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- Register through May 21.
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Courses
- SWGS S-43s Summer Seminar—Gender, Race, and Ethics in the Twenty-First Century
- SWGS S-1240 Women and Television
- SWGS S-1264 Interpreting South Asian Women's Lives
- SWGS S-1421 When The Princess Saves Herself: Gender and Retold Fairy Tales
- SWGS S-1430 Feminist Theater
- SWGS S-1453 Icons of Masculinity on Film
- SWGS S-1455 Freud, Sex, and Gender
SWGS S-43s Summer Seminar—Gender, Race, and Ethics in the Twenty-First Century (32830)
Class times: Tuesdays, Thursdays, 3:15-6:15 pm.
Course tuition: undergraduate credit $2,700.
Summer seminars are open only to Secondary School Program juniors and seniors, and to college undergraduates.
Limited enrollment.
What does it mean to be a "good" person? Do women and men have different moral beliefs? Does our race or ethnicity change how we perceive social problems? This course asks how it is possible to develop an ethics that takes account of human difference, especially difference in identity. We discuss contemporary American social and political problems, including gay marriage, racial segregation and school reform, as well as the gender wage gap and discrimination in hiring. (4 credits)
SWGS S-1240 Women and Television (32720)
Class times: Tuesdays, Thursdays, 6:30-9:30 pm.
Course tuition: noncredit, undergraduate, and graduate credit $2,700.
This course explores women's roles— both on screen and behind the scenes—in American television, and considers television's role in the construction of gender norms and in the shaping of feminism. Our study covers American television from its beginnings in the late 1940s to the present. (4 credits)
SWGS S-1264 Interpreting South Asian Women's Lives (32878)
*** SWGS S-1264 has been CANCELED. ***
SWGS S-1421 When The Princess Saves Herself: Gender and Retold Fairy Tales (32843)
Class times: Mondays, Wednesdays, 6:30-9:30 pm.
Course tuition: noncredit, undergraduate, and graduate credit $2,700.
Limited enrollment.
Folklore has an enduring appeal in cultures across the world: so enduring that literature and media retell them again and again. From mass media such as Disney films to well-known novelists like Margaret Atwood and Terry Pratchett, our authors, filmmakers, and storytellers revisit, revise, and reinvent the stories we all know. When such stories are retold, they are retold to suit our current sensibilities: our children's editions of Grimm's fairy tales no longer include "The Juniper Tree" (otherwise known as "My Mother, She Killed Me, My Father, He Ate Me"); very few villains dance to death in red-hot shoes; and perhaps we even look sideways at royalty as the proper way to run a country. But nowhere is the profound influence of folk process—the way in which we each retell, change, and thus keep folklore a living thing—found more strongly than in how we portray men and women in fairy tales. Is Cinderella's "virtuous suffering" a model we wish our daughters to emulate? Must a young man be a literal prince (born into his place in society) to succeed in love? Is external beauty a reliable way to judge whether a person is good? This course introduces students to the study of male and female roles in traditional folk and fairy tales, to the study of folk process itself, and then to the particular study of how we have folk processed modern reinterpretations of those gender roles here in the United States. We read a wide variety of folk and fairy tales, and modern adaptations of the fairy tale. (4 credits)
SWGS S-1430 Feminist Theater (32799)
Class times: Tuesdays, Thursdays, 3:15-6:15 pm.
Course tuition: noncredit, undergraduate, and graduate credit $2,700.
This course explores plays written by women through the lens of gender, race, and sexuality. The plays are put into the context of the evolution of feminist theory as well as the evolution of theater aesthetics from realism to the avant-garde and performance art. Artists include Lorraine Hansberry, Wendy Wasserstein, Sarah Kane, Eve Ensler, Maria Irene Fornes, Lillian Hellman, Caryl Churchill, Ntozake Shange, Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage, Beth Henley, Marsha Norman, Gertrude Stein, Martha Graham, Pina Bausch, Ana Mendieta, Carolee Schneemann, Karen Finley, and Laurie Anderson, among others. (4 credits)
SWGS S-1453 Icons of Masculinity on Film (31921)
Class times: Tuesdays, Thursdays, 6:30-9:30 pm.
Course tuition: noncredit, undergraduate, and graduate credit $2,700.
Using icons of masculinity drawn primarily from movies but also from pop music, television, and theater, this course explores how American men define and perform manhood. Various archetypes—cowboys, cops, crooks, soldiers, athletes, playboys, buddies, businessmen, rock stars, Woody Allen, Bugs Bunny, and Homer Simpson—are examined. (4 credits)
SWGS S-1455 Freud, Sex, and Gender (32542)
Class times: Mondays, Wednesdays, 3:15-6:15 pm.
Course tuition: noncredit, undergraduate, and graduate credit $2,700.
This course provides a general introduction to the history and theory of psychoanalysis, with a special focus on questions of gender and sexuality. We explore foundational psychoanalytic concepts through a close reading of Freud's astonishing case studies and his writing on hysteria, dreams, and technique, tracking the development of his revolutionary and controversial theories of gender and sexuality. Freud's primary texts are supplemented by recent cultural and theoretical texts that both challenge and celebrate Freud's work. (4 credits)
