Women’s & Gender Studies

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

The course explores how the regional Catalan cinema (Catalan language productions), which encounters a disadvantage in the broader market dominated by Spanish-speaking audiovisuals, achieves distinctiveness, with a focus on the representation of women, social inequality, diverse minorities, and sustainability. Emphasizing the intersection of these issues, the course delves into the complexities of current Catalan social struggles on and off the screen. The course is divided into lectures, screenings, readings, discussions, group presentations, creative work in groups and field trips to filming locations and Catalan production firms.

This course will investigate the ways in which the policing of gender and sexuality intersected with the policing of (ethno) national boundaries in Central-Eastern Europe, with a focus on the state-socialist period (1945-1990) but including the interwar period and the post socialist period as contextual bookends. At the same time, it will explore the ways in which the socialist ideologies of gender equality and internationalism were actually (and selectively) implemented in these countries, the effect this had on women and men from both ethnic majority and minority populations in these countries. Finally, it takes a transnational approach, looking at the role of gender and sexuality in positioning Central Eastern Europe within the (white) West, and in the West’s perception and ‘othering’ of the region.

This course presents special advanced studies in selected areas of Gender and Queer Theory. It aims to strengthen students' knowledge of Gender and Sexuality Studies from the philosophical and aesthetical points of view, as well as their knowledge of Gender and Queer Studies from a historical and a thematic perspective (with a special interest in the French Theory).  

This course examines the major influences on and developments in feminist theory and gender and sexuality studies up to the present day. Among the topics considered are: gender and sexual difference and diversity, sexual politics and sexuality, the relationships between gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and class, and postmodernism and post-feminism. These topics are explored in a global and cross-cultural context, through close engagement with the writings of key thinkers in the field.

This course explores the main international and European legal mechanisms in place to protect from different forms of discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation, disability, or race. It focuses on the principles of equality and non-discrimination,  and introduces the subject through the evolution of women’s rights and its international recognition. Activities include discussion of case studies and in-class debates.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The topics for this course differ each term. In spring 2024, the course had special emphasis on black women writers. Black Britain is a diaspora space (Avtar Brah): its literature and cultural productions are not only concerned with displaying experiences of insertion and adaptation within British society, but also with exploring and expanding the borders of a multi-layered identity that implies, even in its situatedness, transnational and transcultural routes. The course focuses on the literary and artistic production of some black British women writers from the second half of the 20th century up to the present. On one side, complicating the use of the lens of “migration” to read this production, the course deals with the question of being both black in Britain and black and British; on the other side, by taking an intersectional approach, blackness will be analysed not as singular and homogenous, but as crossed by heterogeneous, and at time opposing, movements – and especially in a constant dialogue with a series of other categories such as gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, education, equity, oppression, and violence (both “external” and “internal”). The course provides in-depth knowledge of English women's literature, using practical methodologies for the analysis and the interpretation of the literary text.

This course provides a theoretical-conceptual framework of the role of organized civil society, feminisms and their relationship, work and strategies in addressing the phenomenon of gendered violence with the goal of ensuring women's right to a life free from violence. 

We live in an age of multiple crisis where basic gender equality is as much under threat as the earth’s climate. Why not combine different approaches to think through the looming Armageddon in search for alternatives to humanity’s demise – or at least a better understanding of it? The course uses Cara Daggett conceptualisation of Petromasculinity (2018) as a starting point to explore the intersection of Gender Studies and Ecocriticism. We will discuss the dualism of culture and nature uncovering the importance of gender in our perception of these two organizing concepts. From there, we will turn to Energy Humanities and Ecofeminism to understand how the extraction of non-renewable energies relates to discourses of The End of Man (Joanna Zylinska 2018) and see where that path will lead us. The primary texts for the course will come predominantly from African, South Asian, and Southeast Asian creatives and where not easily accessible will be made available through a course reader.

This course examines female scientists in history from antiquity to present day. It also discusses Nobel prizes won by women, Spanish women in science, and the current roles of women in science.