GENDER, SEXUALITY &amp; WOMEN&#039;S STUDIES (GSWS)

Course Number

GSWS 9013 640

Course Code

GSWS9013640

Course Key

85581

Schedule

Wednesday 5:15pm-8:15pm

Day(s)

Wednesday

Time

5:15pm-8:15pm

Instructor

WATTERSON, KATHRYN

Primary Program

ENGL 9013 640: Writing and Remembering: A Memoir Workshop

Course Description

This memoir workshop will shine light on the human experience as viewed through a personal lens. Your lens. Your curiosity. Memoir is usually written in first person from the authors point of view. We will do meditation and visualization exercises to help you tap into and recreate key events in your life. In class sessions, the focus will be on stories that matter to you. We will discuss how to bring certain experiences alive for the reader through description, dialogue, and action. It is through rough drafts, followed by revisions, that your writing may achieve the connectedness and level of introspection you seek.During the semester, well mine the art and heart of personal narratives by reading a variety of authors who consider the differences between fact, fiction, and truth in life and literature. Well also examine how a memoir can illuminate larger cultural themesfrom racism to misogyny, disabilities to class bias, and economic inequality, as viewed through lived experiences. The more individualized the story, the more universal it becomes.In our sessions, well do gallery view, full-participation discussions, and listening sessions to make the in-class writing exercises, meditations, movement, visualizations, and peer review workshops a vital experience. The workload requires a practice of focused free writing (10-15 minutes daily); weekly creative/personal responses to assigned readings, films and speakers (2-3 pages weekly); and continuing work on two or three short personal essays/stories (5 pages). Well make adjustments in the schedule as needed to keep the workload at a comfortable and flexible pace. If you have any questions, please contact kwatters@sas.upenn.edu.

Crosslist Primary

Crosslistings

GSWS9013640

URBS9013640

Subject Area Vocab

Fashioning Gender

lpscps_user — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 15:30:39 +0000

Fashioning Gender

Term

Spring 2025

lpscps_user Fri, 09/06/2024 - 11:30

Format

Online

Subject Area

Course Number

GSWS 5850 640

Course Code

GSWS5850640

Course Key

85598

Schedule

Day(s)

Monday

Time

7:00pm-9:00pm

Instructor

SADASHIGE, JACQUELINE

Primary Program

Secondary Program

Course Description

In 1901 the average American family spent 14% of their annual income on clothing. By 1929, the average middle-class woman owned a total of nine outfits. Fast forward to the early twenty-first century, where the relative price of clothing has dropped, clothing has become virtually disposable, and individuals post videos of their shopping hauls online. This course will examine how we got here, why fashion matters, and the far-reaching implications of our love affair with clothes. Readings and topics will include foundational theory about fashion; how clothes shape class, gender, and identity; the significance of revolutionary designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo; and the evolution of the clothing industry and its place in the global economy.

Subject Area Vocab

History of Sexuality

lpscps_user — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 15:30:39 +0000

History of Sexuality

Term

Spring 2025

lpscps_user Fri, 09/06/2024 - 11:30

Format

Online

Subject Area

Course Number

GSWS 5290 640

Course Code

GSWS5290640

Course Key

85666

Schedule

Day(s)

Monday

Time

7:00pm-9:00pm

Instructor

Primary Program

Secondary Program

Course Description

In this online course, we will consider the impact of social, economic, and political conditions on social constructions of sexuality, from the classical world of Greece and Rome, to the early modern West, to the streets of Victorian London and 1920s New York. Topics of interest include: the prostitutes of New Orleans' Storyville district; Jack the Ripper and sensational media accounts of crimes of passion; the taverns and bawdy houses of colonial Philadelphia; cases of sexual misconduct in premodern Europe, Latin America; and colonial America; the history of sexual harassment in the American workplace; the history of hermaphrodites and transgendered people; JFK and representations of 20th-century masculinity. We will pay special attention to the ways that race, class, religion, and gender come together to shape power dynamics through the development, change, and continuity in sexual roles, norms, and relationships.

