Graduate / Undergraduate Advance Courses

 Courses that qualify for general education credit

Courses within a student's department shall not count as fulfilling general education requirements. (This restriction only applies to one major. For students with a double major, courses in the second major could count in fulfilling their requirements.)

Courses for Undergraduate / Graduate

WOM S 510 Hollywood Melodrama: The Woman's Film(3)

Melodrama, as a "woman's genre", is important to the development of feminist film critisism, which interrogates the contradictory meanings of motherhood and family within this culture. Through readings and films, this course provides a stylistic, literary, and cultural/historical background for this 19th-century form with a specific focus on the woman's film and the family melodrama which highlight woman's position withi the home. Utilizes textual analysis and some psychoanalytic criticism to explore and critique the fantasies and desires expressed in the visual excesses of film melodrama.

WOM S 511 Women in Early America, 1600-1830. (3)

General education further studies course. Traces women's contributions and experiences in building the U.S., from 1600 to the 1830's. Includes both conventional and newly developed methodologies in women's history research.

WOM S 513 Women in Africa (3)

 Who is the African woman? What are her joys, obstacles, struggels, triumphs, and rites of passage? This course addresses these issues through their intersection with gender, race/ethnicity, and class in selected traditional and postcolonial settings on the African continent. Facilitates apprecation of African women and gender through African cultural voices. Emphasizes the views of women expressed in their songs, dances, dramas, ritual actions, activism, and writing. Telephone/video conference with women in Africa, as well as stories, poems, and other literary, historical and anthropological material will be used.

WOM S 514 Women in the Middle East (3)

Examines Arab women of the Middle East. Focuses on women in the region historically designated as the "fertile plains" -- Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Palestanian Territories. Covers the impact of Western colonialism and global geopolitics on women's lives; women's activism in relation to nationalism and women's rights; Western racial stereotypes of Arab women and men and their role in foreign intervention in the 20th and 21st centuries. Provides case study in the relationship of nationalism and women's rights as framed by Arab women's studies.

WOM S 516 Sociology of Sex Roles. (3)

Cross-listed as SOC. 516. General education further studies course. Analyzes the institutional sources of man's and woman's roles, the source of changes in these roles, the consequent ambiguities and conflicts. Prerequisite: Soc.111Q

WOM S 523 Feminist Film Criticism. (3)

Applies critical methods of analysis from the field of feminist film studies (such as psychoanalysis, ideology critique, close textual analysis, narrative and genre criticism) to the representation of women in film. Emphasis placed on historical development of feminist film theory and criticism as it relates to classical Hollywood narrative, film genres, and avant-garde film. Prerequisites: 3 hours of an upper level humanities course or 3 hours of an upper level Women's Studies course.

WOM S 532 Women in Ethnic America. (3)

Cross-listed as ETH 532 and HIST 532. An in-depth, thematic understanding of the historical experiences of women of color across space and time in U.S. history. Employing a female-centered framework of analysis, course probes the intersections of race, class gender, and sexuality in women's lives.

WOM S 533 Women and the Law. (3)

Introduces the legal aspects of women's rights, including the equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution; right to choose a name; sex discrimination in employment, education and credit; welfare and criminal justice. Also considers women in the field of law, such as lawyers and legislators.

WOM S 534 Psychology of Women. (3)

Cross-listed as Psy 534. General education issues and perspectives course. Psychological assumptions, research and theories of the roles, behavior and potential of women in contemporary society. Prerequisite: PSY.111Q

WOM S 535 Literary Images of Women: Diverse Voices. (3)

 Cross-listed as ENGL. 535. Explores literature written in English by women of diverse ethnic, racial, class, and other backgrounds as well as of varying sexual orientations, ages, and degrees of physical ability. Analyzes materials as literary works and as expressions of women's differences from one another. Works are selected based on their specific attention to the question of gender as it intersects with other elements of culture. Prerequisites: ENGL 101, 102 and one course in leterature.

WOM S 536 Writing by Women (3)

Cross-listed as ENGL. 536. Explores various themes in critical approaches to literature composed by women rites, expecially those whose works have been underrepresented in the literary canon. Genres and time periods covered, critical theories explored, and specific authors studied vary in different semesters.

 WOM S 537 Contemporary Women's Drama. (3)

Cross-listed as Engl. 537 Examines contemporary plays by and about women to discover and explore the insights of the various play-wrights into the lives and roles of women. Writers considered vary. In addition to reading and analyzing plays, students write plays of their own. Prerequisites: Engl 101 and 102 and 3 hours of English literature.

WOM S 541 Women, Children and Poverty. (3)

 General education issues and perspectives course. Cross-listed as Soc.Wk.541. Addresses the problem of poverty among women in the U.S. today and examines existing and proposed public policies designed to alleviate the problem. Explores theoretical models of poverty policy analysis and the role of values in their formulation and implementation. Discusses issues of age, race, and family; special attention to poverty among Kansas families. Prerequisites: 6 hours of social science.

WOM S 543 Women and Health. (3)

Cross-Listed as Nurse. 543. Examines the historical development of the women's health movement, focuses on current issues relevant to woman and health care and explores the roles of women in the health care system and as consumers of health care. Examines self-care practices of women and studies ways to promote positive health practices. Open to non-nursing majors.

WOM S 570. Directed Readings. (1-3)

For students who wish to pursue special reading or research projects not covered in course work. Prerequisite: instructor's consent.

WOM S 580 Special Topics. (1-3)

Focuses on advanced topics of interest to women's studies.

WOM S 586 Gender, Race, and Knowledge. (3)

Examines the impact of gender, and race on knowledge (understanding of objects, people, events, and activities.) Assumes that gender, race, and knowledge are socially constructed categories. Concerned with science as a practice of representation. Focuses on the "white masculinist" ideas or beliefs that motivate and affect the practice of academic disciplines. Considers: What is the relationship between the making of masculinity and femininity and science? How are gender and race woven into science and social science and with what results? Does the entrance of white women and people of color into sciences and humanities change how that are practiced? Do they produce significantly different understanding about the world? Central premise is that all knowledge emerges from some type of love or passion. What types of passion produce knowers, knowing and the known?

WOM S 587 Theories of Feminism. (3)

Issues and Perspectives Course. Studies the ideological perspectives underlying a variety of feminist cultural critiques and visions for social change. Discusses the contributions of women's studies to various academic disciplines.Prerequisites: WOM S 287 and 387, or 6 hours of women's studies courses, or instructor's consent.

WOM S 635 Leadership Techniques for Women. (3)

Cross-listed as COMM 635. Provides the woman student experience in decision making and improves skills in leadership through role playing and exercise in group dynamics.

 Courses for Graduate Students Only

WOM S 870 Directed Readings. (2-3)

For graduate students to pursue research in areas not normally covered in course work. Repeatable for credit with departmental consent. Prerequisite: instructor's consent.

WOM S 880 Seminar in Women's Studies. (3)

 Intensive study of selected women's studies topics. Seminar discussion, reports and research project. Previous topics include Advanced Theories of Feminism and Contemporary Women's Fiction. Repeatable for credit with departmental consent. Prerequisite: instructor's consent.