GSOC-513-601          INDIAN CINEMA & SOCIETY
MW 4:30-7:30                         Desser

Cross Listed:  CINE-215, SAST-213, SAST-513
This course provides a historical and thematic introduction to the variety of films that constitute a “national” cinema of “India,” with a particular focus on Hindi popular cinema. We will begin by considering the cultural backgrounds of Hindi cinema, including the translation of traditional forms through modern technology such as the mythological, and move on to exploring in the post-independence context: the genres of the national epic, the courtesan film, the historical, parallel film, the social, the masala, and the romance. We will also consider the relationship between particular regional cinemas and Bollywood. Finally, we will conclude by examining Hindi cinema within the context of globalization and changes that distribution, marketing, and thematic shifts herald by considering the roles that the diaspora, neo-liberal economic policy, consumerism, and trans-nationalism play in producing new genres such as Bombay noir and the new wave. Three themes will organize our study: the nation, the public, and gender, particularly as it is constitutive of the previous two. Our study will expose is to various theories of the study of culture but will emphasize methods which will fall under the rubric of cultural studies. By the end of this course, students should be able to write and analyze film critically and consider its role in relation to other contexts such as society.

 

GSOC-518-401  NURSING, HEALTH AND ILLNESS IN THE UNITED
W 4-7                       STATES, 1860-1985

Wall (wallbm@nursing.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: NURS-518

Distribution Course History/Tradition– Class of ’09 and Prior

This course uses nursing's history as a framework for analyzing gendered themes in health and health care since the Civil War. Thus, the ideas, events, people and institutions that have played a ro  le in shaping the historical health care system are examined as part of an inclusive social context that considers the multifaceted meanings of women's work and women's experiences. Specifically, this course concentrates on the ways in which women have both challenged and collaborated with social structures and ideologies that were themselves gendered. This focus is presented as one way of understanding the complex interrelationships among gender, class, and race in the American health care system.

Content includes changing ideas about the nature of health and illness; changing forms of health care delivery; changing experiences of women as providers and patients; changing role expectations and realities for nurses; changing midwifery practice; changing segmentation of the health care labor market by gender, class and race.

 

GSOC-534-401        WOMAN IN POETRY
T 4-6                                       Kirkham (vkirkham@sas.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed:  COML/ITAL-534

This course explores female voices in medieval and early modern literature from Italy and France. We shall begin with the foundations of the "courtly" lyric tradition, reading the "trobairitz" (female troubadours). Next we shall turn to early Italian texts in which woman is the object of a male gaze. We shall consider both the classical "high" style that idolizes woman (Petrarch) and programmatic departures from it (Dante's "Stony Rhymes," satirical dialogues, and humorous misogyny). Our point of arrival will be the Petrarchan poetesses of 16th-century Europe, with an emphasis on the Italians (Vittoria Colonna, Gaspara Stampa, Laura Barriferra degli Ammannti). What were the literary and philosophical traditions that shaped notions of female identity? How do women establish their own textual space when appropriating a genre that had been the vehicle for a masculine first-person voice? How do the images of women as scripted by men, or staged through male cross-voicing, differ from those in poetry written by women? What are the problems and issues in constructing a national history of women poets?

 

GSOC-546-401        FEMINIST THEORY
M 2-5                                      Risman

Cross Listed:  SOCI-546

Feminist activists and academics have posed fundamental challenges to existing approaches to social theory.  This seminar explores the development of feminist theory since the 1960s, focusing on approaches that have the most relevance for social science.  The relations among feminist theorizing, research, and activism will be emphasized.

 

GSOC-555-401         WOMEN AND INCARCERATION
R 4:30-6:30                              Brown/Guidera/Durain (brownkm@nursing.upenn.edu)
                                               
Cross Listed: NURS-555

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to participate in service learning and health education in the Philadelphia prison system, in particular to incarcerated women.  Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women and the health status of incarcerated women.  During seminar discussions with experts in the criminal justice system and with staff and inmates at Riverside, the Philadelphia women's jail, students will explore the health, health care and health care needs of incarcerated women and identify specific areas in need of attention, especially with regard to health education.  In collaboration with Philadelphia jail staff and female inmates, students will design and implement
a health education project.

 

GSOC-556-401     VICTORIAN FAITHS, VICTORIAN FANTASIES
R 3-6                                       Auerbach (nauerbac@english.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed:  ENGL/CINE-556, COML-557
The seminar will not attempt anything so ambitious as to disentangle faith from fantasy in a literature shorn of traditional religious belief. Instead, we will examine a series of inspirational Victorian texts along with some of their fantastic counterparts, searching for convergences and divergences. Throughout the seminar, we will try to locate the imperceptible line between faith and fantasy. We will also try to place the “realism” that supposedly infuses Victorian fiction. Is capturing reality an act of faith, fantasy, or something else? Among the authors we will study are Wordsworth & Coleridge (Lyrical Ballads), Lewis Carroll (the Alice books), Tennyson (In Memoriam and Idylls of the King), Christina Rossetti, Charlotte Brontë, Dickens (Bleak House) and various uncanonical purveyors of reverence‒or escapism. Each student will present at least one oral report and will write an extended (20-odd page) account of material beyond the boundaries of our syllabus.

