View our Fall 2008 course schedule.
WS 151 Introduction to Women’s Studies (3)
This course is an introduction to critical thinking about the construction of gender and the intersections of gender with race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality. We will be concerned with the ways in which these constructions and intersections shape women's lives. In addition, this course will examine the discipline of multiethnic and transnational women's studies with a strong emphasis on Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific issues. Each section of the course integrates indigenous voices, values, and cultural perspectives from Hawaii and/or other regions of the Pacific and Asia with analytical questions developed in gender/feminist studies, indigenous studies, ethnic studies, Asian studies, and cultural studies. Topics also explored include the development of women's studies, representations of women in history, women and popular culture, social inequality, male violence against women, women and work, women's health, family, marriage, motherhood, and reproduction/reproductive rights.
Required texts:
Women's Voices, Feminist Visions. by Susan Shaw and Janet Lee
WS 175 History of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Global Perspectives to 1500 CE (3)
Explores how gender, sex, and sexuality become key elements in human society from prehistory to 1500 CE. Examines ancient world civilizations from multiple perspectives stressing issues and forces still influential today. FG
WS 200 Culture, Gender, and Appearance (3)
Cross-listed as APDM 200 This course is designed to provide a cross-cultural investigation of the impact of the social world on the gendered body and dress. We will explore the social construction of gender through an integrated understanding of the social, psychological and cultural views of dress. The function of culture and gender in the creation of idealized images used by the fashion system will be explored in detail. Open to non-majors.
WS 202 Psychology of Gender (3)
Deconstruct the social construct of gender. We'll focus on the latest research on biological sex and gender. You will be invited to participate in and replicate psychological experiments on sex and gender. We'll watch clips from "PBS Frontline" and "The David Chapelle Show," and listen to the voices of Alfred Kinsey and Ann Fausto-Sterling. Lectures will build on our required readings. Students will complete numerous assignments, an independent research project, and take a mid-term and final exam. Fasten your seatbelts.
Required texts
Psychological Perspectives by L. Brannon
WS 245 Women Writers of World Literature (3)
Major women writers of world literature examined in context of female literary tradition. Pre: one of ENG 100A, 101, or ELI 100 or consent. DL
WS 257 Sexual Identity in Literature (3)
Selected themes in major works of various types, cultures, periods. Requires a minimum of 3,000 words of writing. Pre: one of ENG 100A, 101, or ELI 100. (Cross-listed as ENG 257Y) DL
WS 304 Women, War, and the Military (3)
The military as it includes and excludes women as soldiers, nurses, wives, prostitutes, and victims. Women and war economics; feminism, war, and peace. Pre: one of 151, 362, 375 or SOC 362, or consent. DS
Explores current issues in the conceptualization and delivery of health care for women. Pre: one of 151, 202, POLS 110, or SOC 100. (Cross-listed as NURS 305) DS
WS 311 U.S. Women’s History since 1890s (3)
A survey of history of U.S. women and gender relations since 1890s. Emphasis on social reform, suffrage and the New Woman, women’s wartime labor, gender and the Cold War, second wave feminism, divisions among women. Pre: 151, 151A (or concurrent) or AMST 201, AMST 201A (or concurrent) or AMST 202, 202A (or concurrent), or consent. (Cross-listed as AMST 316 and HIST 361) DH
Cross-listed as ANTH 315 We will examine biological, evolutionary, social, economic, legal, and ideological aspects of women's position in selected developing and industrial societies. We will also explore the impact of sex and gender in anthropological research, and feminist issues in anthropology.
