Global Gender Studies University at Buffalo

Courses listed below are taught by the Global Gender Studies faculty and are available in a given academic year; some occur regularly, while others are offered in rotation.

Autobiography, Biography, and Black Women’s Lives
Recognizing black women’s autobiographic and biographic forms as distinct traditions within African American letters, we will explore such questions as the construction of voice, the interstices between “public” and “private” lives; black women’s self—representations as evidenced in racial, class, cultural, sexual identities; notions of marginality; the appeal of autobiography and biography as forms of scholarship. Required readings include works by Elaine Brown, Angela Davis, bell hooks, June Jordan, Jamaica Kincaid, Chana Kai Lee, Nell Painter, Danzy Senna and Assata Shakur. Wherever appropriate, films, videos and other forms of cultural production will be used to illuminate our discussions. (SEM)

Coming Out Blackened and Whole”:
Audre Lorde, the Black Female Body and the Literary Self
This seminar will focus on an examination of the literary career of Audre Lorde (1934-1992); as it was defined by her poetry, essays, autobiographic narratives, social activism and international reputation. The corpus of her work provides an important frame through which the symbiotic relationship between contemporary literature and social history may be viewed. Through readings and discussion, emphasis will be placed on interrogating Lorde’s multiple identities as “Black,” “poet,” “lesbian,” “mother,” “warrior.” When appropriate, films, videos or other forms of cultural production will be used as audiovisual texts to enhance our critical understanding. (SEM)

Red Women, Black Women:
A Comparative Study of Native American and African American Women
This course will examine and compare the histories and literatures of Native and African American women, in the context of their common and different oppression(s) and resistance to that oppression. Through an exploration of readings by and about these two groups of women, we hope to demonstrate the interlocking-rather than separate-nature of Native and African women’s histories, as well as in interlocking nature of contemporary written literatures. As such, this course will be especially useful to graduate students preparing for comprehensive exams in the American Studies Department. (SEM)

“Womanism and Womanist Theory”
The primary goal of this seminar is to trace the development of black women’s activist and intellectual traditions from the l830s to the present. Additionally, we hope to define, examine and show how contemporary womanism and womanist theories are historically rooted in black women’s experiences, in the larger black liberation struggle and yet, differ from that struggle as well as from the Anglo-American feminist movement. Whenever possible, guest lecturers, films, videos and off-campus events will be used to broaden our understanding of the goals of this seminar. (SEM)

“Queered, Raced, Gendered”
We can identify a number of lesbian and gay (queer) artists as pioneers in their particular art forms. Who are some of these pioneers? How do/does their lives/creative productivity as pioneers reimagine the art forms they were/are working in? Who are some of the direct descendants of their re-imaginings? How have queer artists refined our understandings of race, gender and sexuality? How have they insisted upon disrupting notions of heterosexuality as “normal”? How have they disrupted notions of homosexualities as “marginal”? What is the role of the artist in any freedom movement? How did we get from lesbian and gay activism to queer theory? (SEM)

The Emancipation of Women and the Post Colonial World Order
We will explore the various levels at which gender has become a dominant inscription of the post war world system. We begin the course by looking at the ways in which feminist scholars pose the links between feminism and post war history. Second, we examine whether dominant global paradigms allow the women’s historical presence. Third, we open new fields of empirical inquiry that focus on the ground that postcolonial studies have opened up. (SEM)

Women’s Rights/Human Rights
The struggle for human rights is said to be connected with the struggle for women’s rights. However, traditional human rights standards categorize violations in ways that exclude women, elide critical issues or place women on the margins. This seminar will review the development of women’s rights in the rapidly evolving corpus of international human rights and the fundamental questions that this development poses. (SEM)

WS515-516 Cross-Cultural Study of Women
This seminar focuses on gender relations in pre-class societies, addressing such questions as: have women always been oppressed; did matriarchy ever exist; what were the origins of women’s oppression; what was the impact of colonialism on women’s position; what are the primary determinants of women’s status; how have the dominant ideas in science affected thinking about women. Readings include ethnographies as well as theoretical articles from the fields of anthropology and Global Gender Studies. (SEM)

WS517 Global Gender Studies Colloquium
Topics vary depending on area of expertise of faculty. Such topics are courses listed below. (SEM)

