1/6/04

WOMEN'S STUDIES

SPRING 2004

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/wstudies/

WSTD-004-401 THE FAMILY

TR 12-1:30 Lundquist

Cross Listed: SOCI-004

General Requirement I: Society

Fulfills College Quantitative Data Analysis

Permission needed from Department

Historical and cultural development of the family, analysis of sexual codes; discussion of role differences between men and women; factors involved in mate selection and marital adjustment, analysis of family disorganization with both individual and societal implications.

 
WSTD-016-303 EARLY ANGLO FEMINISMS
TR 3-4:30 Mascetti (mascetti@sas.upenn.edu)
 
Cross Listed: ENGL-016
Freshman Seminar
 
It is no accident that early modern feminism arose at the same time that empirical science did, and this course will chart their relation. At a time when objectivity was being invented, writers and philosophers became interested in a set of questions about sex and gender very similar to those we ask today. Are men and women fundamentally different? Does each have its own way of knowing? Is female learning possible, and do women need their own centers of learning?
While we will read widely in early feminism, we will also read the work of two women closely: Margaret Cavendish and Mary Astell. These two women blazed a trail a 100 years before Mary Wollstonecraft and 200 years before Virginia Woolf; yet you'll find their writing to be as fresh and relevant today as it was then - perphaps even more so. We will engage as well with many contemporary philosophers amd scientists, focusing on reactions to this early feminist rise in
conscience. There will be two papers and some short research assignments. 

WSTD-028-601 FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY

M 6:30-9:30 Meyer

Cross Listed: PHIL-028

Distribution I: Society

Feminist philosophy is as wide-ranging as philosophy itself. Feminist philosophers have articulated radical views of philosophy of science, aesthetics, ethics, political philosophy

and epistemology. What they all have in common is the belief that each of these traditional areas of philosophy has been deformed by at best, ignoring women and, at worst actively devaluing women and women’s experience. In this introduction to feminist philosophy we will focus on issues in feminist ethical and political theory, though given the nature of the feminist outlook we will also get glimpses of feminist epistemology, social theory and philosophy of science. Feminist political and ethical theories are richly diverse. But all such theories have three common functions. First, the theories attempt to describe the nature of women’s oppression (What is oppression? And how does it manifest itself in the lives of women). Second, they attempt to explain the causes and consequences of that oppression. And finally they attempt to prescribe strategies for ending women’s oppression. We will investigate suggested answers to all three of these questions using contemporary sources. The issues covered will be chosen from among work and family, sexuality, sexual harassment, abortion, date rape, beauty, pornography and affirmative action. Requirements: two short papers (5-6 pages, double-spaced, 30% each), a comprehensive final examination (25%) and regular attendance at the weekly class meeting and conscientious participation in its discussion and exercises (15%)

WSTD-048-401 WOMEN/FAMILY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

TR 1:30-3 Sharlach-Nash

Cross Listed: AMES-048

Freshman Seminar

Distribution II: History and Tradition

History, especially ancient history, is often written as the deeds of kings and elite males. But how did the majority of the population, men and women, live in the ancient Middle East? What were the basic family units and where and how did they live? What were their legal rights and religious beliefs? How did institutions such as temples and palaces impact on their lives, and how much freedom did they have? In this class we will work from ancient texts in translation to follow ancient women and men through the course of their lives, from cradle to grave, and explore their experiences of life at work and at home, love, marriage, and divorce, until death and beyond.

WSTD-090-401 CONTMPORARY WOMEN WRITERS

TR 10:30-12 Fausti (mfausti@dept.english.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: ENGL-090/AFAM-090

Distribution III: Arts and Letters

WATU Credit Optional-See Instructor

Focusing on literature by and or about women, this course examines women as readers, writers, and subjects of literature. Works studied vary considerably from semester to semester and may include a wide range of works from various countries and in various genres, often selected to allow for examination of theoretical issues such as feminist humor, feminist literary theory, women and popular culture, and the place of women in the literary mainstream. Often special attention is paid to the experience of minority women.

