Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies - Spring Calendar

Please note:

To view the Fall 2024 Academic Calendar, go to www.sfu.ca/students/calendar/2024/fall.html.

Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Courses

GSWS 100 - Sex Talk: Introduction to Contemporary Issues in Sexuality Studies (3)

An introduction to issues in the study of sex, sexual identity, and sexual culture. Focused on contemporary theories of sexuality as well as representations in fiction, film and popular media from diverse cultural contexts. Students who have completed GDST 200 may not complete this course for further credit. Breadth-Humanities.

GSWS 101 - Gender Talk (3)

An interdisciplinary study of the social and cultural construction of gender, and how ideas about masculinity and feminity shape current issues, knowledge, popular culture, and social policy. Students who have completed WS 101 may not take GSWS 101 for further credit. Breadth-Social Sciences.

GSWS 102 - Feminist Action (3)

An historical and comparative survey of feminisms and feminist activism in Western European, North American, and Global communities. Students who have completed WS 102 may not take GSWS 102 for further credit. Breadth-Humanities.

GSWS 103 - Body Talk (3)

Introduces students to the field of GSWS through the body as a site of inquiry. We ask how bodies are disciplined and surveilled, and a source of resistance and change. Topics include: state management of bodies, the body as a source of self-determination and self-expression, bodies and technology.

GSWS 200 - Feminism without Borders (3)

The focus will be on the situation of women in cross-cultural perspective using literary, historical, anthropological and other appropriate sources. Students who have completed WS 200 may not complete this course for further credit.

GSWS 204 - Sex and the City (3)

Selected topics on the sexual politics of urban space. May be organized by region, critical approach, or genre. Students who have completed WS 204 may not complete this course for further credit.

GSWS 205 - Gender and Popular Culture (3)

A study of women's place in society as revealed through the analysis of a variety of media. Students who have completed WS 205 may not complete this course for further credit.

GSWS 210 - Gender Today (3)

An interdisciplinary exploration of aspects of gender theory and experience.

GSWS 212 - Gender and Sexualities in Asia (3)

An introduction of feminist and queer theories as interpreted and transformed by peoples in the geographic region of Asia and its diasporas. The course may be further organized by region or historical period. May be repeated for credit up to three times only when a different topic is taught. Students with credit for GSWS 212 STT may not take this course for further credit unless a different topic is offered.

GSWS 215 - STT - Introduction to Indigenous Feminisms and Global Indigeneities (3)

Examines Indigeneities from a global perspective to explore the connections between coloniality across the space, time, geography. Emphasizing the possibilities of globalizing Indigeneities and colonialisms from an Indigenous feminist perspective, the course introduces students to Indigeneity across the globe.

GSWS 216 - STT - Introduction to Data Feminism (3)

What is data, and what is data feminism? This course answers these questions in a multimedia-rich, online workshop environment. Students will examine the role and shape of power in our common sense understanding of data, develop or deepen their data literacy skills, and gain foundational concepts in feminist analysis.

GSWS 305 - Gendering Economy: Paid and Unpaid Labour (4)

Takes a broad approach to gender, placing it dialogue with race and ethnicity, class, nation, and space, to think through the complex dynamic between gender and labour from a variety of perspectives. Explores workers鈥� lived experiences of gender regimes while critically examining how gender 鈥榤atters鈥� within the workplace. Prerequisite: 30 units including three units in GSWS or WS or GDST or LBST. Students who have taken GSWS 308, LBST 305, LBST 331 under the title Gender - Paid & Unpaid, or WS 310 under the title Women and Work may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 306 - Gender, Sexuality and Autobiographical Media (4)

An examination of autobiographical expressions of gender and sexuality across diverse media, including print and visual culture, performance arts, and digital media. Prerequisite: 30 units including three units in GSWS or WS or GDST. Students who have completed WS 306 may not complete this course for further credit.

