3000 Level Courses

WMST 3504 6.00A WOMEN AND AGING

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Wednesday, 2:30pm-5:30pm

This course analyzes the experiences of women as they move into age. The cult of youth and its sexist bias has roots deeply embedded in Western culture. We will explore why/how other cultures value old women differently. In Canada, the media ignore demographic facts about an increasingly aging population, dominated by women, and portray the world as if it consisted only of the young. In the course we analyze the myths that surround the concept of "old woman" using fiction, oral narratives, autobiography, poetry and film. We question her devaluation and attempt to reassess her as she is beginning to know herself across cultures. We will examine the following topics: sexuality, isolation and poverty, relationships between women, anger, creativity, the effects of self-imposed silencing and the revaluation of the crone.

Course Director: R. Newman
(236 Founders, 33961)

Evaluation:
Written Assignments 50%
Seminar Participation 20%
Midterm Examination 10%
Final Examination 20%

Course Texts:
Beresford-howe, Constance, The Book of Eve.
Cruikshank, Julie. In Collaboration with Angela.
Sidney, Kitty Smith and Annie Ned. Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Native Elders.
Delany, Sadie and Bessie with Amy Hill Hearth. Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First Hundred Years.
Heilbrun, Carolyn. The Last Gift of Time.
Laurence, Margaret. The Stone Angel.
NWSA (National Women's Studies Association) Journal 18.1 "Aging and Ageism," (Spring, 2006). This journal is available online.
Shields, Carol. The Stone Diaries.
Sarton, May. Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing.
Tan, Amy. The Bonesetter's Daughter.
Walker, Barbara, The Crone.
Velma Wallis, Two Old Women.
Course Kit.

Projected Enrolment: 40

Cross-listed-to: GL/HUMA 3604 6.0

Degree Credit Exclusions: AS/SOCI 4090P 3.0 (Fall/Winter 1984-1999), AS/SOCI 4680 3.0, AK/WMST 3001K 3.0

WMST 3505 3.00M (Winter) GENDER AND THE CITY

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Monday, 7:00-10:00pm

This course examines the relationship between socially constructed gender relations and the changing nature and form of contemporary urban areas.

Course Director: TBA
Evaluation: TBA
Course Texts: TBA
Projected Enrolment: 40
Cross listed to: GL/SOSC 3617 3.00

WMST 3507 6.00A LES FEMMES ET LA SANTÉ

Lieu: Glendon Campus
Heure: jeudi, 15h00-18h00

Ce cours abordera, de façon théorique et critique,la santé des femmes à l'intérieur de plusieurs contextes (local, national, international/transnational)et perspectives sur les principaux déterminants de la santé (environnement,travail,santé reproductive, situations d'oppression) et autres éléments politiques, économiques, sociaux et culturels qui affectent la santé des femmes. Il abordera également les enjeux de la restructuration des politiques de santé (au Canada et ailleurs dans le monde).Les approches communautaires et alternatives dans l'organisation des soins et le travail des femmes dans le système de santé seront discutées tout au long du cours.

Directrice du cours: J. Michaud
(166 York Hall, x88356)

évaluation: Participation et présence: - 20%
Journal A - 10%
Essai de mi-session (15 pages) - 20%
dernière semaine de cours en décembre 2 Présentations de 2 x 10% chacune (une par session) - 20%
Journal B 10%
Essai de fin de session (15-20 pages)
dernière semaine de cours - 20%

Inscriptions prévues: 25

Identique à: GL/NATS 3995F 6.0 & GL/SOSC 3995F 6.0

Cours Imcompatible: GL/WMST 3995E 3.0 & GL/WMST 3507F 3.0 WMST

WMST 3508 6.00A MOTHERING AND MOTHERHOOD

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Tuesday, 11:30am-2:30pm

This course explores mothering-motherhood as it is examined in contemporary maternal theory. Students will read most of the key theorists on motherhood across a wide range of perspectives and disciplines. As well, students will take up various issues and perspectives from the theories and examine them in fiction. Class, cultural and racial differences of mothering and motherhood will be emphasized.

