This course introduces students to key concepts, debates, and analytical tools informing Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. As an interdisciplinary field of study, Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies employs academic perspectives from a range of disciplines and theoretical approaches. It also incorporates lived experience and social location into its object of analysis. Through content will vary according to the expertise and focus of the instructor, this course will develop tools through readings and assignments that critically analyze how gender and sexuality are shaped by different networks of power and social relations and demonstrate how the intersection of race, class, disability, national status, and other categories identity and difference are central to their understanding and deployment. In addition to feminist though, areas of focus might include gender and sexuality in relation to social, cultural, political, creative, economic, or scientific discourse. This class is recommended for those with a general interest in the topic areas as well as those seeking a foundational course for further study.

This course explores fundamental concepts in the interdisciplinary field of Women's Studies and feminist theory, especially as they relate to aspects of identity beyond sex and gender. Students will critically examine concepts of power, privilege, and inequality in conjunction with intersections of gender with race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality. We will read and view texts that allow us to gain familiarity with the roles women occupy in diverse societies, and the social institutions that shape our perceptions of gender, race, and class.