GSWS 309 - Gender and International Development (4)

Examines from interdisciplinary and international perspectives how development is gendered and creates differential impacts, meanings and processes for women and men around the world. Prerequisite: 15 units. Students with credit for GSWS 310 (or WS 310) Special Topic: Women and Development or GSWS 301 (or WS 301) Special Topic: Gender and Development or GSWS 309 (or WS 309) under the title Gender and Development may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 311 - Modernizing Women: Canadian Women in Historical Perspective, 1870s-1970s (4)

Examines the historical development of women's experiences and identities in Modern Canadian history. Looks closely at the ways in which ethnicity, race, class and sexuality have shaped women's lives, and examines the continuity and changes in work, sexuality, politics and domesticity over the 19th and 20th centuries through the study of primary documents and historical literature. Prerequisite: 15 units. Students who have taken GSWS 202 (or WS 202) may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 312 - Gendering Borders and Belonging in Migration (4)

Examines the forces involved in displacements and global migration. Centring both the exploitation involved in the extraction of land and labor, and the modes of belonging and resistance of migrants and immigrants, the course explores the gendered, economic, border and racial regimes involved in contemporary global migration and nation-building. Prerequisite: 15 units.

GSWS 314 - Race, Class and Gender (4)

An examination of feminist, Marxist and anti-racist theories pertaining to the historical development, social construction, and interactive nature of race, class and gender relations. Prerequisite: 15 units. Students with credit for either GSWS 301 (or WS 301) or GSWS 310 (or WS 310) as Special Topics: Race, Class and Gender may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 315 - Critical Disability Studies (4)

Explores interdisciplinary perspectives on the concept and experience of disability; situates disability as a formation of identity and power that differently intersects with gender, race, sexuality, nationality, and class; addresses disability as a key aspect of lived experience and a global vector of oppression and resistance. Prerequisite: 15 units. Students with credit for GSWS 321 Special Topic under the title Critical Disability Studies may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 316 - Disciplining Sex: Feminist Science Studies and Sociobiology (4)

Conceptualizations of sex have played a fundamental part in the development of evolutionary theories in biology and psychology. At the same time, feminist critiques of these conceptualizations have been a major factor in the development of Feminist Science Studies. The interactions amongst these three approaches are examined, including methodologies, communities of practice and societal implications. Prerequisite: 30 units. Breadth-Hum/Social Sci/Science.

GSWS 318 - Special Topics in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (4)

A specific theme within the field of gender, sexuality, and women's studies, not otherwise covered in depth in regularly scheduled courses, will be dealt with as occasion and demand warrant. Prerequisite: 30 units, including three units in GSWS.

GSWS 319 - Special Topics in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (4)

GSWS 320 - Special Topics in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (4)

GSWS 321 - Special Topics in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (4)

GSWS 322 - Feminist Approaches to Research (4)

Explores a variety of feminist research methods including the definition of feminist research, the quantitative/qualitative controversy, action research, participant observation, survey, ethnography, case study, oral history, transnational study, interviews and research ethics. Prerequisite: 30 units, including three units in GSWS or WS or GDST. Students who have taken WS 208 may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 330 - Masculinities (4)

Maps the field of masculinity studies and explores its intersections with feminist, postcolonial, queer, and critical race theories. Prerequisite: 15 units. Students who have completed GDST 300 may not complete this course for further credit.

GSWS 331 - Queer Genders (4)

Introduces students to current debates on gender identity and gender difference from the perspectives of queer subjects. Explores recent theoretical and cultural works on gender from queer, transgender, and feminist perspectives, while examining the challenges they pose to current understanding of sex, gender, sexuality, and the body. Prerequisite: 30 units, including three unist in GSWS. Students who have taken GDST 301, or WS 301 Special Topics: Theorizing Queer Genders may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 332 - Intro to Porn Studies: The Poetics and Politics of Sex (4)

Explores the circulation of images and ideas that constitute pornography and study the anxieties that it has generated at various moments in time and how these anxieties are related to the disciplining and policing of sexuality. Prerequisite: 15 units. Students who have taken GSWS 320 or GSWS 321 under the title "Introduction to Porn Studies" may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 333 - Current Issues in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (4)

A special topic in women's or gender studies, to be offered by the Woodward Chair. Prerequisite: 30 units including three units in GSWS or WS or GDST.

