Women's Studies Certificate Program
The Graduate Center
The City University of New York
Course Descriptions
Spring 2004
Women's Studies Certificate Program
Coordinator: Patricia T. Clough, Room 5103 (817-8895, 817-8905)
The Certificate in Women's Studies is available to students matriculated in the Ph.D. programs at The Graduate Center.
Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary approach to research and scholarship that draws on various disciplines, while
challenging disciplinary boundaries. The general aim of the program is to offer critical reflection on the experiences of
both women and men in terms of differences of gender, sexuality , race, class, ethnicity and nation. Students are prepared
to teach courses and to do research in Women's Studies and related critical approaches to the disciplines, such as those
developed in Queer Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and Cultural Studies. Besides focused course work and guidance in
research, Women's Studies offers participation in a wide range of graduate students and faculty activities, such as lecture
series and forums. Students are also invited to participate in the research programs and seminars at the Center for the
Study of Women and Society at the Graduate Center.
WSCP 81600 -Workshop in Women Studies: Critical Methodologies/ Research
GC T 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Profs. Roopali Mukherjee & Anthony O'Brien [62659]
Critiques of identity politics have for some time now addressed how the "we" of feminism has tended to fix, exclude, and
normalize the bounds of feminist theory and praxis. Eschewing these well-worn recriminations of harms and injuries, this
workshop engages the "becoming-feminist" of critical approaches to culture and society in order to consider the abiding
potential of feminist approaches.
Readings for the semester are divided into several rough themes, each addressing a site of feminist scholarly intervention.
For instance, we examine Judith Butler's Antigone's Claim as it works through the Antigone commentaries of her main
interlocutors, Hegel, Lacan, and Irigaray. We consider filmmaker Haile Gerima's Bush Mama through Michel Foucault's
theory of bio-power, and The Stone Virgins, a new Zimbabwean novel by Yvonne Vera through Achille Mbembe's, On
the Postcolony. Malek Alloula's Colonial Harem and Mahasweta Devi's Imaginary Maps offer methodological insights into
the relations between gender and the national. We engage Third World feminist interventions into transnational capital
through the work of documentary filmmaker, Anand Patwardhan's A Narmada Diary, and end by tracing genealogies of
post-feminism through the recent Hollywood blockbuster, Charlie's Angels. Over the semester, students will work up a
piece of feminist writing through two drafts into publishable form, whether as part of a dissertation, an article, or a
conference paper. Each student will also be responsible for leading discussion during one class meeting (to be assigned)
over the semester.
WSCP 80802 - Contemporary Feminist Thought
GC W 6:30-8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Profs. Ellen Goldner & Catherine Lavender[62660] [Cross listed with
MALS 72200]
Contemporary Feminist Thought provides an introduction to themes, issues and conflicts in contemporary feminist theory.
The course pays particular attention to the shift from the unifying themes in earlier feminist theorizing to the destabilizing
influences of recent social theory upon feminism. Readings and discussion address the conflicts within feminism in
debates about the category of woman, the politics of difference, the basis of feminist knowledge, the conception of power,
the body, performances of gender, the stability of sexed and sexual identity and feminist engagements with mainstream
politics. The course takes an interdisciplinary and transnational approach to feminist thought and brings the theories to
bear upon literature, film, and scenes of everyday life.
WSCP 81000 - Domestic Violence
John Jay T 6:30-8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Natalie Sokoloff [62661] [Cross listed with CRJ 80200]
This new course on domestic violence will take a critical interdisciplinary (although heavily sociological) look at the
contested terrain of domestic violence, primarily in the U.S. While we will focus on violence against women in the home,
we will explore its relationship to violence against women in the larger society, thereby contextualizing domestic violence
in terms of an "intersectional" analysis. This means we will look at how race, class, gender, sexual orientation, immigrant
status and other systems of social inequality structure violence against women in the home and in the larger society. We
will look at the history, theories, and data available to us on domestic violence; the creation of domestic violence as a
social problem and the criminalization of domestic violence in the U.S.; the criminal justice system's experience with
policing and punishing domestic violence and its consequences for battered women and their families. Additionally, we
will look at domestic violence from the perspective of same sex partners; welfare, immigration, and social class and their
impact on domestic violence; domestic violence from the lived experiences of marginalized racial and ethnic communities;
and police domestic violence as well.
