Provides an overview of the field of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Utilizes
a range of perspectives to evaluate how sex, gender, and sexuality are constructed
in social and cultural contexts. Focuses on the intersections of gender and sexuality
with race, ethnicity, ability, class and nationality.
Satisfies GE areas D7 and D
May be repeated for credit for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit
by students who have received credit for WMST 101.
Introductory special topics in Women鈥檚, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The course
title and description will vary by offering.
Students should check the Class Schedule for listing of actual topics. May be repeated
for credit as topics change, for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit
by students who have received credit for WMST 180.
NOTE: This course is not currently offered at Cal State San Marcos. It is listed for transfer-credit
and course equivalency purposes.
Surveys contemporary issues in women鈥檚 lives from the standpoints of diverse groups
of women. Subject matter includes, but is not limited to, images of women, reproductive
rights, sexuality, economic justice, political empowerment, family relations, and
cultural practices. Subject matter is introduced in a variety of ways, including case
studies, narratives, novels, film, and music. Students may do cross-cultural research
on the Internet and Lexis/Nexis for their final project.
Examines the ways in which gender and sexual identity have been portrayed in popular
culture and the media, as well as the economic, political, and historical conditions
that affect and inform these images. Focuses special attention on the economic, political,
and historical conditions that have shaped representations of gender, race, class,
and sexual identity in popular culture.
Satisfies GE area C2
May be repeated for credit for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit
by students who have received credit for WMST 205.
Special topics in Women鈥檚, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The course title and description
will vary by offering.
May be repeated for credit as topics change for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300.
Explores the relationships between education, gender, and race/ethnicity. Course content
will include such issues as identity development in girls and boys; controversies
about gender, race, and education; feminist theories about learning and teaching;
social stratification in schools; and pedagogical methods designed to empower all
students through education. Using contemporary case studies, students will examine
multiple dimensions of school life鈥攕uch as formal and informal curricula, student-teacher
relationships, and the social construction of teaching鈥攆or their gendered and racialized
components.
Satisfies GE area DD DEu Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 303.
Examines the intersections and collaborations of feminist and ecological thought.
The course examines the ways in which feminist movements have prioritized the environment,
focused on relationships between humans and the natural world, and engaged a range
of environmental issues. The course explores ecofeminist perspectives, including critiques
of the parallel oppression of women and nature, multiple hierarchies of domination,
and the gendered effects of environmental problems; the reframing of militarism, corporate
globalization, and technology as environmental issues; and the promotion of distinctive
feminist alternatives, including sustainability, earth democracy, and spirituality.
Satisfies GE area DD DEg Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-21
Explores issues of power, representation, and access in relation to the female body
in dance, performance art, body arts, and the staging of political empowerment. Examines
crucial histor颅ical figures and moments when the body in motion ruptures or destabilizes
normalized expectations.
Satisfies GE area CC
Cross-listed: Also offered as DNCE 323. Students may not receive credit for both. May
not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 323.
Critically examines what has been the taboo relationship of motherhood to feminist
art and theory as they have developed during the late 20th Century. This interdisciplinary
course focuses on the various ways feminist artists, writers, philosophers and other
cultural theorists are addressing the dilemmas of representing feminist motherhood
and how these approaches are interpreted in contemporary visual culture. Previous
historical limitations and mutual exclusivities for women as mothers will be analyzed
in relation to new revisioning of motherhood by women and men who have different ethnicities,
classes and other varied life experiences.
Satisfies GE area CC
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-18 or
WMST 326. Cross-listed: Also offered as AMD 324. Students may not receive credit for
both.
Explores the social construction and performances of the body and identity through
a cross-cultural look at definitions and meanings of the body, codes inscribed on
it by our everyday practices (wearing makeup, working out), and choices of decorative
markers (clothing, jewelry, tattoos, piercings). How are gender, race, ethnicity,
and power status signaled by the body? How is rebellion enacted through the body?
Anthropological perspectives are used to explore how people approach these issues
across cultural, economic, political, social, and religious contexts.
Satisfies GE area DD DEu Certified
Cross-listed: Also offered as ANTH 328. Students may not receive credit for both. May not be taken for credit by students
who have received credit for WMST 328.
Focuses on various meanings of male identity and the effects that notions of masculinity
have had on both men and women. Examines cultural beliefs, values, and representations
of masculinity and male identities. Explores distinct perspectives on the meanings
of masculinity鈥攑ast, present, and future鈥攊n relation to socialization, work, family,
race and ethnicity, class, culture, sexuality, and technological change. Focuses primarily
on the United States, with cross-cultural comparisons to the construction of masculinity
in other countries.
Satisfies GE area DD
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 341.
Explores the intersection between Islam, gender, culture, and politics in Muslim countries
in contemporary Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Satisfies GE area DD
Cross-listed: Also offered as PSCI 343. Students may not receive credit for both. May not be taken for credit by students
who have received credit for WMST 343.
Explores the intersections of violence against women through the following frameworks:
feminism, masculinity studies, sexuality, dis/ ability, age, race and class. Interrogates
the concept of violence, exploring physical, emotional, psychological, and structural
violence, as well as state violence, societal responses to violence, and feminist
resistance to violence in the U.S. and around the globe. Subjects may include intimate
partner violence, LGBT violence, violence against transgender people, rape and sexual
assault, state-sponsored violence, and militarized violence.
Satisfies GE area DD DEu Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-11 or WMST 345.
Explores the history of reproductive rights for women in the United States and globally,
including the emergence of family planning practices, the design and availability
of contraception, access to abortion, and assistive technologies. Emphasizes intersections
of race, class, gender, sexuality, abilities, and geography, as context to this exploration.
