Course Syllabus

ENGL 2450 Introduction to Gender Studies

Course Description

Introduction to Gender Studies investigates gender and gender identity, reflecting on how gender is identified and defined; how gender norms are established, maintained, and disrupted; and the role gender plays in both personal and social contexts. Students will be familiarized with gender theory as well as introduced to the historical context surrounding gender studies, including key terms, movements, and thinkers within the field.

Justification

Gender Studies is a standard General Education and Humanities course offered at a vast majority of colleges across the United States and the world. Introduction to Gender Studies provides students with another timely and relevant option to fulfill their General Education requirement. It will transfer as general education, elective, or major credit. It fulfills general education credit within the Humanities category (HU). In addition to providing variety to Snow College's General Education offerings, Introduction to Gender Studies serves the purposes of the Humanities Division. This class requires writing in the context of both exploratory and academic writing, as well as critical, close-text reading skills, all of which are essential skills developed through the Humanities Division course offerings.The Humanities are a group of academic disciplines that study the many ways by which humans have attempted to understand themselves and their world. At Snow College, the Humanities focus on cultural traditions that are expressed largely through text or which have a strong textual component: languages, literature, and philosophy. The methods by which the Humanities study culture are at once analytical and interpretive, objective and subjective, historical, and aesthetic.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Students will be able to identify the impact, relationship, and function of gender in the humanities, primarily in literature and theory. By studying gender through a humanities focus of literature and theory, students will be able to better understand gender as it intersects issues along social, political, economic, artistic, ethnic, etc. lines, with these intersections illustrating disparities in and markers of power, efficacy, privilege, hierarchy, and opportunity. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of gender studies as a relevant field within the humanities through written responses, a final exam, and a theory application essay in which they apply gender theory to a relevant contemporary issue, engaging in research and analysis.
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Students will access and engage in complex academic texts, the majority of which will be academic theory regarding gender. These texts will vary: theory, primary texts, academic essays, film, art, etc. Students will not only be able to read, understand, and engage with these texts, but they will also evaluate, respond, and work to apply relevant theoretical approaches to further their own understanding and application. Students will demonstrate their ability to access and make connections between texts through final exam questions focused primarily on the relationship between supplemental texts and the textbook. Students will demonstrate competency in retrieval, analysis, and synthesis of academic texts in order to deliver support for their theory application essay. Students will also have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to work with a variety of traditional and electronic media through additional application of theory assignments.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Students will use insights and prior learning from a variety of other disciplines, including life science, American institutions, and the social and behavioral sciences, to explore the complex area of gender studies. Students will demonstrate their knowledge through written responses, a final exam, and a theory application essay in which they apply gender theory to a relevant contemporary issue, engaging in research and analysis.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Students will be able to reason and question critically, analytically, and creatively about the nature of gender and gender norms as they are manifested in areas such as culture, science, values, ethics, and civic policy.
   Students will be able to read and critically analyze gender theory, understanding its place and making connections within the larger realm of gender studies and associated movements. Students will demonstrate their ability to identify and engage with gender norms as manifested throughout a variety of contexts through written assignments, assigned readings, and various additional theory application assignments.
   
5. A student who completes the GE curriculum can communicate effectively through writing and speaking. Students will be able to write in an effective, convincing, and informed manner concerning a variety of gender issues, based on interest and relevance. Students will also demonstrate the ability to incorporate self-directed and instructor directed revisions, utilizing the writing process in order to create a polished draft. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate these skills through a theory application essay, various written assignments, additional theory application assignments throughout the semester, and written components on the final exam.
   

