Upcoming Course Descriptions
Fall 2021
WS 2013: Gender and Social Change
Gender and Social Change is an exciting opportunity to ask critical questions about gender as it intersects with other identity categories, such as race, class, nationality, sexuality, and disability. This survey explores social, cultural, political, and economic issues historically and in the present through a range of topics that may include popular culture and media, labor and employment, violence against women, gender and the family, reproductive justice and other health issues, environmental issues, and activism against injustice. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to power and privilege, this class gives students the opportunity to practice critical thinking and to engage in a way that is relevant to their own fields of study and interests.
WS 2013.02 – Tuesdays/Thursdays 9:30-10:50 a.m. – Instructor: TBA
WS 2013.03 – Tuesdays/Thursdays 11:00-12:20 p.m. – Instructor: TBA
WS 2013.05 – Tuesdays/Thursdays 1:00-2:20 p.m. – Instructor: TBA
WS 2013.07 – Mondays/Wednesdays 11:00-12:20 p.m. – Instructor: TBA
WS 2013.09 – Mondays/Wednesdays 1:00-2:20 p.m. – Instructor: TBA
WS 2013.51 – 100% Online – Instructor: Dr. Agatha Beins – abeins@twu.edu
WS 2013.52 – 100 % Online – Instructor: Dr. Agatha Beins – abeins@twu.edu
WS 2013.53 – 100 % Online – Dr. Patricia Stukes – pstukes@twu.edu
WS 2033: Womanist Spiritual Activism: Social Justice Theories for Wellness & Holistic Transformation
This course explores womanism, womanist theories, and spiritual activism as ways to contribute to personal and social transformation. Through a womanist and spiritual activist lens and wellness practices inspired by Gloria Anzaldúa's spiritual activist tools and Layli Maparyan's womanist spiritual activities, we explore possibilities for personal and social transformation leading to a more just world.
WS 2033.01 – 100% Online – Instructor: Dr. Carla Wilson – cwilson18@twu.edu
WS 2033.50 – 100% Online – Instructor: Dr. AnaLouise Keating – akeating@twu.edu
WS 2033.51 – 100% Online – Instructor: Dr. AnaLouise Keating – akeating@twu.edu
WS 3023: U.S. Women of Colors
The primary aim of this course is to examine the intersectional theorizing and activism that Native American, African American, Asian American, and Latinx women have engaged in to resist white supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, and homophobia in the United States. Some sections of this course will use different types of subject material to explore women of color resistance through books, poetry, music, films, and protest literature from the nineteenth century until the present.
WS 3023.01 – Tuesdays/Thursdays 1:00-2:20 p.m. – Instructor: TBA
WS 3023.50 – 100% Online – Dr. Patricia Stukes – pstukes@twu.edu
WS 3193: Women and Western Religions
What are women’s roles and contributions to Western religious traditions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and more)? What are the connections between religion and gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, and culture? In this course, students will analyze religion and engage with feminist/womanist/queer critiques that both challenge and transform Western religious traditions. Students will reflect on how current events relate to the course; how religion and its practices inform diverse experiences of women; and how authority and power shape religious rituals, practices, and traditions. This course demonstrates the interconnectedness between religion and other social categories, exploring the multiplicity of people’s intersectional identities.
WS 3193.01 – Tuesdays/Thursdays 2:30-3:50 p.m. – Instructor: TBA
WS 4023.50: Sexualities & Identities
In this course, you will explore the history of LGBTIQ identities, experiences, and activism. We will also explore the global shifts of discussion to SOGIESC studies while emphasizing the role of race in differentiating experiences. We will also review the challenges of trans and intersex identity in defining traditional categories and expectations of gender and sexuality. Aside from scholarly texts, the course includes contributions by comediennes, spoken word and music artists to theoretical assertions and how such platforms have helped shape broader conversations about civil rights, equality, and justice.
WS 4023.50 – 100% Online w/synchronous sessions - Mondays 2:00-3:50p.m. – Instructor: Dr. Patricia Stukes – pstukes@twu.edu
WS 4493: Feminist Theory
In this course, we will explore contemporary feminist and womanist thought and its applications to various social, political, and intellectual contexts. We will discuss why we study theory and how it applies to knowledge production and activism outside of the academy. We will focus on key issues in feminist and womanist theory including the construction of gender identity, difference, and representation; feminist knowledge production; sexual desire and the body; feminist/womanist genealogies; political activism; race; and spirituality. We will explore these topics through intersectionality, colonization, and transnationalism lenses.
WS 4493.50 – 100% Online – Instructor: Dr. Audrey Lundahl – ALundahl@twu.edu
WS 4903/5043: ST: Art, Activism and Social Justice
How have artists and activists pushed the boundaries of what counts as art and who counts as an artist? How has art been used to challenge our ideas about society and politics and to offer new visions of radically transformative futures? How have activists used art in social movements? In Art, Activism, and Social Justice we’ll explore these questions through different creative works—songs, film and video, visual art, performance, and multimedia art—by artists across the world. In addition to a wide range of art, artists, and case studies, we’ll read about creativity and social justice from Latinx, Black, queer, and feminist perspectives.
