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Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies

Courses

Courses Required for the Major

Introductions (Choose 1)

  • GSS 1150/1150W: Sex and Gender in Everyday Life
  • GSS 1160/1160W: Sex and Society

International/Global Feminism Requirement (Choose 1)

  • GSS 1273: Gender and the City
  • GSS 2234: Women in Judaism
  • GSS 2235: Women in Israel
  • GSS 2236: Women in Judaism II: Recent Jewish Feminism
  • GSS 2244: The Body, Culture, and Feminism
  • GSS 2262: Gender and Ethics
  • GSS 2301: Gender, Murder, War: Detective Fiction 1920-1950
  • GSS 2610: Womanism in Global Context
  • GSS 3201: Women and Gender in Transnational Context
  • GSS 3273: Seminar on Psychoanalysis and Feminism
  • GSS 3281: Globalization and Policy Making
  • GSS 3301: Reproductive Justice in Transnational Contexts
  • GSS 3304: Gender, Power, and Justice
  • GSS 3306: Reproductive Justice: The Politics of Reproduction, Family, and Liberty
  • GSS 3307: Racial Justice
  • GSS 3308: Gender, Race, and Urban Mobilities
  • GSS 3309: Gender, Justice, and the Urban Environment
  • GSS 3891: Special Topics: Topics in Gender, Culture, and Representation

History/Social Movements Requirement (Choose 1)

  • GSS 1272: Feminism and Film
  • GSS 2225: Women in Popular Culture
  • GSS 2244: The Body, Culture, and Feminism
  • GSS 2249: Women and Humor in the Age of TV
  • GSS 2254: Feminist Fictions
  • GSS 2259/2259W: Reading and Writing Lives
  • GSS 2268: Gender, Race, Justice, and the Environment
  • GSS 2270: Ecofeminism: Theory, Practice, and Action
  • GSS 3030: Feminist Disability Studies
  • GSS 3246/W: Women’s Rights, Women’s Wrongs
  • GSS 3250/W: Contemporary Women’s Movements
  • GSS 3265: Human Rights in Activism
  • GSS 3271: Feminist Legal Theory
  • GSS 3303: Feminist Disability Studies
  • GSS 3305: Gender and Sexuality in Times of Pandemic
  • GSS 3310: Race, Citizenship, and Belonging in the United States
  • GSS 3405: Mass Incarceration and Abolition Feminism
  • GSS 3605: Oral Histories: Voting while Black and Female in Nashville
  • GSS 3892: Special Topics: Topics in Gender, Society, and Political Economy

Sex, Sexuality and Society Requirement (Choose 1)

  • GSS 2240: Introduction to Women’s Health
  • GSS 2242: Women Who Kill
  • GSS 2243: Sociologies of Men and Masculinity
  • GSS 2252: Sex and Scandals in Literature
  • GSS 2256: Literary Lesbians
  • GSS 2267: Seminar on Gender and Violence
  • GSS 2612: LGBT Studies
  • GSS 2613: Compulsory Couplehood
  • GSS 2614: Cowboys, Gangsters, and Drag Kings: Introduction to Critical Masculinity
  • GSS 2615: Transgender Lives in Literature and Film
  • GSS 4970: Sexing the Archive: Research Methods in Gender and Sexuality Studies

Senior Seminar

  • GSS 4960: Senior Seminar

All GSS Courses

GSS 1001: Commons iSeminar

  • Topics Vary
  • iSeminar

GSS 1111: First-Year Writing Seminar

  • Topics Vary
  • AXLE: First-Year Writing Seminar

GSS 1150/1150W: Sex and Gender in Everyday Life

  • Sex and gender roles in culture and society. Gender, race, and class. Women and men in literature, art, culture, politics, and institutions.
  • AXLE: 1000-level W course, AXLE: Perspectives
  • Eligible for African American and Diaspora Studies, Latino/Latina Studies

GSS 1160/1160W: Sex and Society

  • Historical, cultural, and social contexts of sexual diversity, discrimination, and sexual violence. Understanding the centrality of sexuality to identity; challenging harmful modes of sexual expression; developing critical awareness of sex and sexuality.
  • AXLE: 1000-level W course, AXLE: Perspectives