Required texts
Lives on the Line: Women and Ecology on a Pacifc Atoll by Alexandra Brewis
Challenging Gender Norms: Five Genders Among the Bugis of Indonesia by Thompson Wadsworth
The Miniature Guide to Understanding the Foundations of Ethical Reasoning by Richard Paul and Linda Elder
Female Power and Male Dominance by Peggy Reeves Sanday
WS 318 Women and Social Policy (3)
Social and economic policies affecting women in families, education, social services, government, health care, the economy; public policy implementation and development; policy impact on women. Pre: one of 151, SOC 100, any 200-level SOC course, or junior standing; or consent. (Cross-listed as SOC 318) DS
Interdisciplinary critical examination of the relationship between gender and mental health. Psychological research, feminist theory, autobiography, literature, and cinema. Pre: one of 202, 245, PSY 202, or consent. DS
WS 339 South Asian Migrants: Culture and Politics (3)
Historical and contemporary experiences of South Asian migrants in North America, Pacific, Caribbean, and/or African diasporas; causes and patterns of migration; inter-ethnic relations policies; role of race, gender, culture in community; identity formation. Pre: any WS or ES course. (Cross-listed as ES 339) DS
WS 345 20th-Century Literature by Women (3)
Literature offers a laboratory of the mind as well as particular kinds of aesthetic pleasure. Literature can allow us to enter other cultures at least tentatively and temporarily and to reconsider our own. It can show us much about how language functions to create and reinforce or destabilize our understanding of reality. And it can invite us to think innovatively about the world of women, the meanings of sexuality and gender, and the functioning of words. Literature can also invite us to think carefully about ethics: what counts as ethical in our society and in others, why we consider something ethical or not, and how feminists critique and rethink many traditional notions of ethics. In this ethics-focused course we will concentrate on books written by women writers in the twentieth and into the twenty-first centuries. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English is a rich collection of novels, poems, short stories and essays that we will complement with two other novels, each shifting us to an important area of the globe not well covered in the anthology. In Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, by Laila Lalami (2005), a Muslim woman writes about the movement of four Moroccans to Europe and what happens to them there as they face the clash of their ethics, religion, and hopes with the ethics, religion and realities of the country where they arrive. Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller is set in Korea and Hawaii and asks us to rethink painful psychological and ethical issues of what happens to women in war.
Required texts
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami
Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller
Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar
WS 346 20th-Century Literature by Chinese Women (3)
Since this course fulfills the GEC requirements for Diversification (Literature) and Focus (Contemporary Ethical Issues), the content and pedagogical goals have been designed with these special emphasis in mind. Through a reading of selected narratives (mainly short stories and 1-2 novels), this course surveys writings by Chinese women from the Peoples Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. Theoretical essays are included in the reading-list to help students develop a critical understanding and ethical perspective of literary issues, in general, and of women's experiences in particular. Pre: one of 151, EALL 271, EALL 361, or ENG 250. (Cross-listed as EALL 364) DL
WS 350 Sex Differences in the Life Cycle (3)
This course is designed to give the student a clear understanding of the human sex differences, their biological basis and significance. The course has a broad base approach and will cover aspects of anatomy and physiology of human reproductive biology. Special attention will be given to genetic, hormonal, and behavioral determinants of sexual differentiation; biology of gender, sexuality, menopause, and aging. In addition, the course will integrate the ecological and evolutionary aspects of sexual reproduction. In short, our goal is to provide a forum, drawing from different scientific specializations, in which the students can examine and discuss the many aspects of sexual differences in humans.
