Cultivates deeper understanding of theories, concepts, and interdisciplinary sub-fields within Feminist & Gender Studies. Emphasizes ways of connecting, synthesizing, and employing theories and concepts, continuing to pay attention to foundational texts and concepts, while recognizing the always shifting landscape of the field. Assignments require intermediate-level independent thinking and research skills. Courses and instructors vary annually. .5 or 1 unit.

1 unit — Coleman, Hunt, Mehta, Munoz, Nikolskaya, Otake, Reaves, Regan, Slightom, Thakur

Previously Featured Offering

Women in Film

Mar. 2020

Students will examine both women’s filmic representation (women on film) and women in film, with a focus on women auteurs, aesthetics, and issues of labor/production. They will also reflect on women’s film culture in the era of #MeToo by looking to film festivals and feminist labor practices as a site for women’s film activism.

Brazilian Carnaval: The 'Heart' of Brazilian Culture

Sep. 2016
Instructor: Naomi Wood

Brazilian Carnaval: The 'Heart' of Brazilian Culture examines the relationship of Brazilian carnaval to early twentieth century policies on racial whitening, the rise of samba as the "national" dance and music of Brazil, and the industrialization and import/exportation of bodies for both physical and symbolic labor.

Students examine the relationship of Brazilian carnaval to early twentieth century policies on racial whitening, the rise of samba as the "national" dance and music of Brazil, and the industrialization and import/exportation of bodies for both physical and symbolic labor. Examines how carnaval became a central point for racialized and gendered discourses to travel through radio and film in the early twentieth century and television and social media in the early twenty-first century.

Gender and Sexuality in Japanese Literature, Film, and Manga

Jan. 2016
Instructor: Joan Ericson

Gender and Sexuality in Japanese Literature, Film, and Manga examines how Japanese writers have explored the issues of gender and sexuality from the Heian Period (8th – 12th c.) through the modern era. Students will analyze the literary works, films, manga, and anime of female and male authors.

This course explores how Japanese writers have dealt with issues of gender and sexuality from the Heian Period (8th - 12th c.) through the modern era. Drawing on literary sources such as The Tale of Genji (11th c.), Five Women Who Loved Love by Ihara Saikaku (17th c.), and Kitchen by Yoshimoto Banana (20th c.), as well as films, manga, and anime, we will analyze how both male and female authors have portrayed gender and sexuality within an ever changing landscape.

Swaying Hips and Heaving Chests: Bollywood Dance

Nov. 2013

In Swaying Hips and Heaving Chests: Bollywood Dance, students look at the role Bollywood dance movements have come to play in India's self-fashioning in the post-Independence period, its circulation as a global commodity in the West, and how it is used as a bodily tool by marginalized subjects to create social identities.

In Swaying Hips and Heaving Chests, Gyrating Hips and Heaving Chests, students look at the national and transnational circulation of iconic Bollywood movement repertoires: hand gestures, hip sways, flirtatious gazes, and chest-heaving, and their significance in the construction of gender, race, caste, nation, and sexuality both within and beyond South Asia. In particular, students examine the role of Bollywood dances in India's self-fashioning in the post-Independence period, its circulation as a global commodity in the West, and how it has come to be used as a bodily tool by marginalized subjects to create social identities. This courses studies not only at the choreographic techniques used in Bollywood films, but also how they are deployed beyond dance bars, queer clubs, and fitness videos, just to name a few. Themes include: nationalism, regionalism, modernity, popular culture, post-colonialism, orientalism, diaspora, and globalization.

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