Course Description
Building upon the foundational concepts introduced in GSWS 1100 and/or 1101, this course will involve an in-depth and interdisciplinary exploration of contemporary gender experiences, theories and issues. This exploration will focus on one or more themes, such as gender representations in popular culture, bodies and reproduction and/or gendered violence.
Course Content
Course content will include:
- focus on contemporary gender themes and concepts;
- foundation in relevant feminist and queer theory;
- application of intersectional analysis; and
- interdisciplinary approaches to thematic content.
Course content may include:
- analysis of literary works, film or other popular media; and/or
- required attendance at a relevant off-campus event.
Learning Activities
The course will employ a number of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including some or all of the following:
- small and large group discussions;
- audio-visual materials;
- internet exploration;
- interviews;
- seminar presentations;
- instructor comments on student work; and/or
- lectures (including guest lectures).
Means of Assessment
Instructors will follow the parameters laid out in the College Evaluation Policy. Specific evaluation criteria will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the semester and will vary according to the instructor’s assessment of appropriate evaluation methods and the selected theme of the course. Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in a course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation must be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline. Instructors will use a balance of assignments to assess learning, such as:
- journal writing;
- participating in class discussion;
- essays;
- research papers;
- oral presentations (individual and/or group);
- community life research;
- tests or quizzes; and/or
- essay-type exams.
A sample grade breakdown for this course might be as follows:
Course journal 20%
Research paper 30%
Midterm exam 15%
Group project 15%
Final exam 20%
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, successful students should be able to:
- debate and explore the relationship between gender and biological sex;
- interrogate contemporary gender concepts such as the gender binary, gender fluidity and the gender spectrum;
- understand and discuss the ways in which social/cultural definitions of gender are affected by intersectional identities and experiences;
- engage with feminist and queer theories to analyze contemporary gender issues and social justice struggles; and
- apply the course concepts and theories to analyze and interpret particular topics as identified within the course framework.
Textbook Materials
A list of required texts and reading materials is provided on the instructor's course outline, which is available to students at the beginning of each semester. An instructor's course reader may be required.
Sample Reading Lists:
Sample Theme A: Bodies and Reproduction
Judith Lorber and Lisa Jean Moore, Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives (OUP 2011).
Stephanie Patterson et al (eds), Fertile Ground: Exploring Reproduction in Canada (MQUP 2014).
Londa Schiebinger, ed, Feminism and the Body (OUP 2000).
Rickie Solinger, Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know (OUP 2013).
Sample Theme B: Gendered Violence
Kim Anderson, A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood (Women's Press 2016).
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau 2015).
Dean Spade, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of the Law (Duke 2015).
Loretta Ross and Elena Gutierrez, Undivided Rights: Women of Colour Organizing for Reproductive Justice (Haymarket 2016).