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Women's & Gender Studies, University of Missouri
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Current Course Offerings

Summer and Fall 2008
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Topics Courses Offered Summer 2008 Topics Courses Offered Fall 2008

Summer 2008 - WGST 2003 - Topics: Mis(s) Education: Experts' Advice to Women and Girls
Veronica Medina

This course has been canceled.

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Summer 2008 - WGST 4489/English 4489 - Major Anglophone Africana Women Writers,1890 - Present
Marlon Moore

Special Offering: Dykes, Butches, Femmes, and Bulldaggers: The Black Queer Woman in 20th-century US Culture
In this course we will examine lesbian, bisexual and other non-heteronormative representations of black women in the US. We will explore the socio-political impact of these depictions and investigate the ways geography, race consciousness, class politics and religion shape and/or complicate each text. We will study across literary and popular genres by and about black women, including theory, fiction, poetry, music, and film.

This is a discussion-based course. In order for the class to be successful, students must keep up with the assigned readings and come to class prepared to exchange ideas.

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Summer 2008 - WGST 8005/English 8410 - Topics: Black Feminist/Womanist Thought, Theorizing the Dilemma of Race and Gender
April Langley

This course will investigate political, cultural, and historical aspects of a range of gender theories from the African Diaspora—from 18th- and 19th-century pre-womanist and feminist works to contemporary ones. Accordingly, race and gender will be studied as occupying shared and intersecting positions from the margins, periphery, and center. Thus, while the course will deal with theories of gender, we will do so with the understanding that both "womanist" and "feminist"—as descriptive, delimiting, and liminal terms—constitute a central component of the dilemma posed by debates in which theories of "race" and "gender" are simultaneously engaged. Importantly, neither womanist nor feminist is fully representative of the constructed and constitutive nature of race and gender as it applies to women of African descent and their struggles against multivalent oppressions—which include but are not limited to race, class, and gender. To that end, while we engage theoretical approaches primarily authored by women, we also study key texts in black male womanism/feminism. Further, while we examine scholarship primarily authored by black women from United States, key texts from the Caribbean and Africa (West, South, and Central) will constitute an essential component of our study as well. Indeed, our engagement with black feminist/womanist thought will contend with several inextricable issues: naming, the position/place of black men in black feminist studies, and the geo-political dilemmas posed by constructions of nationality, race, and cultural identity outside of U.S.-centric race/gender models. Readings will be taken from Joseph A. Adeleke, Michael Awkward, Anna Julia Cooper, Barbara Christian, Frances Smith Foster, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Clenora Hudson-Weems, bell hooks, Joy James, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, Hortense Spillers, Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth, and many others. Course requirements include: 2-page article review and presentation, annotated bibliography, prospectus, and seminar paper.

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Fall 2008 - WGST 2001/Interdisciplinary Studies 2960 - Topics: Sexual Health Service Learning Course
Heather Eastman Mueller

The course will offer the student an opportunity to critically investigate sexuality as it exists within a cultural context including religion, politics, gender analysis, social justice, familial, and societal influences. Through assigned readings, reflection, experiential activities, and small group presentations, students will increase their awareness of sexual health issues, enhance self awareness and learn how to effectively educate their peers surrounding issues of sexual health.

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Fall 2008 - WGST 3004.1 - Topics: Nonprofit Work and the Pursuit of Social Justice
Dana Hughes

This course provides a history and overview of the work of nonprofit organizations. It will be framed in a social justice paradigm and will explore women's role in nonprofit organizations, why many women gravitate to nonprofits, and the implications of their work to achieve social justice through these organizations.

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Fall 2008 - WGST 3004.2 - Topics: Geography of Sexualities
Sam Bullington

This class is designed to explore the relationship of sexuality and space. We will be examining public/private distinctions, sacred/profane divisions, methodological considerations in studying sexuality and space (such as access, trust, and insider/outsider dynamics), and global issues around sexuality (such as mail order brides, sex tourism, and sexuality and militarization). We will explore the role of sexuality in colonization (especially the ways that racial and cultural differences were created and maintained through restrictions around sexuality) and the postcolonial implications for the developing world (such as the ways that the pathologization of African sexuality, as well as the assertion that homosexuality is "unAfrican" inform debates around AIDS in Africa). We will also examine the relationship of sexuality and nationalism as well as homosexuality and capitalism.

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Fall 2008 - WGST 4004/History 4004.3 - Topics: Historical Perspectives on Adoption, Child Welfare and the Family
Catherine Rymph

This course will examine the relatively new field of the history of adoption in America. It will address topics such as: the changing legal and social meanings of adoption since the mid-19th century; the historical connections between adoption and issues of poverty, family, gender, race, sexuality, class, and fertility; changing understandings of identity within the "adoption triad;" and more recent issues such as transnational adoption. The course will be conducted as a readings seminar, with students expected to read actively and engage in discussion of weekly topics.



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