Courses - Fall 2025
WGSS
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
WGSS205
Developed by feminists of color, reproductive justice frameworks offer a roadmap for economic, social, and medical justice advocacy attentive to the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability. This course reviews the historical, legal, and social bases of reproductive rights in the U.S.; discusses the history of feminist organizing for reproductive freedom; surveys critical theories of reproductive justice that go beyond abortion law to advocate for broader social transformation; and evaluates the possible futures of intersectional feminist activism after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
WGSS230
Introduction to Humanities, Health, and Medicine
Restriction: Permission of ARHU-English Department.
Cross-listed with: ARHU230, ENGL254, HIST219N.
Credit only granted for: ARHU230 , ENGL289C, ENGL254, ARHU298A, HIST219N, or WGSS230.
An overview of the historical, cultural, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of medicine, human health, disease, and death from the points of view of various humanistic disciplines.
WGSS250
Credit only granted for: WMST250 or WGSS250.
Formerly: WMST250.
Provides students with a critical introduction to the ways that art and art activism have served as a conduit to understanding and challenging systems of inequity and practices of normativity. Interrogating the categories of gender, sexuality, race, class, ability, the course will provide students with an examination of how artists have responded to pressing social justice issues of their eras. While the course centers visual art, students will also engage genres such as music, plays, literature, digital and performance art as arenas of social change.
WGSS255
Cross-listed with: ENGL250.
Credit only granted for: ENGL250, WMST255 or WGSS255.
Formerly: WMST255.
Explores literary and cultural expressions by women and their receptions within a range of historical periods and genres. Topics such as what does a woman need in order to write, what role does gender play in the production, consumption, and interpretation of texts, and to what extent do women comprise a distinct literary subculture. Interpretation of texts will be guided by feminist and gender theory, ways of reading that have emerged as important to literary studies over the last four decades.
WGSS263
Introduction to Black Women's Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with: AAAS263.
Credit only granted for: WMST263, AASP298I, WGSS263, AAAS263 or AASP263.
Formerly: WMST263.
Interdisciplinary exploration of Black women, culture and society in the United States. Drawn primarily from the social sciences and history with complementary material from literature and the arts.
WGSS275
Cross-listed with: CMLT275.
Credit only granted for: WMST275, CMLT275 or WGSS275.
Formerly: WMST275.
Comparative study of selected works by women writers of several countries, exploring points of intersection and divergence in women's literary representations.
WGSS280
Cross-listed with: ENGL289I.
Credit only granted for: ENGL289I or WGSS280.
Isaac Azimov once said of science fiction that it is the genre that "deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology." With this definition in mind, we will embark on a critical exploration of sci-fi film and other media, using it as a lens for analyzing society's deepest fears and most furtive hopes. Our investigation will center on the liminal space between hegemonic culture and its prescribed excesses. These liminal spaces--between self and other, disability and enhancement, cultural hybridization, and gender crossing--shift in response to real-world sociopolitical tensions. We will consider feminist and anti-racist media scholars' concerns over representation, authorship and ideology alongside questions of technological change. Students will use analytical and creative assignments to explore not only how the scientific imaginary serves as fertile ground for feminist, disability, and anti-racist critique, but also provides a locus for alternative futures.
WGSS290
Credit only granted for: WMST298D or WGSS290.
Formerly: WMST298D.
Explores the contributions of feminist scholarship in framing and resolving contemporary controversies concerning gendered bodies. It includes the ways in which knowledge about the human body has been shaped by cultural ideas of gender, race, sexuality and ability.
WGSS291
Racialized Gender and Rebel Media
Credit only granted for: WGSS291 or WMST298N.
Formerly: WMST298N.
An introduction to the interdisciplinary field of women's studies and an exploration of the ways in which media has been used as a platform for racial justice, feminist activism, and cultural transformation, with a principal focus on the expressions of women of color. The goals of the course are to explore how different forms of media shape the stories which circulate about race, femininities, masculinities, ethnicities, sexualities, religiosity, power and difference, and to examine how various media formats been used to disrupt dominant stories, to tell new stories, and to create differing understandings of citizenship.
WGSS301
Introduction to Research in Gender, Race, and Queer Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Restriction: Permission of the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Must be enrolled in a Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.
Credit only granted for: WMST301 or WGSS301.
Formerly: WMST301.