WTSD-093-401 LATINO AMERICAN 20^TH CENTURY LITERATURE

MWF 11-12 Padilla (amparo@sas.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: ENGL/LTAM-093

Distribution III: Arts & Letters

This course is an introduction to Latina/o Literature, meaning literature by people of Latin American descent living and writing in the U.S. As we move through our survey of the literature, we will attend to the distinct historical and cultural conditions in which the texts have been produced. Some of the historical narratives that will inform our discussions include U.S. economic and political interest in the Caribbean after 1898; the Mexican Revolution; anti-colonial sentiments in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic; the prominence of social protest literature that emerged alongside the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 70s; and the role of articulations of gender, class and sexual identities throughout these literatures. We will also interrogate the possibilities, limitations, and the viability of studying these diverse literatures under the rubric of "latinidad." Writers will include Jovita Gonzáles, Piri Thomas, Achy Obejas, Junot Díaz, and Cherríe Moraga.

WSTD-093-402 NATION AND IDENTITY IN SOUTH ASIAN WRITING

TR 12-1:30  Loomba (loomba@dept.english.upenn.edu)
 

Cross Listed: ENGL-093-402

Distribution III: Arts & Letters

It is a curious fact that some of the most compelling fiction about and by South Asians features the coming of age of a child protagonist. This body of writing appropriates and reshapes the classic European Bildungsroman, but it also uses narrative traditions from South Asia in order to tell the story of the postcolonial nation, and to chart the contours of contemporary South Asian identity and sexuality. In this course, we will read novels, short stories and plays--some well known and others less so, some now considered classics and others very recent, produced from within the Indian subcontinent as well as from the West. All of these speak of the excitement and trauma of growing up Indian. Through them, we will discuss key features of the political and social upheavals of the Indian subcontinent, as well as the dynamics of the family, gender relations, sexual identities and cultural belonging. The course will include writings by Rudyard Kipling, Salman Rushdie, Bapsi Sidhwa, Amitav Ghosh, Mahasweta Devi, Hanif Kureishi, Anjana Appachana, Arundhati Roy, Meera Sayal, Sara Suleri, Shyam Selvadurai, and Mahesh Dattani.

WSTD-101-401 JANE AUSTEN AND POPULAR CULTURE

MWF 11-12 Gamer (mgamer@dept.english.upenn.edu)

R 6-9

Cross Listed: ENGL-101/FILM-115

General Requirement III: Arts & Letters

This course provides students with an introduction to English through the study of a single author: Jane Austen. At once acutely aware of popular culture and a product of it, Austen read and wrote in popular forms, from Gothic horror to raucous satire. Her love of popular theater enters into her work constantly, her facility for writing dialogue making possible successful screen adaptations of every one of her novels.

During the semester, we'll read four of Austen's novels, most likely Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion. We'll also see approximately eight films, from faithful adaptions of her novels to films like Clueless and Brigette Jones' Diary. In the first few weeks of the course, we'll read Austen in the context of the popular culture of her own time -- in the circulating libraries of resort towns like Bath, on the London stage, and in response to the twenty-three year war with France that dominated nearly all of her adult life. The second part of the course will then turn, particularly though not exclusively through the medium of film, to Austen as contemporary cultural phenomenon -- from the soldiers during the first world war who read her obsessively in the trenches, to the fans who made the Austen film industry possible, to the authors and directors who have found inspiration in her work, to the fan fiction that displaces her author to heroine of her own work. Required work: three responses, two essays, and a final

Traditional religions considered will include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Issues raised will include the impact of the women's movement and feminist thought on women and religion, and the development of contemporary women-oriented spiritual movements and religious practices.

WSTD-109-401 WOMEN AND RELIGION

Lec MW 12-1 Von Schlegell (brvs@ccat)

Rec 402 W 1-2

Rec 403 W 2-3

Rec 404 F 12-1

Rec 405 F 12-1

Cross Listed: FOLK-029, RELS-005

General Requirement I: Society

This course will investigate women's religious practices and beliefs in a number of established religions. We will pay attention to such topics as theological explanations of women's roles in creation, the relationship between women and evil, the position of women in religious hierarchies, and the impact of social change on women's roles in established religions. Traditional religions considered will include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Issues raised will include the impact of the women's movement and feminist thought on women and religion, and the development of contemporary women-oriented spiritual movements and religious practices.

WSTD-114-401 DISCRIMINATION: SEX/RACE CONFLICT

MW 3-4:30 Madden (jmadden@sas.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: SOCI/AFAM-112

WATU Credit Optional-See Instructor

This course is concerned with the structure, the causes and correlates, and the government policies to alleviate discrimination in the United States. The central focus of the course is on employment discrimination by race and gender. After a comprehensive overview of the structures of labor markets and of nondiscriminatory reasons for the existence of group differentials in employment and wages, various theories of the sources of discrimination are reviewed and evaluated. Actual governmental policies and alternatives policies are evaluated in light of both the empirical evidence on group differences and the alternative theories of discrimination.

