Women's and Gender Studies
Director: Michelle Comstock (English)
Graduate Advisor: Margaret Woodhull (Humanities)
Office: 1050 9th Street, #102
Telephone: 303-556-4529
Fax: 303-556-2959
Website: clas.ucdenver.edu/wgst/
Overview
Women’s and Gender Studies (WGST) is an interdisciplinary program that focuses on the centrality of gender and sexuality to understanding our past and present worlds. Students and faculty probe assumptions about men and women and question structures of inequality as they play out in local and global contexts. Through a study of gender and sexuality, we expand our thinking about other relations of power, such as race, class, ethnicity, nationality and physical ability. WGST fosters connections with the local community and promotes advocacy of human rights and social justice.
Graduate Studies
At the graduate level, students may pursue Women’s and Gender Studies as a track in the Master of Social Science degree program. Students learn to think critically about the condition of women and the role of gender in both historical and contemporary experience. Course work focuses on conceptual models for understanding women and gender, such as feminist, queer, post-colonial and race theories as they operate through culture, language, politics, visual representation and history. For more information, contact Margaret Woodhull.
The WGST program also offers a Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies for students pursuing master’s degrees in departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as well as non-degree seeking students.
Click here to learn about the requirements for the Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies.
Associated Faculty
Joanne Addison (English)
Chris Agee (History)
Elizabeth Allen (Psychology)
Laura Argys (Economics)
Pompa Banerjee (English)
Soumia Bardhan (Communication)
Nicky Beer (English)
Michelle Comstock (English)
Candan Duran-Aydintug (Sociology)
Paula Espinoza (Ethnic Studies)
Sarah Fields (Communication)
Sarah Hagelin (English)
Rachel Harding (Ethnic Studies)
Amy Hasinoff (Communication)
Joanna Luloff (English)
Donna Langston (Ethnic Studies)
Marjorie Levine-Clark (History)
K. Mohrman (Ethnic Studies)
Candice Shelby (Philosophy)
Gillian Silverman (English)
Sarah Tyson (Philosophy)
Cate Wiley (English)
Margaret Woodhull (Humanities)
Women's Studies (WGST) Courses
WGST 5010 - Special Topics in Women's and Gender Studies (1-3 Credits)
Examines current topics in the field of Women’s studies and Gender studies. Topics vary from term to term. May be repeated as long as the topic is distinct and different from courses student has already received credit for. Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree majors. Repeatable. Max hours: 9 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5225 - Urban America (3 Credits)
This course will explore how Americans experienced their rapidly growing and changing cities during the past two hundred years. This course will cover a wide range of urban themes, including segregation and gentrification, self-invention and policing, ethnic gangs and race riots, skyscrapers and suburbia, and commercial sex and Hollywood. The course will ultimately chart how a range of Americans - including immigrants, teenagers, laborers, women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color – all fought for their own "right to the city". Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree majors. Cross-listed with HIST 4225, HIST 5225, WGST 5225, GEOG 4625. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5230 - Women in the West (3 Credits)
Focuses on ways in which women, from the mid-19th century through the mid-20th century, of different races, classes, and ethnic background, have interacted and been active participants in the development of the Western states. Cross-listed with WGST 4230 and HIST 4230/5230. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5248 - Gender, Development and Globalization (3 Credits)
Examining the cost and impact of globalization; not only on women and gender but economic equality, human movement and displacement, sustainable development and the environment. Highlighting the complexities of a higher interconnected world and intersectional nature of a globalized world, answering the question: Who Wins? Who Loses? Prereq: Graduate standing. Cross-listed with WGST 4248, PSCI 4248 and PSCI 5245. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5270 - Social Meanings of Reproduction (3 Credits)
Reproduction involves more than biological processes, assuming symbolic, political, and ideological meanings. This course examines contested meanings of reproduction, including how people experience reproduction, controversies over who should reproduce (and under what circumstances), and how public policy mediates these conflicts. Cross-listed with SOCY 4270, SOCY 5270 and WGST 4270. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5303 - Sex and Gender in Modern Britain (3 Credits)
Examines modern British history by focusing on sex and gender as central aspects in people's lives. Considers the ways gender shapes the realms of politics, economics, society and culture in Britain from the 18th century to present. Cross-listed with WGST 4303 and HIST 4303/5303. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5305 - Women of Color Feminisms (3 Credits)
This course is an overview of women of color feminist theorizing (thinking) and praxis (practice) in the U.S. We will explore these feminisms through the writing, art, and organizing efforts of women and trans, femme, and non-binary people of color with a focus on key themes and concepts including identity, difference, oppression, intersectionality, representation, violence, resistance, empowerment, solidarity, and coalition. Texts for the course highlight key issues in the feminist theorizing and praxis of Black, Latina/x, Chicana/x, Asian (American), Pacific Islander, Indigenous, and Arab (American) women and trans, femme, and non-binary people of color, especially the politics of identity and representation; structural oppressions and violences; and practices of survival, resistance, and activism. Not only will we examine how these feminists have critiqued oppression(s) based on race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, and religion, (as well as how these systems of domination intersect), but what kinds of approaches, strategies, and changes these thinkers and activists have organized for and promoted. Cross-listed with WGST 4305, ETST 4305 and ETST 5305. Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors. Max hours: 3 Credits
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
Typically Offered: Spring.