GSS 1272: Feminism and Film

  • Images of gender and race; techniques, sound, lighting, cinematography in relation in gender.
  • AXLE: History and Culture of the United States
  • Eligible for European Studies, Cinema & Media Arts

GSS 1273: Gender and the City

  • Gender and urban processes; spatial and social organization of the city. Geography of gender relations. Gender, sex, race/ethnicity, class, and ability as spatial power relations.
  • AXLE: Perspectives

GSS 2225: Women in Popular Culture

  • Gender differentiation in popular culture and consumer products. Portrayal of women in movies, print, music, and the Internet. The sources and effects of these portrayals. Women as both consumers and consumed.
  • AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts

GSS 2234: Women in Judaism

  • Judaism and feminism. Women in the Hebrew Bible, Jewish law, natural philosophy, and history. Case studies in Jewish medieval and modern contexts; problems of assimilation and cultural specificity in modern society.
  • AXLE: International Cultures

GSS 2235: Women in Israel

  • Status and experiences of Jewish and non-Jewish women living in Israel. Religion and the law; Jewish and non-Jewish minorities; women and the military; women’s health; violence against women; the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
  • AXLE: International Cultures

GSS 2236: Women in Judaism II: Recent Jewish Feminism

  • Twenty-first century developments in Jewish thought regarding gender, sex, and sexuality. Methodologies by which scholars grapple with regnant, “traditional” Jewish sources and norms of interpretation and practice. Race, class, and disability; role of gender in Jewish ethics, theology, ritual, ethnography, and textual interpretation.
  • AXLE: Perspectives

GSS 2240: Introduction to Women’s Health

  • How culture influences women’s health, body image, self-esteem. Issues include fertility control and childbearing, medical innovations to detect disease, alternative therapies, psychological well-being, sexuality, physical and sexual abuse. Impact of politics on health options for women.
  • AXLE: Perspectives
  • Eligible for African American and Diaspora Studies, Communication of Science and Technology, and Medicine, Health, and Society

GSS 2242: Women Who Kill

  • Comparison between classical and contemporary views. Adjudication of women who kill.
  • AXLE: Perspectives

GSS 2243: Sociologies of Men and Masculinity

  • Traditional and emerging perspectives on masculinity and male gender-roles. Emphasis on relationship between social forces and males’ everyday experiences across the life span.
  • AXLE: Perspectives
  • Eligible for American Studies

GSS 2244: The Body, Culture, and Feminism

  • The body as a cultural, social, and historical construction. Western culture and narratives of “normalcy” and their impact on identity and representation. Body image and eating disorders. Cultural politics of size, weight, and shape. Disability. Cosmetic surgery.
  • AXLE: Perspectives

GSS 2249: Women and Humor in the Age of Television

  • The period 1950 to present. Television variety shows, sitcoms, and stand-up comedy as media for promoting women’s humor and feminism.
  • AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts
  • Eligible for American Studies

GSS 2252: Sex and Scandals in Literature

  • From the eighteenth century to the present. Women’s and men’s disorderly conduct as represented in literary texts. Charlotte Rowson, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Henry James, and Toni Morrison.
  • AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts

GSS 2254: Feminist Fictions

  • From the nineteenth century to the present. Feminist ideas and ideals as represented in literary texts. Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, and Margaret Atwood.
  • AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts

GSS 2256: Literary Lesbians

  • From the nineteenth century to the present. How girls’ and women’s intimacies are monitored and policed in literature and culture. Impact of race, class, religion, and disability on expression and reception of relationships.
  • AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts

GSS 2259/2259W: Reading and Writing Lives

  • Interdisciplinary exploration of life- stories as narratives. Strategies of self-representation and interpretation, with particular attention to women. Includes fiction, biography, autobiography, history, ethnography, and the writing of life-story narratives.

GSS 2262: Gender and Ethics

  • Religious worldviews connected to moral traditions. Epistemological and ethical systems and their relationship to gender and patriarchy. Social construction of gender; violence against women; feminism; and difference.

GSS 2267: Seminar on Gender and Violence

  • In-depth study of violence against women, with a service-learning component in a community setting. Topics include domestic abuse, rape, sexual harassment, pornography, and global violence. Focus on problems and potential solutions, examining violence on a societal, institutional, and individual level, interrogating the “personal as political,” and exposing power structures that shape our communities.