Subject Area Vocab

11-Week Session: May 28 – August 9, 2024

Witchcraft and Gender in the Early Modern World

lpscps_user — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 13:20:40 +0000

Witchcraft and Gender in the Early Modern World

Term

Summer 2024

lpscps_user Thu, 12/21/2023 - 08:20

Session

Format

Online

Subject Area

Course Number

GSWS 5280 940

Course Code

GSWS5280940

Course Key

84218

Schedule

Monday 6:00pm-9:00pm

Day(s)

Monday

Time

6:00pm-9:00pm

Instructor

Primary Program

Course Description

From the 15th century through the 18th century, social tensions erupted in Europe and the Atlantic colonies in the witch craze, a period when intense cultural concern over witchcraft was expressed through religious treatises and sermons, popular literature such as pamphlets and broadsides, legal accusations, trials, and, in some cases, executions. Although the number of people executed during the witch-hunts is a matter of scholarly debate, their importance in understanding early modern beliefs and responses to social tensions is clear. In this class, we will explore historians' understandings of the causes underlying this cultural phenomenon. With special attention to gender, social position, and religious belief, we will join academic debates about the causes of these persecutions. We will also read some primary sources from the medieval through the early modern periods, including trial transcripts, sermons, and pamphlets. Were women the main target of witchcraft accusations and executions, and if so, was misogyny their most important cause? What role did sexual norms and beliefs have in the way that accusations were framed? Were there different patterns of accusations and executions across time and region, and if so, what social and cultural factors might explain them? In what ways were witchcraft accusations an effort to control marginal people in local communities, particularly in regard to gender, socio-economic position, and age? How might religious developments and conflicts have influenced elite and popular ideas about witchcraft? What challenges do historians face in analyzing primary sources about witchcraft and witchcraft trials? Through in class discussions and threaded discussion forums on primary sources, students will learn about the challenges involved in interpreting sources including treatises, trial transcripts, pamphlets, and images.

Subject Area Vocab

Summer Session I: May 28 – July 3, 2024

Gender and Society

lpscps_user — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 13:20:40 +0000

Gender and Society

Term

Summer 2024

lpscps_user Thu, 12/21/2023 - 08:20

Session

Format

Online

Subject Area

Course Number

GSWS 0002 910

Course Code

GSWS0002910

Course Key

83372

Schedule

Tuesday 5:15pm-9:05pm

Thursday 5:15pm-9:05pm

Day(s)

Tuesday

Thursday

Time

5:15pm-9:05pm

Instructor

ROSE, ELIZABETH
HOANG, NICOLE VUONG

Primary Program

Secondary Program

Pre-College Program

Fulfills

COL-SECTOR-Society

COL-FND-Cultural Diversity US

Course Description

This course will introduce students to the ways in which sex, gender, and sexuality mark our bodies, influence our perceptions of self and others, organize families and labor, delimit opportunities for individuals and groups of people, as well as impact the terms of local and transnational economic exchange. We will explore the ways in which sex, gender, and sexuality work with other markers of difference and social status such as race, age, nationality, and ability to further demarcate possibilities, freedoms, choices, and opportunities available to people.

Crosslistings

ENGL0159910

Subject Area Vocab

Gender in Western Travel Literature

lpscps_user — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 21:03:55 +0000

Gender in Western Travel Literature

Term

Spring 2024

lpscps_user Mon, 08/14/2023 - 17:03

Format

Online

Subject Area

Course Number

GSWS 5310 640

Course Code

GSWS5310640

Course Key

82521

Schedule

Day(s)

Monday

Time

7:00pm-9:00pm

Instructor

Primary Program

Secondary Program

Course Description

Descriptions of peoples from foreign lands and faraway places have captured the imaginations of Europeans for centuries. Pilgrims and merchants, explorers and conquistadores, Victorians taking their Grand Tour and 21st-century travelers have preserved their observations, both in written form, in ethnographies and diaries, novels and travel narratives, and in visual form, in maps, illuminated manuscripts, engravings, and photographs. Through these media, these travelers have not simply captured their memories, but have also helped to shape Western representations of the people they encountered, often justifying Western political, economic, cultural, and social dominance as a result, although some travelers have critiqued the West instead. And in all these depictions, gender and sexuality have played central roles in the creation of these identities and relationships. In this online course, we will explore this topic by studying a variety of primary and secondary sources focusing on medieval Ireland and Wales; English, Spanish, and Portuguese texts representing the New World and indigenous Americans; orientalism through the lens of imperial representations of the Middle East, India, and Africa; and 20th- and 21st-century representations of a globalized world, focusing on political, economic and cultural tensions between the West and other regions of the world. Primary texts will include travel diaries and narratives, ethnographies and novels, as well as visual images. We will also examine how scholars from fields including anthropology, art history, cultural studies, history, and literary studies have analyzed these works, with attention to theories on colonialism and post-colonialism, gendered and queer readings, orientalism and othering, and globalization. Finally, we will also look at how some of the people who were described by the Western writers described Westerners themselves. Assignments will include weekly blogs in response to readings, primary source threaded discussions, live discussions every week in our online classroom, leading class discussion for two weeks, writing two response papers, and completing a final essay in several stages.