Primarily a research skills-building course, focusing especially on interdisciplinary approaches to research. Encompasses basic library skills, conceptualizing a research question. The course is not designed to teach a specific research method but rather to as an introduction to a range of research methods commonly employed in feminist, critical race, and queer studies with some opportunity to begin to apply them. Considers the ethical dilemmas and political implications embedded in research projects.
WGSS302
Feminist, Critical Race, and Queer Theories
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: 6 credits in LGBT, WMST, WGSS or courses that are cross-listed with these.
Credit only granted for: WMST302, WGSS302 or WMST400.
Formerly: WMST302.
Introduces students to some of the major concepts in feminist, critical race, and queer theories. It examines the questions: What is theory? What forms does theory take? What is the relationship between theory and practice? What is the role of theory in political and social action? In art? In personal life? What does it mean to do theory?
WGSS319F
Workshops in Gender, Race, and Queer Studies; Fandom
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
WGSS336
Psychology of Women
Prerequisite: PSYC100.
Cross-listed with: PSYC336.
Credit only granted for: PSYC336, WMST336 or WGSS 336.
Formerly: WMST336.
A study of the biology, life span development, socialization, personality, mental health, and special issues of women.
WGSS358
Undergraduate Teaching Assistantship
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
Restriction: Permission of ARHU-Women's Studies department. Repeatable to 9 credits.
Students work under the supervision of a faculty mentor to assist with an undergraduate LGBT or WMST course while also becoming conversant in feminist, critical race, and queer pedagogical debates and approaches.
Students work under the supervision of a faculty mentor to assist with an undergraduate LGBT or WMST course while also becoming conversant in feminist, critical race, and queer pedagogical debates and approaches.
WGSS368
Undergraduate WGSS Internship
Credits:
3 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
Restriction: Permission of the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
WGSS378
Undergraduate Research and Creative Works Assistantship
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Restriction: Permission of the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Repeatable to 9 credits if content differs. Formerly: WMST378.
WGSS379I
Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Indigenous Feminisms
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
WGSS379J
Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Black Women in Twentieth Century America
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with HIST319X, AMST498D, and AASP398J. Credit only granted for HIST319X, WGSS379J, AMST498D, or AASP398J.
Traces twentieth-century United States history from the perspective of Black women. We will center their diverse voices and experiences as we explore themes including family, work, activism, and cultural expression.
Traces twentieth-century United States history from the perspective of Black women. We will center their diverse voices and experiences as we explore themes including family, work, activism, and cultural expression.
WGSS379U
Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Angela Davis
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with AAAS398U and AMST328B. Credit only granted for AAAS398U, AASP398U, AMST328B, ENGL368F, and WGSS379U.
This course explores the meaning and significance of Angela Davis work for thinking through issues of race, nation, class, gender, carceral culture, and transnational solidarity. Her life and work is set between theorizing histories of race, racism, class, and gender and political organizing and public intellectual work. We will examine all of these aspects by reading her work from its beginning and up through contemporary commentary on incarceration, Palestine, and related issues. The centerpiece of this course will be her study of African-American music in its Black feminist iteration, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism.
This course explores the meaning and significance of Angela Davis work for thinking through issues of race, nation, class, gender, carceral culture, and transnational solidarity. Her life and work is set between theorizing histories of race, racism, class, and gender and political organizing and public intellectual work. We will examine all of these aspects by reading her work from its beginning and up through contemporary commentary on incarceration, Palestine, and related issues. The centerpiece of this course will be her study of African-American music in its Black feminist iteration, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism.
WGSS428J
Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Health Inequality and Social Determinants-How Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender Matter
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Restricted to undergraduate students in WGSS/WMST.
WGSS488C
Senior Seminar; Black Cultural Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Restricted to WGSS undergraduate students.
WGSS489
Individual Research in Gender, Race and Queer Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
WGSS489A
Individual Research in Gender, Race and Queer Studies; WGSS Honors Thesis Writing
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
WGSS489B
Individual Research in Gender, Race and Queer Studies; WGSS Honors Thesis Writing 2
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
WGSS497
Professional Development
Credits:
1
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: 12 credits in LGBT, WMST or WGSS courses.
Restriction: Must have completed a minimum of 75 credits.
Credit only granted for: WMST497 or WGSS497.
Formerly: WMST497.
To assist students in thinking about the next step post-undergraduate degree and to think long term about the importance of their WMST degree in lifelong career, personal, and political development. This course will provide students an opportunity to reflect upon where they are going beyond the B.A. and develop ways to communicate how their coursework and experiences at UMD have prepared them for the next step. The course will focus on the practicalities of resume writing, internship or job searches, etc. but also on the specific challenges/opportunities of translating interdisciplinary training to professional internship or beyond-the B.A. sites. Students may take this course in preparation for their internship (working to select an appropriate internship that can translate well to post-undergraduate aspirations) or they may take it post-internship as they determine their post-graduation steps.
