Women’s Studies

Course Overview

The goals of the course are to examine the role of women throughout history, from post-American Civil War to the modern era, and to develop research skills through various research projects. This course will look at American women through the lens of their social and political roles, while analyzing those roles through lenses of intersectionality such as race, socioeconomic status, and religious belief. Students will also analyze the social impacts and progress women have made in modern society while dealing with the challenges of gender roles and stereotypes. As a semester-long elective, the course is meant to be an introductory course, which allows students to lightly cover a broad variety of topics; however, the focus on research and analytical skills will require students to dive deep into a topic of interest as their final project. Furthermore, students will develop effective debate and persuasive skills, which will be exercised in various activities such as weekly questions, discussion prompts, and challenging persuasive essays with topics chosen by the students. These skills will be developed collaboratively as students discuss materials such as videos and articles. The materials will focus on a theme for the week, which allows students to focus; however, many of the discussions will be student-led and will stem from questions and ideas they develop from the materials provided. The elective will be largely directed by student interest, making discussion and projects enjoyable and interesting to the students. In the end, this element of choice will allow students to develop their own understanding about the wide world of Women Studies.