Upper-Division Courses

WOMS 306. Introduction to Gender Studies (3). General education further study course. Cross-listed as SOC 306. Examines the basic theories and research that explain gender in society. The lives of men and women are examined as they pertain to gender and how each is affected by the gendered structure of institutions. Students are exposed to such topics as courtship and marriage, families, religion, education, the economy, and changing social conditions that influence gender in their personal lives and their communities.

WOMS 316. Men and Masculinities (3). General education issues and perspectives course. Cross-listed as SOC 316. Presents the sociological perspectives on contemporary masculinities. Students are exposed to developmental changes in masculinity across the life course, and such topics as: masculine socialization, race/ethnicity variations, work, relationships, sexualities, media, family, and the men’s movement.

WOMS 325. Women in the Political System (3). Crosslisted as POLS 325. Examines the political process of policy making, using policies of current interest concerning women. Explores the association of societal gender role expectations with existing and proposed public policies that pertain to women’s lives. Prerequisite: 6 hours of social science or instructor’s consent.

WOMS 330. Women’s Personal Narratives (3). Crosslisted as ENGL 336. Explores the literary genre of the journal as practiced by both historical and modern women. Examines works by both well-known diarists and little-known notebook keepers. In-class writing and out-of-class assignments; students are encouraged to do daily work in a journal of their own. Prerequisites: ENGL 101 and 102.

>WOMS 338. Philosophy of Feminism (3). General education further study course. Cross-listed as PHIL 338. WOMS 340. Human Sexuality (3). Cross-listed as SCWK 340.

WOMS 345. Women and Dependencies (3). Provides information about women’s dependencies and their relationship to constructions of gender. Examines dependencies on substances and processes (alcohol, street and prescription drugs, eating disorders, and dysfunctional relationships) in their social and personal context. Examines theories of treatment and recovery in relation to feminist theory and women’s roles in codependency.

WOMS 361. Women and Work (3). General education further study course. Examines the image and reality of women’s employment from minimum wage work to corporate board rooms, as well as women’s unpaid work. It explores the impact of cultural values, societal arrangements, and public policy on occupations, wages, and family life.

WOMS 380. Special Topics (1–3). Focuses on intermediate topics of interest to women’s studies.

WOMS 380K. Girl Culture and Feminism (3).

WOMS 381. Special Topics (1–3).

WOMS 382. Feminism and Girl Culture (3). Addresses issues of girl culture as a part of Third Wave feminism in an engagement with earlier forms of feminism. The media both shape and reflect the culture we live in. Current representations of female empowerment are quite different from the sparse stereotypes of the 1970s. Examines and analyzes to what extent those representations that are a part of girl culture can be deemed feminist and thus a challenge to patriarchal conceptions of girls (or girlhood). Emphasizes critical analysis and should enable critique of visual culture as well as questioning the culture in ways not previously done. Topics include: Wonder Woman (sheroes), girl talk (Sex in the City), tough girls (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), video game vixens, and feminist girl-zines (Bitch Magazine). Replaces WOMS 380K.

WOMS 385. Introduction to LGBT Studies (3). Examines a broad range of contemporary gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues in various contexts including literary, sociological, political, racial, socio-economic and sexual. Replaces WOMS 380O.

WOMS 386. Women and Sports (3). Examines the relationship of gender to definitions of athleticism as well as how women have negotiated the contradiction between the cultural equation of masculinity and athleticism. Special attention is given to Title IX and its role in increasing benefits and opportunities for U.S. women to play sports as well as the impact it has had on the development of intercollegiate women’s athletics. Also considers the impact of homophobia on women’s sports, the sexualization of women athletes, and new questions raised for sex segregated sports by the fluidity of biological sex and transgendered athletes. Replaces WOMS 380Y.

WOMS 387. Women in Society: Cultural Images (3). General education further study course. Examines the impact of cultural images and ideas in women’s lives. Emphasis is on the intersection of gender and race in the shaping of social experience and political interest. Major topics include ideology as vehicle through which women come to belong to and negotiate society; privilege, intellectual origins of ideas about gender and race, and differences in status among women that impact their lives, their relations with men and with each other.

WOMS 391. Women’s Global Issues (3). General education further study course. Explores women’s issues from a global perspective in relation to policies approved by the International Women’s Decade conferences of the United Nations. Emphasizes understanding the impact
of nationalism, race, class, and cultural values in creating obstacles to women’s full participation in society. Explores strategies for achieving full human rights for women. Prerequisites: one course in women’s studies and one course in history or political science.

