewives franchise in particular, this course will investigate the way that the production of reality in these shows—the very visual quality of film, filter, and light dependent on revenue dictated by viewership—changes along lines of identity causing us to wonder if the Housewives not only change our culture, but also our (view of our) lives. We will tinker around with performance and production work inside and outside the classroom to question the fabric of our own realities and how we can share in its weaving. Lottery Preference: VIST minors, GSST concentrators, AFST concentrators

Writing Program Courses

WRPR H106 FEMINISM BEFORE SUFFRAGE (1.0 Credit)

Jess Libow

Division: First Year Writing

Long before they secured the right to vote, women in the United States were actively engaged in an array of political and social debates from abolition and labor reform to marriage and Indigenous sovereignty. In this course we’ll explore this history of American feminist expression by tracing the ways in which women writers from 1776-1920 contested and asserted ideas about sex, race, class, and citizenship. Pre-requisite(s): Placement by the Director of College Writing.

WRPR H108 REAL WORK & DREAM JOBS: VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS AND THEORIES OF WORK (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: First Year Writing

WRPR H138 RACE AND GENDER IN AMERICAN HORROR FILM AND FICTION (1.0 Credit)

Division: First Year Writing

This course unravels various tropes that haunt the horror genre, exploring how horror film and fiction reflect the values, mores and fears of a collective unconscious, with special emphasis on the ways in which racial stereotyping and gender violence are often deployed as horror tropes. We look closely at portrayals of violence, shock, resistance and power, asking how race and gender play central roles in the production of fear, terror, monstrosity and its subversion. Pre-requisite(s): Open only to first-year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing. Lottery Preference: Only first year students are eligible for these seminars.

WRPR H139 DOES REPRESENTATION MATTER? (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: First Year Writing

In this course, students will explore theories of representation, along with critical race studies, structuralism and poststructuralism, global feminisms and neoliberalism, to think through contemporary discourses (like #Oscarssowhite and Girlboss Feminism) that claim representation matters when it comes to racial and gender justice. Lottery Preference: First year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing.

WRPR H142 DEFINING BLACKNESS: RACE & INTIMACY IN AMERICAN DISCOURSE (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: First Year Writing

In this course, students will close-read narrative and filmic depictions of transcending, transgressing, and violating racial borders, thinking about what these narratives reflect and what they produce when it comes to understandings of race, gender and sexuality. We’ll look at the effects of both transgressive and progressive figurations of “racial mixture” and mixed race individuals, considering what functions these discourses play in larger schemas of American politics, ideologies and affects. Lottery Preference: First year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing

WRPR H152 TRENDING: DESIRE & VIRAL AESTHETIC CULTURE (1.0 Credit)

Bethany Swann

Division: First Year Writing

What can our infatuation with viral social media trends tell us about human desire, identity, and the need to be known? This course examines a variety of aesthetic categories from cute to quirky to intimidating while asking questions like, Who are we in this contested space based on how we interact with aesthetic trends? We’ll also consider how a politics of representation intersects with ideas about identity, mimicry, and conformity in gender and sexuality studies. Open only to first-year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Courses at Bryn Mawr

Africana Studies Courses

AFST B101 BLACK MATTERS: INTRODUCTION TO BLACK STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Paul Joseph López Oro

This interdisciplinary course situates the study of Black lives, known interchangeably as African American Studies, Black Studies, Africana Studies, or African Diaspora Studies, within the context of ongoing struggles against anti-Black racism. We will explore the founding principles and purposes of the field, the evolution of its imperatives, its key debates, and the lives and missions of its progenitors and practitioners. In doing so we will survey, broadly and deeply, the diverse historical, political, social, cultural, religious/spiritual, and economic experiences and expressions of the African Diaspora in the Americas and beyond.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

AFST B202 BLACK QUEER DIASPORA (1.0 Credit)

Paul Joseph López Oro

This interdisciplinary course explores over two decades of work produced by and about Black Queer Diasporic communities throughout the circum-Atlantic world. While providing an introduction to various artists and intellectuals of the Black Queer Diaspora, this course examines the viability of Black Queer Diaspora world-making praxis as a form of theorizing. We will interrogate the transnational and transcultural mobility of specific Black Queer Diasporic forms of peacemaking, erotic knowledge productions, as well as the concept of “aesthetics” more broadly. Our aim is to use the prism of Blackness/Queerness/Diaspora to highlight the dynamic relationship between Black Diaspora Studies and Queer Studies. By the end of this course students will have a strong understanding of how systems of power work to restrict the freedoms of Black Queer and Trans communities, and how Black LGBTQ people have lived, organized, and created in spite of and in response to these oppressions. This interdisciplinary undergraduate upper-level course will utilize academic texts accompanied by poetry, fiction, film, television, and visual art to understand Black Queer and Trans subjectivities.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

AFST B300 BLACK WOMEN'S STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Paul Joseph López Oro

Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

Black Feminist Studies, which emerged in the 1970s as a corrective to both Black Studies and Women's Studies, probes the silences, erasures, distortions, and complexities surrounding the experiences of peoples of African descent wherever they live. The early scholarship was comparable to the painstaking excavation projects of an archaeologist digging for hidden treasures. A small group of mainly black feminist scholars have been responsible for reconstructing the androcentric African American literary tradition by establishing the importance of black women's literature going back to the nineteenth century. In this interdisciplinary seminar, students closely examine the historical, critical and theoretical perspectives that led to the development of Black Feminist theory/praxis. The course will draw from the 19th century to the present, but will focus on the contemporary Black feminist intellectual tradition that achieved notoriety in the 1970s and initiated a global debate on “western” and global feminisms. Central to our exploration will be the analysis of the intersectional relationship between theory and practice, and of race, to gender, class, and sexuality. We will conclude the course with the exploration of various expressions of contemporary Black feminist thought around the globe as a way of broadening our knowledge of feminist theory.

Anthropology Courses

ANTH B102 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Colin McLaughlin-Alcock, Melissa Pashigian

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course explores the basic principles and methods of sociocultural anthropology. Sociocultural anthropology examines how many of the categories we assume to be “natural,” such as kinship, gender, or race, are culturally and socially constructed. It examines how people’s perceptions, beliefs, values, and actions are shaped by broader historical, economic, and political contexts. It is also a vital tool for understanding and critiquing imbalances of power in our contemporary world. Through a range of topically and geographically diverse course readings and films, and opportunities to practice ethnographic methodology, students will gain new analytical and methodological tools for understanding cultural difference, social organization, and social change.

(Offered: Fall 2025, Spring 2026)

ANTH B213 ANTHROPOLOGY OF FOOD (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Fioratta

Food is part of the universal human experience. But everyday experiences of food also reveal much about human difference. What we eat is intimately connected with who we are, where we belong, and how we see the world. In this course, we will use a socio-cultural perspective to explore how food helps us form families, national and religious communities, and other groups. We will also consider how food may become a source of inequality, a political symbol, and a subject of social discord. Examining both practical and ideological meanings of food and taste, this course will address issues of identity, social difference, and cultural experience.

ANTH B246 THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF LANGUAGE: FIELD RESEARCH IN LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Amanda Weidman

Division: Humanities

This course provides hands-on experience in linguistic anthropological methods of data collection and analysis. We will explore various methods employed by linguistic anthropologists, including: ethnographic observation of language use in context; audio-recording of spoken discourse; working with a linguistic corpus; online research methods; conducting linguistic and ethnographic interviews; and learning how to create a transcript to use as the basis for ethnographic analysis. This is a Praxis 1 course. For the praxis component of the course, in the first half of the semester, the class will work with a high school language arts teacher to design a lesson and project for a high school language arts class that incorporates linguistic-anthropological concepts and student-driven research on language. The purpose of this is to move beyond the prescriptivist approach to language commonly taken at the high school level, toward a more descriptive, ethnographic approach that learns from young people’s creativity and agency as speakers of language. In the second half of the semester, the class will work collaboratively on a research project that we develop as a class. Class time will be used to discuss the results of student work, read and discuss relevant literature in linguistic anthropology, synthesize insights that develop from bringing different ethnographic contexts together; and work collaboratively on a way of presenting the findings.

