Women’s & Gender Studies

How can we understand gender in the contemporary world? How is gender constructed in different contexts and what are the material consequences? How can gender analyses empower us to act as agents of personal and social change? This inter-disciplinary course provides an overview of the major issues at stake in the study of gender relations from a broadly social science perspective. It introduces students to gender studies as a theoretical field of investigation, examining key concepts and debates in the field. Students will explore issues of power, inequality, intersectionality, change and resistance through contemporary examples of 'doing gender' around the world. In doing so, this course equips students - as 21st Century graduates - with awareness and understanding of global inequalities based on gender, race, class, and sexuality, as well as basic tools to undertake gender analysis.

History—both the actual physical materials that help historians establish a timeline of events of the past and the imaginings contemporaries have of those events—is a crucial part of feminist and gay rights activism. This course analyzes feminist organizing in the U.K. and gay rights organizing in the U.S. from two perspectives. First, it delves into specific historical moments that have created significant cultural and political reverberations, such the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York and the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp from 1981. Second, it examines how those events and others become parts of the storytelling used by the feminist and gay rights movements as tools to advance their demands in specific national contexts. From this dual articulation, the seminar examines the relationship between the past and the present as well as the stakes that this reciprocity has for advancing or hindering social progress. Students engage in independent and original research as they learn to engage in historical archival research and think about these issues from the perspective of apprentice scholars.

This seminar studies the successes of LGBTQI rights activism globally with an in-depth focus on issue areas that afford a broad overview of international LGBTQI policy. The first section of the course focuses on the new theoretical frameworks in political science, sociology, and international relations that deal with sexuality and LGBTQI issues. In the second part of the course, an examination of global aspects of sexuality and LGBTQI issues allows students to look at how LGBTQI rights arrive in the diplomatic arena, and how they affect international organizations' policies. In the third section, case studies from various parts of the world are discussed through the lenses of the international developments in LGBTQI issues. The main objective is to make students understand and criticize the increasingly important role LGBTQI issues play in international relations and development policies.

While the pursuit of happiness is an ideal present in many Western cultures, for the French, happiness takes various forms: a certain joie de vivre, an appreciation of life’s simple pleasures, and an affinity for companionship. Why is it, then, that France is consistently ranked as one of the least happy countries in Europe according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE)? The French may be known as contentious grumblers who are prone to flights of melancholy and often embroil themselves in gloomy philosophical reflection. And yet, the deeply-ingrained cultural desire to live a full life and find happiness is undeniably a major concern for the French. This course explores representations of happiness in French cultural production, with an emphasis on the city of Paris. Through the study of socio-cultural and historical events as well as critical, literary, and cinematic texts, students explore how the concept of happiness manifests itself in unique ways throughout recent history and in diverse social worlds. From the nineteenth century to the present, happiness has taken many forms: material seduction, consumer delight, everyday bliss, personal independence. The course explores how authors and filmmakers encourage us to reflect on a deceptively simple question: What is happiness and where can we find it? Is happiness to be found in the people and things that surround us, or are we to find it within ourselves?

This course examines French films from the birth of cinema in 1895 to the more recent creations celebrated at the Cannes Festival. The course studies selected avant-garde and popular films and explores how film narratives can reflect historical and social conditions in France during a given time. The following periods are discussed: Early cinema (the Lumière brothers, Alice Guy, Méliès); the Golden Age of French classical cinema (Renoir); the “New Wave” (Varda, Godard); the “Cinéma du Look” (Besson); “Heritage Cinema” (Claire Denis); and the challenges of Globalization (Sciamma). The course also covers several film genres, from the birth of the fantastique to the influence of the film noir on New Wave cinema. Students explore the cross-cultural interactions between French cinema and foreign films and how French cinema as an art form has had a deep impact on international cinema. Films and readings are supplemented by site visits. Most of the films chosen for this class were shot in Paris and reveal the city's different faces, going from the romanticized version in Agnès Varda's film or Claire Denis' grittier version.

This course provides an overview of "classical" and contemporary theorizations of gender, and of the multiple ways in which gender is encountered in every aspect of our lives. The different ways of defining gender issues and shaping gender politics in Western and non-Western societies are considered. Students study the historical and cultural contexts in which the main debates have arisen and analyze themes such as gender, identity, sexuality, motherhood, nationhood, ethnicity, race, and religion. A variety of genres including press, novel, film, and essay are examined with the purpose of considering how gender and sexuality are conceptualized within Western society, focusing on the UK. Students explore how media and popular culture can reinforce or challenge traditional notions of gender that perpetuate inequalities.

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This course focuses on different body-political movements. Which bodies are excluded, suppressed, bequeathed, violated and how? Which resistances are formed against this? How do they organize themselves? What significance does corporality have in these resistances? For this purpose the course examines activist practice, as well as some theory. The course includes guest speakers (currently planned: "Sex Worker Action Group Berlin" and "Disabled and Crazy Celebration Pride Parade Berlin"), participatory observations, and opportunities to exchange knowledge, experiences, and different perspectives. This course includes a short review of topics covered during the first semester version of the course.

This course provides an overview of important moments in contemporary history relating to gender equality. It covers classic feminist theory from the Enlightenment; liberal feminism and suffragism; socialism and feminism; totalitarianism and the role of women; and feminist struggles in the 1970s.

This course addresses the concept of gender in Islam from historical, socio-political, and legal perspectives. A broad range of topics including contemporary debates on identity, feminism and sexuality are covered. The areas of Islamic law pertaining to women’s legal rights is another topic of discussion. The changing discourse regarding construction of gender identities is explored through studies of women’s movements in Muslim majority countries.