Department Partnership Collaborations, Fall 2023
WGS began a new Department Partnership Initiative in fall 2023. This initiative recognizes that many faculty across the university are teaching courses that correlate to or engage with the kinds of issues and questions that arise in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. WGS is now working with faculty in departments as far-ranging as (but not limited to) Anthropology, Biology, Economics, English, Nursing, Music Education, Psychology, Sociology, and Social Work, so to identify courses offered in their major that would also be great candidates as WGS electives. Many but not all of these courses are available to students in other majors. We call our new WGS electives
“double-dipped” courses as in many cases, they will count twice—once towards the student’s primary major, and then, twice, as a WGS elective. We provide two different models of the “double-dipped” course:
1) Intermediate or upper-level courses designed exclusively for students in a particular major (e.g. Biology; Music Education; Nursing) that now also count as WGS electives, given their substantial inclusion of WGS perspectives (such as gender-related content or feminist approaches to material). These courses are listed under their own primary designator, e.g. NUR or BIO.
2) Intermediate or upper-level courses designed to draw together two groups of majors with different disciplinary backgrounds—so that each group of students has different points of expertise in the course. These courses are cross-listed so to be offered in two majors, e.g. ENG371/WGS 371.
To help facilitate our Department Partnerships, WGS has also undergone curricular modifications in both the major and the minor. Requirements for our major and minor now include more options than ever before, so as to enable students to move through our programs with more flexibility and to take courses that feel especially relevant to the work they are doing in other programs of study! As we build our Department Partnerships, we are finding that our double-major and minor are growing, now that more students than ever before can fulfil some of their elective credits through their work in their primary major! Students are additionally reporting that coursework in WGS enhances the work they do in their primary majors
and help them prepare in new ways for their prospective careers. We are excited about these new electives and
we hope you will be too. See below for our faculty and student interviews about these courses and what they offer!
Featured Interview with Dr. Julia McGuire: read below for more on Dr. Julia McGuire’s Biology 200, offered for the first time in spring 2024 as a WGS elective!
Academic Interviews
Interviewer: Ryan Day
To read the full interview, Click Here.
Interviewer: Ryan Day
To Read the Full interview: Click Here.
Interviewer: Ryan Day
To read full interview: Click here.
Interviewer:
To Read the Full interview: Click Here
Interviewer: Emery Clifford
To Read the Full interview: Click here
NEW RLE COURSE
We are excited to announce a new RLE course for first-year students in fall 2023/spring 2024! This RLE is a 6-credit two semester course (WGS 101 and WGS 102), although students can elect to take just WGS 101 in the fall for 3-credits. RLE WGS 101/102: In recent years there has been a growing demand for positive social change. Some argue that U.S. society is in a Renaissance of the Civil Rights Movement with greater care for complex, historical contexts. But, did we ever leave the Civil Rights Movement? If so, how do we know? Through this RLE, students will be introduced to social justice theories and frameworks like the feminist method of Intersectionality. Students will explore the past before pivoting to the research portion of the course which equips Browns Emergent Strategy through an organized protest or direct action at the end of the spring semester. This RLE is for first-year students of all lived backgrounds, social identities, and majors/minors across the University who are interested in issues of feminism, 2SLGBTQIAP+ experiences, or simply want to do good in the world. 101: An introduction to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and to its perspectives. The course will use interdisciplinary perspectives to begin to examine the categories of gender and sexuality, grounded in Women’s Studies, as they intersect with race, ethnicity, class, nationality, dis/ability, and other sites of social inequality. 102: An exploration of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies’ methods, histories, and perspectives for enrolled RLE learners. This course will apply interdisciplinary scholarship to consider matters grounded in Women’s Studies, Gender Studies, and Sexuality Studies or relating to positive social change. Assigned texts detail nuanced relationships of identity, care networks, and power to build an empirical feminist praxis. Particular attention is given to activating feminist theories, namely Brown’s Emergent Strategy.
If you have questions about this course, please feel free to email either WGS Director, Elizabeth Neiman (Elizabeth.Neiman@maine.edu) or course instructor, Cam McDonnell (cam.mcdonnell@maine.edu)
UPCOMING WGS COURSES FOR SPRING- SUMMER 2024
WGS 411(Previously 395) Internship Overview
Students pursue internships in workplaces such as businesses, non-profits, and other organizations. Course meetings provide students with faculty mentorship, opportunities to troubleshoot their internship work with peers, and related course content. Topics covered may include diversity/equity/justice in the workplace, social justice in the community, correlation between academic courses and the workplace, and career- exploration/preparation. For each topic, strategies for improving workplace communication are also covered. Each student will design their internship in consultation with their host organization and the course instructor such that it meets their specific interests/goals. Internship work will vary, but typically includes activities such as research, ideation, communication, writing, public relations, editing, content development, community organizing, and other related activities.
Requires 8 to 10 hours of internship work a week over 14 weeks.
