Commonly Taught Courses
Art of Fashion (ARTS/THRE 3302-01) Instructors: Amy Von Lintel and Anne Medlock - This course explores the history of fashion from the ancient world to today. It offers an interdisciplinary investigation and demonstration of how fashion plays a crucial role in the production of cultural forms, including theatre, art, and film. It has a strong gender component, exploring how fashion and gender identity are deeply interconnected. Taught every Fall of odd years.
Bible as Literature (ENGL 3350-70) - The course goal will not be that of spiritual formation or exploration, but rather to examine the cultural importance of biblical texts in a literary context. We will focus on the Bible as a collection of different genres—poetic, historical, mythological, biographical, prophetic—and as a major influence on other artistic works in the Western world and the way gendered depictions stem from, uphold, and challenge Biblical texts.
Diversity and Cross-Cultural Management (MGT 4333/5333) Instructor: Andrew Li - This course covers diversity in the workplace, with half of the semester focusing specifically on the topic of gender and its implications at work, including women's participation in the workforce and the challenges they face; gender tokenism; gender and socialization processes; gender and careers; gender and leadership; and sexual harassment. Open to non-business majors.
Gender Communication (COMM 3370) - The purpose of this course is to explore communication about women and men as well as communication between women and men. Topics include gender differences, images of gender in mass media, gender images shaped by language, and communication between women and men in a variety of contexts.
Women in the Criminal Justice System (SOCI/CRIJ 3382) Instructor: Dawn Marie Jordan - Evolution and impact of women's participation in the justice system as victims, offenders, and professionals. An emphasis on critical thinking teaches students to look beyond media hype concerning female offenders to study the real stories behind women affected by and working in the justice system.
Select Past Courses
Art, Theatre, and Dance
Aesthetics of Gender and Identity (ARTS 4370-01) Instructor: Amy Von Lintel - This course explored theories and practices of identity politics through the lens of art and visual culture. It is not be a historical survey of gender in art across time, but instead a topically and thematically oriented course. It requires no prerequisite for enrollment and can be taken as an upper-level elective by any student interested in the visual languages and manifestations of identity.
African American Art and Visual Culture (ARTS 4370-02) Instructor: Amy Von Lintel - This course focused on Black and African American artistic production in the 20th century, and explored the intersectional issues of gender and race.
Aesthetics of Modern Architecture (ARTS 4370-01) Instructor: Amy Von Lintel - This course explores architecture as a means of shaping human space, and therefore focuses in part on issues of gender, race, class, and ethnicity as they have shaped and been shaped by architectural forms.
Costumes and Styles (THRE 4342-01) Instructor: Anne Medlock - This course used campus resources as direct primary sources for the study of historical clothing, architectural and interior design, furniture and product design. Because of the use of local resources, there was an emphasis on styles from the American West, but also a strong gender studies focus; students learned how clothing and design are gendered given their function for human use and human identity construction.
History of Contemporary Art (ARTS 4371-01) Instructor: Amy Von Lintel - This course explored art from the post WWII era to today, featuring a strong focus on gender, race, sexuality, and identity politics.
History of American Art (ARTS 4371-01) - In its narratives on American art, this course especially explored the construction of masculinities and femininities in high and low visual culture--including cowboys and "cowboy girls," gender roles and stereotypes within Native American cultures, and pioneering mythologies have played out in gendered ways in the construction of the U.S. as a nation.
History of Modern Art (ARTS 4371-01) Instructor: Amy Von Lintel - This course explores the history of so-called “modern” art from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. In our studies, we will explore themes of identity, including race, class, gender, nationality, sexuality, and more.
History of Photography (ARTS 4371-02), Instructor: Amy Von Lintel - The artistic and technological medium of photography has been closely interconnected with human identity since its invention in 1839. This course took a particular focus on themes of identity construction--including gender and sexuality, as well as race, class, and nationality--through the "lens" of photography (pun intended).
Business
Cross-Cultural Issues in Business Communication (BUSI 4333-01/70) Instructor: Alison Berry - We studied business communication variables as they function in varied cultures and subcultures. We considered the problems, barriers, and patterns of communication that occur across cultural and gender boundaries as applied to managerial situations. The specific communicative contexts and settings included conflicts, business, identity management, interpersonal communication, language perspectives, and nonverbal communication.
Communication
Latino/Latina Communication (COMM 3392-01) Instructor: George Pacheco - This course takes an intercultural focus and uses not only the lens of gender but also the lens of intercultural communication to analyze current practices found in Hispanic communities.
Organizational Communication (COMM 3331) Instructor: Kris Drumheller - This course is a survey of organizational communication strategies with a focus on leadership. As part of this focus, the importance of understanding social identity will be at the forefront of each lesson. Diversity in all its forms will be addressed with particular attention on gender and sexual identity and expressions.
Political Communication (COMM 4360) - This course focuses on gender issues in historical and current political campaigns.