ANTH B287 SEX, GENDER, BIOLOGY AND CULTURE (1.0 Credit)

Alexandra Kralick

This 200-level anthropology course is an introductory survey of topics in sex, gender, biology, and culture, approached through an intersectional feminist interdisciplinary biocultural anthropological lens. In this course, we delve into the variations of gender in the US and globally, explore the interplay between gender and sex, and examine concepts of biological sex, intersexuality, and sexuality. Students will also explore contemporary issues and research areas where anthropologists and human biologists investigate the intersection of sex and gender. This includes discussions on hormones, sports, and the brain, as well as examinations of sex and gender among non-human animals. This course offers students a unique amalgamation of biocultural anthropology, cultural anthropology, biology research, gender studies, feminist science studies, and health science. Through this course, students will develop skills to discern and assess scientific information and claims and construct a critical feminist toolkit for analyzing scientific knowledge. They will apply these skills to evaluate a diverse array of sources, ranging from peer-reviewed articles to popular media, websites, podcasts, and documentaries. Moreover, students will utilize queer feminist theories to cultivate this intersectional perspective, honing their abilities in analytical and critical thinking. Upon completion of the course, students will leave with enhanced confidence in articulating nuanced thoughts on the complex intersections of sex, gender, sexuality, science, and society.

ANTH B294 CULTURE, POWER, AND POLITICS (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Fioratta

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

What do national politics have to do with culture? Likewise, how are politics hidden below the surface of our everyday social lives? This course explores questions like these through anthropological approaches. Drawing on both classic and contemporary ethnographic studies from the U.S. and around the world, we will examine how social and cultural frameworks help us understand politics in new ways. We will investigate how people perceive the meanings and effects of the state; how nationalism and citizenship shape belonging on the one hand, and exclusion on the other; how understandings of gender, race, and difference converge with political action, ideology, and power; and how politics infuse everyday spaces including schools, businesses, homes, and even the dinner table. Prerequisite: ANTH B102, H103 or permission of the instructor.

ANTH B312 ANTHROPOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION (1.0 Credit)

Melissa Pashigian

Division: Social Science

This course will examine how power in everyday life shapes reproductive behavior and how reproduction is culturally constructed. Through an examination of materials from different cultures, this course will look at how often competing interests within households, communities, states and institutions (at both the local and global levels) influence reproduction in society. We will explore the political economy of reproduction cross-culturally, how power and politics shape gendered reproductive behavior and how it is interpreted and used differently by persons, communities and institutions. Topics covered include but are not limited to the politics of family planning, mothering/parenting, abortion, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, fetal testing and biology and social policy in cross-cultural comparison. Prerequisite: ANTH 8102 (or ANTH H103) recommended

ANTH B322 ANTHROPOLOGY OF BODIES (1.0 Credit)

Melissa Pashigian

Division: Social Science

This course examines meanings and interpretations of bodies in anthropology. It explores anthropological theories and methods of studying the human body and social difference via a series of topics including the construction of the body in medicine, identity, race, gender, sexuality and as explored through cross-cultural comparison. Bodies and their forms are intertwined in debates both in academia and in current affairs and politics. These concerns range from surveillance and movements of bodies, disappearance and erasure of some bodies and fortification of others, to biological and technological modification of individual bodies that arise in moral and political debates and action. Although “the body” is frequently assumed to be “natural,” indeed it appears unstable and destabilizing, especially in particular times and in particular places. We will discuss, for instance the body as a focus of the biomedical gaze, as commodity, in creative expression, in relations to non-human primates, across the age spectrum, and in historical political, economic, and colonial and post-colonial regimes, among other topics. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and higher.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ANTH B354 POLITICAL ECONOMY, GENDER, ETHNICITY AND TRANSFORMATION IN VIETNAM (1.0 Credit)

Melissa Pashigian

Division: Social Science

Today, Vietnam is in the midst of dramatic social, economic and political changes brought about through a shift from a central economy to a market/capitalist economy since the late 1980s. These changes have resulted in urbanization, a rise in consumption, changes in land use, movement of people, environmental consequences of economic development, and shifts in social and economic relationships and cultural practices as the country has moved from low income to middle income status. This course examines culture and society in Vietnam focusing largely on contemporary Vietnam, but with a view to continuities and historical precedent in past centuries. In this course, we will draw on anthropological studies of Vietnam, as well as literature and historical studies. Relationships between the individual, family, gender, ethnicity, community, land, and state will pervade the topics addressed in the course, as will the importance of political economy, nation, and globalization. In addition to class seminar discussions, students will view documentary and fictional films about Vietnamese culture. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher or first years with ANTH 102.

ANTH B363 GENDER AND HUMAN EVOLUTION (1.0 Credit)

Alexandra Kralick

In this anthropology course, students will investigate the gender/sex/sexuality in the study of human ancestors and their non-human primate relatives. Students will gain familiarity with foundational texts considered to be classic in the field of biological anthropology. This course will operate with a structure of paired texts: one early work that spoke to naturalized sex differences or gender roles and a feminist science piece intervening in that space or a piece from feminist science studies or women and gender studies in conversation with the first work. This course structure allows students time to really sit with each argument. These texts will prompt students to ask questions such as- what narratives are mobilized to naturalize the evolution gender norms, sex differences, and where do they come from? How has gender has been conceived of in the study of human ancestors and our non-human primate relatives? How are scholars intervening? How effective or ineffective have these interventions been? What ideas of gender/sex/sexuality persist despite interventions, and why might that be? Students will develop skills in explaining their thoughts on those questions in both discussion and writing. This course will also involve works external to biological anthropology written by feminist or women and gender studies scholars providing a critical commentary of that feminist science intervention, with a primary focus on Donna Haraway’s Primate Visions. In the end, students will find a work in the study of human variation, human ancestors, or non-human primates, write their own paired piece of commentary. Students will be supported in the develop of their own intervention. This cross-disciplinary course will leave students will skillsets they can apply outside of this course in having hard conversations around gender, sex, and sexuality and to explicate their perspectives with care and intention. Prerequisite: ANTH B101

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Courses

ARCH B253 GENDER ARCHAEOLOGY IN PRE-ISLAMIC WESTERN ASIA (1.0 Credit)

Wu Xin

This course explores the intersections of gender and archaeology in Western Asia during the pre-Islamic periods. It examines how diverse social groups use multiple means to construct, perform, and negotiate gender, sex, identities. The course discusses gender's intricate relationship with class, sexuality, and religion through analysis of texts, visual representations, spatial organization, and other material traces of the past. Grounded in the tradition of gender archaeology, this course draws on various discourses and interpretive frameworks to offer new archaeological approaches for understanding and discussing gender dynamics in both past and present societies.

