Gender Studies (GNST)
Lisa Corrigan
Director of Studies
417 Kimpel Hall
479-575-3046
Ryan Calabretta Sajder
Associate Director
425 Kimpel Hall
479-575-3324
The gender studies minor introduces students to the ways that various academic disciplines have examined women’s and men’s differing participation in work, the family, political systems, and creative endeavors. Courses explore sex and gender differences and such concepts as masculinity and femininity, essence and performance; distributions of power, work, and resources; and the symbolic representation of gender and identity in literature, religion, and art. The minor is often chosen by students interested in investigating materials previously neglected by scholars and in fresh perspectives on traditional subject matter.
Requirements for a Minor in Gender Studies. Students must complete 15 credit hours from the list below, including six credit hours numbered at the 3000-level or higher.
| GNST 20003 | Introduction to Gender Studies | 3 |
| or GNST 200H3 | Honors Introduction to Gender Studies | |
| Choose 12 credit hours from the following: | 12 | |
| Transnational Feminist Perspectives in Art and Education | ||
| Honors Classical Studies Colloquium (topic must be related to gender studies and approved by the program director) | ||
| Family Communication | ||
| Special Topics (topic must be related to gender studies and approved by the program director) | ||
| Communication and Gender | ||
| Gender, Race and Power | ||
| Reel Women | ||
| Representational Issues in Film | ||
| Topics in Gender, Sexuality, and Literature | ||
| Writing on Social Issues | ||
| Topics in African-American Literature and Culture (topic must be related to gender studies and approved by the program director) | ||
| Studies in U.S. Latino/Latina Literature and Culture (topic must be related to gender studies and approved by the program director) | ||
| Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Literature | ||
| Gender, Bodies, and Technologies | ||
| Race, Gender, and Sport | ||
| The Queer U.S. South | ||
| Gender and the Environment | ||
| Queer Theor(ies) | ||
| Independent Study | ||
| Special Topics in Gender Studies | ||
| Women in U.S. History | ||
| LGBTQ+ Histories | ||
| Honors Colloquium (topic must be related to gender studies and approved by the program director) | ||
| Society and Gender in Modern Europe | ||
| New Women in the Middle East | ||
| Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Colonial Latin America | ||
| Honors Colloquium (topic must be related to gender studies and approved by the program director) | ||
| Latin American Studies Colloquium (topic must be related to gender studies and approved by the program director) | ||
| Introduction to Human Sexuality | ||
| Feminist Philosophy | ||
| Gender and Justice in the U.S. | ||
| Gender and Politics | ||
| Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality | ||
or SOCI 319H3 | Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in America | |
| Families and Social Change | ||
| Race and Society | ||
| Special Studies (Topic: Women and Arabic Literature) | ||
| Total Hours | 15 | |
Courses
GNST 20003. Introduction to Gender Studies. 3 Hours.
This course explores cultural constructions of gender and sexuality using a variety of media, including literature, film, and architecture. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring)
GNST 200H3. Honors Introduction to Gender Studies. 3 Hours.
This course explores cultural constructions of gender and sexuality using a variety of media, including literature, film, and architecture. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring)
This course is equivalent to GNST 20003.
GNST 21203. Gender, Bodies, and Technologies. 3 Hours.
Explores the relationship between gendered bodies and technology while engaging with theories of the body and its interactions/intersections with technology. Examines theories of power and technologies of self to better understand the relationship between gender, bodies, and technology. (Typically offered: Fall Odd Years)
GNST 22203. Race, Gender, and Sport. 3 Hours.
Addresses the relationship between race, gender and sport by examining how sport gives meaning to racial and gender identity and the ways that sport works as a setting in which political struggles around race and gender are imagined and expressed. (Typically offered: Spring Odd Years)
GNST 24003. Dissecting Gender in Science. 3 Hours.
Examines the role of gender in science. Explores how perceptions of masculinity and femininity have been informed by science and how science's answers to questions of gender have been historically impaired by social understandings of gender. (Typically offered: Fall Odd Years)
GNST 31003. The Queer U.S. South. 3 Hours.
Presents queer perspectives on the U.S. South. Focuses on autobiographical, historical, and critical-qualitative analyses that attest to the innovative or inventive ways LGBTQ+ communities have survived and thrived in southern areas often deemed antithetical to a liberatory gender/sexual political agenda. (Typically offered: Spring Even Years)
GNST 32003. Gender and the Environment. 3 Hours.
Explores how "gendered frames" animate public, technical, and private discourse about the environment. Conduct qualitative research about gender, the environment, and popular rhetoric. Emphasizes the application of decolonial theory, critical race theory, and queer theory to gender studies research in the environmental humanities. (Typically offered: Fall Even Years)
GNST 32103. Deflowering: Gender, Sexuality, and Plants in World Culture. 3 Hours.
Discusses the intersection of plants and gender, involving a variety of disciplines, including: literature, art, agriculture, history, anthropology, and botany. Explores connections between gender and plants and considers how our botanical understandings of plant sex/gender affect cultural knowledge of plants worldwide. (Typically offered: Spring Odd Years)
GNST 33003. Gender and Pop Culture. 3 Hours.
Introduces various mediums of popular culture and analyzes the role of gender, race, sexuality, class, and identity in these texts. Explores critical and rhetorical theories related to popular culture. (Typically offered: Fall and Summer)
GNST 34003. Gender, Sexuality, and Animality. 3 Hours.
Explores the long list of language and imagery tying women to animals using examples in marketing, film, art, and comic books. Examining the connections between women, animals, and oppression through an intersectional lens. (Typically offered: Fall Even Years)
GNST 41303. Italian Women from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. 3 Hours.
Examines the various representations of women through diverse genres, by both male and female authors, from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period in Italy. Taught in English. (Typically offered: Spring)
This course is cross-listed with ITAL 41303, MRST 41303.
GNST 42203. Gender and Justice in the U.S.. 3 Hours.
Provide students with a historic and contemporary overview of the laws, policies, and politics surrounding gender, citizenship, and justice in the United States. Explores how law and public policy have affected the lives of marginalized sex and gender groups in the United States as well as the political dynamics surrounding gender and sexuality law. (Typically offered: Spring Even Years)
This course is cross-listed with PLSC 42203.
GNST 43303. Gender, Sexuality, and Archival Research. 3 Hours.
Studies in intersectional feminist, queer, and trans perspectives on archival research. Focuses on employing methodologies in a range of archival contexts, emphasizing the politics of archiving and the implicit gendered, racialized, and class-based biases that permeate archival inquiry. (Typically offered: Fall Odd Years)
GNST 44403. Queer Theor(ies). 3 Hours.
Introduction to the complex history and evolution of Queer Theory into Queer Theor(ies) from Foucault to the Present. (Typically offered: Irregular)
This course is equivalent to ENGL 44403.
GNST 4900V. Independent Study. 1-6 Hour.
An exploration of gender studies topics studied independently with the supervision of a faculty member. Credit arranged with instructor. Prerequisite: GNST 20003 or GNST 200H3 or instructor consent. (Typically offered: Irregular) May be repeated for up to 6 hours of degree credit.
GNST 49803. Special Topics in Gender Studies. 3 Hours.
This course covers gender topics that are not usually offered in-depth in regularly offered courses. (Typically offered: Irregular) May be repeated for up to 6 hours of degree credit.