We will look at both battered women who are killed by their partners and battered women who are incarcerated for killing
their abusers. In addition to the current approaches to dealing with domestic violence, we will focus on alternative
approaches suggested by some of the most current critical thinkers and activists working with battered women. Several
guest speakers have already agreed to come and talk with the class about their areas of specialization, for example
domestic violence in the African American community, the South Asian community, and police domestic violence.
A few of the books that we will read include: Jody Raphael, Saving Bernice: Battered Women, Welfare, and Poverty
(Northeastern University); Margaret Abraham, Speaking the Unspeakable: Marital Violence among South Asian
Immigrants in the United States (Rutgers University); Natalie J. Sokoloff with Christina Pratt (Eds.), Domestic Violence:
A Reader on the Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender (Routledge, forthcoming), and possibly Elizabeth Schneider,
Battered Women & Feminist Lawmaking (Yale University). Other books are being considered at this time in addition to
book chapters and journal articles as well.
WSCP 81000 - Ethnography & Criminal Justice
John Jay W 6:30-8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 Credits, Prof. David Brotherton [62662] [Cross listed with CRJ 73370]
This course will introduce students to the fundamental ideas and principles of ethnography, placing this research practice
specifically in relationship to the study of crime and the social construction of deviance. In doing so, we will be evaluating
and discussing the historical emergence of the ethnographic imagination and come to an understanding of how much the
field has changed, how much it has contributed to criminological discourse and how much the conventional research
establishment are still committed to keeping it in the margins.
The course will be divided into five parts. Part one (two weeks) will comprise a short introduction to the difference
between naturalistic and/or interpretive methods of inquiry and those of positivism. Part two (three weeks) will be
a survey of the early works of ethnographically based criminology which aims to show students a humanistic
approach to seeing, explaining and representing crime, criminals, social control and social controllers. Part three
(three weeks) will be an introduction to the different methodological interpretations of the ethnographic act and the
attendant ethical, practical and political-philosophical issues associated with this kind of research. Part four (three
weeks) will bring us up to date with contemporary ethnography through analyzing current works in the field. Part
five (three weeks) will be reserved for students to present their work at whatever stage it has reached and discuss
hands-on problems of doing ethnographic praxis. These presentat ions should be taken seriously and all members of
the class are expected to participate with their own insights and constructive criticisms.
WSCP 81000 - Psychology of Criminal Behavior
John Jay M 4:15-6:15 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Joshua Freilich [62663] [Cross listed with CRJ 71400]
This course focuses upon psychological theories of delinquent, criminal and deviant behavior. A wide variety of
perspectives will be discussed such as trait, personality, learning, rational choice, existentialist, strain, control, and
phenomenological approaches. Students will be required to read a series of books and articles (for e.g., by Brown,
Clarke, Dostoevsky, Eysenck, Freud, Katz, Samenow, Shoham, Toch, and Wilson and Herrnstein) as well as
present and lead the discussion on one spedific topic. Students will also be required to write a 20-25 page research paper where they review the substance of one psychological
perspective, critique the work by pointing out its strengths and weaknesses, and identify gaps in the theoretical and
or empirical literatures. The aim of the course is to survey the major psychological theories, critique them, outline current debates, and delineate key concepts. The class format will be
discussion oriented.
WSCP 81000 -Restoration and 18th Century Women Writers
GC M 2:00-4:00 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Carrie Hintz [62664] [Cross listed with Eng. 83200]
Our class will consider plays, life writing, novels, and poetry written by women between 1660 and 1832. We will
read works by writers such as Aphra Behn, Mary Pix, Katherine Philips, Delarivier Manley, Eliza Haywood,
Charlotte Lennox, Sarah Scott, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Sarah Fielding, Mary Leapor, Frances Burney, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Hays, Jane West and Jane Austen.