WGST 5306 - Survey of Feminist Thought (3 Credits)
Examines changes and continuities in feminist thought from the 18th century to the present, using historical and literary materials. Explores the ways that women's characteristics, experiences, and capabilities have been understood and challenged. Cross-listed with ENGL 4306, 5306, HIST 4306, 5306, WGST 4306. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5307 - History of Sexuality (3 Credits)
Explores the relationships between gender and norms, sexual practice, and ideas about sexuality in Europe and the United States. Examines how sex and sexuality have changed over time and how those changes relate to social, cultural, political and economic history. Cross-listed with WGST 4307 and HIST 4307/5307. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5308 - Contemporary Feminist Thought (3 Credits)
This course explores contemporary feminist thought in philosophy and literature in the 20th and 21st centuries. Topics include lesbianism, black feminism, Chicana feminism, transgender identity, women and work and others. Cross-listed with ENGL 4308, ENGL 5308, PHIL 4308, PHIL 5308, WGST 4308. Prereq: Graduate standing. Term offered: spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
Typically Offered: Spring.
WGST 5343 - Women & Gender in US History (3 Credits)
This course will explore women and gender as drivers of US history. From politics to popular culture, jobs to sexual empowerment, civil rights to economic restructuring, we will use gender as a lens to re-envision familiar stories about American history. Cross-listed with WGST 3343, HIST 3343, and HIST 5343. Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors.Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5345 - Gender, Science and Medicine: 1600 to the Present (3 Credits)
Examines the ways science and medicine have both shaped and been shaped by ideas about gender. Pays particular attention to the relationship between scientific/medical ideas about the sexes and the social organization of gender. Cross-listed with WGST 4345 and HIST 4345/5345. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5420 - Goddess Traditions (3 Credits)
Explores the many forms which Goddesses have assumed through history, including the Neolithic Great Mother and her heiresses in the ancient Mediterranean cultures, such as: Isis, Ishtar, Demeter, Hecate, Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena and others, and their parallels in India. Goddess traditions have encompassed a full spectrum from virgins to Great Mothers to dark underworld Goddesses of death and destruction. Cross-listed with WGST 4420 and RLST 4420/5420. Prereq: Graduate standing. Term offered: spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
Typically Offered: Spring.
WGST 5494 - Red and Blue America: U.S. History, 1973-Present (3 Credits)
This course explores American history during a period of immense cultural and political polarization. After 1973, the United States experienced the rise of the New Right, changing attitudes towards sexual "permissiveness," and rapid advancements in technology. Both "law-and-order" politics and the rights campaigns led by immigrants, women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ peoples all reshaped democracy. These developments in the United States, meanwhile, influenced and were shaped by the nation's "hot" and "cold" conflicts in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the rest of the globe. Restriction: Restricted to degree-granting graduate programs. Cross-listed with WGST 4494, HIST 4494, and HIST 5494. Term offered: fall. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to degree-granting graduate programs
Typically Offered: Fall.
WGST 5500 - Feminist Philosophy (3 Credits)
Seminar on key debates & figures in historical & contemporary feminist philosophy. Topics may include: rights, embodiment, gender, sexuality, race, reason, & violence. Figures may include: Wollstonecraft, Stanton, Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and bell hooks. Cross-listed with WGST 4500, PHIL 4500 & 5500. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5510 - Whores and Saints: Medieval Women (3 Credits)
Studies how women are presented in texts, as well as works by women. Investigates the roles open to women and societal attitudes toward women, who were considered seductresses, saints, scholars and warriors in the middle ages. Prereq: Nine hours of literature courses or instructor permission. Cross-listed with WGST 4510, ENGL 4510/5510 and RLST 4730/5730. Prereq: Graduate standing. Term offered: spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
Typically Offered: Spring.