ARCH B254 CLEOPATRA (1.0 Credit)

This course examines the life and rule of Cleopatra VII, the last queen of Ptolemaic Egypt, and the reception of her legacy in the Early Roman Empire and the western world from the Renaissance to modern times. The first part of the course explores extant literary evidence regarding the upbringing, education, and rule of Cleopatra within the contexts of Egyptian and Ptolemaic cultures, her relationships with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, her conflict with Octavian, and her death by suicide in 30 BCE. The second part examines constructions of Cleopatra in Roman literature, her iconography in surviving art, and her contributions to and influence on both Ptolemaic and Roman art. A detailed account is also provided of the afterlife of Cleopatra in the literature, visual arts, scholarship, and film of both Europe and the United States, extending from the papal courts of Renaissance Italy and Shakespearean drama, to Thomas Jefferson’s art collection at Monticello and Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1963 epic film, Cleopatra.

Classical Studies Courses

CSTS B175 FEMINISM IN CLASSICS (1.0 Credit)

Miriam Kamil

This course will illustrate the ways in which feminism has had an impact on classics, as well as the ways in which feminists think with classical texts. It will have four thematic divisions: feminism and the classical canon; feminism, women, and rethinking classical history; feminist readings of classical texts; and feminists and the classics - e.g. Cixous' Medusa and Butler's Antigone.

CSTS B246 EROS IN ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE (1.0 Credit)

Carman Romano

Division: Humanities

This course explores the ancient Greek’s ideas of love, from the interpersonal loves between people of the same or different genders to the cosmogonic Eros that creates and holds together the entire world. The course examines how the idea of eros is expressed in poetry, philosophy, history, and the romances.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses

EALC B264 HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA (1.0 Credit)

Yonglin Jiang

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course will examine China’s human rights issues from a historical perspective. The topics include diverse perspectives on human rights, historical background, civil rights, religious practice, justice system, education, as well as the problems concerning some social groups such as migrant laborers, women, ethnic minorities and peasants.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

EALC B315 SPIRITS, SAINTS, SNAKES, SWORDS: WOMEN IN EAST ASIAN LITERATURE & FILM (1.0 Credit)

Shiamin Kwa

This interdisciplinary course focuses on a critical survey of literary and visual texts by and about Chinese women. We will begin by focusing on the cultural norms that defined women's lives beginning in early China, and consider how those tropes are reflected and rejected over time and geographical borders (in Japan, Hong Kong and the United States). No prior knowledge of Chinese culture or language necessary.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Economics Courses

ECON B324 THE ECONOMICS OF DISCRIMINATION AND INEQUALITY (1.0 Credit)

Andrew Nutting

Division: Social Science

Explores the causes and consequences of discrimination and inequality in economic markets. Topics include economic theories of discrimination and inequality, evidence of contemporary race- and gender-based inequality, detecting discrimination, identifying sources of racial and gender inequality, and identifying sources of overall economic inequality. Additionally, the instructor and students will jointly select supplementary topics of specific interest to the class. Possible topics include: discrimination in historical markets, disparity in legal treatments, issues of family structure, and education gaps. Writing Intensive. Prerequisites: At least one 200-level applied microeconomics elective; ECON 253 or 304; ECON 200.

English Courses

ENGL B175 QUEER AMERICAN POETRY (1.0 Credit)

Jess Shollenberger

Division: Humanities

What does poetry have to say about the history of sexuality? How do queer voices, expansively defined, disrupt poetic norms and forms? How has poetry been congenial to the project of imagining and making queer communities, queer spaces, and even queer worlds? In this course, we survey the work of queer American poets from the late nineteenth century to the present, as we touch on major topics in the history of sexuality, queer studies, and American cultural history. This course provides an overview of American poetry as well as an introduction to queer studies concepts and frameworks; no prior experience with these fields is necessary.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

ENGL B215 EARLY MODERN CRIME NARRATIVES: VICE, VILLAINS, AND LAW (1.0 Credit)

Colby Gordon

This course taps into our continuing collective obsession with criminality, unpacking the complicated web of feelings attached to crime and punishment through early modern literary treatments of villains, scoundrels, predators, pimps, witches, king-killers, poisoners, mobs, and adulterers. By reading literary accounts of vice alongside contemporary and historical theories of criminal justice, we will chart the deep history of criminology and track competing ideas about punishment and the criminal mind. This course pays particular attention the ways that people in this historical moment mapped criminality onto dynamics of gender, race, sexuality, disability, religion, and mental illness according to cultural conventions very different from our own. Authors may include Shakespeare, Marlowe, Massinger, Middleton, Dekker, Webster, and Behn.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

ENGL B217 NARRATIVES OF LATINIDAD (1.0 Credit)

Jennifer Harford Vargas

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course explores how Latina/o writers fashion bicultural and transnational identities and narrate the intertwined histories of the U.S. and Latin America. We will focus on topics of shared concern among Latino groups such as struggles for social justice, the damaging effects of machismo and racial hierarchies, the politics of Spanglish, and the affective experience of migration. By analyzing a range of cultural production, including novels, poetry, testimonial narratives, films, activist art, and essays, we will unpack the complexity of Latinidad in the Americas.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ENGL B223 THE HELP: ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE & CARE WORK (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities

This course surveys Asian American literature and cultural productions that feature the work of care: jobs, whether official or unofficial (such as mothering, nursing, and nannying) that are essential, yet so often undercompensated and overlooked. We will examine how Asian American immigration history has led to the burgeoning of industries around care work. We will see how narrative and fiction portray the troubling entanglements between economic structures, race and gender roles, and personal feeling in the labor of care. This course operates under the premise that an attentiveness to how care unfolds is essential to creating a more just world. Collectively, we will not just talk about care as an abstract set of ideas but concretely practice it with one another in the space of our classroom.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ENGL B227 TRANS SHAKESPEARE (1.0 Credit)

George Perez

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Everyone knows that Shakespeare’s plays are chock-full of moments of gender trouble. Whether it is the fact of cross-dressing on stages that prohibited women actors or the episodes where already cross-dressed boy actors played men, the early modern stage reveled in the instability of gender and its performance. Less known, however, are the rich debates and theories about sex, gender, and sexuality that were going on at the time and that informed the performance of gender on Shakespeare’s stage. Indeed, three years before the publication of Shakespeare’s first folio, or collected works, a pamphlet debate between Hic Mulier (the man-woman) and Haec Vir (the womanish man) raged, bringing social anxieties about cross-dressing, sexuality, women, and masculinity to the fore of bookstall debate. This course will delve into Shakespeare’s works and put them in context in the landscape of early modern theories of gender and sexuality. Moreover, this course will engage contemporary scholarship, to re-situate our approach to gender and sexuality in Shakespeare within a trans-critical framework, moving away from gender binarism in our approach to questions of gender in early modern literature. Readings include Ben Jonson’s Epicene, Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merchant of Venice, and Henry VI Part I, and a selection of criticism and theory.