The course will engage with changing notions of female authorship throughout the long eighteenth century,
challenging our perception of the division between public and private in the period. Several literary and cultural
forms we now associate with privacy (such as the letter) shaped the public writing of both men and women,
especially the novel. While some women writers who sought and achieved print publication experienced
ambivalence about their visibility as public authors, others saw their writing as an extension of their public
personae as spies, actors, activists and travelers. After considering the permeable boundaries between women's
public and private writing, we will examine the connection between female authorship and sexuality, from the
explicit desire and gender play of Restoration writers like Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley to the less sexually
explicit courtship novels of Burney and Austen. We will devote the final three weeks of the course to Jane Austen,
seeing her novels as part of a continuity of women writers who served as her models and foils. Our discussion will
also touch on women's attitudes to social class and poverty, violence against women, women's use of satire and
humor, and utopianism. For a copy of the syllabus email carriehintz@hotmail.com
WSCP 81000 -The History of Black Sexuality
GC R 2:00-4:00 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Robert Reid-Pharr [62665] [Cross listed with Eng.78100]
Two questions animate this course. Is there a history of black sexuality that is distinct from the now well defined
field known simply as The History of Sexuality? Further, how does sexuality operate in the production and
reproduction of black identity? Or to state the matter from a different vantage point, is it possible to suggest that
"race" is lived precisely as sexuality? In answering these questions, students will be asked to wade through large
amounts of primary and secondary materials that address both matters of history as well as literary and cultural
theory. With particular emphasis on the black community in the United States, the readings will include work from
Anne McClintock, Martha Hodes, Siobhan Somerville, Paul Hoch, James Baldwin, Calvin Hernton, Eldridge
Cleaver, Charles Johnson, Berverly Guy-Sheftall, Hortense Spillers, Anne du Cille, Evelyn Hammonds, Cornel
West, Philip Brian Harper, Charles Nero, Marlon Ross, Jose Munoz, Robert Reid-Pharr, Essex Hemphill, Huey
Newton and Samuel Delany.
WSCP 81000 - Creole Poetics in Caribbean Fiction and Poetry
GC R 4:15 -6:15 pm., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Barbara Webb[62666] [Cross listed with Eng. 85500]
Although the primary focus of the course will be the fiction and poetry of the English-speaking Caribbean, we will
also read texts by writers from other areas of the region as well as the diasporic communities of North America,
such as Patrick Chamoiseau and Edwidge Danticat. Contemporary writing of the Caribbean has no fixed national or
geographic boundaries. The writers themselves often reside elsewhere but their fiction and poetry continually
invoke Caribbean history and culture. The process of creolization, that difficult transformation of indigenous,
African, Asian and European cultures in the Americas is the cultural model that informs the poetics of the texts we
will be reading. Beginning with the origins of Caribbean modernism in the 1920s and 1930s, we with discuss
Claude Mc Kay's -Banana Bottom (1933) as an early exploration of the problematics of colonialism, migration and
cultural self-definition that foreshadows many of the literary concerns in the post-1960s period of decolonization. It
is during this later period that Caribbean writers increasingly turn toward the region itself in search of distinctive
forms of creative expression. We will discuss their ongoing investigation of the history of the region and the
relationship between orality and writing in their experiments vernacular forms--from folktales and myths to
popular music and carnival. Primary texts: Claude Mc Kay, Banana Bottom; Kamau Brathwaite, The Arrivants;
Lorna Goodison, Selected Poems; Derek Walcott, Omeros; Earl Lovelace, Brief Conversion and Other stories;
Erna Brodber, Myal; Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven; Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco; Edwidge Danticat,
Krik? Krak! We will also read selected cultural criticism and theoretical writings by Brathwaite, Glissant, Harris
and Brodber. Requirements: An oral presentation and a term paper (15-20 pages). The course will be conducted as
a seminar with class discussions of assigned readings and oral presentations each week.
WSCP 81000 - How To Do Things With Words and Other Materials
GC T 6:30-8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Eve Sedgwick [62667] [Cross listed with Eng. 87400]
Permission of instructor required: email beishung@aol.com
"How to Do Things with Words and Other Materials" is an experimental seminar/studio workshop in which
participants will think about and practice a variety of ways of combining written text with other visual media.
Roughly speaking, the "artist's book" will be our subject, but we will also consider comics and graphic novels, mail
art, graffiti, broadsides, playing cards, and other genres that make unconventional use of the materiality of both the
written word and its support. In parallel with historical and theoretical discussions, outside speakers, and visits to
local collections, participants will work on creating a portfolio of works in various formats and materials, each
exploring different aspects of the complex relations among language, materiality, and
visuality.
The required text is Keith Smith's Structure of the Visible Book.ome notes: (1) This is not a class on fine printing or
bookbinding. (2) While free to use digital techniques, we will not broach the area of electronic media. (3)
Participants must be interested in doing art as well as looking at and thinking about it, but need not be proficient in
drawing or printmaking. (4) Many materials, including use of a library of over 1200 rubber stamps, will be
provided. Students are invited to supplement these materials in whatever ways they wish. (5) As a studio course,
"How to Do Things" will be (regretfully) limited to 10 registered participants, with no auditors allowed.
