Spring 2025 Course List
WGS 101 Introduction to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
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, as they intersect with race, ethnicity, class, nationality, disability and other sites of social inequality. General Education Requirements: Ethics, Social Contexts and Institutions, and Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives (0001, MW, 2:00 pm-3:15 pm, Qian Zhang)(0002, TTH, 11:00 am-12:15 pm, Kara Peruccio )(0003, MWF, 12:00 pm – 12:50 pm, Lydia Balestra) (0990 &0991, Mary Okin, Online) 3 CR.
WGS 103 Introduction to LGBT Studies
Introduces the major perspectives and issues in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer studies, including histories and institutions, identities and representations, and cultures and subcultures. General Education Requirements: Social Contexts and Institutions, and Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives (0001, TTH, 9:30-10:45 am, Nancy Lewis) 3 CR. Core Curriculum/Core Requirements: Social Contexts and Institutions’ , ‘and Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives
WGS 201(001) Topics in WGS: Throwing Like a Girl: Explorations of the female body experience.
What does it mean to throw like a girl? What is “manspreading,” and what does it have to do with women’s athletic performance? This course introduces feminist perspectives on the body and explores the ways that western cultural expectations of femininity impact women’s athletic performance and access to sports. Through an intersectional feminist lens, we will examine the ways that race, class, gender identity, and ability influence how women’s bodies are perceived–and how these perceptions inform how women (both transgender and cisgender) navigate sports and athletics. (0001, MWF, 3:00 pm-3:50 pm, Sheena Sheffield) 3 CR. WGS 101 is recommended as a prerequisite
WGS 201(002) Topics in WGS: Literary Activism: Feminist Rhetoric and the Social Problem Novel
The English “social problem novel,” which can be traced back to the eighteenth century, describes a genre of literature that identifies and interrogates social issues, including those of class, gender, and race, and links them to issues and inequity present in political, social, and cultural structures. The social problem novel seeks to make the reader aware of these issues and their weight on individual experience through a fictitious narrative, creating characters that generate empathy and hope to spur responsive action from the reader. This course will examine the social problem novel in multiple contexts, starting with the mid-nineteenth century and moving toward more contemporary embodiments or evolutions of the genre, working to analyze these texts as pieces of “literary activism” using feminist rhetorical practices as well as considering how they can fit into our modern understanding of feminist rhetoric’s. (0002, MWF 12:00 -12:50 pm, Kat Gibson) 3 CR. . WGS 101 is recommended as a prerequisite
WGS 203 Men and Masculinities
This course examines the social construction of masculinity in Western culture, exploring men’s experiences in our society from multiple vantage points and examining the ways in which masculinity is understood, represented, and constructed in Western society. If this course was taken under as a topics course in WGS 201, it cannot be repeated for credit. It is recommended that students take WGS 101 before taking this course.(0990, Online, Mary Okin) 3 CR. Core WGS 101 – Intro to WGS Curriculum/Core Requirements: Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives and Social Context & Institutions
WGS 205 (001) Intro to Feminist & Critical Data Analysis
This course explores data and its role in presenting and obscuring disparities of marginalized groups including but not limited to gender, race, ethnicity, (dis)ability, indigenous, sexuality, and class. The course will use technology to access, analyze and critique data while also reading about and discussing relevant theoretical lenses and the role western traditions of knowing have had in the creation of these data. General Education Requirements: Quantitative Literacy and Social Context and Institutions (0001, TTH, 11:00-12:15 pm, Kevin Roberge) 3 CR. is a recommended prerequisite. Core Curriculum/Core Requirements: Quantitative Literacy and Social Context and Institution
WGS 230(001) Women, Health & Environment
This course examines the impact of man-made contaminants and constructs on human health. Using a feminist lens, students will explore the connections between health issues such as cancer, autoimmune disease, infertility, and gender transition and hazards that can impact health, such as non-biodegradable synthetic organic compounds, nuclear radiation, hormone treatment, and nutrition. Standard scientific approaches will be combined with feminist analyses, using the interlocking matrices of gender, race, class, and other asymmetrical systems. Agency for pollution will be examined from the personal to the global levels. Students will consider possibilities for conscious change, strategies for implementing them, and be encouraged to engage in transformative work. (0001, T/TH, 3:30 -4:45 pm, Andrea Laflamme) 3 CR Core Curriculum/Core Requirements: Ethics and Population and the Environment Prerequisites: WGS 101 or permission.
WGS 301 – Community Organizing: From Local to Global
Politics requires collective action—through community groups, social movements, labor unions, and political parties. This course will examine the theory and practice of community organizing from local initiatives to global movements. The course is structured around two components: historical case studies and practical organizing skills. First, students will compare historical case studies in community organizing like the movements for Indian independence and civil rights in the US, or to end slavery and South African apartheid. Students will analyze the successes and failures of more recent movements like the Fridays for Future (climate), Dreamers (undocumented migrants), Occupy Wall Street, and the Arab Spring. Second, students will learn the practical skills and strategies used by community organizers, including 1-2-1 sessions, crafting a public narrative, building relationships and networks, power mapping, action planning, and evaluation. Throughout the course, students will engage in reflective writing, political analysis, and organizing within their own communities. (0001, MWF, 11:00-11:50am, Nick Micinski) 3 CR
SOC 310 – Food Systems & Social Change
This course investigates food systems as social institutions, considering both how they meet human needs and how they reflect and reproduce social and environmental inequalities. It focuses on systemic causes of and responses to food insecurity and malnutrition and considers critiques of food systems developed from perspectives of food democracy, food justice, and food sovereignty. Learning in this course concentrates on (1) understanding the historical and social contexts of food systems, (2) exploring values and positions involved in contemporary debates about food systems, and (3) gaining knowledge of food as an arena for practical, change-oriented activism. Prerequisites: SOC 101 and Junior or Senior; or with permission (0002, TU/TH, 2:00-3:15 PM, Michael Haedicke) 3 CR
WGS 360(001) Gender and Cinema
This course provides an introductory look into the detailed study of cinema and its influence on and reaction to contemporary social issues, including the construction of masculine and feminine identities, motherhood and the family, sexuality, socioeconomics, race, and standards of beauty. Students will learn not only how the social messages of the film’s content provides insight into the role of women in society, but also how visual cues such as lighting, costuming, and sound contribute to social commentary. 3 CR. (0001, MWF, 1:00 -1:50 pm, Qian Zhang) CR. 3 WGS 101 is a recommended prerequisite.
WGS 371(001) ENG 371 American Border Cross: Gendered Perspectives on Modern Migration
In response to ongoing global crises of displacement and migration, writers and artists are constantly inventing ways to circumvent, challenge and soften contested borders of nation, culture, and language. Through the lens of border studies theory, and by examining diverse writing on and about borders, displacement and diaspora, this course investigates literary modes of international and intercultural border crossing and facilitates a range of multi-genre written explorations of different intercultural crossings. 3 CR. (0001, TTH, 3:330 pm- 4:45 pm, Rosalie Purvis)
WGS 410 (001)- Feminist, Gender, and Queer Theory
An introduction to the overlapping but sometimes conflicting traditions of feminist, gender, and queer theories. Core Curriculum/Core Requirements: Writing Intensive (0001, T/TH, 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm, Elizabeth Neiman) CR 3
Departmental Electives in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Electives are posted on the website.
To request accommodations, contact Student Accessibility Services at 581-2319.
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Contact: umaine.wgs@maine.edu or 207-581-3439