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Department of Women's Studies - 2010-2011

Department Chairperson:  Aimee Shouse
Department Office:  Currens Hall 510
Department Telephone: (309) 298-2214
Department E-mail: AD-Shouse@wiu.edu
Website: wiu.edu/Womens-studies/

Graduate Faculty
Professor

  • Aimee Shouse, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

Associate Professors

  • Lori Baker-Sperry, Ph.D., Purdue University
  • C. S’thembile West, Ph.D., Temple University

Course Descriptions

405G Women’s Spirituality. (3) This course will examine some of the predominant themes in women’s experience from a multicultural perspective as a means of understanding how women develop their spirituality.

410G (cross-listed with SOC 410G) Women and Poverty. (3) The poverty of women in the United States, including factors of race, place of residence, and age are covered. Structural hierarchies that maintain poverty are examined from a sociological perspective.

420G (cross-listed with AAS 420G and SOC 420G) Race, Class and Gender. (3) The course will examine issues of race, class, and gender in historical, cultural, and contemporary societal contexts. Prerequisites: WS 190, or AAS 100, or SOC 100; or permission of the instructor.

430G (cross-listed with SOC 430G) Sociology of Women’s Health. (3) Uses sociological theories and research to examine the gendered experience of illness. Includes sociological analysis of medical knowledge about women’s health. Topics include medicalization of women’s health, the gendered hierarchy of professions, and feminist critiques of scientific research.

435G (cross-listed with SOC 435G) Women and Crime. (3) Theories of female criminality, patterns of female crime and victimization, women in corrections, and women as criminal justice practitioners are examined. Prerequisites: SOC 100 or 510, or permission of the instructor.

494G (cross-listed with BC 494G and ENG 494G) Women and Film. (3) An overview of women in film and television that considers the on-screen images of women as well as the positions of women working behind the scenes (with laboratory).

501 Seminar in Feminist Theories. (3) This course offers an exploration of central theoretical perspectives to promote understanding of key tenets of second wave feminism, classical original feminist writing, and recent postcolonial and anti-essentialist feminist texts.

502 Advanced Feminist Research Methods. (3) This course explores feminist epistemology through the formation of particular methods and modes of analysis. Students will review the ways that feminist research is conducted, will be provided with examples of how classic methods have been infused with a feminist understanding, and will examine the ways that feminist theories of research have shaped existing methods within feminist work and elsewhere. Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

505 Seminar in Women’s Studies. (3, repeatable) Special topics in women’s studies to be announced. Prerequisite: WS 501; WS 502 recommended.

506 Graduate Readings in Women’s Studies. (1–3, repeatable to 3) Readings selected in consultation with a member of the graduate faculty in women’s studies. Prerequisites: WS 501; WS 502 recommended.

508 (cross-listed with ANTH 508 and SOC 508) Women and Social Movements. (3) This course covers women in social movements. Sociological, anthropological, and feminist theories are used to study women’s movements and social change. Topics include, but are not limited to: suffrage, birth control, environmental, peace, child protection, and international human rights movements. Prerequisites: One previous undergraduate course in women’s studies, anthropology, or sociology, or permission of the instructor.

536 (cross-listed with AAS 536) Graduate Colloquium in Womanist Theory. (3) This course provides advanced explorations into the African and African American women’s perspectives and examines other feminine discourses pertaining to activism/contributions of black women in Africa, the U.S., and Europe.

571 (cross-listed with AAS 571) Women in Anglophone Caribbean: The Jamaican Experience. (3) This course examines the influence of race, class, and gender on women in the Caribbean, within a largely matrifocal society, and Caribbean women transnationally.