 

GSOC-572-401        LANGUAGE AND GENDER
R 10-12                                  Pomerantz (apomeran@gse.upenn.edu )

Cross Listed: EDUC-572

A critical investigation of the relationship between language, gender, and social structure which addresses the role of language in reflecting and perpetuating gender divisions.  Students' ongoing discourse analytic projects are integral to our exploration of issues related to sexism in and through language.  Implications for individual and social change are discussed.

 

GSOC-580-401        GENDER & POLITICAL THEORY
M 2-5                                      Hirschmann (njh@sas.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed:  PSCI-581

This seminar will examine the epistemological and methodological strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to feminist theory and their respective appropriateness to and use in feminist political theory. Themes that will be developed over the course of the semester include: the modernism/ postmodernism debate as it particularly relates to feminism; the intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality and class and how feminists can and do talk about "women"; the relevance of feminist theory to policy issues, and which theoretical approaches are the most appropriate or have the most powerful potential. The readings represent some of the newest scholarship as well as several more familiar texts to provide an understanding of how some of the latest developments in feminist theory have come to pass. In the first 6 weeks we will explore general methodological issues, and then turn to a consideration of theories that attempt to grapple with more specific political issues.
 
It is strongly recommended that students have some prior course work in Political Theory and/or Women’s Studies.

GSOC-588-401                       THE POLITICS OF WOMEN’S HEALTH

R 3-6                                       Lewis/McCool (jllewis@nursing.upenn.edu )

Cross Listed: NURS-588

This course will utilize a multidisciplinary approach to address the field of women’s health care. The constructs of women’s health care will be examined from a clinical, as well as sociological, anthropological and political point of view.  Topics will reflect the historical movement of women’s health care from an obstetrical/gynecological view to one that encompasses the entire life span and life needs of women. The emphasis of the course will be to undertake a critical exploration of the diversity of women’s health care needs and the past and current approaches to this care.  Issues will be addressed from both a national and global perspective, with a particular focus on the relationship between women’s equality/inequality status and state of health.

 

GSOC-590-401        GENDER AND EDUCATION (ELD)
W 7-9                                      Kuriloff   (kuriloff@gse.edu)
 
Cross Listed: EDUC-590

This course is designed to provide an overview of the major discussions and debates in the area of gender and education.  While the intersections of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality are emphasized throughout this course, the focus of the research we will read is on gender and education in English-speaking countries.  We will examine theoretical frameworks of gender
and use these to read popular literature, examine teaching practices and teachers with respect to gender, using case studies to investigate the topics.

 

GSOC-599               INDEPENDENT STUDY (GRADUATE LEVEL)  
Arranged                                  TBA

See Department for Permission and Section Number

 

GSOC-612-40  INTERACTIONAL PROCESSES WITH LGBT
                                                INDIVIDUALS
W 10-12                                  Burnes (burnes@gse.upenn.edu)

Cross-Listed: EDUC-612

In the past quarter century, a growing awareness of the unique issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals has become essential for practitioners in education and psychological services. This course will provide an introduction to a range of factors that shape LGBT experiences in educational and psychological service settings, and it will offer opportunities to consider and develop strategies for working with and advocating for LGBT constituencies. By analyzing LGBT encounters with the fields of psychology and education, this course recognizes both professions’ historically strained relationships with LGBT populations, while also acknowledging the possibilities for researchers and practitioners in each field to enhance their work through cross-disciplinary reflections on valuable lessons-learned. Although the primary focus is on how psychological and educational professionals can support LGBT individuals, the course may also interest those in related fields who want to gain a deeper understanding of LGBT experiences across social, cultural, institutional, and professional contexts.
This course is divided into three thematic units. In the first unit, a conceptual overview of the otherization of marginalized genders and sexualities is offered as a backdrop for understanding LGBT experiences, and snapshots of LGBT spaces and cultures afford contrasting examples of how LGBT populations have negotiated their marginalized status. In the second unit, the course focuses on psychological perspectives, first by offering theories of LGBT identity development, and then by exploring strategies for supporting LGBT individuals through LGBT-affirmative therapy. In the third and final unit, the experiences of LGBT individuals in a range of educational settings take center stage and provide the backdrop for considerations of anti-homophobic educational practices. Collectively, these three units are designed to provide students with some familiarity with LGBT life experiences, and to encourage students to apply that familiarity to educational and psychological practices.