WSTD-118-401 IRAN CINEMA: GENDER, POLITICS AND RELIGION

R 1:30-4:30 Minuchehr (pardis@sas.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: AMES/COML/FILM-118/AMES-418

Distribution III: Arts & Letters

WATU Credit Optional-See Instructor

Post-Revolutionary Iranian cinema has gained exceptional international reception in the past two decades. In most major national and international festivals, Iranian films have taken numerous prizes for their outstanding representation of life and society, and their courage in defying censorship barriers. In this course, we will examine the distinct characteristics of the post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. Discussion will revolve around themes such as gender politics, family relationships and women's social, economic and political roles, as well as the levels of representation and criticism of modern Iran's political and religious structure within the current boundaries. There will be a total of 12 films shown and will include works by Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf, Beizai, Milani, Bani-Etemad and Panahi, among others.

WSTD-122-401 SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER

TR 10:30-12 Roth (silkerot@ssc)

Cross Listed: SOCI-122

General Requirement I: Society

The assignment of gender roles and the construction of gender identities has profound consequences for women and men at every level of society: from their intimate relations, how they manage and participate in the institutions of society, their place in society's stratification systems. This course examines four aspects of gender relations: historical and cross-cultural examples of gender roles; gender relations in contemporary American institutions; theories of sex differences and gender inequality; and movements and policies for gender equality. Some specific topics to be covered are: Women and the economy, women and the professions, working class women, changing male identities, the nature of male power, and the women's liberation movements

WSTD-125-401 ADULTERY NOVEL

MWF 2-3 Platt (kmfplatt@sas)

Cross Listed: RUSS-125/COML-127

General Requirement III: Arts & Letters

The object of the course is to analyze a series of 19C and 20C novels (and a few short stories) about adultery. Our reading will teach us about novelistic traditions of the period in question and about the relationship of Russian literature to the European models to which it responded. The course begins with a novel not about families falling apart, but about families coming together - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. We then will turn to what is arguably the most well-known adultery novel ever written, Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Following this, we investigate a series of Russian revisions of the same thematic territory that range from "great literature" to pulp fiction, including Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and other works by Tolstoy, Chekhov, Leskov, and Nagrodskaia. As something of an epilogue to the course, we will read Milan Kundera's backward glance at this same tradition in nineteenth-century writing, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. In our coursework we will apply various critical approaches in order to place adultery into its social and cultural context, including: sociological descriptions of modernity, Marxist examinations of family as a social and economic institution, Freudian/Psychoanalytic interpretations of family life and transgressive sexuality, Feminist work on the construction of gender.

WSTD-199 INDEPENDENT STUDY

Arranged TBA

See Department

WSTD-206-401 THE CHINESE DIASPORA

M 2-5 Zheng (yangwenz@history.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: HIST-206

This seminar will examine important questions about the lives of women in the last thousand years of Chinese history through a survey of the best recent research in a variety of disciplines. We will also read selected primary sources in translation, including fiction by Ding Ling and Pa Chin, essays by Lu Xun and Mao Zedong, and two memoirs of the Cultural Revolution. Weeks 2-6 cover the later imperial period; weeks 7-14 cover China’s century of revolution. Although our topic is historical, the course as a whole explores theoretical questions fundamental to women’s studies generally: how has the category of “woman” been shaped by culture and history? How has gender performance interacted with bodily disciplines and constraints (e.g., medical, reproductive, and cosmetic technologies)? How relevant is the experience of Western women to women in other parts of the world? By what standards should liberation be defined? The seminar is cross-listed with Women’s Studies; prior knowledge of Chinese history is welcome but not required.

WSTD-230-401 HISTORY OF GENDER IN ADVERTISING

TR 5-6:30 Sarch

Cross Listed: COMM-238

This course uses advertising to examine the construction of gender from the late 19th century to the present.

WSTD-235 PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN

401 W 2-5 Olson (kolson200@earthlink.net)

402 T 4:30-7:30 Marien (marien@pobox.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: EDUC-235

Critical analyses of the psychological theories of female development, and introduction to feminist scholarship on gender development.

WSTD-240-301 GENDER, RACE AND SPORTS IN AMERICA

R 1:30-4:30 Miller (samiller@sas.upenn.edu)

Have women started to “play hardball” on a “level playing field” in the American sporting culture? From the commercial successes of the WNBA and World Cup Soccer to new studies that document the positive effects of athletics on girls’ self-esteem, women finally seem to be turning the American obsession with sports to their own advantage. This course will examine how physical fitness and organized athletics for men and women have both reflected and helped to create norms of masculinity and femininity over the past one hundred and fifty years.

