I am a Gender Sexuality Studies major on the Histories and Genealogies track at Davidson College
GSS & History
HIS 336 – Sexual Revolutions: Women, Gender, & Sex in Modern Europe (Spring 2020)
We examine the history of debates about the nature and place of women in the history of modern Europe, and how gender difference has been employed in the construction and negotiation of political and social relations. We investigate the birth of feminism, as well as other cultural discourses and political movements that engaged shifting notions of gender and sexuality: homosexuality and the “invention” of heterosexuality, labor activism, reproductive science, race and empire, prostitution, revolution, and fascism. This course also explores the experience of sexuality in the modern era-how women and men viewed and managed their bodies and sexual lives, including tension-ridden norms of masculinity.
GSS 350- Sex Radicals (Fall 2019)
When we think about queer and feminist politics, we typically think of the processes by which women and LGBT people have effected change through legislation, court cases, and supporting candidates friendly to their causes. But much U.S. queer and feminist thought and activism has taken root outside the bounds of liberal electoral politics. This course centers on the fringes. It surveys the writings of less-palatable political actors: punks, anarchists, communists, anti-capitalists, sex workers, black radicals, and prison abolitionists. In exploring these political genealogies, we will ask: How does the personal constitute the political? What counts as (legitimate) political action according to whom? (How) can social change be effected outside of electoral politics and state institutions? What should be the role of the state in regulating labor and distributing rights and entitlements? What priorities have animated the various radical traditions within queer and feminist thought, and how have they addressed or failed to address race, class, ethnicity, and disability? How have these traditions intersected and diverged? Why have contemporary queer radicals come to focus on issues less obviously connected to gender and sexuality like global capitalism, drone warfare, and police militarization?
HIS 226- Repression & Liberation in the Soviet Union: Minorities and the Soviet Project (Spring 2020)
This course looks at the promises, failures, hopes and disappointments of the Soviet project through the lens of minority groups. What appeal did the communist ideology have to marginalized populations, both in the Soviet Union and across international borders? How did minority groups help to shape Soviet policy, propaganda, and international outreach? What responses did minority groups have, upon realizing that the Soviet Union was not the bastion of minority rights that they had expected? How were minorities mobilized by both the East and the West in the Cold War? This class explores these questions, which are central to understanding the Soviet project, the Cold War, and the rise of socialism and leftist values among educated minorities around the world. It focuses on groups like Jews, Central Eurasians, American black intellectuals, linguistic minorities, and Muslims and their hopes, beliefs, and disappointments in the Soviet project, as well as historiographic debates around repression and agency of minority groups in the USSR.
GSS 101- Intro to Gender and Sexuality Studies (Spring 2020)
This class provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the analytical tools, key scholarly debates, history, and research subfields of gender and sexuality studies. It pays particular attention to the construction and deployment of gender as a cultural category across various social institutions. Students will learn to assess and analyze documents pertaining to the history of and contemporary state of feminisms and women’s rights, masculinity, queer theory, disability studies, body image and consumer culture, intersectionality, as well as a host of gendered questions related to health, work, the family, violence, and politics.
Sociology
SOC 305- Migrants, Refugees, and the Stateless (Spring 2020)
In this course students will become familiar with the meanings, processes, and narratives of population movement. Through an overview of the political, economic, social, and safety reasons that shape refugee and migration flows to the Global North, this course will expose students to the experiences of voluntary and forced refugees and immigrants. The city of Charlotte, site of the only Immigration Court in North Carolina, will serve as a resource in exploring the legal processes that immigrants and refugees in the U.S. experience. This will further students’ understanding of recent changes and ongoing processes in immigration and refugee policy in the U.S.
SOC 201- Social Statistics (Fall 2019)
Sociologists and other social scientists must describe and interpret social facts in order to make sense of the world around them. To do this, they often rely on the analysis of quantitative data using statistical methods. This course acts as a primer to sociological statistical analysis and students will learn to find and access social data, summarize patterns in that data, represent these patterns graphically, and explore relationships between different variables. Topics include descriptive measures, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, chi-square, correlation, and regression. This course is designed as a gateway to quantitative sociological research, and emphasis is on practice and implementation, with students also learning to use SPSS software.
Other Courses
WRI 101- Building Stories (Fall 2019)
Architecture is not a passive structure we occupy; it shapes our minds and imaginations, influencing what we do and how we do it. In this course, we’ll explore virtual and real spaces ranging from websites and home pages, to homes, hospitals, and prisons. We’ll also approach writing as a form of building, breaking out of the boring 5-paragraph essay blueprint into order reimagine essays as enticing dwelling spaces for readers. In this course, you must think of yourself not just as a writer of college papers, but as an architect, designer, and builder of multimedia essays. The course itself inhabits the digital realm: you’ll publish your essays on a course website and design a website of your own, which you can use to showcase your work throughout your career. No previous technological training needed, but creativity, critical thinking, and a collaborative spirit are required.
PSY 101- General Psychology (Fall 2019)
Survey of the current psychology of learning, perception, motivation, intelligence, thinking, and social and abnormal behaviors, with emphasis on the application of scientific methods to psychological investigation and on the biological bases of behavior and experience. Students may be required to participate in experiments or in alternative research experiences.
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