Course Director: A. O’Reilly
(223 Founders, x60366)
Evaluation: TBA
Course Texts:TBA
Projected Enrolment: 40
Cross-listed to: GL/SOSC 3608 6.00 & AS/HUMA 3960 6.00

WMST 3510 6.00A WOMEN AND WORK: PRODUCTION AND REPRODUCTION

Place:Glendon Campus
Time: Thursday, 9:00am -12:00pm
Tutorials:

What kinds of work do women do? What are their working conditions? Why do they work at the work they do? How have they organised to improve their work? This course explores the shifting relationships among markets, states and households to consider what shapes women's work and how women respond to the conditions they face at work.

The course examines the historical, cultural, economic and political circumstances that shape the continually changing nature of paid and unpaid work in Canada, through case studies from different sectors of the economy such as health care, finance, manufacturing, fast food, service work, cultural work, housework, child care, and call centre work. It asks why women tend to be clustered in a limited number of occupations and why they tend to be at the lower strata of those occupations. It explores the relationship between women's work and their class positions. It asks why women's work is also segmented by ethnic and racial distinctions. What are the implications of these divisions for the way women are able to live their lives?

The course explores women's work globally and locates the Canadian situation in the development of the global labour market, examining in particular the role of international and transnational institutions (such as the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO) and states in regulating markets, and creating diasporic labouring populations. It asks how women have organised through unions, social activism and political involvement to the challenges posed by an increasingly integrated global economy.

This course also deals explicitly with issues related to academic scholarship: ways of learning, research, writing, collaborative work, presentations. It explores what it means to do theory and encourages students to develop their academic skills particularly critical reading, writing and presentations.

Course Director: M Luston
(206D Founders College)
Evaluation:
Poster Project - 5%
Book Review/Presentation: - 25%
Reading Journal: - 20%
Essay/Presentation: - 40%
Attendance: - 10%

Course Texts:
Frager, Ruth and Carmela Patrias. 2005. Discounted Labour: Women Workers in Canada, 1870-1939. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Lucas, Linda (ed). 2007. Unpacking Globalization: Markets, Gender, and Work Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Plymouth, UK.
Luxton, Meg and June Corman. 2001. Getting By in Hard Times: Gendered Labour at Home and on the Job (Toronto: University of Toronto Press) Shalla, Vivian and Clement, Wallace (eds) Work in Tumultuous Times Critical Perspectives Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2007
There will also be a range of on-line materials and a collection of articles to read.

Projected Enrolment: 40

Cross-listed-to: AP/SOSC 3130 6.00 and GL/WKST 3610 6.00

WMST 3511 3.00M (HIver) FEMMES, SEXUALITÉS, POUVOIRS

Lieu: Glendon Campus
Heure: mecredi, 15h00-18h00

Ce cours examine la construction idéologique, politique et culturelle de la sexualité, à partir d'une perspective interdisciplinaire. Avec des textes critiques et analytiques des pratiques sexuelles qui peuvent être autant historiques et contemporains, nous analyserons les discours qui dominent en sciences sociales et dans les humanités tout comme dans les sciences médicales et juridiques. L'influence des politiques publiques sur le crontrôle des sexualitées de plusieurs catégories de personnes (les jeunes,les femmes, les transgenres/transexuel-les, les intersexué-es) sera abordée avec une perspective critique. Finallement, le cours se penchera sur les pratiques de résistance, les sexualités alternatives, transgressives et tranformatives.

Directrice du cours: J. Michaud
(166 York Hall, x88356)

Évaluation:
Présence et participation 20%
Analyse critique des lectures (1ère partie) 20%
Analyse critique des lesctures (2e partie) 20%
Essai final 40%

Textes du cours: à être annoncé
Inscriptions prévues: 40
Identique à: GL/SOSC 3625 3.00
Course incompatible: GL/WMST 3990E 3.00, GL/WMST 3990F 3.00, GL/SOSC 3990E 3.00, GL/WMST 3625F 3.00, GL/WMST 3625E 3.00, GL/SOSC 3625E 3.00, GL/WMST 3013E 3.00 & GL/SOSC 3016 3.00

WMST 3516 3.00A (fall) WOMEN AND POLITICS

(Fall)

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Monday, 7:00pm-10:00pm

This course examines women's political position in advanced capitalist countries. The focus is historical, theoretical and issue-oriented. Issues examined include the politics of racism, sexuality, reproduction, pornography within formal political structures and community organizing.