WOMS 480. Special Topics (1–3). Provides an introduction to the exploration of various women’s studies’ themes.

WOMS 481. Cooperative Education (1–4). Provides a field placement that integrates theory with a planned and supervised professional experience designed to complement and enhance the student’s academic program.
Offered Cr/NCr only.

WOMS 482. Latinas in Culture and Society (3). Examines what it means to be a Latina and a feminist in U.S. culture, confronting racism and sexism as well as being empowered through Latina identity. The exploration of Latina identity results in creative transformation and a new understanding of the relationship of self to community. Materials drawn from Chicana feminist studies in prose, poetry, criticism, and film, and from presentations by guest speakers. Courses for Graduate/Undergraduate Credit

WOMS 510. Hollywood Melodrama: The Woman’s Film (3). Melodrama, as a “woman’s genre,” is important to the development of feminist film criticism, which interrogates the contradictory meanings of motherhood and family within this culture. Through readings and films, this course provides a stylistic, literary, and cultural/historical background for this 19th-century form with a specific focus on the woman’s film and the family melodrama which highlight woman’s position within the home. Uses textual analysis and some psychoanalytic criticism to explore and critique the fantasies and desires expressed in the visual excesses of film melodrama.

WOMS 513. Women in Africa (3). Who is the African woman? What are her joys, obstacles, struggles, triumphs, and rites of passage? This course addresses these issues through their intersection with gender, race/ethnicity, and class in selected traditional and postcolonial settings on the African continent. Facilitates appreciation of African women and gender through African cultural voices. Emphasizes the views of women expressed in their songs, dances, dramas, ritual actions, activism, and writing. Telephone/video conference with women in Africa, as well as stories, poems, and other literary, historical, and anthropological material are used.

WOMS 514. Women in the Middle East (3). Examines Arab women of the Middle East. Focuses on women in the region historically designated as the fertile plains— Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Palestinian Territories. Covers the impact of Western colonialism and global geopolitics on women’s lives; women’s activism in relation to nationalism and women’s rights; Western racial stereotypes of Arab women and men and their role in foreign intervention in the 20th and 21st centuries. Provides case study in the relationship of nationalism and women’s rights as framed by Arab women’s studies.

WOMS 516. Sociology of Gender Roles (3). Cross-listed as SOC 516. Analyzes the institutional sources of male and female roles, the source of changes in these roles, the consequent ambiguities and conflicts. Prerequisite: SOC 111.

WOMS 523. Feminist Film Criticism (3). Applies critical methods of analysis from the field of feminist film studies (such as psychoanalysis, ideology critique, close textual analysis, narrative, and genre criticism) to the representation of women in film. Emphasizes historical development of feminist film theory and criticism as it relates to classical Hollywood narrative, film genres, and avant-garde film. Prerequisite: 3 hours of upper-level humanities or 3 hours of upper-level women’s studies.

WOMS 532. Women in Ethnic America (3). Cross-listed as HIST 532. An in-depth, thematic understanding of the historical experiences of women of color across space and time in U.S. history. Employing a female-centered framework of analysis, course probes the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in women’s lives.

WOMS 533. Women and the Law (3). Introduces the legal aspects of women’s rights, including the equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution, right to choose a name, sex discrimination in employment, education, and credit; welfare and criminal justice. Also considers women in the field of law, such as lawyers and legislators.

WOMS 534. Psychology of Women (3). General education issues and perspectives course. Cross-listed as PSY 534.

WOMS 536. Writing by Women (3). Cross-listed as ENGL 536. Explores various themes in critical approaches to literature composed by women writers, especially those whose works have been underrepresented in the literary canon. Genres and time periods covered, critical theories explored, and specific authors studied vary in different semesters.

WOMS 537. Contemporary Women’s Drama (3). Examines contemporary plays by and about women to discover and explore the insights of the various playwrights into the lives and roles of women. In addition to reading and analyzing plays, students write plays of their own.

WOMS 541. Women, Children, and Poverty (3). General education issues and perspectives course. Crosslisted as SCWK 541. Addresses the problem of poverty among women in the U.S. today, and examines existing and proposed public policies designed to alleviate the problem. Explores theoretical models of poverty policy analysis and the role of values in their formulation and implementation. Discusses issues of age, race, and family; special attention is given to poverty among Kansas families. Prerequisite: 6 hours of social sciences.

