Course Descriptions

This course examines the status and role of women in Canadian society within a global context. Topics include the impact of Women's Studies on traditional academic disciplines, the nature and origins of patriarchal practices, gender role divisions in the family and other social institutions, women and work, reproductive rights, violence, communication/media/art, the social and legal status of women, and issues of power focusing on "race"/ethnicity, class and sexualities.

This course examines and compares various disciplinary approaches to gender, sex and sexuality, including how different disciplines construct these concepts. Disciplinary perspectives may include psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, sport studies, law and policy. Students will learn to apply an intersectional approach – a foundational perspective in women’s and gender studies – to contemporary issues of gender, including current areas of controversy and debate.

This is a discussion-oriented literature course intended to broaden and intensify the students’ awareness and appreciation of women writers from the late 19th to the 21st centuries. Material will come from a range of genre: stories, novels, poems, plays and memoirs. Using a feminist analysis, students will explore issues that mark the rise of women’s writings from a sub-genre to contemporary full status acceptance.

This course examines the history and development of equal rights for women through the lens of the Canadian legal system. Using feminist legal analysis, students will learn about sex discrimination and the interrelationship of it with "race"/ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability.

This course explores the psychological construction of gender roles, their development in childhood and their maintenance in adulthood. Students will examine current research in biology, socialization, personality and mental health, and the course will include issues of current interest such as sexuality, aging, violence against women, gender relations, and the workplace.

This course examines the role of gender in political and policy processes using a multidisciplinary feminist approach. Students will focus on Canadian examples and examine the difficulties that affect women in particular. Students will be encouraged to research possible ways to increase women's political participation.

This course uses a feminist perspective to examine how societal notions of gender shape our built environment and colour our perceptions of the world around us. Gender differences are apparent in how we live, work, travel, and explore. Drawing on geographical topics ranging from our everyday home and work experiences to the trafficking of women across borders, this course explores gender roles and patterns from around the world and their spatial implications.

This course examines the lives of women in the western world from ancient times to 20th century North America. Private lives as well as public and political activities will be studied. Topics will include the role of women in the early Christian church, women in monasticism, women and the family in pre-industrial Europe, the impact of industrialization, pioneers and path-breakers, and the rise and nature of women's movements.

This course applies an anthropological perspective to the exploration of gender. Topics covered include gender diversity across cultures, the social and cultural construction of gender categories and social roles, variations in norms and beliefs concerning sex and gender, and the diverse ways in which gender intersects with other areas of culture such as work, family life, language, religion, and art.

This course presents an overview of women's health issues across differences of race, class, sexuality, ability, and age. Topics include approaches to health care, sexuality and reproduction, and occupational and social issues.

This course examines ideas about and roles of women in the major religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) as well as native religions, Wicca and goddess religions. Students will look at how women have been shaped by religious traditions, at women as agents of resistance and social change, and at women as spiritual leaders, past and present.

Focusing on Europe and North America, this course examines the historical representation of women in art as well as the particular challenges and accomplishments of women artists. Students will investigate the ways that visual imagery has both upheld and critiqued gender differences and the impact feminist inquiry has had on the theories and practices of art and art history.

This course highlights the gendered packaging of science and technology and how this has affected the built environment, consumer choices, and the lives of women and men. Topics include an historical review of the role women have played in the development of science, investigation of the reasons for the traditionally low participation of women in scientific and technical fields, and an exploration of the relationship between science and gender.

This course applies a feminist analysis to the study of gender in popular culture. Drawing on a variety of media, which may include advertising, film and television, comic books, video games, popular fiction, and magazines, students will examine the representation of gender. The course will also explore how popular culture often functions to reinforce social norms concerning gender roles and identities, while it may also allow for sites of resistance through challenging gender norms.

This course examines women's work from the pre-industrial time until today. Topics such as participation in the workplace, inequality in the labour markets, and attempts to measure unpaid work will be covered. The course will also examine the impact of free trade, technology, privatization, and economic restructuring on women, and the gendered effects of the mounting debt and economic crisis in developing countries.

Using Sara Ahmed's concept of the feminist killjoy, this course examines various theoretical and practical dimensions of social justice, equity, and diversity work. Informed by feminist theory, gender studies, critical race theory, and anti-colonial theories, this course will explore intersectional feminist activism at odds with racism, sexism and colonialism in institutional life. Pragmatic explorations will include an analysis of the physical and emotional intensities of embodying and performing killjoy tactics, and killjoy strategies for sustainable self and community care.

This course focuses on a dilemma in the development process: every week millions of rural peasants in the Global South, driven from the countryside by political and economic turmoil, population pressures and ecological breakdown, migrate to cities already overcrowded. This phenomenon uniquely affects women and girls. This course examines a range of gender inequalities and injustices in the Global South that constrain women's engagement in labour markets, inhibit their ability to access education and health care.

This course will examine current forms of penal governance in Canadian federal and provincial women's prisons. Through the lens of gender, this course theorizes the complexity of carceral power and examines the shifting and complex nature of women's penal governance. While the functions of prison - to contain, to segregate and to punish - remain consistent, the meaning and content of women's penal governance has changed over time. We examine how penal governance and the way that people experience incarceration is gendered, classed and racialized and hybrid forms of power and knowledge have informed prison strategies.

This course explores contemporary issues in women's and gender studies, including current debates in the discipline. Specific topics will vary from year to year, but could include, for example, examinations of gender and international development, aboriginal women in Canada, women and public policy, feminist activism, gender and sexuality in Canadian sports, or feminist critical thought.

This course explores contemporary issues in queer studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing from a range of academic and community-based knowledge, the course will engage theory, history, and various analytic methods to explore queer cultures and debates.