Course Director: TBA
Evaluation: TBA
Course Texts: TBA
Projected Enrolment: 40
Course Credit Exclusions: AP/POLS 3455 3.00, AP/SOSC 3175 3.00 and AP/GL/WMST 3517 3.00

WMST 3522 3.00A (Fall) FEMINISTS BEFORE FEMINISM

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Wednesday, 11:30am-2:30pm

This course studies writings from before 1848 that contest women's place in society and illustrate challenges, critiques and strategies about, topics including women's education, societal roles, power and agency. Writings are placed in historical contexts. The continued relevance of these early works is assessed.

Course Director: TBA

Evaluation: TBA

Course Texts: TBA

Projected Enrolment: 40

WMST 3524 3.00A (autome) COLONIALISME ET GENRE EN AFRIQUE NOIRE

Lieu: Glendon Campus
Heure: mercredii, 12h00-13h00

La colonisation par sa mission civilisatrice a contribué entre autres à forger des rapports de genre dans les sociétés africaines. Dans ce sens, ce cours traite de son impact sur les rapports sociaux de sexe autant en Afrque coloniale que postcoloniale.

Directrice du cours:TBA
Présence et participation: TBA
Textes du cours: à être annoncé
Inscriptions prévues: 25
Identique à: GL/HIST/ILST/SOCI 3658 3.00

WMST 3525 6.00A FEMALE BODIES IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Tuesday, 7:00-10:00pm

This course is an interdisciplinary critical examination of various ideas and constructions of female bodies. While the body has only recently been recognized as a crucial site of exploration in social theory and philosophy, it has long obtruded in feminist work and theory as a catalyst for thought and action. The more recent intersection of gender theory, identity politics and postmodern theory has given rise to new questions, paradigms, and ways of framing feminist issues and many of these center around the body.

In this course, students will think through a number of the key feminist issues concerning the body. For example, we will examine the female body as a site through which power relations are consolidated or resisted; the female body in the arts and popular culture; the establishment of bodily and gender norms in medicine, sports and society; how bodies are involved in consumer culture and new technologies; and the crucial relationship of the body to identity. We will examine the female body as it has been and is currently inscribed by art, science, religion, philosophy and popular culture, paying attention to how the materiality of certain bodily markers of sex, gender, age, race, and class are situated in power relations. We want to also examine feminist resistance to certain constructions and regulation of bodies by looking at theoretical, social, and artistic attempts to subvert and recreate embodied identities.

While we will want to understand key theories concerning the body, we will concretize the theories through examples, issues and case studies. Various topics, concepts and examples that will be discussed might include the following: Victorian constructions of bodies, the nude in Western art, the use of bodies in commercials, the iconography of fertility, reinterpreting gender in ancient artifacts, cosmetic surgery, anorexia, breast cancer, pregnant experience, transitioning bodies, differently abled bodies, throwing “like a girl,” writing the body, ballet, African dance, veiled women, lipstick lesbians, the postmodern body, body image, fashion models, female super heroes, primate bodies, and cyborg bodies.

By critically investigating the female body in various contexts past and present, students will gain a good understanding of key current theories concerning the body, how they are put into feminist practice, and why the body has become such a site of contestation.

Towards the end of the course we will have the theoretical tools to examine current debates about the body among feminist theorists themselves as they attempt to come to grips with the lived body and the elusive interface of culture and biology, and of mind and body in embodied experience.

Course Director:

Evaluation:
Essay (1500 words) 20%
First Term In Class Test 15%
Two Presentations (one each term) 10%
Twelve 300 word response papers (six each term) 20%
Second In Class Test 15%
Final Essay (1500 words) 20%

Course Texts:
Course Kit (one each term) of selected articles
Susan Bordo. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body.
Projected Enrolment: 40

WMST 3538 3.00A (Fall) BLACK FEMINIST THOUGHT

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Monday, 2:30-5:30pm

This course focuses on how black women and black feminist thought have challenged and refined our understanding of race and gender in the Caribbean, United States and Canada.