Registration is allowed only with written permission of the professor; please email beishung@aol.com to find out
how to apply for admission to the class. This course is not open to non-matriculated students.
WSCP 81000 - The Literature of Early Modern Europe II: 1600-1800
GC T 6:30-8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Helena Rosenblatt[62668] [Cross listed with
Hist. 80500]
Introduction to major topics and scholarly debates in early modern European history. Topics include the English
Revolution; John Locke and the methodologies of intellectual history; absolutisms and the state; the history of
science; 17th and 18th century economy and society; war, violence and politics; women, sex and the family; the
Enlightenment as an intellectual and cultural movement; the origins and nature of the French Revolution. This is an
intensive reading course. Students will generally read one monograph in common and one personality-chosen
monograph each week, and will write ten brief abstracts and a take-home exam.
WSCP 81000 - History of Sexuality in Modern Europe and America
GC R 4:15-6:15 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Bonnie Anderson [62669] [Cross listed with
Hist. 72100]
Contrary to popular belief, human sexual behavior and identity has been shaped by historical and cultural factors;
this premise is the basis of the 25-year-old field of the history of sexuality. We will explore key concepts and
changes in Modern Europe and the United States, including the 18th-century creation of the categories
"heterosexual" and "homosexual," the 19th-century growth of separate spheres ideology, early 20th-century
developments in contraception, sexology and psychoanalysis; attempts to regulate sexuality; and the "sexual
revolution" of the late 20th century.
WSCP 81000 - Gender and Globalization
GC R 2:00-4:00 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Hester Eisenstein [62823] [Cross listed with IDS. 84200 &
SOC. 80900 ]
In this course we will examine the relationship between the phenomenon now widely termed "globalization," and
the changes in gender relations that have taken place since the rise of the second wave of the women's movement in
the 1970s.
Since the end of the "long boom" (starting after World War II and lasting through the mid-1970s), academic and
mainstream feminism have enjoyed enormous success, during a period of economic, social, and political
restructuring that has created an intensified polarization between rich and poor, and an ever-growing mass of
desperately impoverished people around the globe. This course will examine this paradox.
We will seek to define globalization, starting from the premise that this is a stage in the development of the
international capitalist system, under the economic and military domination of the world's only remaining
superpower. More specifically, we will look at the "Washington consensus," under which developing countries have
been forced to open their borders to the free flow of capital from the rich countries. Among other changes,
"globalization" involves the intensive use of female labor, from maquiladoras to electronics factories to textile
factories. It has also produced an acceleration of "informal" work for women. While educated women can now
walk through many doors previously closed to them, in the worlds of business, sports, and politics, the majority of
women in the world are increasingly impoverished, overworked and exploited, and subject to a wide variety of
forms of violence, sexual, military, and economic. The majority of the world's refugees are now women and
children.
We will address these issues by posing a number of relevant questions. Where does the ideology of globalization
come from? How has globalization affected the conditions of women and children in the developed and the
developing world? How has contemporary feminism been shaped by the workforce participation of women? What
is the role of class in the women's movement, domestically and internationally? Why are issues of gender,
sexuality, and race so central to the culture wars being waged at home and abroad by religious fundamentalist
leaders? How does the association of "liberated women" with modernity affect the process of globalization? In the
revived social movement that has placed the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the
World Bank and other international financial institutions at the center of an intensified campaign for social justice,
what is the place for organized women's activism?
Readings in the course are selected from theoretical writings as well as case studies, and students are encouraged to
develop their own research and activist agendas.
WSCP 81000 - History/Theory/ Criticism of Hip-Hop
GC R 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Room 3389, 3 credits, Prof. Ellie Hisama [62670] [Cross listed with Mus. 86900
& ASCP 81500]
This seminar will explore hip-hop culture, including MCing, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti, from its beginnings
to the present by using historical, analytical, and critical perspectives. We will examine hip- hop's complex
relationships to race, gender, sexuality, class, and nation as manifested in recordings, performances, music videos,
films, fashion, and popular culture. Readings by Juan Flores, Robin D. G. Kelley, Sunaina Marr Maira, Cheryl
Keyes, Tricia Rose, and others. Enrollment limited to 15 students.