WSTD-252-401 FREUD

TR 1:30-3 Weissberg (lweissbe@sas.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: COML/GRMN/HSOC/HSSC-253

All readings and lectures in English

General Requirement VII: Science Studies

No other person of the twentieth century has probably influenced scientific thought, humanistic scholarship, medical therapy, and popular culture as much as Sigmund Freud. This seminar will try to study his work, it's cultural background, and its impact on us today.

In the first part of the course, we will learn about Freud's life and the Viennese culture of his time. We will then move to a discussion of seminal texts, such as excerpts from his Interpretation of Dreams, case studies, as well as essays on psychoanalytic practice, human development, definitions of gender and sex, neuroses, and culture in general. In the final part of the course, we will discuss the impact of Freud's work. Guest lecturers from the medical field, history of science, psychology, and the humanities will offer insights into the reception of Freud's work, and its consequences for various fields of study and therapy.

WSTD-258-601 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN, WAR, AND PEACE

M 5:30-8:30 Kadende-Kaiser

Cross Listed: AFST-258

This course will examine the impact of war on women as well as women's roles as peace makers. The following questions will be addressed: How are women affected by violent conflict? What survival strategies do women employ to cope with violent conflict? Can women in post conflict societies serve as mediators and peace-makers? Countries such as Argentina, Burundi, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Guatemala, and Cambodia will serve as the empirical basis for exploring these questions.

WSTD-259-301 GENDER, POLICY AND COMMUNITY SERVICE

T 1:30-4:30 Barron (dbarron@sas)

Distribution I: Society

This seminar integrates community service with academic analysis and research on gender and public policy. Each student will intern with an organization in the Philadelphia area that works on gender issues. Semester-long internships will be integrated with readings and assignments on topics related to gender and policy.

WSTD-270-601 FOLKLORE AND SEXUALITY

T 6:30-9:30 Azzolina

Cross Listed: FOLK-270

Sexuality is not only a biological act or fact, it also has a creative and aesthetic element. This course examines the folklore elements of sexuality and includes historical readings such as the Bible and the Decameron as well as a contemporary look at topics such as body art and clothing choice. A field-based paper will be required and a final examination will be given on class discussions and readings.

WSTD-280-001            FEMINIST POLITICAL THOUGHT
MW 3:00-4:30 Hirschmann (njh@sas.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: PSCI-280

This course is designed to provide an overview of the variety of ideas, approaches, and sub-fields within feminist political thought.  Readings are divided into three sections, each representing one of the three major “kinds” of feminist theory that the discipline of Political Science engages in.  The first is contemporary feminist theorizing about the meaning and status of “feminism” itselfwhat is feminism about? What approaches are best? What values and ideas are central to the meaning of the term “woman?”  How do race, class, and sexuality intersect with "gender"? Once these terms are introduced, the second section focuses on women in the history of Western political thought; what is the historical basis for the ideas we discussed in Section I? The third section is on feminist approaches to practical political problems and issues, including abortion, domestic violence, cultural difference, and sexual harassment; what can feminist theory contribute to the lived conditions of women’s lives?

WSTD-282-601 GLOBALIZATION FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

W 5:30-8:30 Lindberg

Cross Listed: HIST-282

This interdisciplinary lecture course will explore theories and practices of globalization. The process of globalization raises many questions that scholars are attempting to answer. What are its historical roots? Why has it seen such rapid growth? Is globalization predominantly an economic, cultural, or ideological issue? Has it affected women and men equally? The course will consider present discussions on globalization, provide tools to analyze this concept critically, and introduce examples taken from the Third World, Europe, and the United States. Students will be expected to write several short papers and take an active part in class discussions. The final exam will consist of an extended essay on topics dealt with in class.

WSTD-293-401 ENGENDERING THE NATION

TR-3-4:30 Loomba (loomba@dept.english.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: ENGL-293

Distribution III: Arts & Letters

This course will explore the relationship between discourses of gender and those of nationalism, and how this shapes both imperial and postcolonial writing. Why are nations routinely imagined as women, and imperial conquest expressed in terms of sexual mastery? Are race and gender analogous? What are the differences between the way in which women and sexuality are used in the imperial imagination on the one hand, and anti-colonial, nationalist writing on the other? We will address these questions via a range of literary texts ranging from Shakespeares  plays to contemporary writings by Tayib Salih, Ama Ata Aidoo, David Hwang and Arundhati Roy, among others) as well as key theoretical and historical writings in the field.