Women of Color and Political Communication (SOCI 3392-01) Instructor: Lisa Garza - This course examined the roles, conflict, and success of women of color in major social movements, and, in particular, women who participated in the Civil Rights Movement, the Chicano Movement, the Black Power Movement, the American Indian Movement, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the Fair Immigration Movement. The social forces that led to the organization and mobilization of these movements will also be analyzed and compared to the current state of activism.
Cross-disciplinary
The African Diaspora in Art and Literature (ARTS 3392 / ENGL 4366) Instructors: Amy Von Lintel and Eric Meljac - This course will explore creative productions related to the global African diaspora, with a focus on the intersectionality of race, gender, class, nationality, and sexuality.
English, Philosophy and Modern Languages
African American Literature: Toni Morrison (ENGL 4367-01) Instructor: Eric Meljac - This edition of African American Literature covered the famous "trilogy" by Toni Morrison: Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise. We studied racial, social, gender, identity, and narrative issues as they arise in the various novels. This course gave students an expert knowledge of Toni Morrison, and how the Nobel Laureate contributes to the African American literary canon.
British Literature to 1700 (ENGL 3351) Instructor: Matthew Harrison - In this course, students read classics of English literature from around 800CE to the end of the 17th century, encountering deadly monsters, beautiful ideals, and the occasional fart joke. One central theme explored in the course was gender and identity.
British Romantics: Austen and Shelley, The Retellings (ENGL 4321-01) Instructor: Monica Hart - More so than any other writers of their century, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley created literary works that resonate today. But what makes the stories of Jane Austen and Mary Shelley so seductive for modern readers? Moreover, why are we continually reinventing these works in film, television, musical, theatrical, and literary adaptations? Primary texts include Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Adaptations include Ibi Zoboi's Pride (2018) [novel]; Jason Cobley's Frankenstein (2009) [graphic novel]; Ben Winters's Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (2009) [parody; novel]; and several film and theatrical adaptations.
Hispanic Writers in the U.S. (SPAN 4375) Instructor: Andy Reynolds - As with SPAN 4365, this course explored the representation of gender as a topic of class discussion, with a partial emphasis on the works of women, gay, and lesbian writers that complicate traditional gender norms. Taught in Spanish, but open to non-majors.
Literary Analysis (ENGL 3380) Instructor: Eric Meljac - This course covers the history of what it means to study literature, from the early 20th-century Formalists to contemporary trends in the field of literary studies. Part of the heritage of literary studies is the importance of Feminism to the interpretation of literature. Furthermore, contemporary trends, such as LGBTQ+-based literary analysis, further help us to explore and understand great works of literature. We will read selections from some of the world's foremost literary critics in all fields as well as works of literature that explore gender across the spectrum.
Literature and Ideas: Love Stories (ENGL 2341) Instructor: Matthew Harrison - Love is four or five feelings in an oversized trench coat: erotic desire, the tenderness of care, attachment, but also perhaps guilt or resentment, hatred or regret. This course studies the stories we tell about those complicated feelings, from ancient Greece to modern video games. What work do they do in a society? How do they relate to institutions like marriage, politics, or the law? Readings range from Sappho to Gone Home; substantial writing required; some gay/lesbian themes.
Matriarch, Myth, and Feminism (GNDR 3301/PHIL 3392) Instructor: Laura Mueller - This course focused on 19th century philosophy of culture, particularly in terms of religion, myth, symbols, and gender. Late 19th century philosophy of culture substantiated many of the gender norms and binaries present today, particularly in regard to women. Such scholars linked cultural progress with the social role of women in myth. We will trace these lines of thought from late 19th -century Switzerland, to Nazi Germany, to 20th century feminism. The legacies of these scholars remain with us today, and we discussed what makes them so alluring, or so divisive.
Mexican Literature and Culture: Contemporary Mexican Film and Literature (SPAN 4395-01) Instructor: Andrew Reynolds - An exploration of contemporary Mexican issues through Literature and Film with gender as a focus.
Post-Colonial Literature and Aesthetics (ENGL 4366/ARTS 3392) Instructor: Bonnie Roos - This course covered the basics of 20th and 21st century postcolonial aesthetics through an investigation of theory written by Walter Mignolo, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, and Franz Fanon. We studied how postcolonial writers and artists, especially from Asia, India, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean, address racial, social, gender, and identity issues in their work.
Pygmalion (ARTS 4370-02) Instructor: Bonnie Roos - Focusing on the Greek myth of the Pygmalion story and its many reinterpretations throughout history, this course explored the power dynamics of the creator and the creation, the artist and the artistic object, including the issues of gender and sexuality embedded within those dynamics.
Queer Literature (ENGL 4392) Instructor: Eric Meljac - This course addressed such questions as “What makes literature queer?” and “Who is the audience for queer literature?” Beginning with some preliminary study in queer theory, this course examined a variety of literature—poems, short stories, and novels—that exhibit traits, coding, or other characteristics that place them in the loosely-defined “queer canon.” We learned that this “queer canon” is an inclusive canon, meant for everyone.