ENGL B237 CULTURAL MEMORY AND STATE-SANCTIONED VIOLENCE IN LATINX LITERATURE (1.0 Credit)

Jennifer Harford Vargas

Division: Humanities

This course examines how Latinx literature grapples with state-sanctioned violence, cultural memory, and struggles for justice in the Americas. Attending to the histories of dictatorship and civil war in Central and South America, we will focus on a range of genres—including novels, memoir, poetry, film, and murals—to explore how memory and the imagination can contest state-sanctioned violence, how torture and disappearances haunt the present, how hetereopatriarchal and white supremacist discourses are embedded in authoritarian regimes, and how U.S. imperialism has impacted undocumented migration. Throughout the course we will analyze the various creative techniques Latinx cultural producers use to resist violence and imagine justice.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

ENGL B261 COLONIZING GIRLHOODS: L.M.MONTGOMERY AND LAURA INGALLS WILDE (1.0 Credit)

Chloe Flower

Division: Humanities

This class explores what we can see anew when we juxtapose two iconic figures of North American children’s literature: L.M. Montgomery’s Anne Shirley and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s fictionalized self-portrait, Laura Ingalls. Both characters have risen to mythic proportions in their respective countries, and are powerful signs in an international culture industry. After setting up key eighteenth-century concepts and contexts for what French historian Philippe Ariès calls the "invention of childhood”, we will explore the ways in which images of young girls have been deployed as the benign faces of ruthless imperialism, reading through the entirety of each original series. We will track the geographical movement of both heroines, with particular attention to different spatial narratives of nationhood and empire-building, whether manifest destiny in the U.S., or what critic Northrop Frye has termed the “garrison mentality” of Canadian culture. Here we’ll be especially attentive to commonalities in how both authors produce class-stratified and racialized notions of girlhood, as well as divergences in how both countries, each still framed to varying degrees as the “infant nation” of Great Britain, yield new and evolving discourses of girlhood.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ENGL B266 OSCAR WILDE AND HIS CIRCLE (1.0 Credit)

Kate Thomas

Division: Humanities

Oscar Wilde embodied contradictions. He was an Irishman who embraced English life, a husband to a woman and a lover to many men, an author who wrote in all genres, a celebrity, a wit, a journalist and editor, a socialist and a decadent, a beloved and loathed exile and martyr. At his height, he was one of the most celebrated writers on both sides of the Atlantic, and he played a huge role in the shaping of the literary and cultural aesthetics of the 1890s. Then, after a brutal and sensational trial for “acts of gross indecency” with men, followed by 2 years in a prison cell, he became a byword for homosexuality and its perils. Everyone knew, or knew about, Oscar. This course will trace his artistic and sexual networks, his friendships, his rivalries, and his afterlives. Topics will include: Wilde, feminism and fashion; Wilde, aestheticism and America; Wilde and incarceration; Wilde and race. Alongside selections from his drama, poetry, essays and fiction, we will read work by the women who formed part of his literary circle (Ouida, Amy Levy, Michael Field), the sexual philosophers who influenced or were influenced by him (Walter Pater, Aleister Crowley, Walt Whitman, Edward Carpenter), and learn why Henry James was an enemy, and Lord Alfred Douglas a very bad boyfriend indeed.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

ENGL B305 EARLY MODERN TRANS STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Colby Gordon

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course will consider the deep histories of transgender embodiment by exploring literary, historical, medical, and religious texts from the Renaissance. Expect to read about alchemical hermaphrodites, gender-swapping angels, Ethiopian eunuchs, female husbands, trans saints, criminal transvestites, and genderqueer monks. We will consider together how these early modern texts speak to the historical, theoretical, and political concerns that animate contemporary trans studies. We will read texts by Crashaw, Donne, Shakespeare, Lyly, and Dekker as well as Susan Stryker, Dean Spade, Mel Chen, Paul Preciado, and Kadji Amin. Prerequisite: Students must have completed at least one 200-level class.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

ENGL B331 QUEER THEORY (1.0 Credit)

Jess Shollenberger

Division: Humanities

Queer theory emerged in the early 90s as an academic field committed to studying queer experiences of gender, sexuality, and desire. Early queer theorists established the field’s opposition not just to heterosexual privilege, homophobia, and the normal but also to so-called proper objects of analysis and critique. In this class, we study the history, present, and future of this field, and we interrogate its power at a moment when some of its basic assertions are being disregarded and teachers in some states risk their jobs if they acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ+ people. Texts will include movement documents, manifestos, poems, artworks, and films in addition to works of theory by writers like Anzaldúa, Berlant, Butler, Ferguson, Halberstam, Love, Muñoz, Puar, Rubin, Sedgwick, Spillers, Warner, and others.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ENGL B333 LESBIAN IMMORTAL (1.0 Credit)

Kate Thomas

Division: Humanities

Lesbian literature has repeatedly figured itself in alliance with tropes of immortality and eternity. Using recent queer theory on temporality, and 19th and 20th century primary texts, we will explore topics such as: fame and noteriety; feminism and mythology; epistemes, erotics and sexual seasonality; the death drive and the uncanny; fin de siecle manias for mummies and seances.

ENGL B337 MODERNISM AND THE ORDINARY (1.0 Credit)

Jess Shollenberger

Division: Humanities

Modernism is consistently aligned with innovation: making things new and making things strange. Yet modernist writing is preoccupied with habit, repetition, sameness, boredom, and the banal—with “things happening, normally, all the time,” as Virginia Woolf once put it. This course explores the modernist fascination with the ordinary, from the objects in a kitchen to the rhythms of a day. Our primary task will be to understand the stakes of paying attention to the ordinary world for queer and women modernist writers, whose work reveals the ordinary as a site of deep ambivalence as well as possibility. Likely authors include: Woolf, Gertrude Stein, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, Marianne Moore, and Jean Rhys.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

ENGL B339 LATINA/O CULTURE AND THE ART OF MIGRATION (1.0 Credit)

Jennifer Harford Vargas

Gloria Anzaldúa has famously described the U.S.-Mexico border as an open wound and the border culture that arises from this fraught site as a third country. This course will explore how Chicana/os and Latina/os creatively represent different kinds of migrations across geo-political borders and between cultural traditions to forge transnational identities and communities. We will use cultural production as a lens for understanding how citizenship status, class, gender, race, and language shape the experiences of Latin American migrants and their Latina/o children. We will also analyze alternative metaphors and discourses of resistance that challenge anti-immigrant rhetoric and reimagine the place of undocumented migrants and Latina/os in contemporary U.S. society. Over the course of the semester, we will probe the role that literature, art, film, and music can play in the struggle for migrants’ rights and minority civil rights, querying how the imagination and aesthetics can contribute to social justice. We will examine a number of different genres, as well as read and apply key theoretical texts on the borderlands and undocumented migration.

ENGL B342 THE QUEER MIDDLE AGES (1.0 Credit)

Jamie Taylor

Division: Humanities

This course examines medieval queer history, focusing on literary depictions of non-normative sexual identities and expressions. From monastic vows of celibacy to same-sex erotic love, from constructions of female virginity to trans identity, the Middle Ages conceptualized sexuality in a range of ways and with a range of attached assumptions and anxieties. Readings will include chivalric romance, rules for monks, cross-dressing saints' lives, and legal tracts worried about unmarried women.

ENGL B343 SEX, SIN, AND THE SACRED IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE (1.0 Credit)

Mary Alcaro

Rather than being at odds with the church, sex and sexuality was an integral part of medieval concepts of sanctity. Even as the church attempted to regulate sexual behavior, it was also deeply invested in the relationship between the divine and the corporeal, including meditation upon the frankly erotic Song of Songs; the question of Mary’s virginity and motherhood; hagiographic accounts of cross-dressing saints; and the feminization of Christ’s body. This course will explore three concepts-- sex, sin, and the sacred-- and their interrelationship during the medieval period. We will investigate the complex and often contradictory ways that sex was understood, exploring how medieval people conceptualized the sacred and profane -- and then troubled the very binaries such a system established. Broadly interpreting the term “sex,” we will explore issues of sexual and romantic desire; sexual acts and behaviors; medieval versions of gender identity; pre-modern understandings of “biological” sex; love and courtship; and more. Readings will be mostly literary (both canonical and non-canonical) but will also include some excerpts from religious texts and both medieval and early modern medical treatises, including work from Geoffrey Chaucer, Alain de Lille, Christine de Pizan, St. Augustine, Margery Kempe, Thomas Mallory, John Gower, and Marie de France. We will pair these primary source texts with commentary and essays from critics such as Judith Butler, Caroline Walker Bynum, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Robert Mills, and Carolyn Dinshaw. While texts will be presented in their original form where possible, knowledge of Middle English is not a prerequisite for the course. Prerequisite: One 200-level English course or permission of instructor

ENGL B372 BLACK ECOFEMINISM(S): CRITICAL APPROACHES (1.0 Credit)

Alex Alston

Division: Humanities

How have Black feminist authors and traditions theorized or represented the ecological world and their relationship to it? How does thinking intersectionally about gender(ing) and racialization expand or challenge conventional notions of “nature,” conservation, or environmental justice? In what ways does centering racial blackness critically reframe a host of practical and philosophical questions historically brought together under the sign “ecofeminism?” Combining history and theory, the humanities and the social sciences, this interdisciplinary course will use the work of Black feminist writers (broadly defined) across a range of genres to approach and to trouble the major paradigms and problems of contemporary Euro-American ecofeminist thought. The course uses fiction and poetry by Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison, and Countee Cullen as a gateway to a range of critical work by Jennifer Morgan, Sylvia Wynter, Maria Mies, and Val Plumwood as it attempts to define and deconstruct what Chelsea Frazier calls “Black Feminist Ecological Thought.”

