Combined Courses for Undergraduates
The following courses are combined in the Fall 2007 semester:
GNDR G215 & AAAD A298: Sex & Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective (3 credits) (S&H, CS)
Sex & Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective investigates and compares different constructions of sex and gender around the world. The course asks how cross-cultural variations force us to rethink assumptions about bodies, sexuality, gendered social roles, and work and family. How do people in different cultures come to consider and express themselves as "men," "women," or something else? What are the social forces that constrain them to act and think as gendered persons? Most importantly, what are the potential consequences of not conforming to those norms? The course will also consider how global forces such as militarism and religious fundamentalism influence sex and gender formations. This course will also focus on the development of structures, meanings, and formations of sex, gender, and sexuality in different historical, national, geo-cultural, racial and class contexts. A main focus will be an assessment of debates in transnational and third world feminisms and queer diasporas concerning the oppression of women, as well as the regulation and suppression of various gender and sexual formations in different cultural sites both within Euro-America and beyond.
Lecture: 4:00pm-5:15pm - TR - Instructor: Bailey, M (section: 17114) BH 005
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GNDR G302 & HIST A 300: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H)
Topic: American Sexual Histories
What can controversies over sexuality reveal about the history of American culture? How did those contesting sexual behavior, desires, and/or their consequences, narrate their own or others' sexual histories? This course surveys historical changes in American cultural conflicts about sexuality, especially as shaped by gender, race, ethnic, class, religious, and regional dynamics, through examining some well known historical examples - their genealogies and legacies - providing an introduction to the history of gender and sexuality in the United States. Many historical instances of sexuality-related conflicts emerged across the past three centuries. The course may draw some instances from amongst: the 1692 Salem witch panic, eighteenth and nineteenth century "seduction," illegitimacy, and infanticide, the 1874-75 adultery prosecution of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher for adultery, "spinster" Lizzie Borden's 1893 trial for the axe-murder of her father and step-mother; Progressive era regulation of prostitution and venereal diseases, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger's 1915 indictment for obscenity, 1920s and 1930s disputes over rape, lynching, and miscegenation, the 1948 &1953 Kinsey Reports, Christine Jorgenson and transsexualism, the Boston Strangler and other serial killers, the 1960s "Sexual Revolution, the Pill, and censorship challenges the rise of Gay Liberation, the 1973 Roe versus Wade abortion decision, and other 1990s struggles.
Lecture: 12:20pm-1:10pm - TR - Instructor: Allen, J (section: 26750) SW 007 Required Discussion Sections for Dr. Allen's Course (choose one):
T: 2:30pm-3:20pm (section: 26751)
W: 3:35pm-4:25pm (section: 26755)
W: 9:05am-9:55am (section: 26753)
R: 10:10am-11:00am (section: 26757)
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GNDR G302 & CMCL C334: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Queering Sexuality and Gender in the Media
Fulfills COAS Intensive Writing Requirement
Mediated representations of sexuality and gender permeate our daily lives. The moments and ways these representations come together are powerful in shaping how we come to think of who we are and what we should aspire to be. This course will teach students to critically analyze gender and sexuality as they are entwined and encoded in popular media representation. We will examine how these constructs of subjectivity interrelate to commonly held and frequently unquestioned assumptions about race, class, nationality, and ability. We will think about how our assumptions about gender and sexual norms are shaped through and in turn shape several prominent sites of popular culture: advertising, television, film, music, and "cyberculture." Students will learn to decode the messages and meanings in select examples from each of these sites. Students will also learn to understand how political and economic inequalities in the culture industries structure our sexual and gender choices, especially in terms of what it means to be "normal" and/or "queer."
Lecture: 9:30am-10:45am - TR - Instructor: Gray, M (section : 26701)
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GNDR G302 & CMCL C333: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits) (A&H)
Topic: Stigma: Culture, Deviance and Identity
Cultural value systems in every society rely on sets of mutually defining terms -- for example, normal/abnormal, able-bodied/disabled, heterosexual/homosexual, white/non-white -- that largely determine local attitudes of acceptance or ostracism regarding particular categories of persons. Focusing on social stigma allows us to understand how specific cultural value systems affect our most intimate senses of self, and indeed contribute to our very notions of personhood. Stigma theory speaks broadly to the nature of the social relationships that create marked categories of persons, regardless of the particular attributes devalued. In this class we look both at theory and at particular cases of devaluation, since attention to the particularities of a given stigma keys us in to the complex of cultural values that create it. The theoretical centerpiece of this course is Erving Goffman's 1963 study Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. We will read this text closely to appreciate Goffman's insights, and attempt throughout the semester to update the language he uses to convey his points by applying his model to more recent historical and ethnographic case studies of stigmatized persons and groups. Our primary focus will be on the range and efficacy of the various strategies available for managing and/or deflating stigma. We will consider the work of artists and activists that addresses contemporary cases of stigma involving class, race, disability, gender and sexuality. We will view related film clips in class, and full length films at bi-weekly evening screenings. Online postings on a class discussion site helps students participate fully and regularly in class discussions.