Required texts
Human Reproductive Biology by Richard E. Jones and Kristin H. Lopez
WS 351 Women, Ideas, and Society (3)
Status of women in American society today in light of the cultural, historical, and philosophical forces that have produced it. Pre: HIST 151 and HIST 152, or consent. DH
Examining roles of, and attitudes toward, women in major religious traditions through autobiographies, films, and primary texts. Pre: ANTH 150 or 151; or consent. (Cross-listed as ANTH 356 and REL 356)DH
WS 360 Pacific/Asian Women in Hawai‘i (3)
Adaptive strategies of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Samoan, and Southeast Asian women in Hawai‘i; feminist anthropological and historical analysis. Pre: any ANTH, SOC, or WS course. (Cross-listed as ES 365) DS
WS 361 Seminar: Women and International Development (3)
Topics: Women’s role, status, work and treatment in the Third World; Economic Development, changing work/family roles, and improvement/deterioration in gender equity across the Third World; global feminization of poverty; efforts to promote gender equity. Open to nonmajors. Pre: a 100 level economics course or any women’s studies course; or consent. (Cross-listed as ECON 361) DS
WS 362 Sociology of Gender (3)
This course will offer students with an opportunity to study an important aspect of their lives--their gender--from a social scientific viewpoint. It will first acquaint them with the sociological perspective on gender and sexual identity and then go on to discuss the major myths that accompany most people's notions of masculinity and femininity. A discussion of the costs and benefits of traditional gender roles, their enforcement in everyday life, and a consideration of how gender roles are learned will provide the context for then discussing gender in major institutional context; cross-cultural data on institutional arrangements in other societies will also be presented. As the first social institution, the family is also the basis of patriarchy and a logical starting point for analysis. Historical and cross-cultural perspectives on family life as well as the impact of gender roles on sexuality, dating, mate selection, and marriage will be discussed. The course will then turn to the gendered nature of various important aspects of social life. Gender and education will be explored with a particular focus on emerging issues such as relational violence in girls' cliques and the problem of media constructions of femininity, including violent and tough femininity (e.g. bad girls). A review of the many gender and the workplace issues (men as "success objects," economic discrimination against women, sexual harassment, etc.) will also be undertaken. The role of gender expectations in political life and the involvement of institutions of social control (the criminal justice system, welfare and health systems, etc.) in the maintenance of gender stratification and the control of women's bodies will also be considered. Finally, reactions to traditional gender stratification including the first and second wave of feminism in America and other parts of the world will be discussed as will be future directions in feminist thought. (Cross-listed as SOC 362) DS
WS 375 Women and the Media (3)
Media portrayal of women and men; role of the media in reproducing gender inequality. Women as producers and consumers of media. Feminist alternatives to mainstream media. Pre: one of 151, 362, SOC 362. DS
WS 381 Gender, Sexuality and Literature (3)
Basic concepts and representative texts for the study of literary constructions of gender and sexuality. Pre: any two of the following: ENG 250, ENG 251, ENG 252, ENG 253, ENG 254, ENG 255, ENG 256, ENG 257; second may be taken concurrently; or consent. (Cross-listed as ENG 382) DL
WS 382 Hawai‘i’s Female Heritage (3)
Learning to reclaim the ethnically diverse creative expressions of Hawai‘i’s women. Pre: any WS or ES course. DH
Women’s role in political institutions and processes in the U.S. and other countries; female and male approaches to power; feminist political goals and actions. Pre: 151 (or concurrent) or 362 (or concurrent) or any 100 level POLS course (or concurrent); or consent. (Cross-listed as POLS 384) DS
WS 390 Gender and Race in U.S. Society (3)
This course begins in Hawai'i in the 1930s with a sensationalized case in which five local men from Kalihi-Palama were accused of raping a White woman, a resident of MaØnoa. What role did race and gender play in the case and in the media attention that the case received across the continent? Taking the Massie Case as the starting point, the course introduces students to ways in which social constructs such as race and gender shape power relation - privilege and disadvantage - in U.S. society. Race and gender as identities and racism and sexism as systems of oppression go hand in hand. We examine how racial and gender politics intersect in institutions such as courts, prisons, the health care system, education, media, and popular culture in our study of Whiteness, colonization of Native American women, articulations of Black urban culture in the face of new racism, and immigrant dreams and realities of Filipino baklas in New York and South Asians in Chicago. Required texts: Honor Killing: How the Infamous "Massie Affair" Transformed Hawai'i, by David Stannard Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide, by Andrea Smith Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora, by Martin Manalansan Ethnic Routes to Becoming American: Indian Immigrants and Cultures of Citizenship, by Sharmila Rudrappa (Cross-listed as ES 390) DS
This course explores human sexualities in societies around the world with an emphasis on the U.S., Hawai'i and the Asia-Pacific regions. Readings, films and speakers will help frame discussions of sexualized identities, biological myths of sex and gender, statification of sexualities by class, race, gender and age, the impact of colonization on sexuality in the Pacific, the impact on sexualities of HIV and AIDS, pornography, mass media communication and representations of sexualities, and contemporary issues in sex research.
WS 399 Directed Reading (V) Pre: consent.
