IMPORTANT: Students are only able to enroll in one online course per semester at the Umbra Institute. A University of Mississippi transcript will be provided as part of the cost and more information can be found clicking here.
It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that credit will be offered at their home university for this course.
Course Description
This online course offered by the University of Mississippi in cooperation with the Umbra Institute and is designed to provide an introduction to the concepts and questions of the interdisciplinary research assignments of women’s and gender studies. Note: This course carries a supplemental program fee.
In this course, students will be examining various social, economic, and cultural systems that shape the experiences of gender in the contemporary United States. Over the course of the fourteen lessons, they will read selected material, watch videos, and participate in online writing assignments, all focusing on women and gender.
The course begins with a brief history of feminism, then with a discussion of major concepts of women’s & gender studies. After these introductory units, the course units center on particulars such as sexuality, family, wage labor, and violence. Throughout the course, students will be interested in historical dimensions of present-day situations; and will also be concerned with the ways gender interacts with other systems of oppression, such as race and class. Please note that this is a Gender Studies course and it will be examining these issues from a feminist perspective.
Course Objectives (include but are not limited to):
- Be able to communicate an understanding of the concepts and methods of inquiry within the humanities: Assignments in this course will introduce students to the humanities concept of the ‘constructed-ness’ of culture, as well as a number of humanities approaches to knowledge.
- Be able to evaluate primary and secondary materials: Reading assignments in this course include academic studies (secondary material) as well as autobiographical and creative writing (primary material).
- Be able to analyze texts, recognizing diversity of cultural and historical contexts and recognize that social/cultural systems develop out of adaptation to environments and historical circumstances: Readings and course activities will introduce the historical and cultural complexity of gender in the United States, and the ways gender has changed over time.
- Understand the ways in which race, ethnicity and gender are socially constructed: Readings and course activities will increase students’ understanding of the ‘constructed-ness’ of the seemingly ‘natural’ categories of race and gender.
- Understand that different cultures may hold different views on the same issues: Readings and course activities will introduce students to beliefs and viewpoints of some minority cultures in the United States.
- Be able to evaluate information and assertions in terms of relevance, bias, stereotyping, manipulation, and completeness: Readings and course activities call attention to misinformation and inaccurate assertions about gender and race, and point out the politics behind bias and stereotyping.
For detailed information and syllabus please visit:
http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/istudy/syllabi/gst201.html
Required Textbook(s)
Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions (6th edition), ed. Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee
ISBN-13: 978007802700
All other required readings and videos are in Blackboard.