WSTD-320-301 CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST THOUGHT

M 2-5 Kurz (dkurz@sas)

Distribution I: Society

In this course, which will be organized as a seminar, we will read contemporary feminist works examining feminist approaches to explaining women's experiences, their representations, and their relative positions in society. We will examine critically the theoretical assumptions of various schools of thought, and pay particular attention to the theoretical contributions women of color have brought to the feminist thought. Finally, we will also analyze selected contemporary social issues from the vantage point of different feminist perspectives.

WSTD-325-401 WOMEN AND HEALTH

TR 12-1:30 Foley (efoley@sas.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: HSSC-261, HSOC-216

Health, illness and healing systems are deeply connected to the organization of gender relations. This course introduces students to sociological perspectives on the intersection between gender and health in the nineteenth and twentieth century United States. We will examine sex differences in disease distribution and health service use, the effect of women's poverty on health status, women's roles as health care providers, and the historical development of health issues and medical fields directly relevant to women's health (e.g. menstruation, menopause, birth control, obstetrics, pediatrics, and psychiatry).

WSTD-344-401 PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONAL GROWTH

M 5-8 Bartoli (bartoli@pobox.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: EDUC-345

WATU Credit Optional- See Instructor

This course will focus on intellectual, emotional and behavioral development in the college years. Illustrative topics: developing intellectual and social competence; developing personal and career goals; managing interpersonal relationships; values and behavior. Recommended for sub-matriculation in Psychological Services Master's Degree program.

WSTD-346-001 WOMEN IN AMERICA

TR 3-4:30 Peiss (peiss@sas.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: HIST-346

Distribution II: History & Tradition

This course explores how immigration, industrialization, racial segregation, and the growing authority of science transformed the fundamental conditions of women's lives in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Building on previous effforts by female reformers to perfect society, women at the turn of the century organized large social movements dedicated to improving the lives of women and children and gaining public access to political power. We will examine the fruits of this activism as well as the consequences of subsequent events for the rise of several important social movements in the latter half of the century -- including civil rights, women's liberation, and gay rights -- in which women played a vital role. The course concludes with an assessment of feminism in the present day, with special emphasis on the responses of younger women to its legacy.

WSTD-400-301 SENIOR THESIS

F 2-5 Kurz (dkurz@sas)

WATU Program - Fulfills 1/2 College Writing

This seminar is for senior undergraduate Women's Studies majors who are writing their theses.

WSTD-416-401 PUBLIC INTEREST ANTHROPOLOGY

W 2-5 Sanday (psanday@sas)

Cross Listed: AFAM-416/ANTH-416

Distribution I: Society

WATU Credit Optional- See Instructor

Because of its four-field, holistic approach anthropology is uniquely equipped to address a wide range of public and community service issues such as health, teen pregnancy, sexuality, domestic violence, ebonics, race, repatriation, and cultural heritage. Because of its emphasis on participant observation and seeing things from "the other's" point of view, anthropological methods are helpful to all professionals working in the U.S. public sphere, in government, law, education, or health fields. This course introduces the student to public service issues, from the perspective of selected Penn anthropology faculty. Lectures will be given by faculty members representing the four fields. With the course coordinator, students will be encouraged to pursue several public interest issues of their choice. Undergraduate and graduate students from all departments and schools are encouraged to take the course.

WSTD-418-401 IRAN CINEMA: GENDER, POLITICS AND RELIGION

R 1:30-4:30 Minuchehr (pardis@sas)

AMES/FILM/WSTD-118/AMES-418

Distribution III: Arts & Letters

This course is the graduate level version of WSTD-118

Post-Revolutionary Iranian cinema has gained exceptional international reception in the past two decades. In most major national and international festivals, Iranian films have taken numerous prizes for their outstanding representation of life and society, and their courage in defying censorship barriers. In this course, we will examine the distinct characteristics of the post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. Discussion will revolve around themes such as gender politics, family relationships and women's social, economic and political roles, as well as the levels of representation and criticism of modern Iran's political and religious structure within the current boundaries. There will be a total of 12 films shown and will include works by Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf, Beizai, Milani, Bani-Etemad and Panahi, among others.