WS 414 Women in Drama and Theater (3)
The role of women and their representation in the theater from ancient Greece to the present; focus on the socio-political status of women. Pre: THEA 311 or consent. (Cross-listed as THEA 414) DH
Gender and racial division of labor nationally and internationally; racial and gender differentials in wages, training, working conditions and unemployment; historical trends and future directions. Pre: One 300-level SOC or WS or ES course. (Cross-listed as ES 418 and SOC 418) DS
WS 419 Feminist Issues in Philosophy (3)
Examination of a number of basic feminist issues in philosophy within the areas of ethics, philosophy of religion, and epistemology/methodology. Pre: any course 200 or above in WS or PHIL; or consent. (Cross-listed as PHIL 418) DH
WS 430 Seminar in the Biology of Women (3)
Embryological, anatomical, and physiological development of human female; hormonal, neural, and behavioral determinants of female sexual behavior; psychobiology of pregnancy, ovariectomy, and menopause. Pre: 350, 377, or BIOL 172, BIOL 350; or consent. (Cross-listed as BIOL 430) DB
Women’s relations with the criminal justice system; types of women’s offenses; responses to women’s crime; women as victims; women as workers in the criminal justice system. Pre: any WS or SOC course. (Cross-listed as SOC 435) DS
WS 436 Gender, Justice and Law (3)
Past and present roles of women in American political and legal institutions; common law, judicial decisions, and federal and state legislation affecting women of various socioeconomic groups. Pre: junior standing or consent. A-F only. (Cross-listed as AMST 436 and POLS 436) DS
WS 437 Gender and Violence: Transnational Feminist Analysis
This course will reexamine and complicate Western
concepts of gender violence in the U.S. and elsewhere. It has a Contemporary
Ethical Issues (E) Focus designation and ethical issues will constitute
approximately 50% of course content. Questions such as: What constitutes
violence against women? How do women and men of different class, race, sexual
and national backgrounds experience and understand violence differently?
How does the well accepted notion of patriarchal domination as the primary
source of gender violence conceal equally important dynamics of race, class
nation and empire? How do the discourses of “domestic violence”
and “ethnic violence” rely on and reproduce problematic binary
oppositions of “private” v “public,” “domestic”
v “foreign,” or “us” v “them”? are addressed
through readings and class discussions. Students are expected to challenge
preexisting feminist analyses by applying ethical reasoning and turning
their gaze to colonial and post colonial terrains and making empirical and
analytical connections among disparate instances of gender violence past
and present.
WS 438 Gender and Environmental Philosophy (3)
Interdisciplinary approach to women’s perspectives and roles on ecological and environmental issues; critical analysis of eco-feminism as a social and political movement; cross-cultural comparison of women’s roles in human ecology. Pre: any course 200 or above in WS or a natural science or PHIL; or consent. (Cross-listed as PHIL 438) DH
This course explores contemporary feminist theorizing about how to approach women's oppression and their strategies of resistance. Analyzing women's oppression entails generalizing about women. How do we generalize about women without projecting one set of experiences onto all of us and without recreating the categories that enable patriarchy in the first place? The course shows us how contemporary feminist scholars have re-examined how the category "woman" is constructed and defined as they explore relations between gender and sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, globalization, nationalism and colonialism. This course satisfies the Writing Intensive requirement. Through a variety of writing assignments and feedback from the professor you will improve your writing skills while also fine tuning your thinking about feminism, gender, and globalization. Recognizing that Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary field, your writing will reflect the conventions of your primary discipline. (Cross-listed as POLS 339) DS
WS 440 Feminist Methods and Research (3)
Overview of feminist issues with dominant theories of knowledge and major methodologies employed in the social sciences; and exploration of role of gender theory and feminist politics in feminist research. Pre: WS 151; or consent. DS
WS 445 U.S. Women’s Literature and Culture (3)
Reading of selected works of U.S. women’s literature and cultural texts (such as art and film). Emphasis on historical and cultural context and diverse expressions of women’s gendered identities. Pre: 151 (or concurrent), AMST 202 (or concurrent), or ENG 250 (or concurrent); or consent. (Cross-listed as AMST 455 and ENG 455) DL
WS 446 Analysis in Rape and Sexual Abuse (3)