Course materials will focus on legal and policy developments, religious/political/cultural
contexts, women's activism, and feminist theoretical perspectives of reproductive rights and wrongs.
Satisfies GE area DD DEu Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-13 or WMST 347.
Introduction to the foundational writings in Chicana and Latina feminist theory with
close attention to how race, class, gender, and sexuality affect Chicana and Latina
lives. Includes triple oppressions theory, identity politics, mestiza consciousness,
Chicana subjectivity (agency), lesbian identities, and media analysis.
Satisfies GE area DD DEg Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who received credit for WMST 350.
Explores Black Feminist consciousness and activism along with its impact, historically
and theoretically. Focuses on the principles and practices associated with its evolution
through struggle over time in the U.S. and the Diaspora, the relationship of Black
Feminist theorizing with other feminisms, and resistance and applications for social
change. Explores key scholarly debates about self and community, the "multiplicity
of oppressions," and the intersection of race with gender, class, sexuality, and nation.
Satisfies GE area DD DEg Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-2 orWMST 351.
Explores the intersections of hair with beauty, culture, race, gender, class, sexuality,
among other categories. Themes include beauty and hair, histories, cultures, stereotypes
and perceptions about hair, capitalism and hair, and power and hair. Recommended Preparation:.
Satisfies GE area:CC Satisfies Diversity & Equity area:DEg
Focuses on non-Western feminisms鈥攖heir histories, practices, politics, theories, and
the connections with Western feminisms that helped shape the transnational dynamics
of feminist movements. Highlights relations among local, national, and regional feminisms
and women鈥檚 movements; explores competing theories of gender relations and women鈥檚
rights and powers; and examines critically key debates about transnational activism,
including how women differ, what interests and problems they share, the nature of
agency, and the role of international institutions.
Satisfies GE area DD
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 370.
Explores women鈥檚 international movement, giving attention to the relationship between
U.S. women鈥檚 movements for social change and global feminist struggles. Interdisciplinary
readings, including fiction and feminist theory, focus on women鈥檚 activism in various
countries and regions of the world.
Satisfies GE area DD GEu Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 375.
Analysis of the intersections of gender and social movements in the United States.
Explores the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in relation to these social movements.
Satisfies GE area DD GEu Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 380.
Explores gender, identity and their representations in U.S. film remakes from a global
perspective, contrasting with their original foreign film versions. Compares and analyzes U.S.
and foreign films emphasizing the framework of intersectionality between nationality,
gender, race, class and language. Develops a broad understanding of the interactions
among these relevant categories. Introduces film analysis and fundamentals of gender
and representation theories. Recommended Preparation:,, and (core requirements for Major) are recommended. Cross-listed:and WGSS 392 are cross-listed. Students may not receive credit for both.
Satisfies GE area:CC Satisfies Diversity & Equity area:DEg
Topic announced each semester prior to registration. Explores readings in feminist
theory and scholarship. Includes a cross-cultural or cross-national perspective.
May be repeated for a total of six (6) units as topics change. May not be taken for
credit by students who have received credit for WMST 401.
Examines the social and political construction of categories of sexual and gender
identities (such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, heterosexual), the
resulting social coercion of behavior, and the role coercion plays in dividing and
disempowering people cross-culturally. Subject matter includes the history of romantic
and sexual relationships between people in relation to culture and social institutions,
the development of gender and sexual identities in social contexts, related political
movement, and the power of heteronormativity in society.
Satisfies GE area DD DEu Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 407.
Examines a variety of issues related to sex work, such as prostitution, trafficking
in women and children, pornography, sex tourism, and erotic shows. Material will draw
from communications, economic, feminist, health, socio-political, and other perspectives,
with an emphasis on the global nature of the sex industry.
Satisfies GE area DD DEg Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have eceived credit for WMST 416.
An exploration of women and health. Analysis of women's health maintenance and disease
prevention, gender bias in medical treatment, medicalization of "natural" processes,
women and the health system, medical-legal system, and bio-medical research. Subject
matter may include, but is not limited to: eating disorders, contraception, sexually
transmitted diseases, fertility from pregnancy to birthing, stress and mental illness,
menopause, breast cancer, and alternative and traditional healing systems. Issues
of social class, nationality, race, culture, and sexual preference are emphasized
throughout.
Satisfies GE area DD DEu Certified
Cross-listed: Also offered as SOC 424. Students may not receive credit for both. May not be taken for credit by students
who have received credit for WMST 424.
Recommended Preparation: Previous coursework in the area of health and illness.
Investigates the power of film and the film industry in representing and shaping gendered
positions in a variety of cultural settings. Explores dominant and alternative practices
of gendering cinematic characters and viewers. May employ particular thematic frameworks
(e.g., mothers and daughters, gender and European cinema, women in the silents, or
gender and documentary film).
Satisfies GE area CC DEu Certified
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 450.
Examines major schools of feminist theory and feminist approaches to research on women,
gender and sexuality across an array of academic disciplines. The application of feminist
perspectives and reassessments of social theory in the humani颅ties, social sciences,
and sciences may be included. Student research projects may include bibliographies,
archival research, ethnographic, survey, literary analysis, or other formats.
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 490.
Combines readings with placement in an appropriate social justice or women鈥檚 advocacy
organization, public, private, or nonprofit.
May be repeated for a total of nine (9) units in any combination of units from WGSS
495A through WGSS 495F. May not be taken for credit by students who have received
credit for WMST 495A through F.
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