French and French Studies Courses

FREN B105 DIRECTIONS DE LA FRANCE CONTEMPORAINE (1.0 Credit)

Camille Leclère-Gregory, Corine Ragueneau

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Ce cours se donne pour but de vous faire goûter à la culture française actuelle, mais aussi de vous donner une idée claire de la société où elle naît. Nous en aborderons des aspects très variés en nous concentrant sur ces institutions dont le fonctionnement la distingue d’autres pays (école, hôpital, etc.). Les films que nous allons voir nous permettront d'analyser ces particularités françaises. Il s’agit également de vous encourager à vous exprimer aisément en français : les discussions seront privilégiées et nous réviserons régulièrement des points de grammaire afin d’améliorer votre expression tant écrite qu’orale. Au terme de ce cours, vous pourrez vivre en France sans vous sentir sur une planète étrangère. Prerequisite: FREN 005 or 101.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

FREN B221 FEMME SUJET/FEMME OBJET (1.0 Credit)

Grace Armstrong

Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An in-depth examination of how women authors from selected periods conceive of their art, construct authority for themselves, and, where appropriate, distinguish themselves from male colleagues, of whom several who have assumed female voices/perspective will be examined as points of comparison. It introduces students to the techniques and topics of selected women writers (as well as theoretical approaches to them) from the most recent (Djebar and M. Duras) to late Medieval authors. This course is taught in French. Prerequisite: FREN 102 or 105

German Courses

GERM B217 REPRESENTING DIVERSITY IN GERMAN CINEMA (1.0 Credit)

Qinna Shen

German society has undergone drastic changes as a result of immigration. Traditional notions of Germanness have been and are still being challenged and subverted. This course uses films and visual media to examine the experiences of various minority groups living in Germany. Students will learn about the history of immigration of different ethnic groups, including Turkish Germans, Afro-Germans, Asian Germans, Arab Germans, German Jews, and ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. We will explore discourses on migration, racism, xenophobia, integration, and citizenship. We will seek to understand not only the historical and contemporary contexts for these films but also their relevance for reshaping German society. Students will be introduced to modern German cinema from the silent era to the present. They will acquire terminology and methods for reading films as fictional and aesthetic representations of history and politics, and analyze identity construction in the worlds of the real and the reel. This course is taught in English

(Offered: Spring 2026)

GERM B245 INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO GERMAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE (1.0 Credit)

Margaret Strair

Division: Humanities

This is a topics course. Taught in German. Course content varies. Previous topics include, Women’s Narratives on Modern Migrancy, Exile, and Diasporas; Nation and Identity in Post-War Austria.

GERM B321 ADVANCED TOPICS IN GERMAN CULTURAL STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Qinna Shen

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Recent topic titles include: Asia and Germany through Film; The Letter, the Spirit, and Beyond: German-Jewish Writers and Jewish Culture in the 18th and 19th Century.

Greek Courses

GREK B201 PLATO AND THUCYDIDES (1.0 Credit)

Radcliffe Edmonds

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course is designed to introduce the student to two of the greatest prose authors of ancient Greece, the philosopher, Plato, and the historian, Thucydides. These two writers set the terms in the disciplines of philosophy and history for millennia, and philosophers and historians today continue to grapple with their ideas and influence. The brilliant and controversial statesman Alcibiades provides a link between the two texts in this course (Plato’s Symposium and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War), and we examine the ways in which both authors handle the figure of Alcibiades as a point of entry into the comparison of the varying styles and modes of thought of these two great writers. Suggested Prerequisites: At least 2 years of college Greek or the equivalent.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Gender and Sexuality Studies Courses

GSST B108 INTRODUCTION TO GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Bridget Gurtler

This course will introduce students to major approaches, theories, and topics in gender and sexuality studies, as a framework for understanding the past and present—not only how societies conceive differences in bodily sex, gender expression, and sexual behavior, but how those conceptions shape broader social, cultural, political, and economic patterns.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

GSST B390 GENDER & SEXUALITY STUDIES RESEARCH SEMINAR (1.0 Credit)

Bridget Gurtler

This course is designed as a research seminar for Gender and Sexuality Studies minors and concentrators in their junior or senior year, with a focus on developing and workshopping an independent project, performance, exhibit, or curriculum plan. Students will review various methodologies and theories in gender and sexuality studies and think critically about how practices and experiences of gender and sexuality intersect with racial, ethnic, class, and national identities in the U.S. and the world. We will also consider the politics of scholarship itself and how various disciplines investigate questions of gender and sexuality. For their final projects, students will bring together various modes of research, analysis, and theory from gender and sexuality studies with questions and methods from their major discipline to develop a project geared to their interests and knowledge. This project will enable students to reflect on their interests and goals in the minor/concentration, either in preparation for a senior project or other future work. Suggested preparation: GSST B108 Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies and/or GSST 250Theories and its Uses in LGBTQ+ Studies

History Courses

HIST B102 INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS (1.0 Credit)

Kalala Ngalamulume

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The course is designed to introduce students to the history of African and African Diaspora societies, cultures, and political economies. We will discuss the origins, state formation, external contacts, and the structural transformations and continuities of African societies and cultures in the context of the slave trade, colonial rule, capitalist exploitation, urbanization, and westernization, as well as contemporary struggles over authority, autonomy, identity and access to resources. Case studies will be drawn from across the continent.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

HIST B216 HISTORY OF MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE U.S. (1.0 Credit)

Stephen Vider

Division: Social Science

This course examines the history of mental illness—its conception and treatment—in the United States, from the eighteenth century to the present. Pairing primary and secondary sources, the course moves chronologically in order to track, and draw connections between, a wide range of movements within American psychological and social welfare history, including the creation and closure of asylums; the pathologization of racial, gender, and sexual difference; social welfare movements; the Americanization of psychoanalysis; social psychiatry; psychopharmacology; and the politics of diagnosis.

