Examines assumptions and debates in contemporary theorizing about gender and women including what constitutes "good" gender and women studies' theorizing, how to recognize gender-based oppression when we see it, how gender, race, sexuality, and other hierarchies of power intersect, as well as the merits of transnational theorizing about gender and women. Explores whether gender and women's studies' theorizing is a form of activism, how to teach theory in gender and women's studies' classrooms, the value of cultivating distinct gender and women studies' methods, and other dimensions of putting gender and women's studies' theorizing into practice.
File: 830_Schalk_Syllabus_Spring-2022.pdf
Provides an overview of the field of gender and women’s studies. Surveys the origin of the field and traces its major transformations. Explores and analyzes historical and contemporary debates that have shaped and continue to shape the field. Interrogates the mission of gender and women’s studies. Examines the processes and products of academic professionalization. Investigates the value of graduate training in gender and women’s studies. (TO BE FIRST TAUGHT IN 2023-2024 AND LATER)
File: GenWS-810-Syllabus_2020_Final.pdf
Introduces gender and women’s studies as an interdisciplinary area of study and a profession. Reviews the profession, both academic and non-academic. Explores issues both broad (e.g., professional development) and narrow (e.g., obtaining research grants) that are of interest to those building professional careers with a Gender and Women’s Studies Ph.D. Provides an orientation to basic features of scholarly life as well as some professional options outside of academia, and allows students to become acquainted with a variety of our faculty. Explores formation of independent perspectives on gender and women’s studies as an interdisciplinary academic field and profession. (TO BE FIRST TAUGHT IN 2023-2024 AND LATER)
File: GenWS-861_Syllabus_2020_Final.pdf
Provides an introduction to theory, as well as hands on experience with pedagogical practices in Gender and Women’s Studies. Offers opportunities to synthesize and deepen understandings of gender-related issues through intensive reading, writing and discussion. Engages with theories, conceptual developments, debates, as well as epistemological and methodological issues, which chart the development of feminist pedagogical thought. Interrogates the different intellectual traditions that have shaped debates and issues within feminist politics and practices. Examines these traditions from an explicitly interdisciplinary perspective, highlighting contributions made by feminist scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds that include: education, anthropology, history, performance studies, arts, literature, health, etc. (TO BE FIRST TAUGHT IN 2023-2024 AND LATER)
File: GenWS-860_Syllabus_2020_Final.pdf
Cultural images by and about Black women; feminine creativity in the arts within their historical, cultural, social, and political contexts.
File: AAS-267-Syllabus-Spring-2022.pdf
Examines both physiological and social processes relating to gender and health across the lifespan among cisgender, transgender, and non-binary individuals. Examples of topics include hormonal processes, reproductive anatomy & physiology, sexuality, sexual pleasure, chronic illness, depression, and sexual violence. A primary course objective is for students to connect information about their bodies and personal health to larger social and political contexts. In particular, considers how health and health disparities are shaped by multiple kind of social inequalities, particularly inequalities based on gender.
File: 103-Honors_Ward_Syllabus-Spring-2022.pdf
Explores various aspects of identity politics and body politics such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, and citizenship status as they relate to and intersect with body size and constructions of fatness. Situates how fatness has been conceptualized over time, the formation of the gendered body ideals, and the proliferation of obesity rhetoric. Investigates how fat individuals experience the social world, in particular related to arenas such as the American health care system, and other societal institutions such as education, social welfare, immigration, and media. Interrogates how the "obesity epidemic" came to be, how it is framed in the United States, and how it intersects with other systems like big pharma, the food industry, beauty industry, globalization, neoliberalism, and consumerism. Deploys a critical approach in understanding fatness and body size as dimensions of difference that inform experiences of privilege and oppression.
File: 523-GenWS-Framing-Fatness-Spring-2022.pdf
Explores the intertwined relationship between gender and politics in contemporary Middle East and North Africa. Situates the region's historical, socio-political, and cultural context that have particularly contributed to shaping the current discourse on gender in the Arab World. Explores - both theoretically and empirically - the role of Arab women in influencing the political processes across the Middle East. Examines real-world examples of Middle Eastern women from different parts of the region who have succeeded to challenge the status quo and push for genuine change.
File: 435_Shalaby_Syllabus-Spring-2022.pdf
Explores gender identity and sexuality among disabled people using historical and theoretical articles to discuss and analyze films, memoirs, and poetry by people with disabilities. Provides a brief introduction to disability studies and intersectionality before delving into academic discussions and artistic representations of the intersections of disability, gender, and sexuality.
File: GenWS-374_Schalk_Fall-2021.pdf
Connected to the Open House Learning Community in Phillips Hall, this course focuses on LBGTQ+ life in Madison, Wisconsin.
File: GenWS-100_Locally-Queer_Schalk_Fall-2021.pdf