WS518 Readings in Feminist Theory
This course will survey some classic second-wave (1970s) feminist theory, some 1980’s reconsiderations, and newer third-wave (1990’s) contemplations of difference and discourse. We will consider the social constitution of gender and sexuality in everyday life and in childhood; the development of feminist and sexual communities; feminist epistemologies and methodology; psychoanalytic constructions of gender and race; and the intertwining of race, class, and gender. (SEM)

WS519 Rethinking the History of Capital: Reading Marx, Gramsci and Their Critics
This course will intersect a reading of Marx’s and Gramsci’s theories of the hegemonic historical space of capital with contemporary post-modem critiques of meta-narratives, class agency and capitalist state repression. Students will read volume 1 of Marx’s Capital as well as Antonio Gramsci’s writings on hegemony, culture, and the interventions of intellectual groups. Selected writings from Laclou, Althusser and Harroway will provide points of departure for classroom discussions. (SEM)

WS520 and 521 Directed Reading (1-6 credits)
Independent reading in an area where no course is offered, Permission of faculty member required. (TUT)

WS522 Women in Hollywood Film Genres
Hollywood films are a major force in creating the dominant mythologies of gender through which women and men—not only in the United States but globally—are socialized. Starting with the development of the Hollywood film industry, and using genre theory, this class will study the ways gender has been portrayed in several major genres, as well as the ways in which each genre has been updated as social conditions and beliefs have undergone significant shifts over time. (SEM)

WS525 Women’s Movement: Contesting Modernity’s and Global Change
This course sets out to provide an overview of women’s movements from a global perspective, with a special emphasis on organizational and empowerment strategies used by women in local struggles that aim at social change. We will look at women’s movements in particular sites and we will assess women’s share in demanding self-determination though various forms of activism against forms of exploitation. The goal of this course is to help you sharpen your analytic skills in thinking about the oppressive economic and political forces at the national and international levels while at the same time learning more about those feminist struggles that confront forms of oppression. (SEM)

WS530 Working Women in East Asia and the Global Economy
This course will introduce students to the study of women workers in export manufacturing industries in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and South Korea, by focusing on the conditions of work in export industries, the various mechanisms of control over labor within the factory, and the possibilities for worker resistance and mobilization. We will examine the many processes that generate and contribute to women’s powerlessness and/or resistance within a factory setting by utilizing a comparative cross-country framework. The class will also address the larger issues of the feminization and globalization of poverty via the struggles of working women in relation to global economic change and industrial restructuring. (LEC)

WS534 Gendered History of the Mediated Image
This class will trace the development of mass-mediated images within the context of the historic development of industrial, and then post-industrial, mass production. Beginning with theories of the social construction of representational images of women and material things as commodities objects, it will explore the social and economic forces and relationships which have determined representational techniques and conventions, from the beginnings of the market economy, through the beginnings of mass market advertising, the rise of the motion picture industry and finally of commercial television. (LEC)

WS535 Black Women Writers and the Re-imagination of American Culture
This seminar will undertake an examination of literature written by contemporary writers; illuminating the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, culture and class in the re-imagination of Black women’s identities and American culture. Required readings of works by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara, Jamaica Kincaid, Sapphire, Octavia Butler, Shay Youngblood and Jewelle Gomez will frame our discussions. (SEM)

WS536 Post Colonial Theory and Post Colonial Movements
What is postcolonial theory? Which movements and which cultural productions qualify as post colonial? Postcolonial feminists like Sinha and Spivak have entered the debate of nationalist recovery, seeking to promote a secular and reconstructionist postcolonial state. While postcolonial theory is grounded in the nations and boundaries crafted by Western expansion, immigrant postcolonial writers like C.L.R. James, Rushdie, and arid Stuart Hall have sought to convert Western history into a hybrid cultural field. Can Black and Brown male intellectuals position themselves as representatives of a postcolonial field of hybrid culture? (LEC)

WS537 The Culture of Celebrity
This class will explore the rise and significance of celebrity as a cultural, social and political force in twentieth century America, from an historical perspective. It is all too obvious that celebrity has become a major obsession in contemporary life. This class will examine and interrogate how this came to be and what it means for us, politically, culturally and socially. Focusing on the politics of celebrity, we will begin by looking, historically, at the decline of what Richard Sennett calls “public man” and how and why that figure has largely disappeared from our own world. (SEM)