HIST B219 LGBTQ+ HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES (1.0 Credit)

Stephen Vider

This course traces the history of LGBTQ+ identities, relationships, and politics in the United States from the late 18th century to the present. We will consider, in particular, the shifting meanings of sexual and gender variance and LGBTQ+ identities; changing forms of romantic and sexual relationships; the emergence and policing of LGBTQ+ communities, as shaped by class and race; the history of LGBTQ+ activism and its intersections with broader movements for social and economic justice; and the relationship between LGBTQ+ people and the state. Students will learn to read and analyze a range of historical scholarship, as well as primary texts in the history of gender and sexuality including memoirs and letters, periodicals, photographs, and political manifestos.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

HIST B226 TOPICS IN 20TH CENTURY EUROPEAN HISTORY (1.0 Credit)

Anita Kurimay

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

(Offered: Fall 2025, Spring 2026)

HIST B237 THEMES IN MODERN AFRICAN HISTORY (1.0 Credit)

Kalala Ngalamulume

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This is a topics course. Course content varies

(Offered: Spring 2026)

HIST B242 AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY: 1945 TO THE PRESENT (1.0 Credit)

Stephen Vider

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course examines transformations in American culture, politics, and society from World War II to the present, focusing on flashpoints of government policy, popular culture, and social activism. We will trace this history with a focus on four central themes: (1) U.S. domestic and foreign policy and the fear of annihilation, from the Cold War, the specter of nuclear warfare, and the War in Vietnam to the War on Terror and climate change; (2) the growth and convergence of movements for social justice, including African American, Latinx, Asian American, indigenous, feminist, and LGBTQ+ rights and liberation; (3) the rise of the New Right, neoliberalism, the reshaping of party politics, and their impact on social welfare, healthcare, and the environment; and (4) the politics of popular culture, especially television, music, and digital media. Across these themes, we will consider where government leaders and popular culture have worked to reinforce social norms and sharpen political divides and how social movements have reshaped American politics and society.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

HIST B243 TOPICS: ATLANTIC CULTURES (1.0 Credit)

Ignacio Gallup-Diaz

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

HIST B274 TOPICS IN MODERN US HISTORY (1.0 Credit)

Kelly O'Donnell

Division: Social Science

This is a topics course in 20th century America social history. Topics vary by half semester

HIST B292 WOMEN IN BRITAIN SINCE 1750 (1.0 Credit)

Madhavi Kale

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Focusing on contemporary and historical narratives, this course explores the ongoing production, circulation and refraction of discourses on gender and nation as well as race, empire and modernity since the mid-18th century. Texts will incorporate visual material as well as literary evidence and culture and consider the crystallization of the discipline of history itself.

HIST B303 TOPICS IN AMERICAN HISTORY (1.0 Credit)

Stephen Vider

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Recent topics have included medicine, advertising, and history of sexuality. Course may be repeated for credit.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

HIST B325 TOPICS IN SOCIAL HISTORY (1.0 Credit)

Kelly O'Donnell

Division: Social Science

This a topics course that explores various themes in American social history. Course content varies. Course may be repeated.

HIST B337 TOPICS IN AFRICAN HISTORY (1.0 Credit)

Kalala Ngalamulume

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This is a topics course. Topics vary.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Italian and Italian Studies Courses

ITAL B202 RACCONTI TRANSNAZIONALI A CONFRONTO: PATRIARCATO, MIGRAZIONE E TRANSCULTURALITÀ (0.5 Credit)

Roberta Ricci

Division: Humanities

This course focusses on the development of the short story, and particularly on its changing form through the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Students will analyze Italian novellas through in-class discussions and take-home assignment. They will start by reading some short stories by Boccaccio’s Decameron and will then focus closely on 19th century Rosso malpelo and L'amante di Gramigna by Giovanni Verga and on Terno secco by Matilde Serao. Moving towards 20th and 21st centuries, we will examine racism, immigration, and patriarchy in context with the reading of women writers such as Sibilla Aleramo, Elsa Morante, Natalia Ginzburg, Elena Ferranate, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anna Maria Ortese, Dacia Maraini, Donatella Di Pietrantonio. Our 21st-century examples will also include Roberto Saviano's Il contrario della morte and Valeria Parrella's Il premio. To stimulate classroom discussion and provide useful insight into the wide variety of Italy’s socio-cultural specificities, the texts will be supplemented with selected background information including scholarly criticism, visual media, and media reception. The course is highly interactive and, at times, adopts the mode of a creative writing workshop. Students will thus be asked to comment their and other colleagues’ work by discussing points of strength and weakness. This process will facilitate the preparation for and successful drafting of the papers. It will also encourage students to learn how to analyze and self-assess their own essays. The stories will be read in Italian. Prerequisite: ITAL 102 or permission of instructor.

ITAL B217 GENDERED VIOLENCE AND FEMICIDE (1.0 Credit)

Roberta Ricci

How many women are killed in Italy? How many women suffer abuse at the hands of their partner? Data shows one in seven in Italy have suffered gendered abuse. In many regions, victims have nowhere to turn for shelter. This course will examine domestic and sexual assault in intimate relationships from a feminist analysis. Historical, theoretical, and sociological perspectives on gender violence will be critically analyzed through criminology research, literature, and theory. Course context will focus on dominance and control as a co-factor of gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, age, sexuality, nationality, and other variables. Therefore, the course will highlight the differential impact of gender violence on women of color, lesbians, older women, adolescent girls, immigrants and marginalized and disenfranchised women. Domestic and sexual violence in contemporary Italy will also be reviewed and analyzed in the context of international contexts. This course will be taught in Italian. Prerequisite: ITAL 102 or permission from instructor

(Offered: Spring 2026)

ITAL B218 EARLY-MODERN INTERSECTIONS: A NEW ITALIAN RENAISSANCE (1.0 Credit)

Luca Zipoli

Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

The period or movement commonly referred to as the Renaissance remains one of the great iconic moments of global history: a time of remarkable innovation within artistic and intellectual culture, and a period still widely regarded as the crucible of modernity. Although lacking a political unity and being constantly colonized by European Empires, Italy was the original heartland of the Renaissance, and home to some of its most powerful and enduring figures, such as Leonardo and Michelangelo in art, Petrarch and Ariosto in literature, Machiavelli in political thought. This course provides an overview of Italian culture from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century by adopting a cross-cultural, intersectional, and inter-disciplinary approach. The course places otherness at the center of the picture rather than at its margins, with the main aim to look at pivotal events and phenomena (the rise of Humanism, courtly culture, the canonization of the language), not only from the point of view of its protagonists but also through the eyes of its non-male, non-white, non-Christian, and non-heterosexual witnesses. The course ultimately challenges traditional accounts of the Italian Renaissance by crossing also disciplinary boundaries, since it examines not only literary, artistic, and intellectual history, but also material culture, cartography, science, technology, and history of food and fashion. All readings and class discussion will be in English. Students seeking Italian credits will complete their assignments in the target language.

ITAL B255 MAFIA AND ORGANIZED CRIMES (1.0 Credit)

Roberta Ricci

This course will be a study of the mafia in its historical, social, economic, cultural, and political dimensions. A wide range of novels, films, testimonies and TV series will offer different representations of the Mafia: its ethics, its relationship with politics, religion and business, its ideas of friendship, family, masculinity and femininity. The Associazione Libera was established in 1995 with the purpose of involving and supporting those who are interested in the fight against mafias and organized crime. Thanks to Italian Law n. 109/96, the Italian government is able now to seize property from Mafiosi and give it to co-operations such as Libera. Specialized sectors of mafia activities explored include prostitution, drugs, finance, and human trafficking. Ecomafia receives special attention, examining the implications of mafia for the environment, agriculture and food markets.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ITAL B325 LITERATURE AND FILM, LITERATURE INTO FILMS AND BACK (1.0 Credit)