WOMS 542. Women in Other Cultures (3). Cross-listed as ANTH 542. Deals with the place of women in primitive and other non-Western societies, in various aspects of culture: political, economic, social, religious, domestic, intellectual, psychological, and aesthetic. Compares and contrasts societies in order to see how different kinds of roles for women are related to different kinds of societies.

WOMS 543. Women and Health (3). Cross-listed as NURS 543. Examines the historical development of the women’s health movement, focuses on current issues relevant to women and health care, and explores the roles of women in the health care system and as consumers of health care. Examines self-care practices of women and studies ways to promote positive health practices. Open to non-nursing majors.

WOMS 570. Directed Readings (1–3). For students who wish to pursue special reading or research projects not covered in coursework. Prerequisite: instructor’s consent.

WOMS 579. Asian Women in Modern History (3). Cross-listed as HIST 579 and ETHS 579. Examines women’s historical and contemporary experiences in Asian America and eight major countries in modern Asia. Covers topics on Asian women’s activism in relation to nationalism and women’s rights. Investigates Asian women’s roles and statuses in the family and society and their educational attainment and contributions to the export-oriented industrialization of the Asia-Pacific region. Examines the intra-regional migration of female guest workers among various countries in Asia. Traces the ways in which the changes in immigration laws during the 20th century affect patterns of Asian women’s migration to the United States. Introduces writing that integrates Asian women’s lives and Asian American experiences into the discourses on ethnicity, national origin, class, gender, and sexual orientation in the United States and the Asia-Pacific region. Replaces WOMS 379.

WOMS 580. Special Topics (1–3). Focuses on advanced topics of interest to women’s studies.

WOMS 585. The Femme Fatale in Film Noir (3). From the 1970s to the present, feminism has exerted a profound influence on theories of cinema. By focusing on film noir as a genre expressed visually and thematically, this course explores various filmic representations of women, and how and why these representations are politically, socially, and theoretically significant. We apply various critical methods of analysis (psychoanalysis, ideology critique, close textual analysis, narrative, style/genre) to approach women’s representation, in particular, the femme fatale (dark lady, evil seductress) within the classic film noir era which occurred between 1944 and 1958. Replaces WOMS 580E.

>WOMS 586. Gender, Race, and Knowledge (3). General education issues and perspectives course. Examines construction of objects that lie at the boundary between popular and academic or “official” knowledge (understanding of objects, people, events, and activities). Examines those objects within gender and race frameworks in women’s studies. Thematically organized, problem focused and methodologically interdisciplinary. Past topics include “America, Post 9/11,” “A Genealogy of the Middle East,” science, modernity, and anthropology.

WOMS 587. Theories of Feminism (3). Because feminism is not a single ideological stance or perspective, course examines a variety of ideas underlying feminist cultural critiques and visions for social change. Discusses the contribution of women’s studies to various academic disciplines. Prerequisites: WOMS 287 and 387, or 6 hours of women’s studies courses, or instructor’s consent.

WOMS 588. Gender, Race and the West/East Divide (3). General education issues and perspectives course. Examines critically the role of gender and race in the making of a supposed essential divide between “the West” and “the East.” Students are introduced to Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism and the field of critique that targets how Europe and the U.S. craft an identity “the West” via its other, called variously, “the Orient,” “Islam,” the “Muslim world,” and the “Arab world.” Questions explored include: What is Orientalism? What is the relationship between colonialism/imperialism and the representation of “the Orient” or “the East.” How, for whom, and for what purposes do gender and race matter in this construct of a divide between West and East? These questions are examined across genres and media—i.e., in travel accounts, film, literature, policy making, and news reportage.

WOMS 635. Leadership Techniques for Women (3). Cross-listed as COMM 635. Provides the female student experience in decision making and improves skills in leadership through role playing and exercise in group dynamics.

WOMS 701. Selected Topics in Women’s Studies (3). Repeatable for credit up to 6 hours. Prerequisite:
departmental consent.Please see the Graduate Catalog for courses numbered800 and above.

The following abbreviations are used in the course descriptions;
R stands for lecture and L for laboratory. For example, 4R; 2L
means 4 hours of lecture and 2 hours of lab.