Non-music students contact Instructor about the seminar (tel. 718-951-5655 or ehisama@brooklyn.cuny.edu).
WSCP 81000 - Social Movements in America
GC W 4:15-6:15 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Frances Fox Piven[62671] [Cross listed with Pol. Sci.
82602, ASCP 82000 & SOC 84600]
This course has two main parts. We will begin with an examination of the major theories which purport to explain
the origins of movements, the forms they take, and their consequences. We will give particular attention to the
understandings of power implicit or explicit in different perspectives on movements and their impact. I will use this
occasion to discuss what I think is a distinctive perspective on power and movements which I am developing in
connection with my own work.
The second part of the course is empirical. We will look at a series of twentieth century American protest movements
which, in complex ways, altered the patterns of American politics, and may have also changed American political
institutions. In particular, we will focus on labor protests, black protests, some of the "new social movements"
(including the movements that focus on sexual behaviors and gender identities), and the new anti-corporate protests
spreading in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The requirements for this course include regular participation in discussion, which means timely completion of
reading assignments. Your grade will be based on your participation in class, and a take-home examination or a
research paper, designed in consultation with me.
WSCP 81000 - Citizen Participation and Community Organizations
GC T 6:30 -8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Marilyn Gittell[62672] [Cross listed with
Pol. Sci. 83508]
An in-depth analysis of democratic theory and its relevance to the creation of responsive public policies, especially as
regards excluded populations. Issues of race and gender will be of primary concern. The single most important
question to be addressed by the seminar is how policies which undermine the democratic process and marginalize
large segments of the population can be changed. Emphasis will be on the role of democratic localism, citizen
participation and community organization and their effect on the building of social capital and civil society. How
these concepts and practices contribute to policies which work towards inclusion and social change will be discussed.
Although a major portion of the reading will be on the U.S. political experience the course will also include
comparative readings on other political systems. The syllabus will be available on the web.
A research paper will be required.
WSCP 81000 - Interpersonal Relationships and Health
GC M 2:00-4:00 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Tracey Revenson [62673] [Cross listed with Psych. 80103]
The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to current theory and research that deal with the association between
interpersonal relationships and health, emphasizing mental as well as physical health outcomes. The course examines
the historical origins, theory, and methodological issues associated with the study of social relationships and health.
We devote considerable attention to social support theory by examining how social support influences adaptation to
life stress, and how context moderates this relationship. Different theoretical models and perspectives will be
reviewed and compared, including coping, cognitive processing, and social control models. We also will review
research and theory on the negative effects of social isolation, interpersonal strains, enmeshment, and miscarried
helping. The class will end with a review of studies that have attempted to translate research and theory on social
relations to health interventions.
WSCP 81000 - Psychology, Gender and Law
GC T 11:45- 1:15 p.m, Room TBA, 3 credits, Profs. Kay Deaux and Maureen O'Connor [62674 ] [Cross listed
with Psych. 80103 & CRJ 80300]
In this course we will analyze the intersection of psychology, gender and the law from a number of vantage points.
We will consider how psychological theory and research influence (or fail to influence) the formulation of law,
including its inclusion in expert testimony and amicus briefs. We will examine the impact of the law on gendered
practices, such as those affecting education, family structure, and relevant topics in civil and criminal law, such as
gender discrimination, sexual harassment, affirmative action, pregnancy and parental leave, pension and social
security policies, family and child custody, divorce law, domestic violence, and single-sex institutions.
WSCP 81000 - Black Achievement Motivation, Black Identity and Black Education: Historical and Contemporary
Issues
GC M 6:30- 8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Bill Cross [62675] [Cross listed with Psych.80103 & MALS
78100]
This course will contest a number of myths surrounding the discourse on black achievement motivation, at both the
collective [black "community] and individual [divergent personal styles" of achievement motivation] levels. Our
analysis will trace the evolution of collective & individual black achievement attitudes, for the period covering
slavery [the legacy of slavery on achievement motivation] to modern times [debates on black oppositional identity &
acting white].
WSCP 81000 - Sketching Lives in Health and Illness, Oppression and Freedom
GC T 2:00- 4:00 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Suzanne Ouellette [62676] [Cross listed with Psych.80103]
People write their own lives and those of others against and within the background of all sorts of life circumstances.