Representations of Gender in Latin America (SPAN 3314) - This course will explore the representations and complexities of gender throughout Latin American history, culture and art beginning with the pre-Colombian periods through the present.
Shakespeare and Adaptations (ENGL 2321) Instructor: Matthew Harrison - This course investigated why we keep reading, watching, and even playing Shakespeare. What makes writers and artists continue to revisit his work, four centuries after his death? And how might we make these plays meaningful to us? We read three of Shakespeare’s most famous plays: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and the Tempest. Alongside each play, we explored a number of illustrations, adaptations, and responses, thinking about how Shakespeare makes meaning and how readers have made meaning out his work, including themes of gender and identity.
Spanish American Literature: Canon and Contra-Canon (SPAN 4355-01) Instructor: Andrew Reynolds - Discussed central Spanish American authors, movements, and periods along with lesser-known works. Gender was a focus throughout the course.
Spanish Film: Images of Women in Iberian Culture(s) (SPAN 4385) - A survey of Spanish and Catalan films focusing on representation of women in movies. This course explored the development of Spanish cinema from the end of the 19th through 21st century, from the early beginnings of the silent movies to the most international English-speaking movies was selected. The film selection aims to portrait and analyze the representations of women’s roles and rights in Spanish cinematography.
Spanish Literature (SPAN 4365) Instructor: Andy Reynolds - In this class, the representation of gender will be a topic of class discussion for the works of literature covered. In particular, the works of women, gay, and lesbian writers will be discussed in ways that complicate traditional gender norms. Taught in Spanish, but open to non-majors.
Star Wars: The Women Who Saved the Galaxy: YA Fiction (ENGL 2343) Instructor: Eric Meljac - This course crosses the Star Wars galaxy following the women who really led the Rebellion. From Queen Amidala, to Princess Leia, to various female Jedi, the young adult novels will expand our vision of the Star Wars universe—looking at the women who defeated the Empire.
Studies in Drama: Queer Eye (ENGL 3341) Instructor: Theresa Trela - This class discussed issues relating to gender and sexual identities in light of specific representations/presentations, such as the graphic-memoir-turned-Broadway-musical, Fun Home. We will explore how these forms of culture have portrayed various identities to and for audiences. Drawing on the lure of the recognizable "queer eye" motif, we will embrace "ways of seeing" these issues in both modern classics and contemporary works.
Women Writers in Latin America (Spanish 4355) Instructor: Andrew Reynolds - This course will explore Latin American women writers from colonialism to the present. We will discuss complications of colonialism, nationalism, indigenous rights, gender equality, and border tensions, all from the diverse and varying perspectives of Latin American women authors. The course will be taught completely in Spanish.
World Masterpieces (ENGL 3383-01) Instructor: Bonnie Roos - This course focuses on the World Epic, an area often dominated by male themes and male writers. We will consider masculinist genres, themes and writers, as well as some female writers. Discussion of gender and sexuality is visible in virtually every text we consider. The course primarily constitutes a critique and analysis of patriarchal and heterosexist western and non-western paradigms.
Writing: Poetry (ENGL 3306) Instructor: Pat Tyrer - Creative study and workshop in the art of poetry with a focus women poets. Course may include, but is not limited to the following topics: domestic relations, gender inequality, social movements, economic and political status, and the intersections of race, sexuality, class, and gender. This course is writing intensive.
History
New Spain From Prehistory to 1910 (HIST 3363-70) - Political, social, cultural, and economic history of Mexico from prehistory to independence. The latter part of the course, especially, will include the role of women in colonization and a gender analysis of the Spanish empire and Native Americans.
Rulers, Rebels, and Revolutionaries: Women Throughout Time, Honors (HNRS 2337/3337)
Texas History, Advanced (HIST 4316) - This course will look at race and gender throughout Texas History.
U.S. Sport History (HIST 4324/5324) Instructor: Brian Ingrassia - This course has a significant gender component, including a focus on masculinity and manliness, as well as the history of women’s sports and fitness, including the impact of Title IX.
US Women's History (HIST 3320-70) - Presentation of US women's history from Native Americans to the present using narratives, primary documents, and individual projects.
Sociology
Racial and Cultural Minorities (SOCI 4321-01/70) Instructors: Jenifer Kunz and/or Lisa Garza - This course focuses on social psychological and social structural analysis of racial and ethnic relations, prejudice, discrimination, gender differences, responses protests, current issues, immigration, and racial formation.
Social Justice: Change the World (SOCI 3392) Instructor: Lisa Garza - This course is based on social movements and Dr. Garza will introduce case studies from the 1950s through the 1970s. Topics will range from the Civil Rights Movement to the Anti-War Movement. Students also will explore current events and issues while learning about solutions and mobilization.
Sociology of Religion, Sects, and Cults (SOCI 4851) Instructor: Nicole Kraus - This course addresses questions around the meaning and purpose of religion and its interaction with other social institutions and identities, including gender and sexuality. It includes field trips to nearby religious communities and houses of worship.
