Intercultural Women's Studies Course

WS 201 Intercultural Women's Studies

Examines the position of women in society from a cross-cultural perspective. Includes the process of gender enculturation, women's lives in foraging, pastoral and agricultural societies and international issues such as female circumcision, infanticide, child brides and honor/dowry deaths.

Intended Outcomes for the course
Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Apply critical thinking skills to the investigation of international issues related to women.
2. Analyze how cultural differences define variations in gender roles and use that analysis to develop sensitivity and empathy towards different cultures.
3. Apply service learning experience and self reflection to enhance community and environmental responsibility.
4. Apply written, oral and advocacy skills to analyze problems women face in different cultures and work towards their solutions.

Focuses on the lives and contributions of queer people in cultural, historical, and social context, including identities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, sexual, pansexual and gender non-binary. Uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore the complex social constructions of sex, sexuality, race, class, gender identity and gender expression. Explores the institutional and cultural factors that create and maintain systems of oppression. This course is taught from an intersectional feminist perspective. This means that we’ll explore all the different identities that queer people can take; addressing racism, ageism, ableism, heterosexism, cissexism and many other forms of power inequality and oppression. Provides a framework to connect personal experience with contemporary social and political issues.

This course is an introduction to intersectionality and social justice. I’m starting from a beginner perspective assuming that folks are coming into these ideas for the first time. The course begins with some of the typical patterns that people experience when they’re confronting their privilege for the first time, including resistance, fragility, guilt and shame. I encourage folks to always stay focused on their privileged identities, whichever those are. Since it’s an introductory course, there’s a lot of interesting ideas, but we don’t delve deep into any of them. We explore some of the similar patterns that different oppressions face, like victim blaming, competition, internalization, issues around visibility, disclosure, inheritability and familial relationships. We analyze economic systems around work and employment and question the structures and systems that shape our lives. I encourage students to develop their humility, ally and activism skills. We wrap up with hope for how to reimagine a better society.

The course uses a flipped-classroom methodology that centers student conversations during class time.