In this class, we will focus on lives written in specific settings, i.e., those defined by health and illness phenomena and
those marked by the social injustices associated with racism and heterosexism. We will read autobiographies and
memoirs and biographies and other forms of life studies. Through discussion of these texts, we will develop
conceptual and methodological skills to be applied in our own attempts at life writing. The metaphor of "sketches"
(as opposed to full fledged portraits) will be explored for what it can do to advance our work and move psychology
beyond the ambivalence and reluctance it has too often displayed with regard to the study of lives. The course is
intended for students seeking to make life studies a central part of their work as well as those for whom the
biographical is only to supplement other approaches. The course is open to students from all disciplines concerned
with life study. Given that biographical work is best done across disciplinary lines, the course will seek to take
advantage of what each participant brings from her or his disciplinary "home" and engage life study work at the
intersections of literature, social science, and the arts. Class meetings will take a variety of forms. Some will involve
discussion of published life studies and formal statements on why and how one does life study work. Other sessions
will involve actual practice of selected techniques for the observation and analysis of evidence, and the writing of life
studies.
WSCP 81000 - The Health of Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals
GC W 4:15 - 6:15 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Margie Rosario [62677] [Cross listed with Psych.80103]
Gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) individuals are a neglected segment of the population whose health has only
recently been investigated. The health of the GLB community requires attention because of recent reports of mental
and physical health problems. This course will examine the mental and physical health of GLB individuals. It will
aim to understand potential determinants of their poor as well as good health. The interplay between mental and
physical health among GLB individuals also will be a focus. Sex, gender, age, socioeconomic status, ethnic/racial
background, and other sociodemographic characteristics will be examined with respect to the social or biological
privilege they may confer on GLB individuals. The role of time will be considered both developmentally (i.e., age)
and historically (i.e., cohorts). This course should be of interest to anyone concerned with the health of GLB
individuals.
WSCP 81000 - Tracing Change in Place and Cyberspace
GC W 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Joan Greenbaum [62678] [Cross listed with Psych. 80103]
This course takes as its premise that both physical and cyber places are built environments that are changed after their
initial design through use and adaptation. Traditional design courses emphasize initial design as a fixed product--the
vision of the creator whether she is an architect or an interface designer. The perspective in this course is to examine
change; how buildings, places, websites, change over time through the actions of people. In this course you don't
have to be a designer to study design. We will do projects involving environmental autobiographies, narratives, text,
film, photos and actual site visits.
Students from many disciplines will find that through studying change we can better understand how places gain
meaning; how social change links (or does not) with environmental change. Tracing changes will also help us re-imagine alternative and ongoing design--design as a process of participation by many people. This course would be
of interest to students in a variety of interdisciplinary subjects including architecture, sociology, psychology, history,
anthropology, planning, English, new media and internet design.
WSCP 81000 - Social Construction of Illness
GC T 4:15-6:15 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Barbara Katz Rothman [62679] [Cross listed with Soc. 83100]
Illness writes the body: our sense of self, of health, of our physical being, takes meaning from the contrast with
illness. And the social world writes illness: what it is to be ill; what categories of illness are acknowledged; how
illness is defined, treated, managed, and determined. The study of illness places us at the intersection of agency and
social control; body and society; the "natural" and the "technological"; the self and the social world.
This course is an introduction to some of the basic concepts of Medical Sociology, beginning with the theoretical
perspective that grew out of Symbolic Inteactionism and labelling theory to offer a sociological understanding of
illness. The first topics to be explored will be birth and death, then AIDS, a variety of 'mental disorders,' as we more
generally consider social epidemiology, the social causation of disease, or disease as written in race, sex, and class;
illness as performance and as representation; and medicalization, placing more and more areas into the medical frame.
Course requirements: Discussion of weekly readings for the first six or seven sessions, then student presentatios of
work-in-progress; final paper on "The Social Construction of X," topics to be chosen in consultation with members of
the seminar.
WSCP 81000 - Sociology of Human Reproduction
GC W 6:30-8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Esther Wilder[62680] [Cross listed with Soc. 77800]
The Sociology of Human Reproduction is an advanced seminar on the sociological study of human fertility. The
course has an empirical focus on both industrialized and developing countries. Topics covered include: theoretical
explanations for fertility change, the persistence of high fertility in developing countries, the contribution of family
planning programs and economic development to fertility change, the role of the state and public policy as they relate
to reproductive behavior, and ethical issues related to various reproductive technologies. Fertility behavior will be
examined within the context of changing gender roles and social norms. We will conclude the course by examining
future prospects for fertility change and the importance of social science for understanding reproductive behavior.