WS540 New Ethnographic Methods: Researching Women’s Lives
This course is designed to introduce you to various ethnographic and qualitative researches. We will look at the literature on ethnography, qualitative research, case studies, including oral testimony and oral histories. The course will address the general practical issues involved in fieldwork such as how to take field notes and analyze data, how to engage in participant observation, etc. The objective of this course is to help you think about designing your own research projects and be a forum for you to exchange ideas and receive feedback. What should you expect before going out into the field? What are some of the research methods involved in doing qualitative research? What are some of the ethical concerns raised by feminist scholars? What are some of the practical and theoretical implications of carrying out research in the field? (SEM)

WS547 Pedagogy and the Interrogation of Methods
The course objectives are to prepare you to teach at college level (specifically WS 213) and explore different critical pedagogies. Understand how various teaching strategies function in the classroom. Experience various classroom activities, critically reflect upon their use, and prepare to employ them in your future teaching. Learn how to think, plan and prepare a class that would engage all of your students. Develop and teach two mini-lessons to the class. Develop and revise a philosophy of teaching statement that incorporates and builds on theories you’ve read and discussed this semester. Discuss how issues of racism, sexism, heterosexism and classism play out in class. Create a teaching portfolio including your observations and reflections. (SEM)

WS560 and 561 Special Topics:
Topics vary depending on area of expertise of the individual teaching. Sample of courses are as follow. (SEM)

WS570 International Organizations, Gender and Development
This seminar has three distinct yet interrelated goals. First, it provides students critical frameworks to be abreast of current and emerging theories, paradigms, and approaches on gender, development, and global change from an interdisciplinary perspective. Second, it provides students a forum to analyze and appraise development policies and practices from a gender perspective incorporating economic, social, cultural, and legal aspects of development. Third, it offers the opportunity to link theory and practice, as well as revisit the actual ‘practice’ of development through policy analysis, discursive analysis of development polices, project appraisal, critical assessment of international organizations agendas, and forms of resistance to globalization.

This seminar emphasizes students’ active participation and leadership in discussions and interactive scholarly groups. Students will gain exposure to the politics and economics of gender and development, the changing institutions and social context of development, and the mediating influence of international organizations such as the World Bank and the UN, to critically analyze and formulate strategies and actions plans for social change from a gender perspective. The course offers a unique opportunity to students to revisit various theoretical frameworks and development paradigms, as well as reflect on issues such as the feminization of poverty, globalization, human rights and their gender implications.

Students will identify and research pertinent gender-related substantive issues of local and/or global relevance, design a project, and make a concise, clear and defensible argument in a panel discussion at the end of the semester.

WS596 Topics in Modern European Gender History
This class will examine the emergence of woman’s history as a field of historica1 analysis as well as the latest scholarship in modern European gender history. We will focus on the history of women and gender in Britain, France, and Germany in the period from 1789 to the present. Readings will include works by Joan Scott, Michel Foucault, and Judith Walkowitz. Topics covered will include: Feminism and Liberalism, Women and the Nation, History of Sexuality, (Auto) biography and Gender, Women and Imperialism and, finally, Masculinities.

WS600 Theories of Gender and Popular Culture
This seminar will introduce students to the contested theories of gender and popular culture. From the earliest theories, in which issues of “positive” and “negative” role models dominated the field, the course will move on to a variety of challenging theoretical readings on gender and popular culture which have emerged in the last two decades. Texts will include works of aesthetic as well as media and social theory and history. Students will choose an area of research and complete and present a final research on some aspect of gender and popular culture. (SEM)

WS601 The Political Economy of the Global System: Contemporary Globalization
The purpose of this course is to explore three major processes of historical change in contemporary globalization. First, we will analyze the meaning of the “post modern” turn in the U.S. economy and society. Second, we will examine the more aggressive incorporation of women’s labor in capitalist production sites across various regions of the world economy. Third, we will analyze the major site of change in contemporary globalization: the emergence of rapidly changing spaces of development in the previously constructed ‘peripheral’ regions of the world system. (SEM)

WS607 Studies in the Renaissance
The majority of plays we will be reading will be by Shakespeare. Any other good Shakespeare anthology--the Riverside or the Bevington--that you used for another class would be fine. Some of the other plays we will be reading are in Fraser and Rabkin. (SEM)