GSWS 335W - Through a Gendered Lens (4)

An exploration of what gender means and how knowledge creation is affected by gender. Application of a gender lens to a number of social issues, contexts and regions. The approach is interdisciplinary and multi modal, employing social science readings, film, documentaries, and websites amongst other forms of exploration. Prerequisite: 45 Units. Students with credit for EXPL 310 and 310W taught as Interdisciplinary Issues of Gender may not take GSWS 335W for further credit. Writing/Breadth-Social Sci.

GSWS 341 - History of Women in Europe: Ideas and Debates from the Renaissance to the Present (4)

Examines perceptions and ideas regarding women, their nature, their role(s) in society, their rights and obligations, their sexuality, and their relationship to men and other women that were expressed in Europe from the Renaissance to the Present. Prerequisite: 45 units, including six units of lower division history. Students with credit for HIST 307, HS 307, or GSWS 321 under the topics "Women", or "On Women", or HIST 341, may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 350 - Public Policy for Women (4)

Examines issues where ideas about males and females either explicitly or implicitly influence policy makers. Focuses on current public policies and their relationship to women on topics such as sexuality and violence, economic security, race and inequality, and climate change. Prerequisite: 30 units. Students with credit for POL 350 may not take this course for further credit. Students who have taken this topic under GSWS (or WS) 320 may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 388 - Topics in Queer Global Asias (4)

Focuses on the experiences, histories, knowledges, and activism of marginalized gender and sexual subjects across Asia and its diasporas from the perspectives of feminist, queer, and trans studies. May be further organized by region or historical period. The topic will vary by instructor. Students may repeat for credit up to three times under a different topic. Prerequisite: 15 units. Students with credit for GA 388 under the same topic may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 398W - Feminist Currents (4)

Explores recent debates and future directions of feminist thought and introduces students to different models of feminist writing. The writing-intensive component of the course trains students to develop analytical, writing, and research skills through a variety of writing activities and assignments. Prerequisite: 30 units including three units in GSWS or WS or GDST. Equivalent Courses: WS398. Writing.

GSWS 399 - Gender, Sex and Numbers (4)

Through an examination of the social construction of numbers and other forms of quantitative data will provide an introduction to measurement and its use within social justice movements and policy circles. In analyzing such topics as the relationship between professional, state and community conceptualizations of quantitative evidence, students will make use of introductory statistical concepts, methods and argument. Prerequisite: 30 units. Quantitative.

GSWS 401 - Research Project (5)

Individual or small group studies of community problems. The students will submit a prospectus for the project at least two months before the study is undertaken. The project will be directed by one of the faculty members of the program. Prerequisite: Nine units in GSWS including GSWS 101 (or WS 101) and/or GSWS 102 (or WS 102) and approval of the course proposal by the department. Students with credit for WS 401 may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 402 - Directed Readings (2)

Provides opportunities for individual tuition at an advanced level. Prerequisite: Nine units in GSWS including GSWS 101 (or WS 101) and/or GSWS 102 (or WS 102) and approval of course proposal by Dept. Students with credit for WS 402 may not take this course for credit.