WSCP 81000 -Trauma, Time and Social Theory
GC T 6:30 -8:30 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Patricia Clough[62681] [Cross listed with Soc. 80000]
This course will address both the personal experience and the social phenomena of trauma. Our discussion of trauma
will focus on the relationship of time, memory and violence in the contexts of world terrorism, war, racism and
various bodily abuses. We will engage the shifts in social theory that are registering changes in the ontology of time,
the technologies of archiving, the speeds of economic circulation, and the global reconfigurations of state power.
There will be readings from the field of psychoanalysis and social theorists who have addressed the impact of late
twentieth-century violences on memory, time, technology, and the body. We will also draw on visual media and
literary texts
WSCP 81000 - Social Welfare Policy and Planning II
Hunter T 2:00-4:00 p.m., Room TBA , 3 credits, Prof. Mimi Abramovitz [62682] [Cross listed with SSW 71100]
Permission of the Instructor is required.
The course applies historical, ideological and theoretical models (including feminism) to the study of social problems
and social welfare policies. In a seminar fashion, students critique various definitions of social problems; examine the
impact of race, class, gender and heterosexist power relationships on the definitional process; and explore the
implications of social problem definition for social welfare policy analysis and application. Using the intellectual
frameworks developed in class students study and analyze a social problem of their choosing in class presentations
and in a final paper.
WSCP 81000 - Women and Social Welfare Policy
Hunter T 9:00-11:00 a.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Mimi Abramovitz [62683 ] [Cross listed with SSW 85400]
Permission of the Instructor is required.
This course introduces students to US. social welfare policy from the perspective of women. First we look at
contemporary attitudes towards women's rights, definitions of women's oppression as articulated by different feminist
perspectives and the role and function of the welfare state in wider society. Drawing on this foundation we explore
how the ideology of gender shapes the design of social welfare policy and delivery of social services focusing on
several contemporary social policy issues (such as welfare reform). (Students explore other issues in the written
assignment) Finally, the course examines role of women in the development of the welfare state, as well as low-income women's social welfare activism. The course pays special attention to diversity issues particularly the impact
of social welfare policies and programs on women of different races, classes, and sexual orientations.
WSCP 81000 - Gay and Lesbian Experimental Film: From Thomas Edison to Todd Haynes
GC T 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room C 419, 3 credits, Professor Sarah Schulman [62684] [Cross listed with Theatre
81500]
Gay and lesbian filmic images and perspectives are as old as cinema itself. This class will review the history of gay
and lesbian experimental cinema from silents to modern day. We will also explore heterosexual icons of experimental
film, like Reifenstahl and Deren, and their profound influence on subsequent lesbian and gay cinema. The class will
focus on the differences between formal invention and conventional narrative
structure, and how the significance of this dynamic in understanding lesbian and gay expression and representation.
Weekly screenings and discussion will include works by Edison, Weber and Watson, Williard Maas, Nazimova,
Deren, Reifenstahl, Anger, Barbara Rubin, Jack Smith, Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, Shirley Clarke, Andy
Warhol, Curt McDowell, Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Jim Hubbard, Jack Waters and Peter Cramer, and Todd
Haynes. Guest lectures on film history and technique.
WSCP 81000 - Contemporary Latin American Theatre
GC T 4:15-6:15 p.m., Room TBA, 3 credits, Professor Gloria Waldman [62781] [Cross listed with Theatre
85300]
Widely considered the most vital creative art form in Latin America today, both commercial and popular theatre has
been a significant tool for examining contemporary reality. This seminar will examine major trents and directions in
the contemporary Latin American theatre focusing on the following issues: critical attitudes towards the Latin
American theatre: the meaning of the term "new theatre"; the dual commitment to social conscience as well as artistic
expression; the artistic manifestation of a critical attitude towards the United States; the eternal dilemma between
universal and national thematic directions; between the commercial and independent theatres; the importance of political and social theatre, new directions in contemporary
Latin American theatre, including the phenomenon of the theatre festival, the collective creation, popular theatre, performance art and finally, who is the public who attends theatre in Latin America?