GSS 2268: Gender, Race, Justice, and the Environment

  • Gender and racial aspects of environmental degradation. Risk, activism, health and illness, policy, and politics.

GSS 2270: Ecofeminism: Theory, Politics, and Action

  • Interconnections among the exploitation of nature, the oppression of women, and the abuse of resources that have led to the current global ecological crisis.

GSS 2301: Gender, Murder, War: Detective Fiction 1920-1950

  • Literary analysis in historical context. Sex, gender, and sexuality; war

GSS 2610: Womanism in Global Context

  • Survey of global Womanist (Black Feminist) theory and praxis. Race, class, sexuality, spirituality, and activism. Controversies over female bodies.

GSS 2612: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies

  • Introductory study of sexual identity, queer theory, relationships, politics.

GSS 2613: Compulsory Couplehood

  • From the nineteenth century to the present. Legal and societal implications of marriage. Marginalization of the single person. Different gendered stereotypes of the uncoupled adult, including the bachelor and the spinster. Non-normative forms of kinship and relationships. Primarily United States with global perspectives. Scholarly and pop-cultural texts.

GSS 2614: Cowboys, Gangsters, and Drag Kings: Introduction to Critical Masculinity Studies

  • Critical examination of representations of masculinity in patriarchal societies. Constructed nature of masculinity in relation to race, sexuality, class, national, and religious identifications. Historical, sociological, literary, cinematic, and visual art analyses.

GSS 2615: Transgender Lives in Literature and Film

  • Global study of transgender representation in film and literature. Cultural theory approach, utilizing work from the fields of transgender, queer, feminist, and disability studies.

GSS 3030: Feminist Disability Studies

  • Disability through a feminist lens. Changes in the meaning of disability over time and across cultures. Intersectional focus on gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, sexuality, and nationality. Embodiment, eugenics, performance, social movements, and violence.

GSS 3201: Women and Gender in Transnational Context

  • Gender as a social construction. Feminist critiques of knowledge, family and work, sexuality, health and medicine, and the women’s movement. The future of feminism in global context.

GSS 3246W: Women’s Rights, Women’s Wrongs

  • Intellectual and theoretical foundations for contemporary feminist theory and politics in the United States, based upon works by nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors.

GSS 3250/3250W: Contemporary Women’s Movements

  • Recent feminist history. The origins and parameters of women’s movements from the 1960’s to the present.

GSS 3265: Human Rights in Activism

  • Role of human rights in struggles against injustice. Identification of key problems of injustice addressed by a human rights framework. Problems with human rights as a tool for activism. Discussion in contemporary politics. Intellectual and legal traditions that have developed around human rights.

GSS 3271: Feminist Legal Theory

  • Theoretical issues about the interaction between law and gender. Application of feminist analysis and perspective to law relating to family, work, criminal law, reproductive freedom, pornography, and sexual harassment.

GSS 3273: Seminar on Psychoanalysis and Feminism

  • Historical and contemporary perspectives on the ling and ambivalent relationship between psychoanalysis and feminism. Trauma, hysteria, narcissism, gender, and the family.

GSS 3281: Globalization and Policy-Making

  • Western historical conceptualizations of the state. Socio-political contexts.

GSS 3301: Reproductive Justice in Transnational Contexts

  • Women of color and human rights movement for bodily autonomy and comprehensive reproductive rights in the United States. How activists around the world use different strategies to promote sexual and reproductive human rights. How opponents attack abortion rights in US and globally.

GSS 3303: Feminist Disability Studies

  • Gender, disability, and the body. Theories of disability, performance arts, eugenics, disability rights movement, and technology. Intersectional analysis of disability alongside race, ethnicity, sexuality, and class. Memoir, history, qualitative research, and literary analysis.

GSS 3304: Gender, Power, and Justice

  • Theoretical, historical, and cultural analysis of power structures and politics; analysis of activist and academic responses to contemporary political questions.

GSS 3305: Gender and Sexuality in Times of Pandemic

  • Integration of science and medicine to the social construction of race, gender and identity. Interconnections with national security, economic growth, and natural risks: sex, death and illness. Challenges to gender and sexual justice by infectious diseases. Historical and literary research; sex, sexuality and gender during times of dis-ease. Expressions, regulations, and resistance of sex, sexuality, and gender during medical/scientific crises.