Lecture: 11:15am-12:30pm - TR - Instructor: Seizer, S (section : 26725)
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GNDR G302 & HIST J 300: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H)
Topic: Marriage and the American Nation
Fulfills COAS Intensive Writing Requirement
What is marriage? Is it a private agreement or a public contract? A legal bond or a religious sacrament? A right or a privilege? Who can enter it? Who determines when it is over, and on what grounds? This seminar examines the long history of American debates about these questions. We will consider the complex ways that beliefs and policies regarding marriage have affected national understandings of gender roles, of racial difference, of the meaning of citizenship, and of the function and reach of government. The chronological emphasis of the course is on the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, although we will conclude by discussing the place of history in the current controversy over gay marriage. Marriage and the American Nation is a methods course, designed to meet the History Department's J300 and the College of Arts and Sciences' intensive writing requirements. As we study the topic, we will attend closely to the ways in which historians use primary sources to construct historical arguments. The assignments will give you guided opportunities to try your hands at different forms of historical research and writing. More information about the course can be found at: http://www.indiana.edu/~marriage/.
Lecture: 2:30pm-4:30pm - R - Instructor: Sword, K (section : 28470) BH 237
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GNDR G 402 & ANTH E417: Seminar in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H, CS)
Topic: African Women
African women carry heavy, growing responsibilities within their communities that bring them respect but rarely the resources they need. Following themes of autonomy and control of social, cultural and economic resources, we discuss alternatives and radical changes from pre-colonial to contemporary times and consider their relevance to African and US development policy, to African feminist concerns and to our own options. We will talk about how African women fit into important public discussions in Africa on economic development, urbanization, family breakdown, nationalism and religion. Some issues familiar in Western media, including famines, refugees, civil wars, Islamic and Christian fundamentalism, polygyny and AIDS, have special relevance for African women. They also can contribute distinctive experiences and ideas to our discussions of some problems Americans now feel sharply, such as preserving family and religious values, building mutual respect between men and women and between ethnic groups, teen or unwed mothers, budget cuts, unemployment and global economic competition. Basic concepts and analytic skills from this course will help you join in these debates effectively and learn critically from public media such as television and newspapers. By the end of the semester, you will know what major issues African women consider important to their lives, especially family and economic issues. You should be well aware of the broad range of diversity of viewpoints on these issues and familiar with some of the most common perspectives. You will also see the range of diversity in the situations of specific groups of African women, and be able to identify the most important local and international conditions that affect their position. We will concentrate on the factors that give women more or less access to key resources they need to provide security for themselves and their families. We will also consider how our actions and US government policies contribute to these influential factors.
Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - TR - Instructor: Clark, G (section : 26739) SB 150
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GNDR G 498 & ANTH E460: Critical Issues in Gender Studies (3 credits) (A&H)
Topic: Dance, Gender & Embodied Discourse
Dance does not exist except as it is realized in the human body. Through its performance and its ability to elicit a kinesthetic response in performer and viewer alike, dance becomes elemental and gendered. Classical performance traditions, popular forms, and communally-embedded dance all address gender and the potential for embodied meanings. Embodied forms of discourse speak through a variety of voices and channels creating meanings that may be ambiguous and contradictory. We will examine form and meaning as we explore the danced body and its dialogic potential across Eastern and Western traditions both classical and popular. Seminar participants may choose any genre or tradition of dance or dance-theatre for their research.
Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - TR - Instructor: Royce, A P (section : 28610) BH 209
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Gender Studies
Indiana University
Memorial Hall E., 130
Bloomington, IN * 47403
(812) 855-0101
(812) 855-4869 (fax)
gender@indiana.edu
Important Links
Combined Courses for Undergraduates
The following courses are combined in the Fall 2007 semester:
GNDR G215 & AAAD A298: Sex & Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective (3 credits) (S&H, CS)
Sex & Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective investigates and compares different constructions of sex and gender around the world. The course asks how cross-cultural variations force us to rethink assumptions about bodies, sexuality, gendered social roles, and work and family. How do people in different cultures come to consider and express themselves as "men," "women," or something else? What are the social forces that constrain them to act and think as gendered persons? Most importantly, what are the potential consequences of not conforming to those norms? The course will also consider how global forces such as militarism and religious fundamentalism influence sex and gender formations. This course will also focus on the development of structures, meanings, and formations of sex, gender, and sexuality in different historical, national, geo-cultural, racial and class contexts. A main focus will be an assessment of debates in transnational and third world feminisms and queer diasporas concerning the oppression of women, as well as the regulation and suppression of various gender and sexual formations in different cultural sites both within Euro-America and beyond.
Lecture: 4:00pm-5:15pm - TR - Instructor: Bailey, M (section: 17114) BH 005
| Back to Top |Gender Home | IUB Home
GNDR G302 & HIST A 300: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H)
Topic: American Sexual Histories
What can controversies over sexuality reveal about the history of American culture? How did those contesting sexual behavior, desires, and/or their consequences, narrate their own or others' sexual histories? This course surveys historical changes in American cultural conflicts about sexuality, especially as shaped by gender, race, ethnic, class, religious, and regional dynamics, through examining some well known historical examples - their genealogies and legacies - providing an introduction to the history of gender and sexuality in the United States. Many historical instances of sexuality-related conflicts emerged across the past three centuries. The course may draw some instances from amongst: the 1692 Salem witch panic, eighteenth and nineteenth century "seduction," illegitimacy, and infanticide, the 1874-75 adultery prosecution of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher for adultery, "spinster" Lizzie Borden's 1893 trial for the axe-murder of her father and step-mother; Progressive era regulation of prostitution and venereal diseases, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger's 1915 indictment for obscenity, 1920s and 1930s disputes over rape, lynching, and miscegenation, the 1948 &1953 Kinsey Reports, Christine Jorgenson and transsexualism, the Boston Strangler and other serial killers, the 1960s "Sexual Revolution, the Pill, and censorship challenges the rise of Gay Liberation, the 1973 Roe versus Wade abortion decision, and other 1990s struggles.
Lecture: 12:20pm-1:10pm - TR - Instructor: Allen, J (section: 26750) SW 007 Required Discussion Sections for Dr. Allen's Course (choose one):
T: 2:30pm-3:20pm (section: 26751)
W: 3:35pm-4:25pm (section: 26755)
W: 9:05am-9:55am (section: 26753)
R: 10:10am-11:00am (section: 26757)
| Back to Top |Gender Home | IUB Home
GNDR G302 & CMCL C334: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits)
Topic: Queering Sexuality and Gender in the Media
Fulfills COAS Intensive Writing Requirement
Mediated representations of sexuality and gender permeate our daily lives. The moments and ways these representations come together are powerful in shaping how we come to think of who we are and what we should aspire to be. This course will teach students to critically analyze gender and sexuality as they are entwined and encoded in popular media representation. We will examine how these constructs of subjectivity interrelate to commonly held and frequently unquestioned assumptions about race, class, nationality, and ability. We will think about how our assumptions about gender and sexual norms are shaped through and in turn shape several prominent sites of popular culture: advertising, television, film, music, and "cyberculture." Students will learn to decode the messages and meanings in select examples from each of these sites. Students will also learn to understand how political and economic inequalities in the culture industries structure our sexual and gender choices, especially in terms of what it means to be "normal" and/or "queer."
Lecture: 9:30am-10:45am - TR - Instructor: Gray, M (section : 26701)
| Back to Top |Gender Home | IUB Home
GNDR G302 & CMCL C333: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits) (A&H)
Topic: Stigma: Culture, Deviance and Identity
Cultural value systems in every society rely on sets of mutually defining terms -- for example, normal/abnormal, able-bodied/disabled, heterosexual/homosexual, white/non-white -- that largely determine local attitudes of acceptance or ostracism regarding particular categories of persons. Focusing on social stigma allows us to understand how specific cultural value systems affect our most intimate senses of self, and indeed contribute to our very notions of personhood. Stigma theory speaks broadly to the nature of the social relationships that create marked categories of persons, regardless of the particular attributes devalued. In this class we look both at theory and at particular cases of devaluation, since attention to the particularities of a given stigma keys us in to the complex of cultural values that create it. The theoretical centerpiece of this course is Erving Goffman's 1963 study Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. We will read this text closely to appreciate Goffman's insights, and attempt throughout the semester to update the language he uses to convey his points by applying his model to more recent historical and ethnographic case studies of stigmatized persons and groups. Our primary focus will be on the range and efficacy of the various strategies available for managing and/or deflating stigma. We will consider the work of artists and activists that addresses contemporary cases of stigma involving class, race, disability, gender and sexuality. We will view related film clips in class, and full length films at bi-weekly evening screenings. Online postings on a class discussion site helps students participate fully and regularly in class discussions.
