Courses Summer 2008

Summer Session One Courses:  May 6 - June 12 G104: Topics in the Study of Gender (3 credits) (A&H) Topic: Extreme Bodies: Identities in Transformation This course will unpack the multiple meanings of “extreme bodies” in American culture. The “extreme body” can be understood in many ways: as one that undergoes drastic physical change, one that exists on a polar end of the spectrum from “ideal” to “grotesque,” one that relies on technology for its malleability. Students in this class will learn to read the body as a socially constructed text, and how this text relies on an understanding of “non-extreme” bodies or a basis of experience such as mind/body dualism. This class will address questions such as: What intervention has technology made on the limits of the bodies performance and/or appearance? How has the body historically been presented as a signifier of the self, and how has this changed? How does this affect queer bodies and identities? Has the body always been malleable, or is this only a product of medical advancements? Who can expect to “buy” the perfect body and how does this change body ideals? To answer these questions and more, students will explore the consumerist rhetoric of self-expression as well as the endless array of postmodern choices that affect how bodies are managed and judged by themselves and the society in which they live. Specific bodies and identities that the class will examine include the queer body, the cosmetically altered body, the obese body, the bodybuilder/athlete, and the cyberpunk/aesthetically marked body. Section 12135 01:30P-03:30P MWF BH 139 Harrison L G205: Themes in the Study of Gender (3 credits) (S&H) Topic: Women of Color: Feminisms and Anti-Racism in the US How do women of color experience and theorize feminism(s)? What have been the conflicts and connections between women of color and white feminists since the ‘Second Wave’ of feminism in the U.S. ? How does racial oppression intersect with gender, class, and sexuality in the lives of women of color? How do white feminists theorize their own racial privilege? This course will examine the intersections of race and gender in relation to feminism(s) in the United States. Beginning with the concept of intersectionality – the understanding of race, gender, class and sexuality as interlocking sites of privilege and oppression, we will highlight the theories and voices of women of color in feminist thought from the 1960’s to the present. We will examine current and historic constructions of race in the U.S., including constructions of whiteness. We will also examine the practical consequences of racialized sexism/gendered racism for women of all races and ethnicities. Finally, we will focus on strategies for creating change, including current trends in feminist of color activism and the anti-racist efforts of white feminists. Section 12137 SS1 01:30P-04:30P TR BH 139 Shand A G225: Gender, Sexuality & Popular Culture (3 credits) (A&H, CSA) Gender, Sexuality & Popular Culture surveys the making and meaning of masculinity, femininity and sexuality in popular culture. Emphasizing ways in which the form and technology of popular culture have changed during the twentieth century, the course explores gender/sexuality in such contexts as: fiction, theater, cinema, music, television, journalism and other mass media. Issues interrogated may include: gender and the power of the image; sex and spectatorship; melodrama, film noir and "the women's film"; rock music women and MTV; race, age and representation; masculinity and femininity; and violence and pornography. Section 12134 02:00P-05:00P TR BH 205 Sinwell S G695: Graduate Readings and Research in Gender Studies (1-3 credits) Requires course authorization from Gender Studies (for authorization e-mail: gender@indiana.edu). This course exists to enable Ph.D. Major and Minor students to undertake intensive independent study of topics not usually covered in existing courses. An appropriate faculty member who does research in the student's area of interest supervises study. Students interested in independent study should develop a topic prior to registration and in consultation with a faculty member and the Chair of Gender Studies. Section 2330 ARR ARR ARR Walters S G899: PhD Thesis (1-12 credits) Requires course authorization from Gender Studies (for authorization e-mail: gender@indiana.edu). This course exists to enable Ph.D. Major and Minor students to undertake intensive independent study of topics not usually covered in existing courses. An appropriate faculty member who does research in the student's area of interest supervises study. Students interested in independent study should develop a topic prior to registration and in consultation with a faculty member and the Chair of Gender Studies.  Section 5474 ARR ARR ARR Walters S Summer Session Two Courses:  June 13 - August 08 G104: Topics in the Study of Gender (3 credits) (A&H) Topic: Into the Wild: The intersection of Gender and Nature Gender is more than just a label we use to categorize people. It often goes unnoticed that the language of gender is applied to a number of other concepts as well, such as nature. The first part of this course will interrogate how and why nature has been conceptualized as female or feminine, specifically within the contexts of Western science and nation building/colonization. We will examine not only the process of gendering nature but also some of the consequences of this conceptualization. The second part of this course will focus on women’s nature writing, ecofeminism, and the environmental justice movement (with particular attention paid to the ways in which these practices can make visible submerged discourses of race, class, location, and embodiment that are also embedded in Western conceptualizations of nature) as examples of the ways in which women and feminists have appropriated, revalued, and deconstructed the metaphorical conflation of woman and nature. Section 12136 10:00A-12:00P MWF SB 140 Weida S G205: Themes in the Study of Gender (3 credits) (A&H) Topic: Framing Gender: Photography, Film and the Body Not just an object of visual delight or erotic pleasure, the body is a site of complex relationships between gender, politics, race, and history. New theories from postmodernism, feminism, and queer theory insist that the representation of the body in the visual arts is central to society’s construction not only of norms of sexual behavior but of power relationships in general. This course asks how, and by what means, the body is represented in contemporary visual culture through sustained attention to the histories of photography and film, as well as to feminist and queer theories of embodiment and representation. Photography and film have been the most widespread means of visual communication of the past century and a half, and have done more than any other mediums to shape our notions of the body in modern times. Framing Gender investigates how photographic and cinematographic representations of the body shape and reflect not only obvious issues of personal identity, race, sexuality, and gender, but also issues of power, ideology, and politics. We will explore the gender and sexualized representations of the body in a variety of photographic and cinematographic contexts — traditions of portraiture; early “scientific” human motion studies; ethnographic photographs of “primitive” people; surveillance footage of nineteenth century criminals and psychiatric patients; horror films; melodramas; and historical and contemporary pornography and erotica. Artists considered will from historical figures attentive to issues of gender, sexuality, and identity to contemporary artists in the 21st century-- Edward Weston, Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, Nan Golden, Andy Warhol, Sally Potter, Barbara Hammer, Larry Clark, and John Cameron Mitchell are representative examples. Along the way, the work of feminist and queer cultural producers and critics (Audre Lorde, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Susan Bordo, bell hooks, Donna Haraway, Judith Butler, Linda Williams, for example) will serve as theoretical foundation for our visual inquiry. NOTE: At times, this course explores issues of a strong sexual nature. Prospective students should make themselves aware of their own comfort with sexually explicit material and decide if such a course is appropriate for them. Section 12138 10:30A-12:00P MTWR SB 220 Lane B G695: Graduate Readings and Research in Gender Studies (1-3 credits) Requires course authorization from Gender Studies (for authorization e-mail: gender@indiana.edu). This course exists to enable Ph.D. Major and Minor students to undertake intensive independent study of topics not usually covered in existing courses. An appropriate faculty member who does research in the student's area of interest supervises study. Students interested in independent study should develop a topic prior to registration and in consultation with a faculty member and the Chair of Gender Studies. Section 2331 ARR ARR ARR Walters S G899: PhD Thesis (1-12 credits) Requires course authorization from Gender Studies (for authorization e-mail: gender@indiana.edu). This course exists to enable Ph.D. Major and Minor students to undertake intensive independent study of topics not usually covered in existing courses. An appropriate faculty member who does research in the student's area of interest supervises study. Students interested in independent study should develop a topic prior to registration and in consultation with a faculty member and the Chair of Gender Studies. Section 5475 ARR ARR ARR Walters S

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