Course Director: J. Sexton

Evaluation: TBA
Course Texts: TBA
Projected Enrolment: 40

WMST 3542 3.00M (Winter) TRANSGENDER AND TRANSFEMINISM

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Thursday, 8:30-11:30am

Emerging trans (transgender/transsexual) theory and activism enter into dialogue and debate with feminist work. This course explores points of intersection, collaboration, and conflict between them. It takes up the question of "transfeminism" and "gendered social justice".

Course Director: TBA
Evaluation: TBA
Course Texts: TBA
Projected Enrolment: 40

WMST 3544 3.00A (Fall) DISCERNING MASCULINITIES

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Wednesday, 11:30am-2:30pm

This course surveys the major texts of masculinity studies as an interdisciplinary field overlapping with feminist theory, queer theory, transgender studies, critical race studies and cultural studies. The course will explore many of the major feminist questions being asked including: Can masculinity be a feminist subject? Are all masculinities about men? What does it mean to be a "masculine" in our current historical moment? What does masculine subjectivity look like when it appears across differently raced, classed, nationalized, sexualized and gendered bodies? Can manhood be conceptualized as a feminist "counterculture"? How is masculinity constructed through social formations like the prison and military industrial complexes? In short, we will attempt to answer the question: what does masculinity want? through an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach.

Course Director: B. Noble
(132 Founders, x20897)

Evaluation:
Essays (2) 30%
Class discussion / participation 25 %
Take home exam 25%
Group presentation 20 %

Course Texts:
Course Readings: A packet of readings will be available through the course Moodle site.

Projected Enrolment: 40

WMST 3547 3.00M (Winter) REFRAMING FAT

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Friday, 11:30am-2:30pm

In this course, students become familiar with feminist and post-colonialist theories of embodiment, and use them to explore how the fat body and fat phobia have been and are produced through history, through policy, and through popular culture.

Note: A knowledge of feminist theories of the body is an asset.
Prerequisite: AP/GL 2500 6.00 or AP/GL 2510 9.00.
Course Director: TBA Evaluation: TBA
Course Texts: TBA
Projected Enrolment: 40

WMST 3549 3.00M (Winter) THINKING WHITENESS

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Wednesday, 11:30am-2:30pm

This course will read key texts in, and explore several significant concepts developing in the interdisciplinary field of critical and anti-racist North American whiteness studies. We will investigate these critical concepts through a survey of key writings but also through cultural forms including one play, several documentaries, as well as feature length narrative film. Our approach will be intersectional in that we will read for the ways that the social construction of whiteness works in and through other axes of identity including gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, and nation although we will also explore the limits of what the concept of intersectionality itself can articulate.

Course Director: B. Noble
(132 Founders, x20897)

Evaluation:
Essays (2) - 30%
Class discussion / participation - 25%
Take home exam - 25%
Group presentation - 20%

Course Texts:
Course Readings: A packet of readings will be available through the course Moodle site.

Projected Enrolment: 40

WMST 3555 6.00A GENEALOGIES OF FEMINIST THEORIZING

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Monday, 11:30-2:30pm

Examines major feminist theoretical approaches, both historical and contemporary, in women's and gender studies. Students will develop their analytic skills by engaging in rigorous critique and debate of feminist theorizing. Students will write detailed assessments of specific theoretical feminist approaches that take into consideration difference and intersectionality.

Course Directors: TBA

Prerequisite: AP/WMST 2500 6.00 or AP/WMST 2510 9.00

Course Credit Exclusions: GL/AP/WMST 4500 6.00, AS/WMST 4501 6.00 (prior to S2007)

Evaluation: TBA

Course Texts: TBA

Projected Enrolment: 40

WMST 3556 6.00A(FR) GÉNÉALOGIE DES THÉORIES FÉMINISTES

Lieu: Glendon Campus
Heure: lundi, 12h00-15h00

Ce cours propose une analyse généalogique des principales théories féministes et du genre. Il souligne l'apport distinctif des féministes francophones. Les élèves y développent leurs habiletés analytiques en s'impliquant dans des débats critiques rigoureux au sujet de ces théories.

