Gender and Sexuality Studies

Academic Year: 
2019-20
Address: 
213 Dickinson Hall
Phone: 
609-258-5430
Website: 
Gender and Sexuality Studies
Program offerings: 
Certificate
Director of Graduate Studies
Regina Kunzel
Graduate Program Administrator
Maria Papadakis

Academic department detail

Overview

Gender and Sexuality Studies has a long and rich history at Princeton.  Established in 1982 as Women’s Studies, the program was renamed Gender and Sexuality Studies in 2011 to reflect the trajectory and expanded reach of teaching and scholarship among Princeton faculty and in the field more generally.  Faculty and students in the program are dedicated to the study of gender and sexuality in their complex articulation with race, ethnicity, class, disability, religion, nationality, and other intersections of identity, power, and politics. 

Courses

Permanent Courses

Courses listed below are graduate-level courses that have been approved by the program’s faculty as well as the Curriculum Subcommittee of the Faculty Committee on the Graduate School as permanent course offerings. Permanent courses may be offered by the department or program on an ongoing basis, depending on curricular needs, scheduling requirements, and student interest. Not listed below are undergraduate courses and one-time-only graduate courses, which may be found for a specific term through the Registrar’s website. Also not listed are graduate-level independent reading and research courses, which may be approved by the Graduate School for individual students.

AAS 522 Publishing Articles in Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (also
COM 522
/
ENG 504
/
GSS 503
) In this interdisciplinary class, students of race and gender read deeply and broadly in academic journals as a way of learning the debates in their fields and placing their scholarship in relationship to them. Students report each week on the trends in the last five years of any journal of their choice, writing up the articles' arguments and debates, while also revising a paper in relationship to those debates and preparing it for publication. This course enables students to leap forward in their scholarly writing through a better understanding of their fields and the significance of their work to them.
COM 530 Comparative Poetics of Passing: Race, Ethnicity, Sexuality (also
ENG 520
/
GSS 530
) The expansion of race theory from the Americas into the global scene invites a cross-cultural approach to the fluidity of identity. This seminar investigates fiction and film from the African American, Jewish American, LGBTQ, and Israeli-Palestinian contexts to broadly explore how society constructs and deconstructs race, ethnicity, and gender. It focuses on representations of passing and reverse passing as well as doubled/split identities for a wide-ranging, comparative discussion of the political and the psychological dynamics of identity and selfhood.
COM 542 Women and Liberation: Feminist Poetics and Politics in the Americas (1960s to the present) (also
GSS 542
/
SPO 556
/
ENG 542
) This course aims to explore different forms that the question of liberation has taken in writings by women philosophers and poets whose work helped to create cultural and political movements in the U.S. and Latin America. Starting in the 1960s, the course touches upon different philosophical concepts and poetic figures that have shaped the language of women's struggles (intersectionality, black and third world feminism, subalternity and feminist epistemologies, capitalist accumulation and "witch"-hunting, (re)transmission of knowledge).
COM 553 The Eighteenth Century in Europe (also
ENG 546
/
GSS 553
) A consideration of the primary topoi and defining oppositions of Enlightenment thought. Texts and specific focus vary from year to year.
ENG 572 Introduction to Critical Theory (also
GSS 572
) The ethical, historical, and political dimensions of Jacques Derrida's thought and writings.
GSS 501 Questions Across Disciplines in Women's Studies A seminar for graduate students engaged in research in gender studies, examining the guiding concepts and methodologies across the humanistic disciplines. Taught by scholars from different departments, topics include approaches in anthropology, history, literature, sociology, film studies, and political science. Application available in 113 Dickinson Hall.
HIS 519 Topics in the History of Sex and Gender (also
GSS 519
/
HOS 519
) A study of the historical connections linking sex and gender to major social, political, and economic transformations. Comparative approaches are taken either in time or by region, or both. Topics may include family, gender, and the economy; gender, religion, and political movements; gender and the state; and gender and cultural representation.
MUS 545 Contexts of Composition (also
GSS 545
/
ARC 580
) An examination of the proliferating variety of relations between composers and composition, in film, theater, and dance; technologically based systems and collaborative situations. Extended meanings of composition, including new applications made possible by technology and recording and the exploration of musical extensibility of subjects such as meditation, games, ritual, social action, and cognitive science.
POL 543 Interest Groups and Social Movements in American Politics and Policy (also
GSS 543
/
AAS 543
) This course engages theoretical and empirical work about interest groups and social movements in American politics and policy-making. We examine theories of interest group and social movement formation, maintenance and decline; how interest groups and social movements attempt to influence public policy; the impact of interest groups and social movements; lobbying; the relationships between interest groups and the three branches of the federal government; interest groups, elections, campaign finance, PACs, and 527s; and the effectiveness of interest groups and social movements as agents of democratic representation.
REL 509 Studies in the History of Islam (also
NES 510
/
GSS 509
) Themes in Islamic religion are examined.
SOC 525 Sociology of Gender (Half-Term) (also
GSS 526
) This course offers an introduction to theory, perspectives, and empirical research in the Sociology of Gender. The course covers a combination of canonical and contemporary work, consider traditional and current debates, and will include local and global material. This is a reading and writing intensive class.