To analyze current theoretical perspectives, research strategies, and empirical research findings on sexual victimization perspectives and treatment. Also, this course will enable each student to integrate his or her knowledge and demonstrate understanding of the subject matter through performance on examinations. This course deals with sexual victimization as a major problem in America, its traumatic effects on the victim, prevention, and treatment. The focus will be on current theoretical perspectives, research strategies, research findings, and critiques. Special victim populations (e.g., students, makes and children) will also be examined. Pre: SOC 275 or consent. (Cross-listed as SOC 446) DS
WS 452 Marriage and Family: Feminist Perspective (3)
Sex-role socialization, mate selection, motherhood, career-family conflicts. Alternative family structures in U.S. and other countries. Pre: 351, a 200-level SOC, or upper division social science course. (Cross-listed as SOC 452) DS
WS 453 Gender Issues in Education (3)
Examination of current and historical issues in education and how they are impacted upon by gender, with particular reference to gender as it intersects with ethnicity and class, locally and globally. Pre: 151 or junior standing, or consent. (Cross-listed as EDCS 453 and EDEF 453) DS
WS 460 Feminism, Nation and Empire (3)
Examines U.S. feminist movements in the 19th and 20th century by exploring how U.S. racism, nationalism and imperialism have provided the context from which feminism emerged. A-F only. Pre: 151, 360, or consent.
History, culture, and contemporary reality of Asian women in Asia and the U.S. Includes critical analysis of American feminist methodology and theory. Pre: 360, 361, or 439 or any 100 level POLS course or POLS 339; or consent. (Cross-listed as AMST 438 and POLS 372) DS
WS 463 Gender Issues in Asian Society (3)
Construction of gender identities in contemporary Asia. How these interface with other aspects of social difference and inequality (e.g. with class, religion, ethnicity). Pre: any WS course or ASAN 242, or consent. (Cross-listed as ASAN 463) DS
Exploration of film as a philosophical and artistic form in the context of gender, race, and sexuality. Pre: 151 or one of ENG 250–257 or THEA 201 or consent. DH
WS 483 Studies in Literature and Sexuality and Gender (3)
Intensive study of selected problems and issues in the construction and representation of sexuality and gender in specific genres, social and cultural contexts, thematic or figurative clusters. Repeatable one time. Pre: ENG 320 and one other 300-level ENG course; or consent. (Cross-listed as ENG 482) DL
WS 492 Women and Revolution (3)
Conditions under which women’s activism and participation in protest and revolutionary movements developed in the 19th- and 20th-centuries. Cross-cultural comparisons. (Cross-listed as HIST 492) DH
Hawaii was the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize abortion. Given the hot debate in the U.S. about women's access to abortions, this is a good time to look back at Hawaii's remarkable history. How did it happen that a devout Catholic male state senator led the fight to end criminalized abortions? Why did a devout Catholic governor allow the legislation to become law? Who performed the illegal abortions in Hawaii? How did women's demand for rights figure in the debate? How did the ethical issues surrounding abortion get framed-and how do we evaluate them today? This course will address one of the most compelling ethical issues in our society. To help us frame the questions raised by abortion, we will read The Moral Veto: Framing Contraception, Abortion, and Cultural Pluralism in the United States, by Gene Burns and a selection of additional readings. Several factions in U.S. society advocate recriminalizing abortions today. We have an amazing set of documents to help us think about the implications of such a move: transcripts from six of the Hawaii trials on illegal abortion. WS 495, in addition to being an advanced-level course with readings and discussions, will also be a highly collaborative and interactive workshop in which we carry out projects to make our findings and analysis widely available. Besides using writing and speaking to explore the complex issues of Hawaii's abortion reform, you will also participate on a team that generates materials that take your findings to a broader public. A website? A play? A video?-there are many possibilities. Prerequisite: consent of the instructor, Professor Ruth Dawson. Call (956-8669) or stop by her office (Saunders 721H) to ensure enough upper-level background. DS
WS 602: Transnational Feminist Teaching and Research
This introductory level graduate seminar is designed to develop common vocabulary and explore the core debates in transnational feminist teaching and research among students of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. This course encourages critical reflection about teaching and research assumptions, approaches, and techniques in the contemporary classroom environment that is shaped by such factors as race, gender, class, sexuality and nationality. Significantly, this course questions the current celebration of multiculturalism and transnationalism and allows students to think about feministsí culpability in, but also resistance against, racism, heterosexism, classism, nationalism and imperialism.