Prerequisite: GL/AP/WMST 2500 6.00 or WMST 2510 9.00
Directrice du cours: TBA
Inscriptions prévues: 25
Course incompatible: GL/AP/WMST 4500 6.00, WMST 4501 6.00

WMST 3557 6.00A SUPERSTITION, RELIGION AND SEXUALITY

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Wednesday, 9:00am-12:00am

This course explores the intersection of religion and superstition from ancient times to the present. It analyzes issues of gender, power and sexuality through the study of goddesses, witches and the current fascination with vampires in popular culture. It is comprised of three units. The first unit analyzes goddesses in the ancient near east and in classical Greece and Rome and issues raised around goddess culture and women's empowerment.

The second unit studies the persecution of witches in medieval Europe and thereafter in America (e.g. the Salem witch trials) as a response to the perceived power and wisdom of women. It analyzes the relationship between witchcraft and religion in the early modern and subsequent periods. The third unit explores the recent interest in and proliferation of novels, films and TV shows on vampires. Contemporary popular culture is replete with images of the supernatural, which are particularly directed towards young girls. Films and television shows such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and novels such as Stephenie Meyer's Twilight trilogy focus on and relate to adolescent girls and young women. The appeal of these figures in print and other media embraced by "girl" culture will be analyzed.

A course kit will include primary sources from the ancient near east, some biblical material and classical drama in order to study the early manifestations of goddess culture. Medieval texts on witches will be read and more contemporary material such as plays or representations in art, including Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" and a novel by Stephenie Meyer, will be discussed. The texts relevant to the contemporary period will include TV, film and novels.

Course Director: R. Newman
(236 Founders, x33961)

Evaluation:
Short Written Assignment 10%
Research Essay Assignment 40%
Class Participation and submission of 2 questions on the week's readings 10%
Oral Presentation 10%
Mid-Term Examination 10%
Final Examination 20%

Course Texts: TBA

Projected Enrolment: 40

WMST 3561 3.00A (Fall) BAD GIRLS IN THE BIBLE, PART TWO

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Thursday, 2:30-5:30pm

The Bible offers archetypal figures for Western art, music and film as well as literature. This course will analyze women in the New Testament with a focus on sexuality, seduction, murder and mayhem. From the figure of Eve in the Hebrew Bible and her counterpart Lilith through New Testament figures such as Mary Magdalene and the Whore of Babylon the Bible offers portraits of women who are inquisitive, dangerous and powerful while also demonstrating how patriarchy has attempted to silence and disempower them. Artistically several of these strong and sexual women are represented as interchangeable (e.g. Judith and Salome). We will read primary sources in the New Testament with brief comparisons to figures in the Hebrew Bible. Through theoretical and textual study we will examine the ways in which these biblical women are represented in literature, art, music and film.

Course Director: R. Newman
(236 Founders, 33961)

Evaluation: Written Assignments 60% Class participation 20% Final Examination 20%

Course Texts:
Hebrew Bible and New Testament, preferably The New Oxford Annotated Bible With the Apocrypha. (New Revised Standard Version, College Edition, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-528411-9 paperback)
Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All.
Oscar Wilde, Salome.

Project Enrolment: 40

SXST 3601 3.00M (Winter) HETEROSEXUALITIES

Place: Keele Campus
Time: Wednesday, 8:30-11:30am

This interdisciplinary course examines the past, present, and future of heterosexualities, including heteronormative sexualities and heterosexualities that are dissident, resistant, transgressive, nonnormative, and queer. Cross-sex sexualities are explored in relation to masculine, feminine, and other genders, and in relation to class, race, age, and ability. Heterosexualities are analyzed as political institutions, social formations, and cultural performances that are constructed, reproduced, regulated, enforced, celebrated, and critiqued, and they are examined in relation to kinship, family, marriage, reproduction, the economy, and the state.

Course Director: M Stein
(234 Founders, x33218)

Evaluation:
Participation 25%
Short Papers 25%
Long Paper 25%
Examinations 25%

Course Texts:
Mary Louise Adams, The Trouble with Normal. (1997).
Karen Dubinsky, Improper Advances, (1993)
Karen Dubinsky, The Second Greatest Disappointment. (1999).
Martha Hodes, Sex, Love, Race. (1999).
Jonathan Ned Katz, The Invention of Heterosexuality. (1995).
Gayle S. Rubin, Deviations. (2011).

Projected Enrolment: 40