WOMEN’S STUDIES (W-S)
College
of Liberal Studies
Department
Chair: Sandra Krajewski
423A
Wimberly Hall, 608-785-8732
e-mail:
krajewsk.sand@uwlax.edu
Professor: Krajewski, S.; Assistant
Professor: Hoskins; Co-faculty: Anderson, Chavalas, Crutchfield,
Hampton, Hansen, Haupert, Lloyd, Manrique, Miller, C.D., Morgan, Niedzwiecki,
Oyster, Pandit, Parker, Scherwitz, Soto-Torres, Sullivan, Vandenberg-Daves,
White-Parks, Williams; Self-Sufficiency Program (SSP): Reedy, E.
Women’s
studies courses are designed to provide students with a new perspective on the
roles of women and men as individuals and as participants in society. Based on
research and analysis by women’s studies scholars, the courses help students
evaluate assumptions about “women’s roles” and “men’s roles,” provide
alternative explanations of gender roles and offer students of both sexes
diverse models and alternatives for their own lives. The courses help include
women in the standard curriculum and promote research about the now lost or
neglected history of women’s culture and of significant women. One goal of
women’s studies is to help create a new, humanistic curriculum which releases
both men and women from stereotyped roles and expectations and encourages them
to develop their full individual potentials.
The
department provides interdisciplinary courses and specialized courses are
currently offered in many departments of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Students may earn a minor in women’s studies.
Self-Sufficiency
Program (SSP)
In
addition to the following courses, the department of women’s studies sponsors
the Self-Sufficiency Program (SSP).
This program, which concentrates on critical reading, writing and thinking,
prepares low-income parents for successful college work. Classes meet one night
per week and child care is provided.
For more information, call the director of the Self-Sufficiency Program
at (608) 785-8733.
(All
colleges) — 24 credits. Required courses: one course selected from W-S 100,
210, or 230, plus 499, and nine additional credits within the department of
women’s studies, with at least six credits at the 300-level or above. Nine
credits must also be taken from approved courses in other departments. Consult the women’s studies department for a
complete course listing.
+ above a course number indicates a General Education course.
+
W-S 100 Cr.
3
Introduction
to Women’s Studies
This
course provides an introduction to women’s social roles and contributions and
to how gender roles are created, transmitted, interpreted, and
institutionalized through family and kinship, education, the media, work,
government, and the health care system. It offers a critical perspective on
scholarship which omits or distorts female experience, and provides interdisciplinary
and integrated approaches to the study of women and gender in society.
+
W-S 210 Cr.
3
Women’s
Voices/Women’s Culture
An
examination of how women have expressed female experience in a variety of
forms, including fiction, autobiography, oral traditions, and song. By
analyzing women’s words and forms of self-expression, students will explore
what is individual and what is common in women’s lives, and will learn tools
for understanding female experience and culture. Offered Sem. I.
+
This
course explores the diversity of women’s experience in America as it has been
affected by race, ethnicity, class, and other factors, and the effects of
gender on women of different groups. Issues that have united and divided women
in movements for social change are also addressed.
W-S 240 Cr.
3
Contemporary
Women’s Issues
Contemporary
women’s issues will provide the student with an overview of women’s studies
scholarship from the late 1960’s to the present. Contemporary theory, social
change movements, and women’s lives will be integrated in order to examine the
relationship between theory and practice in women’s studies. Offered
occasionally.
W-S 250 Cr.
1-3
Topics
in Women’s Studies
Intermediate
and interdisciplinary analysis of a social issue, idea or institution from the
perspective of women and Women’s Studies. Repeatable for credit. Department
approval is necessary to apply more than three credits toward the W-S minor.
Offered occasionally.
W-S 255 Cr.
1
Women
in the Military
This
course will provide students with an understanding of the struggles and
successes of women’s lives in the U.S. Military. Beginning with an historic
overview of women’s changing roles in the military, it will proceed to analyze
the reasons for the limitations to women’s equal participation. Finally, the
course will recognize the accomplishments of women in the military. Offered
Sem. II.
W-S/PSY/ESS 259 Cr.
1
Girls
and Women in Sport
An
introduction to the involvement of girls and women with sport. Topics include
the historical perspective, physiological and psychological benefits, teaching
and coaching implications, recreation and leisure as well as differently abled
and minority women. Students will also learn to access the Internet resources
relevant to the course content. (Cross-listed with ESS and PSY; may only earn
credit in ESS, PSY, or W-S.)
W-S 260 Cr.
3
An
exploration of the experience of a variety of women in our region: American
Indians, Blacks, and European immigrants; urban women and homesteaders; single
and married women; and their roles as settlers, family members, and community
builders. The course emphasizes sources and concepts for understanding female
experience in a regional context. Offered occasionally.