Restricted to undergraduate students in WGSS/WMST
WGSS498A
Advanced Special Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Community Interventions: Domestic Violence I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Restricted to Psychology or Women Studies majors only. Cross-listing with WGSS498A. Credit only granted for PSYC318D, WGSS498A, or WMST498A.
Theories and researchrelated to domestic violence and interventions with abused womenwill bestudied, and students will think critically regarding ethical andmulticultural issues related to domestic violence. Community resources and strategies for ending domestic violence in the United States will be discussed.
Theories and researchrelated to domestic violence and interventions with abused womenwill bestudied, and students will think critically regarding ethical andmulticultural issues related to domestic violence. Community resources and strategies for ending domestic violence in the United States will be discussed.
WGSS498I
Advanced Special Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Asian American Women and Gender
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with AAST424. Credit only granted for AAST498G, AAST422, or WGSS498I.
Examines Asian/American cultural production along with theories of gender and sexuality in the field of Asian American Studies. We consider how Asian American femininities/masculinities are conceived and circulated, drawing from a diverse selection of twentieth-century and contemporary texts, films and images that connect Asian American bodies to ideas of absence, danger, inscrutability, hyper- or hypo-sexuality, and virulence. Beginning with early to mid-twentieth century representations, the course attends to theories that clarify the contested relationship between the East/West and Asia/U.S. Also examined are the methods through which bodies differentiated by sex, gender, and race are managed, surveilled, and rehabilitated, with close attention to the enduring legacies of American expansionism and conquest, anti-immigration policies in the U.S., and twentieth-century wars and occupations in Asia. The course engages Women of Color feminisms, queer theory, and disability studies.
Examines Asian/American cultural production along with theories of gender and sexuality in the field of Asian American Studies. We consider how Asian American femininities/masculinities are conceived and circulated, drawing from a diverse selection of twentieth-century and contemporary texts, films and images that connect Asian American bodies to ideas of absence, danger, inscrutability, hyper- or hypo-sexuality, and virulence. Beginning with early to mid-twentieth century representations, the course attends to theories that clarify the contested relationship between the East/West and Asia/U.S. Also examined are the methods through which bodies differentiated by sex, gender, and race are managed, surveilled, and rehabilitated, with close attention to the enduring legacies of American expansionism and conquest, anti-immigration policies in the U.S., and twentieth-century wars and occupations in Asia. The course engages Women of Color feminisms, queer theory, and disability studies.
WGSS498Y
Advanced Special Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Dickinson, Erotics, Poetics, Biopics: Some (Queer) Ways We Read Poetry
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: two English courses in literature or permission of department. Repeatable to 9 credits if content differs. Also offered as ENGL439D, LGBT448Y and WGSS498Y. Credit granted for ENGL439D, LGBT448Y, WGSS498Y or WMST498Y.
WGSS499
Independent Study
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
WGSS601
Theoretical Foundations in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
Prerequisite: WMST400 or WGSS302; or students who have taken courses with comparable content may contact the department.
Restriction: Must be in the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies doctoral or graduate certificate program.
Credit only granted for: WMST601 or WGSS601.
Formerly: WMST601.
Examines fundamental concepts in the interdisciplinary field of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Engages intersectionality as a critical analytic and set of responses to structural power and domination. Provides students with a theoretical foundation for understanding gender, race, and sexuality as analytic categories operating in transnational and global contexts and intersecting with other categories of difference.
Restricted to graduate students in WGSS/WMST.
WGSS618
Feminist Pedagogy
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, S-F
WGSS619
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Teaching Practicum
Credits:
1
Grad Meth:
S-F
WGSS628
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Colloquium
Credits:
1
Grad Meth:
S-F
WGSS698J
Special Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Health Inequality and Social Determinants:How Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender Matter
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
Shared with WGSS 428J, graduate listing restricted to graduate students in WGSS/WMST
WGSS699
Independent Study
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
WGSS799
Masters Thesis Research
Credits:
1 - 6
Grad Meth:
S-F
WGSS898
Pre-Candidacy Research
Credits:
1 - 8
Grad Meth:
Reg, S-F
WGSS899
Doctoral Dissertation Research
Credits:
1 - 8
Grad Meth:
S-F
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