WS 610 Faculty Seminar Series (1)
Seminar/discussion course to introduce students pursuing the Graduate Certificate to the Woman’s Studies faculty and their areas of research, and to initiate students’s graduate studies in a Woman’s Studies field. Repeatable one time. Pre: classified graduate status (or status pending) and consent.
WS 612 Women in American Culture (3)
Historical/contemporary status of women in the United States; women’s roles as defined by legal, educational, political, economic, and social institutions; implications for social science method. (Cross-listed as AMST 612)
WS 613 Feminist Research and Methods of Inquiry (3)
Examination of an emergent body of literature about how to shape questions concerning gender, sex, race, class, colonialism, and other vectors of power. Includes methods from social sciences and humanities and debates in the philosophy of science. Repeatable one time. Pre: classified graduate status and consent.
An initial starting point for specifically feminist theorization can be found in the question: "How do we analyze the causes and sources of women's oppression?" But, to answer that, we need to address a prior question: "What does it mean to be female/woman?" What creates the category that these causes and sources of oppression 'address' themselves to, and how? This course explores contemporary feminist theorizing about how to approach the category "woman." How do we generalize about women without projecting one set of experiences onto all of us, and without recreating the power structure responsible for such categorization, and hence oppression, in the first place? Going further, how do we address the ways in which the very constitution of the category 'woman' rests on the constitution of broader gendered, raced, ethnicized, nationalized, and classed orders defining the boundaries between forms of social identity? The course provides an overview of the ways in which contemporary feminist scholarship addresses these issues. (Cross-listed as POLS 615C)
WS 620 Feminism and its ìOthersî
This graduate seminar interrogates the relationship
between feminist and other sites of critical insight and scholarship that
have contributed to creating anticolonial, antiracist, antihomophobic theory,
method and action. Drawing heavily from transnational feminist and queer
of color work, the course questions the legacy of feminist coalition practices
and engages the ongoing transformations that have begun to produce new alliances
and coalitions that disrupt traditional binaries of identity and power.
The course encourages students to specifically interrogate the relationship
between academic feminism and queer theory and examine the role these traditions
play in local, national, and international organizing and activism.
WS 623: Feminist Social Policy Research
In the decades since second wave feminists literally took to the streets to demand social justice and expanded rights for disenfranchised groups, the sociopolitical and economic situation of some women has changed significantly. The government responded to the activism of the 1960’s and 1970’s by developing policies designed to address activists’ concerns and occasionally even the gender-based inequalities that contributed to them. Over time, both the movement itself and the policies it prompted resulted in varying levels of success. Third wave feminists have brought increasingly complex policy questions and demands to bear on issues of violence, poverty, reproductive rights, indigenaity, right to work, and child welfare.
The study of state responses to the feminist movement provides critical insight into the question of how, to what extent, and under what circumstances, the state responds to demands for social change and expanded rights. Feminist social scientists from a variety of fields have explored issues of gender and social policy and this course draws from their work to critically examine strategies for conducting social policy research that is feminist in values and impact (i.e., goal) driven.
WS 650 Research in Feminist Studies: Capstone Experience (2)
This course will provide Women’s Studies graduate certificate students with an opportunity to design, develop and complete a research project culminating in a publishable quality work and a professional quality seminar presentation. A-F only. Pre: classified graduate status and consent.
WS 699 Directed Reading and Research (V)
Pre: classified graduate standing and consent of chair.
WS 753 (Alpha) Research Seminar in Chinese Literature (3)
Study of authors, a genre, a period, or a problem. (M) modern; (T) traditional. A-F only for (M). Pre: 613, 615, 650, or CHN 611; or consent for (M); CHN 612, CHN 613, or consent for (T). (Cross-listed as CHN 753 (Alpha))