GSWS 403 - Directed Readings (3)

Provides opportunities for individual tuition at an advanced level. Prerequisite: nine units in GSWS including GSWS 101 (or WS 101) or GSWS 102 (or WS 102) and approval of course proposal by Dept. Students with credit for WS 403 may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 411 - Special Topics in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (4)

GSWS 414 - Dude, Where's My Body?: Biopolitics, Biotechnologies, Bioecologies (4)

Bodies are composed of matter and are given to matter. This course situates embodiment socially, historically, technologically, biologically, politically, and economically. Prerequisite: 45 units, including 6 units in GSWS. Students who have taken GSWS 411 or GSWS 831 in Fall 2018 or Fall 2017, or GSWS 320 or GSWS 830 in Spring 2016 under the title "Dude, Where's My Body?" may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 416 - The Everyday and Everywhere of Race and Sexuality (4)

We examine how racial and sexual norms and expectations converge in everyday ways and places. Centring critiques queer theory and politics by Indigenous queer, Two-Spirit and feminist, Black, and queer of colour scholars, we ask how racial and sexual logics come together in the spaces we interact with daily. Prerequisite: 45 units, including six units in GSWS. Students who have taken GSWS 411 under the title "The Everyday and Everywhere of Race and Sexuality" may not take this course for further credit.

GSWS 431 - Local Sex on Global Screen (4)

Examines the globalization of sexual cultures and the emergence of queer cinema and screen culture outside of North America and Europe. Prerequisite: 45 units including six units in GSWS or CA.

GSWS 433 - Gender, Violence, Resistance (4)

A seminar-based, interdisciplinary course providing a gendered analysis of violence and resistance, to violence, focusing on political states, conflict and war, individual experiences, and institutional situations through feminist and critical masculinities lenses. Prerequisite: 45 units, including six units in GSWS or WS or GDST. Students with credit for special temporary topics (STT) course GDST 303 Gender, Violence and Resistance may not complete this course for further credit.

GSWS 800 - Toolkit for GSWS Research (5)

An interdisciplinary seminar introducing a variety of methodological approaches to research in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. Students will examine the theories, purpose, scope, and strategies for feminist approaches to research. Students will study examples of research and criticism from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Emphasis will be placed on rigorous and creative approaches to research design, as well as practical application of research methods. Students will apply methods studied in the course to their own areas of concentration.

GSWS 811 - Professional Development Colloquium I (3)

Workshop designed to support professional development, networking and foster mutuality of research interests. Includes topics on research skill development, academic and public dissemination of work, practical tips for career advancement and presentations of works in progress. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

GSWS 812 - Professional Development Colloquium II (3)

GSWS 820 - History of Gender and Women (5)

Examines selected topics in gender and women's history, with a particular focus on the intersection of gender with class, race, ethnicity, nation, region, and sexuality.

GSWS 822 - Graduate Seminar in Feminist Theory (5)

This course will analyze and compare major feminist social and political theories, including those that have emerged from liberal, socialist and radical feminist traditions. The relationship among theories of sexism and political goals and practices will be discussed.

GSWS 823 - Feminist Cultural Criticism (5)

Examines the development of feminist cultural criticism, with particular reference to the principles of literary, cinematic, media, and/or art forms.

GSWS 824 - Gender and Social Policy (5)

Focuses on one or more social issues and policies in such fields as law, health, economics, social welfare, and science and technology. It uses an intersectional or Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) lens on social and/or public policies. Students will apply course content to an evaluation of policy in their own areas of concentration.

GSWS 826 - Graduate Seminar on Queer/Trans Studies (5)

An examination of the formation, development, and current direction in the fields of queer and trans theory. Students will study the influence of feminism on both fields, the emergence of formative questions and key debates, and critical challenges posed by colonial histories, globalization of LGBT identities, and transnational/local taxonomies.

GSWS 830 - Selected Topics Graduate Seminar I (5)

Selected Topics.

GSWS 831 - Selected Topics Graduate Seminar II (5)

Selected topics.

GSWS 840 - Directed Studies (5)

Directed studies.

GSWS 844 - Directed Studies II (5)

Allows students to pursue in greater depth a particular problem in gender, sexuality or women's studies. Registration by consent of instructor only. May be offered as an individual reading course or a small seminar, depending upon student and faculty interest. Prerequisite: GSWS 822.

GSWS 898 - MA Thesis (18)

Thesis. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

GSWS 997 - PhD Comprehensive Examination

Comprehensive. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

GSWS 998 - PhD Thesis (18)