Lecture: 11:15am-12:30pm - TR - Instructor: Seizer, S (section : 26725)
| Back to Top |Gender Home | IUB Home
GNDR G302 & HIST J 300: Topics in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H)
Topic: Marriage and the American Nation
Fulfills COAS Intensive Writing Requirement
What is marriage? Is it a private agreement or a public contract? A legal bond or a religious sacrament? A right or a privilege? Who can enter it? Who determines when it is over, and on what grounds? This seminar examines the long history of American debates about these questions. We will consider the complex ways that beliefs and policies regarding marriage have affected national understandings of gender roles, of racial difference, of the meaning of citizenship, and of the function and reach of government. The chronological emphasis of the course is on the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, although we will conclude by discussing the place of history in the current controversy over gay marriage. Marriage and the American Nation is a methods course, designed to meet the History Department's J300 and the College of Arts and Sciences' intensive writing requirements. As we study the topic, we will attend closely to the ways in which historians use primary sources to construct historical arguments. The assignments will give you guided opportunities to try your hands at different forms of historical research and writing. More information about the course can be found at: http://www.indiana.edu/~marriage/.
Lecture: 2:30pm-4:30pm - R - Instructor: Sword, K (section : 28470) BH 237
| Back to Top |Gender Home | IUB Home
GNDR G 402 & ANTH E417: Seminar in Gender Studies (3 credits) (S&H, CS)
Topic: African Women
African women carry heavy, growing responsibilities within their communities that bring them respect but rarely the resources they need. Following themes of autonomy and control of social, cultural and economic resources, we discuss alternatives and radical changes from pre-colonial to contemporary times and consider their relevance to African and US development policy, to African feminist concerns and to our own options. We will talk about how African women fit into important public discussions in Africa on economic development, urbanization, family breakdown, nationalism and religion. Some issues familiar in Western media, including famines, refugees, civil wars, Islamic and Christian fundamentalism, polygyny and AIDS, have special relevance for African women. They also can contribute distinctive experiences and ideas to our discussions of some problems Americans now feel sharply, such as preserving family and religious values, building mutual respect between men and women and between ethnic groups, teen or unwed mothers, budget cuts, unemployment and global economic competition. Basic concepts and analytic skills from this course will help you join in these debates effectively and learn critically from public media such as television and newspapers. By the end of the semester, you will know what major issues African women consider important to their lives, especially family and economic issues. You should be well aware of the broad range of diversity of viewpoints on these issues and familiar with some of the most common perspectives. You will also see the range of diversity in the situations of specific groups of African women, and be able to identify the most important local and international conditions that affect their position. We will concentrate on the factors that give women more or less access to key resources they need to provide security for themselves and their families. We will also consider how our actions and US government policies contribute to these influential factors.
Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - TR - Instructor: Clark, G (section : 26739) SB 150
| Back to Top |Gender Home | IUB Home
GNDR G 498 & ANTH E460: Critical Issues in Gender Studies (3 credits) (A&H)
Topic: Dance, Gender & Embodied Discourse
Dance does not exist except as it is realized in the human body. Through its performance and its ability to elicit a kinesthetic response in performer and viewer alike, dance becomes elemental and gendered. Classical performance traditions, popular forms, and communally-embedded dance all address gender and the potential for embodied meanings. Embodied forms of discourse speak through a variety of voices and channels creating meanings that may be ambiguous and contradictory. We will examine form and meaning as we explore the danced body and its dialogic potential across Eastern and Western traditions both classical and popular. Seminar participants may choose any genre or tradition of dance or dance-theatre for their research.
Lecture: 2:30pm-3:45pm - TR - Instructor: Royce, A P (section : 28610) BH 209
| Back to Top |Gender Home | IUB Home
Gender Studies
Indiana University
Memorial Hall E., 130
Bloomington, IN * 47403
(812) 855-0101
(812) 855-4869 (fax)
gender@indiana.edu
Important Links