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Students will engage in a selection of theoretical and philosophical readings in which gender theory will be applied to a broad spectrum of human thought, philosophy, and experience (i.e. identity, masculinity, feminism, transgenderism, civil rights, family/domesticity, education, work, advertising, film, art, colonialism, etc.).
   Through required readings (primary and secondary texts) throughout the semester, students will demonstrate an understanding of how gender shapes the overall human experience, making connections between gender and its influence on larger concepts of human thought and experience. Students will be able to res pond to these texts, understanding and applying the theory therein through a variety of possible assignments, such as written assignments, class discussion, and short answer and essay exams, all insisting they make connections between gender and its influence on the larger concepts.
    Students will engage in a selection of theoretical and philosophical readings in which gender theory will be applied to a broad spectrum of human thought, philosophy, and experience (i.e. identity, masculinity, feminism, transgenderism, civil rights, family/domesticity, education, work, advertising, film, art, colonialism, etc.).
   Through required readings (primary and secondary texts) throughout the semester, students will demonstrate an understanding of how gender shapes the overall human experience, making connections between gender and its influence on larger concepts of human thought and experience. Students will be able to res pond to these texts, understanding and applying the theory therein through a variety of possible assignments, such as written assignments, class discussion, and short answer and essay exams, all insisting they make connections between gender and its influence on the larger concepts.
   
2. Understand how knowledge is created through the study of language systems, literature, and/or philosophy. Students will understand how language, literature, and philosophy work together to establish and maintain gender norms in a variety of contexts. They will investigate how language, literature, and philosophy also work to disrupt these norms. By reading and considering theory and its applications, students will be able to differentiate between sex and gender and then work to untangle the two on a personal, local , national, and global scale, discovering how knowledge of self and other is largely shaped by gender. Students will respond to this key question of how gender and gender norms are defined, established, maintained, and disrupted throughout the semester in a variety of written assignments, class discussions, and through short-answer and essay exams.
3. Understand cultural traditions within an historical context and make connections with the present. A significant component of Introduction to Gender Studies is an understanding of the cultural and historical context of gender studies and its relation to a variety of movements. Students will study gender in light of this historical context and the cultural movements (first, second, third, and fourth wave feminism, masculinity movements, queer theory, transgenderism, historical government policy changes, etc). Students will demonstrate an ability to understand key movements and the surrounding historical context on exams. In addition, class discussions will demonstrate students' ability to place gender studies on a continuum, requiring them to track and discuss the progression.
4. Critically read and respond to primary texts (original, uninterpreted) from a Humanities’ perspective. Students will engage with a variety of primary texts (with theoretical secondary texts serving as a foundation) in order to objectively identify and consider gender assumptions (cultural, moral, ethical, political, religious, etc.) and critically parse these assumptions accordingly. They will understand the ways in which these texts point to a different or new method of viewing the self, others, and the world in terms of gender. Students will demonstrate their ability to read and respond to these texts from a humanities' perspective through written reflections, class discussion, and short answer and essay exams. In addition, students will evidence their ability to critically read and respond to the texts by completing a theory application assignment that requires students to read and respond critically to the text, synthesize and analyze the issue, and apply its relation to themselves and others.
5. Write effectively within the Humanities discipline to analyze and form critical and aesthetic judgments. In conjunction with consistent engagement with texts and close-text readings, students will be able to write in an effective, convincing, and informed manner concerning gender studies, based on interest and relevance. Students will demonstrate an ability to write effectively through frequent and varied writing assignments concerning a wide array of gender issues. Students will demonstrate a fluency in a variety of genres (journals, in-class writings, formal research essays, class presentations, reflections, exam writings, etc.). Students will also demonstrate the ability to incorporate self-directed and instructor directed revisions, utilizing the writing process to create a polished draft. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate these skills through a theory application essay, various written assignments, additional theory application assignments throughout the semester, and written components on the final exam.

Course Content

This course covers gender theory (sex/gender binary, sex/gender as construction, etc.), social movements and historical contexts (masculinity, feminism, transgenderism, civil rights etc.), institutions (family/domesticity, education, work), culture (advertising, film, art, etc.), and gender and ethnicity/race (privilege, the other, [post]colonial, etc.). The course will focus on close-text reading, theory, historical movements and thinkers and their influences, analysis and application, and critical thinking and writing, all within a balanced perspective.