WS620 and 621 Supervised Fieldwork (1-6 credits)
Empirical research connected with a master’s or doctoral thesis. This course is an essential curricular element of the graduate program in Global Gender Studies. Permission of faculty member required. (TUT)

WS630 and 631 Supervised Teaching (1-6 credits)
Teaching assistants enroll with permission of department Chair. A member of the department faculty supervises work. Credit is dependent upon type and amount of instructional duties. May be taken more than once for credit. Permission of faculty member required. (TUT)

WS660 Special Topics:
Topics vary depending on area of expertise of the individual teaching. Sample of courses are as follow. (SEM)

WS700 and 701 Project (1- 6 credits)
Guidance in preparation of project. May be taken more than once for credit. Permission of faculty member required. (TUT)

WS710 and 711 Thesis Supervision (1-8 credits)
Writing of thesis or dissertation under supervision of major professor. May be taken more than once for credit. Permission of faculty member required. (TUT)

Class, Power and Policy in the U.S.: 1898-Present
Center for the Americas -- Ruth Meyerowitz
This seminar will explore two main themes: 1) the ruling elites in the U.S from 1898 to the present, how they changed and how they translated their goals into American foreign and domestic policy and 2) the nature and goals of American foreign policy from 1898 to the present, focusing on wars and interventions in the Americas, Asia and the Middle East, particularly in the second half of the 20th century. We will ask such questions as: Who are these elites? How do they change? What political and economic power do they have? How do they use it? How do their economic and political goals get translated into U.S domestic and foreign? Why has the U.S. intervened militarily in so many nations overseas? What were the economic and political goals of these interventions? To what extent were these goals achieved? (SEM)

Research, Writing and Grant Writing
Center for the Americas -- Ruth Meyerowitz
This seminar is for those who are or will be working on Masters’ or Ph.D. thesis or project, or a paper for publication at a conference? Emphasizing creative and interdisciplinary approaches and combinations, we will read and discuss examples of several quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. These readings will explore the broad theme of globalization in the Americas. Grant writing will prepare students to write and submit grants to fund their research to agencies. Discussing the use of human subjects in research projects and the required protocols, students will develop and submit their proposal to the Human Subjects Review Board. (SEM)

The Social History of Women in the U.S.
Center for the Americas -- Ruth Meyerowitz
This course will explore multicultural approaches to the social history of women in the U.S. We will focus on several major themes: What is the history of the women in the major racial/ethnic groups in the U.S? What kinds of social and political movements have they built? What kinds of social, political and labor movements have they developed? What kinds of feminisms have they developed? We will explore the works we read from several perspectives: what do they reveal about the experiences of women in the U.S.? and historiographically, how have these authors framed the problem and answered the questions they posed? How well do their approaches work if we are interested in a multicultural approach to women’s experiences in the U.S.? (SEM)

History of Black Women in the U.S.
African American Studies -- Lillian Williams
This reading and research seminar will examine the history of black women in the United States from the slave era through the reform movements that occurred after World War II. It will focus upon the range of demands placed on black women during the Gilded and Progressive eras—the founding of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896, their participation in the women’s suffrage movement, black struggles for liberation in the United States and in the African, diasporas, cultural movements, war, labor force participation, and health. Students will analyze black women as leaders, their leadership styles and the impact that they have made on constituents. (SEM)

History of Women in the U.S.
History Department -- Susan Cahn
This course will explore the history of women in the United States. Seminar readings will begin with the colonial period and continue through the 1970s. The course is designed to familiarize students with the field of women’s history, surveying major issues and debates period familiarize students with the field of women’s history, surveying major issues and debates, while also exploring some topics in greater depth. Topics of focus include women’s work and family lives; differences and conflicts across race and class; the expression and regulations. (SEM)

Gender and Healing in Latin America
Anthropology Department -- Ana Mariella Bacigalupo
This course explores the ways various constructions of gender and sexuality shape understandings of self, spirit, and the altered states of consciousness in the practices of Latin American healers. We will study the practices of healers from the northern coast of Peru, Mapuche shamans from southern Chile, a Voodoo priestess in Brooklyn, and Candomble priests and priestesses in Brazil. (SEM)

