Course Syllabus

ENGL 2450 Introduction to Gender Studies

Course Description

Introduction to Gender Studies investigates the ways in which gender and gender identity are understood, expressed, and experienced, reflecting on the role that gender plays in both personal and societal contexts. Students may engage with texts from a variety of academic fields, such as literature, social science, film/TV, popular culture, and more. Students will learn the key concepts, theories, and movements that have shaped contemporary discussions of gender.

Justification

Gender Studies is a standard General Education and Humanities course offered at 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 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. 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, hierarchy, and opportunity.
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Students will access and engage in complex academic texts, many of which will be academic theory regarding gender from a variety of disciplines. 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.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Students will be able to use insights and prior learning from a variety of other disciplines, which may include life science, American institutions, and the social and behavioral sciences, to explore the complex area of gender studies.
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.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Students will engage in a selection of theoretical, literary, and/or philosophical readings in which gender theory will be applied to a broad spectrum of human thought, philosophy, and experience. Through required readings (both primary and secondary texts) throughout the semester, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of how gender shapes the overall human condition, making connections between gender and its influence on larger concepts of human thought and experience.  Students will engage in a selection of theoretical, literary, and/or philosophical readings in which gender theory will be applied to a broad spectrum of human thought, philosophy, and experience. Through required readings (both primary and secondary texts) throughout the semester, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of how gender shapes the overall human condition, making connections between gender and its influence on larger concepts of human thought and experience.
2. EXPLAIN: Explain how humanities artifacts take on meaning within networks or systems (such as languages, cultures, values, and worldviews) that account for the complexities and uncertainties of the human condition. Students will investigate and discuss how language, literature, and philosophy work together to establish and maintain gender norms in a variety of contexts. They will also investigate, discuss, and write about the ways language, literature, and philosophy work to disrupt these norms. By reading and considering theory, literature, and their 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 significantly shaped by gender.
3. ANALYZE: Analyze humanities artifacts according to humanities methodologies, such as a close analysis, questioning, reasoning, interpretation, and critical thinking. 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.
4. COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Compare and contrast diverse humanistic perspectives across cultures, communities, and/or time periods to explain how people make meaning of their lives. 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 in different cultures and throughout time. Students will study gender in light of this historical context and the cultural movements related to our understanding gender within cultural and personal experience.
5. APPLY: Using humanities perspectives, reflect on big questions related to aesthetics, values, meaning, and ethics and how those apply to their own lives.  Students will be able to apply the concepts of gender theories to real-world issues and how the construction of gender, gender norms, and other expectations impact cultural, societal, and personal choices and circumstances.

Course Content

This course covers gender theory, social movements and historical contexts, institutions, culture, and intersectional experiences of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other factors as they interact with gender.

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.