Roberta Ricci

This course is a critical analysis of Modern Italian society through cinematic production and literature, from the Risorgimento to the present. According to Alfred Hitchock’s little stories, two goats were eating the reel of a movie taken from a famous novel. “I liked the book better,” says one to the other. While at times we too chew on movies taken from books, our main objective will not be to compare books and films, but rather to explore the more complex relation between literature and cinema: how text is put into film, how cultural references operate with respect to issues of style, technique, and perspective. We will discuss how cinema conditions literary imagination, and how literature leaves its imprint on cinema. We will "read" films as "literary images" and "see" novels as "visual stories". Students will become acquainted with literary sources through careful readings; on viewing the corresponding film, students will consider how narrative and descriptive textual elements are transposed into cinematic audio/visual elements. An important concern of this course will be to analyze the particularity of each film/book in relation to a set of themes -gender, death, class, discrimination, history, migration- through close textual analysis. We shall use contemporary Film theory and critical methodology to access these themes.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

ITAL B335 THE ITALIAN MARGINS: PLACES AND IDENTITIES (1.0 Credit)

Luca Zipoli, Roberta Ricci

Thompson Fullilove’s scholarship will be the theoretical foundation of this survey of 20th century topics—from literary representations of mental health to the displacement of marginalized communities, from historical persecution in Europe to contemporary domestic violence in Italy. The main goal of the seminar will be to challenge the rhetoric of ‘otherness’, ‘encounters’, ‘marginalization’, ‘anti-canon’, and ‘exoticism’ that is typical of broader readings of Italy’s modern traditions, adopting Thompson Fullilove’s inter-sectional and trans-historical paradigms to re-imagine Italian Studies, to center the gender gap, and overcome the stigma of mental illness and madness. Rooted in the perspectives of trans-codification, trans-historical tradition, and cultural translation, this course attempts to address such questions both in theory and practice using Freudian literary criticism (The interpretation of Dreams, 1899; The Uncanny, 1919; Beyond the Pleasure Principle, 1920; The Ego and the Id, 1923; Civilization and its Discontents, 1930). We will start with a seminar, devoted to the analysis and discussion of primary sources and then follow with a scholarly (and creative) workshop. Tailored activities related to social activism (Praxis) will also fulfill the course requirements. Prerequisite: 200 level course or permission of instructor.

Philosophy Courses

PHIL B221 ETHICS (1.0 Credit)

Macalester Bell

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An introduction to ethics by way of an examination of moral theories and a discussion of important ancient, modern, and contemporary texts which established theories such as virtue ethics, deontology, utilitarianism, relativism, emotivism, care ethics. This course considers questions concerning freedom, responsibility, and obligation. How should we live our lives and interact with others? How should we think about ethics in a global context? Is ethics independent of culture? A variety of practical issues such as reproductive rights, euthanasia, animal rights and the environment will be considered.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

PHIL B225 GLOBAL ETHICAL ISSUES (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The need for a critical analysis of what justice is and requires has become urgent in a context of increasing globalization, the emergence of new forms of conflict and war, high rates of poverty within and across borders and the prospect of environmental devastation. This course examines prevailing theories and issues of justice as well as approaches and challenges by non-western, post-colonial, feminist, race, class, and disability theorists.

PHIL B252 FEMINIST THEORY (1.0 Credit)

Macalester Bell

Division: Humanities

Beliefs that gender discrimination has been eliminated and women have achieved equality have become commonplace. We challenge these assumptions examining the concepts of patriarchy, sexism, and oppression. Exploring concepts central to feminist theory, we attend to the history of feminist theory and contemporary accounts of women’s place and status in different societies, varied experiences, and the impact of the phenomenon of globalization. We then explore the relevance of gender to philosophical questions about identity and agency with respect to moral, social and political theory. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of instructor.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Political Science Courses

POLS B221 GENDER AND COMPARATIVE POLITICS (1.0 Credit)

Elizabeth Corredor

Division: Social Science

This course explores the dynamic intersection of gender and politics within a comparative framework. Through a feminist and intersectional lens, students will engage in major debates in the field of comparative politics, including but not limited to the State, social movements, authoritarianism, populism, democracy, institutions, and backlash. The course maps the trajectory of feminist work across various areas of comparative research, using examples from different world regions and periods to analyze similarities and differences across global cases. This course fulfills a 200-level requirement for both Comparative Politics and American Politics for Political Science majors. Prerequisite: Students must have taken either Intro to International Politics, Intro to Comparative Politics, or Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

POLS B242 GENDER AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (1.0 Credit)

Elizabeth Corredor

Employing a multi-disciplinary feminist lens, this class examines women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights within the United Nations system, with a primary focus on human rights and peace & security. This course seeks to expose students to the complex issues - social, political, economic, and legal - that characterize women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights around the globe. The theoretical foundations are in the area of gender mainstreaming, which is the practice of integrating a gender equality perspective across all governing systems including but not limited to policy development, political representation, institutional regulations, program building, and budgeting. Students will be asked to conduct research on women’s and/or LGBTQIA+ rights within a country of their choice. Students will present their findings to the class as well as write a final report. Prerequisite: Introductory Political Science Course or Instructor's permission.

Russian Courses

RUSS B265 QUEER RUSSIAS (1.0 Credit)

Jose Vergara

This course presents an alternative vision of Russia’s cultural legacy with a focus on queer writing, film, and art from the early nineteenth century to the present day. We consider key moments in this history by examining texts that explore what it has meant to be queer in Russia under different regimes with various levels of tolerance, while centering their power as works of protest art, personal expression, and creative exploration and experimentation. Topics includes: queer masculinities and femininities, reproductive rights, pop and Internet cultures, queer joy, homophobia and protest, trans rights, queerness and disability, marriage, among others. Taught in English. No knowledge of Russian language/culture necessary. Open to all.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Sociology Courses

SOCL B102 SOCIETY, CULTURE, AND THE INDIVIDUAL (1.0 Credit)

Jack Thornton

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Sociology is the systematic study of society and social interaction. It involves what C. Wright Mills called the "sociological imagination," a way of seeing the relationship between individuals and the larger forces of society and history. In this course, we will practice using our sociological imaginations to think about the world around us. We will examine how social norms and structures are created and maintained, and we will analyze how these structures shape people's behavior and choices, often without their realizing it. After learning to think sociologically, we will examine the centrality of inequality in society, focusing specifically on the intersecting dimensions of race and ethnicity, gender, and class, and the role of social structures and institutions (such as the family and education) in society. Overall, this course draws our attention toward our own presuppositions-the things we take for granted in our everyday lives-and provides us with a systematic framework within which we can analyze those presuppositions and identify their effects..

(Offered: Fall 2025, Spring 2026)

SOCL B201 THE STUDY OF GENDER IN SOCIETY (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The definition of male and female social roles and sociological approaches to the study of gender in the United States, with attention to gender in the economy and work place, the division of labor in families and households, and analysis of class and ethnic differences in gender roles. Of particular interest in this course is the comparative exploration of the experiences of women of color in the United States.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

SOCL B205 SOCIAL INEQUALITY (1.0 Credit)

Amanda Cox

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

In this course, we will explore the extent, causes, and consequences of social and economic inequality in the U.S. We will begin by discussing key theories and the intersecting dimensions of inequality along lines of income and wealth, race and ethnicity, and gender. We will then follow a life-course perspective to trace the institutions through which inequality is structured, experienced, and reproduced through the family, neighborhoods, the educational system, labor markets and workplaces, and the criminal justice system.

