Women’s & Gender Studies

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.

In this course, students read, view, and analyze a selection of plays, performances, and other texts that pose gender as a central problem. In conjunction with these performance texts, students also read a variety of theoretical texts that offer methods both for interpreting gender in performance and for understanding gender as performance. The course focuses on theatre and performance works produced from the 1950s to the present and covers a range of performance forms, including dramatic realism, experimental theatre, performance art, and drag performance. 

The course provides a historical overview of language and gender theory and research. It examines how language is used by men and women, and the linguistic means by which they are portrayed, to understand the process of gender (re)construction in society. Topics include essentialist and constructionist views on sex and gender, essentialist and constructionist approaches to language and gender, construction of gender identities, notions of femininity and masculinity, and representation of gender and language use in specific domains. It also involves critical analyses of gendered texts from various domains.

Students explore how women influenced and were influenced by the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, Decolonization, leftist movements in the 1960s, revolutions, authoritarian regimes and struggles related to gender, racial and LGBTQ+ equality. Through broad global, regional, and comparative analysis in lectures and in-depth historical study of key women, groups, movements or institutions, students explore different methodologies for examining history in the 20th and 21st century. The course’s geographical focus is the Americas, including the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, though there are also opportunities to explore comparisons and contrasts with other parts of the world including Britain, Europe, and Asia.

This course examines concepts of trauma and memory as historically and culturally contingent, asking what counts as trauma, for whom and under what circumstances. The course will open by tracing history of the concept of trauma in psychoanalysis and medicine, followed by critical perspectives from feminist, queer, transgender, critical race, and body studies perspectives. It also looks at different sites, forms and representations of trauma in literature, films, art, oral narratives, memoirs, photographs, and social movements.