Feminist Theory
English Department -- Carine Mardorossian
In this course, we will explore the ways in which various feminisms construct the relation between feminist practice and feminist theory, feminist activism and academic feminism, identity and community. Contemporary feminism is unsure whether its success in the academy is a positive political inheritance or a betrayal of its radical political origins. We will engage this debate by exploring the history of the movement as well as the various contexts that have informed the field’s institutionalization. What is the relationship between Global Gender Studies and the university? In what ways is Global Gender Studies still the academic arm of the women’s movement? What is the scope and shape of activism today? How do we define it in light of the postmodern challenge to nearly every category that is central to the women’s movement? If feminism cannot maintain grounding in categories such as “women” and “experience,” then what is left of feminism (pun intended)? (SEM)

Critical Theory: Feminist Performances
English Department -- Arabella Lyon
In this seminar we will examine theories of gender as performance thorough the lens of speech act theory and rhetorical theory. To do this, we will develop several approaches to speech act theory. With and against this rather apolitical start, we will then read feminists and post-feminists—such as Judith Butler, Catherine MacKinnon, Linda Kauffman, Teresa Ebert, and Drucilla Cornell and articulate our answers to the above questions. We may also be helped in this if we take advantage of the campus production of The Vagina Monologues and the worldwide Vday campaign to understand art as political action. (SEM)

Race and Ethnic Relations
Sociology Department -- Brenda Moore
The purpose of this seminar is to familiarize students with the classical and major contemporary works on racial inequality in America, and to enhance their understanding of the social, economic, and political situations (including public- and social-policy approaches) that affect race relations. (SEM)

Women’s Health I
Nursing Department -- Patricia McCartney
This course examines the role of the nurse practitioner in providing care for women seeking obstetrical, family planning and gynecological services. Emphasis is on health promotion and illness prevention. Content includes impact of path physiology disease processes on the normal physiological-psychosocial adaptations of women within the family. (LEC)

Studies in American Art
Art History Departmen -- Martin Berger
This course offers grounding in some of the dominant methodologies of American Art History, while simultaneously exposing students to debates surrounding the construction of gender and sexuality. Theoretical texts are paired with Art Historical essays in an effort to explore identity formation in both theory and practice. With emphasis on the works of Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins, the seminar will begin to explain the multiple and evolving ways in which sexuality and gender have been interpreted. (SEM)

Bible of Literature
English Department -- Diane Christian
The course will cover most of the Hebrew and Christian Bible texts, with attention to traditional and modern exegetical methods. The first goal will be good literary readings, the second a survey of competing critical strategies toward the stories—including religious, psychological, anthropological, historical and artistic. We’ll read Genesis in conjunction with Darwin and biohistorical constructions of religious myth; we’ll read Exodus against Freud’s Moses and Monotheism. We’ll also consider rabbinical and patristic traditions of interpretation and ideas of sacred text and authority, ancient and modern. Finally, we’ll explore some iconic and anti-iconic history of the Biblical texts and the central iconographies of Genesis and the Apocalypse (Revelation). (SEM-REC)

Americanist Colloquium
English Department -- Stacy Hubbard
We will be reading recent and classic works of American literary and cultural criticism and exploring some of the key debates that have shaped American studies. Probable topics include: Native American traditions; transnationalism; American exceptionalism; sentimentalism; realism and naturalism; African-American women's writing; intersections of modernist poetry and the visual arts; queer writing; Latino/a literatures; feminist revisions of the canon; contemporary American fiction and the art of book-reviewing; and approaches to popular or "pulp" genres. We will anchor our critical discussions with readings of canonical and not-so-canonical works of literature around which critical debates have arisen. (SEM-REC)

Italian, French and Belgian Women Film Directors
Romance Languages & Literatures -- Maria Elena Gutierrez
In this seminar we will critically explore the cinematic production of some of the major European women filmmakers of all times. Through the reading and discussion of filmic and theoretical texts we shall engage some fundamental questions concerning subjectivity and language, body and culture. We will examine constructions of sexual difference and (re) presentations of female/male gender in these three social, political and historical contexts. The theoretical framework will be provided by the philosophical writings of film theorist and filmmakers such as Gilles Deleuze, André Bazin, Marguerite Duras, Kaja Silverman, Stephen Heath, Teresa de Lauretis and Judith Butler, among others.