Courses - Fall 2023
WGSS
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
WGSS105
Introduction to Disability Studies
This course will introduce students to theories of disability justice as they intersect with feminist and antiracist struggles. Tracing the emergence of the concept of disability alongside the rise of racial knowledge since the 19th century, we will consider how disability activists have responded to ableism by developing art, political strategies, and subcultures that promote a more just society built for a wider variety of human bodies. Students will learn about the moral, medical, social, and ecological models of disability; explore varied disability experiences relating to mental illness, chronic disease, and sensory and mobility impairments; debate ethical questions concerning eugenics, selective abortion, health care access, and medical technologies; and analyze the work of disabled artists and activists of color. Students will also discuss principles of universal design which seek to make classrooms more just and collaborative. In order to balance accessibility and community building, the course has been designed for synchronous online instruction complemented by optional in-person sessions.
WGSS200
Introduction to WGSS: Gender, Power, and Society
Credit only granted for: WMST200 or WGSS200.
Formerly: WMST200.
Examines constructions of race, class, sexuality, ability, and gender relations from a social science multi-disciplinary perspective. The course interrogates the ways that systems of hierarchy and privilege are created, enforced, and intersect through the language of race, class, sexuality, and national belonging. The course will provide students with the skills to examine how systems of power manifest in areas such as poverty, division of labor, health disparities, policing, violence. In addition to examining the impact of systems of power, students will reflect on their own location within the exercise of racialized, and gendered power relations. This course encourages students to understand and critique these systems both personally and politically.
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: AASP263.
Credit only granted for: WMST263, AASP298I, WGSS263 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.
WGSS265
Constructions of Manhood and Womanhood in the Black Community
Cross-listed with: AASP265.
Credit only granted for: WMST265, AASP298B, WGSS265 or AASP265.
Formerly: WMST265.
Investigates the ways that African Americans are represented and constructed in public and private spheres and explores the social constructions and representations of Black manhood and womanhood from various disciplinary perspectives.
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.
WGSS277
Careers in the Toy Industry: Gender, Trends, and Social Impact
Credits:
1
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with: ARHU277.
Credit only granted for: WGSS277 or ARHU277.
Exposes students to diverse career options within the $114 billion global toy industry, and will explore the toy industry's relationships to gender and other areas of social impact. Students will learn how careers in play shape our society and about the countless careers in this fun, dynamic field for individuals with diverse, transferable skills. This class will share how emerging trends in content, technology, and approaches to identity and stereotypes shape the industry, its workforce, and its social impact. From Marketing, Accounting, Advocacy and Communications, to Design, Engineering, Law, Supply Chain and Entrepreneurship this is a constantly evolving industry that has the power to shape minds and our world through the power of play.
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.
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?
WGSS314
Black Women in United States History
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Restriction: Sophomore standing or higher.
Cross-listed with: AASP313.
Credit only granted for: AASP313, WMST314 or WGSS314.
Formerly: WMST314.
Black American women's history from slavery to the present. Focused on gaining a fuller understanding of the effect of race, class and gender on the life cycles and multiple roles of Black women as mothers, daughters, wives, workers and social-change agents.
For Fall 2020: Also offered as HIST329E. Credit granted for AASP313, HIST329E, or WMST314.
WGSS319P
Workshops in Gender, Race, and Queer Studies; Pleasure, Intimacy, Violence
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 ARHU-Women's Studies department; and must have Learning Proposal approved by Women's Studies Academic Advisor; and junior standing or higher. Repeatable to 9 credits if content differs. Formerly: WMST386.
Undergraduate Internship in a position related to Women's Studies and overseen by a member of the WMST faculty.
Undergraduate Internship in a position related to Women's Studies and overseen by a member of the WMST faculty.
WGSS378
Undergraduate Research and Creative Works Assistantship
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
WGSS452
Women in the Media
Cross-listed with: JOUR452.
Credit only granted for: JOUR452, WMST452 or WGSS452.
Formerly: WMST 452.
Participation and portrayal of women in the mass media from colonial to contemporary times.
WGSS488G
Senior Seminar; Transnational Feminisms
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
What constitutes transnational feminisms and how does it relate to or differ from global or international feminisms? This course will engage with contemporary feminist debates on racism, casteism, right wing moral panics around sexual and gender identities and settler colonialism to de-exceptionalize the US as the center of feminist knowledge production.
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
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.
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.
WGSS498K
Advanced Special Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; The Transnational Cinema of Ang Lee
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with ARTH489L and CINE459L. Credit only granted for ARTH489L, CINE459L or WGSS498K.
Students will examine how the award-winning director Ang Lee has been able to explore important issues of culture, gender, race, identity, and values across borders in a transnational world. Films to be studied are from a wide spectrum of genres and may include "The Wedding Banquet," "Sense and Sensibility," "The Ice Storm," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hulk," "Brokeback Mountain," "The Life of Pi," and "Gemini Man."
Students will examine how the award-winning director Ang Lee has been able to explore important issues of culture, gender, race, identity, and values across borders in a transnational world. Films to be studied are from a wide spectrum of genres and may include "The Wedding Banquet," "Sense and Sensibility," "The Ice Storm," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hulk," "Brokeback Mountain," "The Life of Pi," and "Gemini Man."
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 ARHU-English department. Cross-listing with ENGL439D and LGBT448Y. Credit only granted for ENGL439D, LGBT448Y, WGSS498Y, or WMST498Y.
WGSS499
Independent Study
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
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University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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