WGST 5511 - French Women Writers (3 Credits)
Designed to explore writings by French and Francophone women from the Middle Ages to the present. Addresses the question of what it means to be a woman and want to write. The selections include a wide variety of genres: autobiographical writings, stories, poems, manifestos, letters, political and historical documents. Note: This course assumes that students have passed FREN 3112 or 3122 or an equivalent course, plus one other 3000 level course in French. Prereq: Graduate standing. Cross-listed with WGST 4511 and FREN 4510/5510. Term offered: fall, spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
WGST 5540 - Race, Class and Gender in Spanish Golden Age Literature (3 Credits)
Explores works of various genres in relation to their social and political contexts in 16th and 17th century Spain, emphasizing the cultural attitudes toward race, class, and gender that inform them. Prereq: graduate standing. Cross-listed with WGST 4540 and SPAN 4340/5340. Term offered: fall, spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5555 - International Women's Resistance (3 Credits)
Examines local and international struggles of women to build peace and justice by resisting systems of inequality such as colonialism, racism, patriarchy, globalization, and religious intolerance. Cross-listed with WGST 4555, ETST 4555 and PSCI 4555/5555. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5660 - Queer Media Studies (3 Credits)
Queer Media Studies, a discussion-based seminar, investigates the history of a variety of LGBTQ+ media — including news, film, television, comics, games, music, and the Internet. Students engage in a variety of media projects to explore LGBTQ+ histories, queer aspects of media production, reception, and media messages. Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree majors (NDGR-NHL and NDGR-NLA). Cross-listed with COMM 4660, COMM 5660, WGST 4660. Term offered: fall, spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
WGST 5710 - Women and Religion (3 Credits)
A sociological exploration of the contemporary roles of women in religion. Course examines American and world religious groups with an eye to women's involvement. Considers how women have changed these traditions as they take on leadership roles and discusses the tensions that arise within these traditions as a result of their expanded participation. Cross-listed with HUMN 5710, SSCI 4710/5710, WGST 4710, RLST 4710/5710. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5720 - Sex, Gender, and Visual Representation (3 Credits)
Studies sexuality, gender and identity representation from classical antiquity through the present in the visual arts. Uses the literature of visuality, feminism, race and queer theory. Explores representations of femininity, masculinity and androgyny and their reinforcement and challenge to gender-identity norms. Prereq: Graduate standing. Term offered: fall, spring. Cross-listed with HUMN 5720, HUMN 4720, IDST 5720, IDST 4720, WGST 4720Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
WGST 5770 - Viewing Empire: The Art of Imperial and Colonial Propaganda (3 Credits)
Western empires disseminate political, social, economic & cultural practices through complex interplay of cultural practices. Visual production is a complex site for meaning making within imperialism. Examines how visual discourses operated to create meaning for audiences, through focus on postcolonial critique. Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree majors. Cross-listed with HUMN 4770, HUMN 5770, IDST 5770, IDST 4770, SSCI 4770, SSCI 5770, WGST 4770, SJUS 4770, SJUS 5770. Term offered: fall, spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
WGST 5780 - Violence in Relationships (3 Credits)
Course focuses on the study of violence among individuals involved in intimate relationships; factors in society such as norms, laws and institutions that are related to creating violence among intimates; and social policies, prevention, intervention and treatment programs. Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree majors. Cross-listed with SOCY 4780, SOCY 5780 and WGST 4780. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5840 - Independent Study (1-3 Credits)
Note: Students must submit a special processing form completely filled out and signed by the student and faculty member, describing the course expectations, assignments and outcomes, to the CLAS Graduate Academic Services Coordinator for approval. Prereq: permission of instructor. Repeatable. Max hours: 12 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 12.
WGST 5880 - Directed Research (1-6 Credits)
Students will engage in original research projects supervised and mentored by faculty. Students must work with faculty prior to registration to develop a proposal for their project and receive permission to take this course. Note: Students must submit a special processing form completely filled out and signed by the student and faculty member, describing the course expectations, assignments and outcomes, to the CLAS Graduate Academic Services Coordinator for approval. Repeatable. Max hours: 6 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 6.
WGST 5900 - Smart Girl Coaching Training and Practicum (3 Credits)
Course provides training (lecture and role-playing) in coaching and mentoring which will be applied to support near-peer guides in delivering the Smart Girl curriculum in school settings. Following the completion of the training, students work as coaches for teams of near-peer mentors and groups of teenage girls in the Denver Community, and apply the skills learned in their training. Prereq: Graduate standing. Repeatable. Max Hours: 6 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 6.
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 5933 - Philosophy of Eros (3 Credits)
What does it mean to understand philosophy as an erotic activity? This question will be examined, first by studying Plato's dialogues-such as Lysis, Symposium and Republic-and then by reading texts from Sigmund Freud, Michael Foucault and others. Cross-listed with PHIL 4933/5933, WGST 4933, SSCI 5933 and HUMN 5933. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors
WGST 6010 - Methods and Theories of Feminism and Gender Studies (3 Credits)
Provides graduate-level interdisciplinary study in historiography, methodologies and theories of women's, gender and sexuality studies and considers how culture is constructed around these categories. Cross-listed with SSCI 6010 and HUMN 6010. Prereq: Graduate standing. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Restriction: Restricted to Graduate and Graduate Non-Degree Majors