Women’s & Gender Studies

Barbie has been one of the iconic toys in US-American culture for decades. But what kinds of cultural messages do the dolls actually convey? How do they participate in debates about gender, 'race,' and class? About sexuality? Ability? Religion? Settler Colonialism? Ecological issues? How is this bound up with the process of their production and distribution – and the plastic waste they become when they are discarded? These are some of the questions we will discuss in class.

One of the key features of postmodernist thinking is the assertion of the fuzzy boundaries between reality and fiction: the realization that in everyday lives fictions, projections or hypothesis-building constantly interact with objects and facts of life (you can call this constructivist thinking); the realization that people’s identities are negotiations between social demands and imaginary projects; the realization that people’s senses of reality are heavily influenced by certain hegemonic (dominating) posits in terms of gender, labor (and consumption), media, race and ethnicity. Brian McHale has characterized the resultant tensions, as they are enacted in literature as “worlds in collision.” Cinema, as an art of montage and suturing, seems predetermined to enact these clashes. In this seminar we will explore the fuzzy boundaries discussing postmodern obsessions such as identities, surfaces, worlds, play, parody, high & low, consumer culture, media, gender performances and difference.

This course explores how sex is implicated in international politics. It is centered on showing how sex, gender, and sexuality structure understandings and practices of foreign policy, statehood, conflict, political violence, social movements, and the like. To do this, the course traces how debates over "normal" and "traditional" sexual orientation and gender expression have come into international politics and how the current "culture war" around queer rights and protections has come to play a significant role in (re)negotiating international order. Throughout the course, it asks how gender and sexuality, both of which are racialized and classed, are used to construct and maintain power; how in some cases sexuality and gender are mobilized to legitimize certain foreign and domestic policies. The course divides into two parts. The first half of the course focuses on theoretical and conceptual debates about sex(uality). The second half of the course focuses on mobilizing this theoretical and conceptual work to study queer issues in world politics.

This course offers an exploration of diverse family models, emphasizing equality, inclusivity, and the roles of gender in parenting. It delves in the complexities of surrogacy, reproductive technologies and the legal frameworks surrounding parenthood, focusing on international issues and comparative perspectives, through a blend of lectures, interactive discussions, case studies and research projects.

This course examines the significance and issues of gender differences, sexuality in society from the perspective of human rights theory. It studies the current status and issues of gender equality in Japan and discusses gender issues in terms of politics,  employment, family, health, and academia.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course develops an appropriate knowledge base of theories of gender in relation to cultural processes and an understanding of the relevance of gender as a lens to analyze operations of power. In addition, it develops a good awareness of methodological issues in the study of gender and space/place and their mutually constitutive nature. The course focuses on the analytical skills needed for digesting complex theories to put theories to use in engaging with contemporary debates inside and outside of academia. Finally, this course develops appropriate and diverse research and communication skills where theory can be applied in projects outside of the classroom. This course explores the construction and lived realities of gender in its intersection with race, space, and place. Exploring “gender” as a fluid, socially, and spatially constructed category, the course guides through the ways that gender, race, and space intertwine in theory and in lived experience, both historically and in present times. Taught through interdisciplinary contributions ranging from social, feminist, queer, and affect theories – across disciplines such as anthropology, political geography, cultural studies, architecture - the course examines the diverse and interconnected understandings, experiences, and effects of “gender” as a system of meaning-making and power across spaces, places, and historical times. The course includes gender and feminist theories, starting from the nature/culture divide through to the contestation and dissolution of gender binaries. The course further examines the interface between gender theory and a variety of other theoretical perspectives applied to the study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including postcolonialism, postmodernism, and poststructuralism. The course also investigates central questions of epistemology and methodology in relation to the application of gender theories in the field of cross-cultural studies. The main focus running through the course is the body, and body politics. The class pays particular attention to introducing diverse feminist trajectories and embodied politics, including Black feminism, Islamic feminism, feminist liberation movements in the Global south, and others.

Since at least the 1980s gender has been considered a "useful category of historical research." In this class we will use this lens in order to understand major events and developments in U.S. history. By focusing on gender as a relation of power in social contexts we will explore changing images of masculinity and femininity as well as mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. In addition to that, we will also discuss intersectional connections to other categories of identification (e.g. race and class).

This course examines connections between gender, bodies, sexualities and identities. It asks how gender affects our experiences and how sexuality can be understood as a social phenomenon, rather than merely an individual one. It looks at the past and present and speculates on the future. It also looks at a range of viewpoints and case studies, examining such issues as the representation and regulation of bodies; reproductive bodies; socially ambiguous bodies; old and new forms of sexual identity and practice; and the impact of technology.

The course consists of two modules. Module 1, an introduction to gender science and its application to physics is worth 4.5 credits and reviews different theories within gender research. Fields like the learning of physics, the history of physics, knowledge production, and the culture of physics are analyzed from a gender perspective. Both statistical, quantitative, and qualitative analyses from socio-psychological, anthropological, and sociological studies are presented to describe sex segregation, balance of power, culture, and knowledge in physics. Module 2, a project on a gender perspective on physics is worth 3 credits. Projects include a gender analysis of one's activities in physics or an example from the department they study in or a literature study or similar in relevant fields for the course.