WSTD-499 INDEPENDENT STUDY (SENIOR LEVEL)

Arranged TBA

See Department for Section Numbers

Permission Needed From Department

WSTD-518-401 NURSING, HEALTH AND ILLNESS IN THE UNITED

R 4:30-7:30 STATES, 1860-1985

Wilkerson (karenwil@pobox)

Cross Listed: NURS-518

Distribution II: History & Tradition

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 role 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.

WSTD-546-401 FEMINIST THEORY

R 2-5 Leidner (rleidner@sas.upenn.edu)

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.

WSTD-553-401 BRITISH WOMEN WRITERS

M 3-6 Wallace (dwallace@dept.english.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: COML-554/ENGL-553

Permission Needed from Instructor

A study of British women writers, often focusing on the women authors who came into prominence between 1775 and 1825.

WSTD-572-401 LANGUAGE AND GENDER

T 12-2 Pomerantz (apomeran@dolphin.upenn.edu)
 

Cross Listed: EDUC-572

A critical investigation of relationships between language, gender, and social structure which explores how our language use can reflect and perpetuate gender inequities, or challenge and potentially transform gender relations. Students' ongoing discourse analytic projects are

integral to our inquiry. Implications for individual and social change are emphasized.

WSTD-588-401 THE POLITICS OF WOMEN’S HEALTH CARE

R 3-6 MCCOOL/DURAIN

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.

WSTD-591-401 THE IDEA OF THE MODEL IN LITERATURE AND ART

W 9-12  steiner (wsteiner@dept.english.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: COML-588/ENGL-591

Permission Needed from Instructor

This course is about representation, in particular, the kinds of relations that have existed between literary and visual artworks and their models, from Modernism to the present. We will interpret the word "model" broadly here, but begin with the conventional situation of a human being posing for an artist, a structure that has raised complicated issues since Pygmalion and Galatea. During the past hundred years, the political and psychological meaning of the model has been a particular crux for avant-gardists, feminists, and philosophers. Modernism is full of works called "Portrait of a Lady" and "La Poseuse," and just as full of denials of the connection between artwork and human subject. From Seurat to Cindy Sherman, from Hawthorne and Eliot to Jean Rhys and Christopher Bram, the course will sample key treatments of the "sitter" in visual and verbal art.

We will then turn to other meanings of "model" in visual and verbal art- stereotype, prototype, miniature, ideal, predecessor-observing their relevance to the problems surrounding the posing subject. The Pop revolution undermined the idea of a pre-existing reality that provides a subject (or object) for art. Instead, it saw representation as creating the reality it depicts, a notion traceable to Wilde and Whistler but coming into its own in the philosophy of Baudrillard, novels by Pynchon and DeLillo, and recent high-art films such as Johan Grimonprez's Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y or blockbusters like The Matrix. The model raises the teasing contradictions apparent in the term "virtual reality": the unreal real, the resultant antecedent, the powerless determiner. These are inescapable considerations for anyone concerned with contemporary aesthetics.

WSTD-599 INDEPENDENT STUDY (GRADUATE LEVEL)

Arranged TBA

See Department for Permission and Section Number

WSTD-773-401 FEMINST INTRO TO LITERARY MODERNISM

T 12-3 Love (loveh@english.upenn.edu)

Cross Listed: ENGL-773

Permission Needed from Instructor

This course will serve as an introduction to the concept of modernity and to recent work on affect and subjectivity. Critics have spent a great deal of time attempting to describe "the experience of modernity"; in this class, we will take up this tradition of thought and push it a bit further, asking whether it makes sense to understand modernity as a collection of characteristic ways of feeling. The course will begin with readings on affect including Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Silvan Tomkins's work on affect as a feedback system, and Raymond Williams's essay on "structures of feeling." We will then move to consider several case histories, reading novels, poems, and essays as well as work in literary and cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology. The modern feelings that we will consider at greatest length will be: alienation, disenchantment, shame, boredom, shock, melancholia, double consciousness, the uncanny, mania, and what Frederic Jameson has called "the waning of affect." Students will be asked to do an in-class presentation and a seminar paper (20 pages).

Readings by Darwin, Geertz, Raymond Williams, Wimsatt and Beardsley, Sartre, Weber, William James, Freud, Silvan Tomkins, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Marx, Lukacs, Erving Goffman, DuBois, Baudelaire, Benjamin, Rey Chow, Simmel, Hofmannsthal, Fanon, Henry James, Anne Anlin Cheng, Jameson, D. A. Miller, Arjun Appadurai, Susan Stryker, Brian Massumi, and others.