GSS 3306: Reproductive Justice: The Politics of Reproduction, Family, and Liberty

  • Historical constructions of reproduction with attention to race, class, gender, sexuality, and dis/ability. Social constructs of family, motherhood, pregnancy, and parenting. Rights, health, agency, and freedom in the reproductive justice framework.

GSS 3307: Racial Justice

  • Major contemporary racial justice debates. Theories of racial justice; inclusion of women of color, LGBT, and trans persons of color. Articulations of race, racism, and pathways to racial justice. Intersectional feminist thinkers and queer theorists.

GSS 3308: Gender, Race, and Urban Mobilities

  • Perspectives on and influences of gender and race on mobility, urban and transit planning, and policy. Methodological skills to study modes of transit. Transportation innovation across the Global North and South.

GSS 3309: Gender, Justice, and the Urban Environment

  • Transforming urban environments. Systems of power and privilege; inequalities such as gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity, geographic location, and other dynamics that influence climate crisis response. Structures of oppression in the city via infrastructures, policies, and programs. Feminist, Black, Chicana, and decolonial methodologies.

GSS 3310: Race, Citizenship, and Belonging in the United States

  • Citizenship and race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, ability. Citizenship through lenses of feminist scholarship, critical race theory, human geography, postcolonial theory, queer theory, and critical ethnic studies. Contemporary issues in U.S. context.

GSS 3405: Mass Incarceration and Abolition Feminism

  • Feminists as theorists and activists in prison abolition. Decentering the male as the embodiment of mass incarceration. Sexual assault to prison pipeline. Effects of carceral gendering on black women’s lives. Economic, psychological, and physiological costs of the emotional labor women provide to men in prison. Nexus of interpersonal and state violence in black women’s lives. Kimberle Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality as illuminating the carceral power formation.

GSS 3605: Oral Histories: Voting while Black and Female in Nashville

  • Centennial of the ratification of the 19th amendment. Jim Crow laws, voter suppression laws, gerrymandering. Voting experiences, opinions, and struggles of African American women in Nashville. Civic engagement and socializing conditions that create political identity. Intergenerational transmission of stories shaping the contemporary voter.

GSS 3850: Independent Study

  • A program of reading and research for advanced students in an area of women’s and gender studies arranged in consultation with an adviser.

GSS 3880: Internship Training

  • Under faculty supervision, students gain experience combining theoretical and practical work in a project related to social change and focused on women, feminism, or gender. Legislative, community, educational, or non-profit settings. Internship plan developed between student and faculty sponsor, with approval of Women’s and Gender Studies program director. A thorough report and research paper are submitted at the end of the semester.

GSS 3882: Internship Reading

  • Under faculty supervision, students gain experience combining theoretical and practical work in a project related to social change and focused on feminism, sexuality, or gender. Legislative, community, educational, or non-profit settings. Internship plan developed between student and faculty sponsor, with approval of Women’s and Gender Studies program director. A thorough report and research paper are submitted at the end of the semester.

GSS 3883: Internship Research

  • Under faculty supervision, students gain experience combining theoretical and practical work in a project related to social change and focused on feminism, sexuality, or gender. Legislative, community, educational, or non-profit settings. Internship plan developed between student and faculty sponsor, with approval of Women’s and Gender Studies program director. A thorough report and research paper are submitted at the end of the semester.

GSS 3891: Special Topics: Topics in Gender, Culture, and Representation

  • Topics vary.

GSS 3892: Special Topics: Topics in Gender, Society, and Political Economy

  • Topics vary.

GSS 3893: Selected Topics

  • Topics vary.

GSS 4950: Capstone Colloquium

  • Seminar and workshop intended for immersion enrichment culminating in individual projects.

GSS 4960: Senior Seminar

  • Advanced reading and research.

GSS 4970: Sexing the Archive: Research Methods in Women’s and Gender Studies

  • Conducting research through a feminist and queer lens. Archival research; examining oral histories using specialized Vanderbilt resources, as well as other local and online archives.

GSS 4998: Honors Research

  • Reading and research under the guidance of a faculty supervisor.

GSS 4999: Honors Thesis

  • Open only to seniors in the Honors Program.