Subject Area Vocab

Fashioning Gender

lpscps_user — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:13:42 +0000

Fashioning Gender

Term

Fall 2023

lpscps_user Wed, 03/01/2023 - 10:13

Format

Online

Subject Area

Course Number

GSWS 5850 640

Course Code

GSWS5850640

Course Key

81863

Schedule

Day(s)

Monday

Time

7:00pm-9:00pm

Instructor

SADASHIGE, JACQUELINE

Primary Program

Secondary Program

Course Description

Subject Area Vocab

Sex and Society

lpscps_user — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 05:41:45 +0000

Sex and Society

Term

Summer 2023

lpscps_user Wed, 02/22/2023 - 00:41

Session

Special Session 2023

Subject Area

Brilmyer, Sarah P
TRENTIN, FILIPPO

Course Number

GSWS 1300 950

Course Code

GSWS1300950

Course Key

80915

Instructor

Course Note

Special session: 05/29/2023 to 07/01/2023

Fulfills

COL-FND-Cultural Diversity US

COL-SECTOR-Humanities&Soc Sci

Course Description

What makes men and women different? What is the nature of desire? This course introduces students to a long history of speculation about the meaning and nature of gender and sexuality -- a history fundamental to literary representation and the business of making meaning. We will consider theories from Aristophane's speech in Plato's Symposium to recent feminist and queer theory. Authors treated might include: Plato, Shakespeare, J. S. Mill, Mary Wollstonecraft, Sigmund Freud, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Michel Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Catherine MacKinnon, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith Butler, bell hooks, Leo Bersani, Gloria Anzaldua, David Halperin, Cherrie Moraga, Donna Haraway, Gayatri Spivak, Diana Fuss, Rosemary Hennesy, Chandra Tadpole Mohanty, and Susan Stryker. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.

Crosslist Primary

ENGL 1300 950: Sex and Society

Crosslistings

GSWS1300950

Subject Area Vocab

11-Week Session: May 22 – August 4, 2023

History of Sexuality

lpscps_user — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 14:15:08 +0000

History of Sexuality

Term

Summer 2023

lpscps_user Wed, 01/04/2023 - 09:15

Session

Format

Online

Subject Area

Course Number

GSWS 5290 940

Course Code

GSWS5290940

Course Key

81620

Schedule

Day(s)

Monday

Time

7:00pm-9:00pm

Instructor

Primary Program

Secondary Program

Course Description

Subject Area Vocab

Summer Session II: June 29 – August 4, 2023

Gender and Society

lpscps_user — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 14:15:08 +0000

Gender and Society

Term

Summer 2023

lpscps_user Wed, 01/04/2023 - 09:15

Session

Format

Online

Subject Area

Course Number

GSWS 0002 920

Course Code

GSWS0002920

Course Key

80942

Schedule

Tuesday 12:00pm-3:50pm

Thursday 12:00pm-3:50pm

Day(s)

Tuesday

Thursday

Time

12:00pm-3:50pm

Instructor

ROSE, ELIZABETH

Primary Program

Secondary Program

Pre-College Program

Fulfills

COL-SECTOR-Society

COL-FND-Cultural Diversity US

Course Description

This course will introduce students to the ways in which sex, gender, and sexuality mark our bodies, influence our perceptions of self and others, organize families and work like, delimit opportunities for individuals and groups of people, as well as impact the terms of local and transnational economic exchange. We will explore the ways in which sex, gender, and sexuality work with other markers of difference and social status such as race, age, nationality, and ability to further demarcate possibilities, freedoms, choices, and opportunities available to people.

Crosslistings

ENGL0159920

Subject Area Vocab