WS 4903.50/5043.01 – Bracketed - Mondays 6:00-8:50 p.m. – Instructor: Dr. Agatha Beins – abeins@twu.edu
WS 5293: Gloria Anzaldúa Seminar
This seminar investigates the work of Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa, focusing especially on her groundbreaking theoretical, philosophical, and aesthetic contributions and her innovative social-justice work. Some of the Anzaldúan theories we explore include the following: conocimiento, el mundo zurdo, nepantla, nepantleras, new tribalism, spiritual activism, mestiza consciousness, and the Coyolxauhqui process. We will also examine Anzaldúa’s impact on ethnic studies, feminist theory, literary theory, composition theory, queer theory, education studies, and other academic fields. Students will explore applications of Anzaldúan theory and apply Anzaldúan theory to a project of their own.
WS/ENG 5293/5903.50 – F2F alternating Tuesdays, 2:30 to 5:20 p.m. Beginning 8/24 –Instructor: Dr. AnaLouise Keating – akeating@twu.edu
WS 5463: U.S. Women of Colors
Description forthcoming…
WS 5463.01 – 100 % Online w/synchronous sessions - Tuesdays 6:00-8:50 p.m. – Dr. Patricia Stukes – pstukes@twu.edu
WS 6303: Transdisciplinary Research Methods
This course is designed for graduate students across academic disciplines who are developing research projects that address social justice issues. Students will learn research methods developed by feminist scholars to address a range of problems from systemic racism to gender discrimination to labor exploitation. We will use multimedia texts to explore these transdisciplinary approaches to research through film, maps, oral interviews, videos, books, and articles. A portion of this course will also be dedicated to researching injustices in our own “backyard.” We will engage in archival and community research to explore the removal of Quakertown, a thriving African American community that lived across the street from present-day TWU.
WS 6303.01 – Online, w/F2F meetings Wednesdays 2:30-5:50p on 9/8, 10/16, 11/3, 12/1 – Instructor: Instructor: Dr. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham – dphillips3@twu.edu
Spring 2022
WS 2033.50: Womanist Spiritual Activism: Social Justice Theories for Wellness and Holistic Transformation
Dr. AnaLouise Keating (akeating@twu.edu)
Fully online, asynchronous
Womanist Spiritual Activism explores the interrelated issues of personal health, spirituality, political activism, and social transformation. It focuses on multicultural, Indigenous, and womanist approaches to wellness and social change by investigating the interconnected roles of individual and collective wellness in struggles for social justice. Please note: In this course, “womanist” is not synonymous with “women” or even with “gender.” Rather, “womanist” is a very inclusive term; it refers to a philosophical system first articulated by Alice Walker, who associates its origins with Black Southern women’s worldviews. As Layli Maparyan explains in The Womanist Idea, “Womanism is a liberatory philosophy and praxis available to everyone of any gender or culture The womanist worldview and its associated social movement is rooted in the lived experience of survival, community building, intimacy with the natural environment, health, healing, and personal growth among everyday people from all walks of life and articulated primarily but not exclusively by women of color from around the world, and now a gift to all humanity.” This course satisfies the 3-credit hour requirement in Multicultural Women’s Studies or Wellness.
WS 2393.01: Intro to Literature by Women
Dr. Ashley Bender (abender@twu.edu)
Fully online with Monday synchronous sessions 1:00-2:20
***Satisfies 3 hours of the Core Curriculum (Language Philosophy, Culture OR Multicultural Women’s)***
This course will explore a range of genres (fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction) by living BIPOC women. Dr. Bender is still selecting texts and welcomes suggestions. Email her if there is a text you’d like to see on the reading list!
WS 2393.50: Intro to Literature by Women
Dr. Phyllis Bridges (pbridges@twu.edu)
Fully online, asynchronous
***Satisfies 3 hours of the Core Curriculum (Language Philosophy, Culture OR Multicultural Women’s)***
Textbooks: Great Short Stories by American Women (Dover Thrift Edition), edited by Candace Ward, Great Poems by American Women (Dover Thrift Edition), edited by Susan Rattiner, Short Story Masterpieces by American Women Writers (Dover Thrift Edition), edited by Clarence Strowbridge. The textbooks are available from many online vendors as well as in the TWU Bookstore. The books are very reasonably priced. Additional materials will be available on Canvas as well as on reserve in the TWU library.
Plan for the course: This course allows all of us an opportunity to engage with each other from a literary and women’s studies perspective. We will study short works from the early days of the Republic to contemporary times; and we will consider the many voices that make up American literature. Authors of multiple ethnicities and works in various genres will give us many options to expand our knowledge and understanding.
WS 6403.50: Politics of Publication & Writing
Dr. AnaLouise Keating (akeating@twu.edu)
Fully online, day TBD. Synchronous sessions 2:30 - 3:50, on alternating weeks, starting week one
What’s the relationship between language and transformation? What roles can writing play in knowledge creation and social change? How do we make our scholarship relevant to broad, diverse audiences? How do we develop sustainable research, writing, and work habits that don’t benefit the mind at the expense of the body? How do we finish a graduate degree without becoming unbalanced, depleted, and overly stressed? This seminar explores these and related questions. Designed to enhance student writing, communication, and holistic-critical thinking skills, WS 6403 explores issues and practices related to writing, reading, and publishing in a variety of forums and formats, focusing especially on the fields of WGS and multicultural-feminist/womanist scholarship more generally. In addition to conventional writing-related explorations, we’ll spend some time with embodied, Anzaldúan-inspired methods and techniques. This course will assist students in developing and conducting their dissertation/thesis research; articulating the interconnections between their research interests and social-justice concerns; preparing their comprehensive-exam portfolio; developing, designing and conducting their dissertation research; and enhancing their writing, reading, and research skills.
Page last updated 11:35 AM, October 28, 2021