SOCL B225 WOMEN IN SOCIETY (1.0 Credit)

Veronica Montes

Division: Social Science

In 2015, the world’s female population was 49.6 percent of the total global population of 7.3 billion. According to the United Nations, in absolute terms, there were 61,591,853 more men than women. Yet, at the global scale, 124 countries have more women than men. A great majority of these countries are located in what scholars have recently been referring to as the Global South – those countries known previously as developing countries. Although women outnumber their male counterparts in many Global South countries, however, these women endure difficulties that have worsened rather than improving. What social structures determine this gender inequality in general and that of women of color in particular? What are the main challenges women in the Global South face? How do these challenges differ based on nationality, class, ethnicity, skin color, gender identity, and other axes of oppression? What strategies have these women developed to cope with the wide variety of challenges they contend with on a daily basis? These are some of the major questions that we will explore together in this class. In this course, the Global South does not refer exclusively to a geographical location, but rather to a set of institutional structures that generate disadvantages for all individuals and particularly for women and other minorities, regardless their geographical location in the world. In other words, a significant segment of the Global North’s population lives under the same precarious conditions that are commonly believed as exclusive to the Global South. Simultaneously, there is a Global North embedded in the Global South as well. In this context, we will see that the geographical division between the North and the South becomes futile when we seek to understand the dynamics of the “Western-centric/Christian-centric capitalist/patriarchal modern/colonial world-system” (Grosfoguel, 2012). In the first part of the course, we will establish the theoretical foundations that will guide us throughout the rest of the semester. We will then turn to a wide variety of case studies where we will examine, for instance, the contemporary global division of labor, gendered violence in the form of feminicides, international migration, and global tourism. The course’s final thematic section will be devoted to learning from the different feminisms (e.g. community feminism) emerging out of the Global South as well as the research done in that region and its contribution to the development of a broader gender studies scholarship. In particular, we will pay close attention to resistance, solidarity, and social movements led by women. Examples will be drawn from Latin America, the Caribbean, the US, Asia, and Africa.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

SOCL B235 MEXICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITIES (1.0 Credit)

Veronica Montes

For its unique history, the number of migrants, and the two countries' proximity, Mexican migration to the United States represents an exceptional case in world migration. There is no other example of migration with more than 100 years of history. The copious presence of migrants concentrated in a host country, such as we have in the case of the 11.7 million Mexican migrants residing in the United States, along with another 15 million Mexican descendants, is unparalleled. The 1,933-mile-long border shared by the two countries makes it one of the longest boundary lines in the world and, unfortunately, also one of the most dangerous frontiers in the world today. We will examine the different economic, political, social and cultural forces that have shaped this centenarian migration influx and undertake a macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of analysis. At the macro-level of political economy, we will investigate the economic interdependency that has developed between Mexico and the U.S. over different economic development periods of these countries, particularly, the role the Mexican labor force has played to boosting and sustaining both the Mexican and the American economies. At the meso-level, we will examine different institutions both in Mexico and the U.S. that have determined the ways in which millions of Mexican migrate to this country. Last, but certainly not least, we will explore the impacts that both the macro-and meso-processes have had on the micro-level by considering the imperatives, aspirations, and dreams that have prompted millions of people to leave their homes and communities behind in search of better opportunities. This major life decision of migration brings with it a series of social transformations in family and community networks, this will look into the cultural impacts in both the sending and receiving migrant communities. In sum, we will come to understand how these three levels of analysis work together.

SOCL B262 PUBLIC OPINION (1.0 Credit)

Nathan Wright

Division: Social Science

This course will assess public opinion in American politics: what it is, how it is measured, how it is shaped, how it relates to public policy, and how it changes over time. It includes both questions central to political scientists (what is the public, how do they exercise their voice, does the government listen and how do they respond?) and to sociologists (where do ideas come from, how do they gain societal influence, and how do they change over time?). It will pay close attention to the role of electoral politics throughout, both historically and in the current election. It is focused primarily on the United States, but seeks to place the US in global context. If this course is taken to fulfill an elective in the Data Science minor, students will conduct hands-on analyses with real data as a key component to both their Midterm and Final Essays.

SOCL B276 MAKING SENSE OF RACE (1.0 Credit)

Nora Taplin-Kaguru

What is the meaning of race in contemporary US and global society? How are these meanings (re)produced, resisted, and refused? What meanings might we desire or imagine as alternatives? In this course, we will approach these questions through an array of sources while tracking our own thinking about and experiences of raced-ness. Course material will survey sociological notions of the social construction of race, empirical studies of lived experiences of race, and creative fiction and non-fiction material intended to catalyze thinking about alternative possibilities.

SOCL B307 TRANSNATIONAL QUEER POLITICS (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science

As people and ideas traverse national, cultural, and social borders, how are gender and sexuality negotiated and redefined? This course uses queer politics and practices as an entry point to examine transnational processes such as global diffusion, international organizations, colonialism, global capitalism, and neoliberalism. Instead of taking gender and sexual categories like “gay,” “lesbian,” and “trans” for granted, we will use a feminist and queer sociological approach to interrogate how gender and sexual categories are produced, maintained, and reconfigured in non-western societies. Furthermore, we will consider how to address the limits of global LGBT rights discourse, social movements, and politics through postcolonial and intersectional lenses. Together, we will cultivate critical tools to assess the relationships between gender, sexuality, and globalization and how these processes influence the lived experiences of queer/trans individuals worldwide. Prerequisite: At lease one course in the social sciences.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

SOCL B350 MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE (1.0 Credit)

David Sorge

Throughout human history, powerless groups of people have organized social movements to improve their lives and their societies. Powerful groups and institutions have resisted these efforts in order to maintain their own privilege. Some periods of history have been more likely than others to spawn protest movements. What factors seem most likely to lead to social movements? What determines their success/failure? We will examine 20th and 21st-century social movements to answer these questions. Prerequisite: At least one prior social science course or permission of the instructor.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Spanish Courses

SPAN B205 ESCRITORAS EN LA ESPAÑA CONTEMPORÁNEA (1.0 Credit)

Neus Penalba

The course will focus on fiction written during the 20th and 21st century by women writers in Spain. We will study how the female subject is represented and constructed in these texts along historical events that have changed the country. Taking into account the political and social paradigms that dominate Spanish modern history and culture, we will explore how twentieth and twenty-first-century women writers negotiate the female subject in relation to earlier models of narration, identities (both self and regional), and social relationships. We will also look how these models have been challenged by a new wave of immigration and how it affects the social landscape of Spain. We will bring into the analysis and discussion of literary texts some of the issues addressed by feminist literary theory, such as language, canon formation, gender, and class. Finally, we will pay attention to the recovery of the country’s feminist tradition, as well as current topics of social and political conflict that concern women in Spain.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

SPAN B309 LA MUJER EN LA LITERATURA ESPAÑOLA DEL SIGLO DE ORO (1.0 Credit)

María Cristina Quintero

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

A study of the depiction of women in the fiction, drama, and poetry of 16th- and 17th-century Spain. Topics include the construction of gender; the idealization and codification of women's bodies; the politics of feminine enclosure (convent, home, brothel, palace); and the performance of honor. The first half of the course will deal with representations of women by male authors (Calderón, Cervantes, Lope, Quevedo) and the second will be dedicated to women writers such as Teresa de Ávila, Ana Caro, Juana Inés de la Cruz, and María de Zayas. Prerequisite: at least one SPAN 200-level course. Course fulfills pre-1700 requirement and HC's pre-1898 requirement. Counts toward Gender and Sexuality Studies. Counts toward Latin American, Iberian and Latina/o Studies.

Academic Catalog 2025-2026

Gender and Sexuality Studies

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Minor Requirements

Study Abroad

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Courses at Haverford

Africana Studies Courses

Anthropology Courses

Asian American Studies Courses

Comparative Literature Courses

Classical Studies Courses

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History Courses

Peace, Justice and Human Rights Courses

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Gender and Sexuality Studies Courses

History Courses

Italian and Italian Studies Courses

Philosophy Courses

Political Science Courses

Russian Courses

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Spanish Courses