W-S 270 Cr.
3
Women
and Friendship
An
examination of women’s friendships historically, psychologically,
sociologically, and politically in the context of a sexist, racist, classist,
and homophobic culture. Beginning with defining friendships in women’s lives
and continuing through a woman’s life span, the course will go on to examine
how sociocultural changes have interrupted women’s friendship in the past and
the present. Women’s friendships with women, men, kin, and mentors will be
examined. Lastly, women’s friendships will be explored as a way to reconstruct
community. Offered every two years.
W-S 300 Cr.
1-3
Topics
to be selected by the individual instructor or by the student and instructor together.
The topics must relate to women’s experiences and/or issues. Prerequisites: W-S
100 and consent of the department chairperson. Repeatable for credit — maximum
6.
W-S 320 Cr.
3
Violence
Against Women
This
course will examine from an interdisciplinary perspective, the connections
between violence against women and the power distributions within our society.
Three specific types of violence against women will be examined in-depth:
sexual assault, incest and battering. Prerequisite: W-S 100, 210
or
230.
W-S 330/530 Cr.
1-3
Topics:
Women, Gender, and Society
Interdisciplinary
analysis of a social issue, idea, or institution from the perspective of women
and women’s studies. Prerequisite: W-S 100 for undergraduates only. Repeatable
for credit. Department approval is necessary to apply more than three credits
toward the W-S minor.
W-S 340 Cr.
3
Women,
Learning, and Knowledge
An
analysis of how women’s learning experience has been and continues to be
limited by conceptions of gender, race, and class. Through an examination of
how knowledge is acquired and how society defines knowledge, students will come
to a better understanding of how women can “reclaim” their educations.
Prerequisite: W-S 100, 210 or 230.
W-S/HIS
370 Cr.
3
The
History of Black Women’s Activism
An
historical overview of the thoughts, actions, and creative products of Black
women activists in the United States, from slavery to the present. Students
will examine historical analyses, speeches, essays, economic activities,
organizational styles, political issues, and various forms of artistic
expression that women of African descent have produced in order to query,
resist, and defy the interlocking oppressions of racism, sexism, and classism
in the United States. Prerequisite: W-S 100 or 210 or 230. (Cross-listed with
HIS 370; may only earn credit in W-S or HIS.) Offered every other year.
Women,
Agriculture, and the Environment
Beginning
with the ancient notion that the earth was both alive and female, a concept indigenous
to western as well as other cultures, this course will examine subsequent ideas
that have historically shaped attitudes and actions toward women and the earth,
especially as those values and actions have affected agriculture in the U.S.
The course will examine such topics as the roles of women as builders of
community in the rural world; the impact of the industrializing of the
production of food and fiber on concepts of femininity; the development of the
modern corporate state and its impact on women and agriculture; and how women
and men are working to re-shape the way we see, think about, and act on, and
interact with the earth. Prerequisite: W-S 100 or 210 or 230. (Cross-listed
with HIS; may only earn credit in W-S or HIS.) Offered every other year.
W-S 410 Cr.
3
Women’s
Issues in the “Third World”
A
broad overview of women’s issues in AALA (Africa, Asia, and Latin America),
this course will investigate the impact of colonialism, unilateral economic
imperialism, and multinational corporations on women’s traditional roles in
AALA and explore the processes that have produced both women’s and feminist
movements in these regions of the world. Exploring the meaning of women’s
movements in international politics following the Mexico City, Nairobi, and Beijing
conferences, the course will analyze relationships between women in the U.S.
and the women of AALA. Topics might include: the international economic power
of U.S. women as consumers, international labor issues and organizing,
environmental issues for U.S. and AALA women, and the challenges of AALA
feminisms. Prerequisites: W-S 100 or 210 or 230, and another 300-level W-S
course or cross-listed course. Offered occasionally.
W-S 450 Cr.
1-6
Internship
in Women’s Studies
The
internship is an academically relevant field experience for minors in women’s
studies which combines women’s studies scholarship with practical experience.
The field experience will be supervised by the women’s studies staff.
Prerequisites: junior standing and six credits of women’s studies and a minimum
2.50 GPA. A maximum of three credits will be counted toward the minor.
Repeatable for credit — maximum 6.
W-S 499 Cr.
3
Seminar
in Women’s Studies
Intensive
interdisciplinary study of particular areas in women’s studies. Topics will be
chosen by the instructor and the students. Prerequisites: W-S 100, at least two
other courses approved for the women’s studies minor, and permission of
instructor.