Women’s & Gender Studies

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.

This course analyzes key practical and theoretical elements in the cinematographic representation of the LGBTQI+ collective, in its different manifestations throughout the history of cinema. It examines the ethical and aesthetic universe of so-called queer cinema in search of its own Latin American identity.

The course offers an alternative review of the history of Western concert music to know the most relevant ideas produced by the feminist perspective and to make visible the role that women have played as composers, performers, and patrons of music. It discusses gender inequality, both in the world of music and in Chilean society today.

This course mainly considers various gender relations of the contemporary Japanese society from sociological and cultural perspectives. Students are expected to understand and critically analyze the basic characteristics of gender relations in Japan through various readings and class discussion. Students are expected to have critical perspectives on “normal” everyday life upon completion of this course. 

This course introduces students to contemporary feminist ideas and key feminist debates, specifically feminist legal theory. The course illustrates the ideas by focusing on specific campaigns that relate to women and girls’ human rights and gender justice in both Irish national and global arenas. The course focuses on some important areas of contention, debate, and power struggles to see how feminist approaches to legal issues are deployed in important campaigns relating to: reproductive justice; prostitution/sex work; lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) issues; and redress and restorative justice for survivors of trauma and abuse relating to gender violence. Through case studies the course offers an introduction to feminist concepts and to international conventions relevant to gender justice such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), United Nations Conventions on Human Rights and relevant Security Council Resolutions as well the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Yogyarkarta Principles. The case studies are also used to introduce and illustrate key concepts of feminist legal theorists such as Martha Fineman, Catharine MacKinnon, Suan Moller Okin, Martha Nussbaum, and Janet Halley.

This course explores the relationship between Transcendentalism and women's rights, family relations, and perceptions of childhood and education. It draws almost exclusively on writings from the period.

This team-taught course on gender and culture offers a series of different forms of analysis through which one can "read" gender. It is particularly suited to students who wish to develop their critical and analytical skills by learning more about specific gender-related issues and developing gender-specific approaches to engaging with a variety of cultural works across disciplines, genres and literary periods. All texts will be in English or in English translation.