Course Design and Instruction for Lafayette College
WGS 101 | Intro to Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Introduction to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary course that examines issues of gender and sexuality from multiple perspectives. The objectives for this course emphasize how these issues affect all people’s lives, and focus on understanding: 1. the beliefs and ideas that construct what it means to be female, male or gender non-binary 2. historical and current imbalances of justice and power based on those (often contradictory) beliefs and ideas, and 3. acquiring the analytical tools needed to analyze a range of gender and sexuality related topics relative to race, ethnicity, nation, religion, ability, and other aspects of identity.
WGS 260 | Technologies of Violence
Violence is a central topic of study within the interdisciplinary field of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. The objectives for this course emphasize how material, discursive and digital technologies enable violence across different sites, spaces and scales, including the body, home, and within institutions. With a focus on how social identities – including gender, sexuality and race – intersect with technologies of violence, this course addresses the connections between violence across intimate, state, and global scales, along with corresponding methods of resistance.
WGS 285 | Feminist Research Design
This course begins from the question, “what is feminist research?”. We will explore how intersectional feminist theory shapes the research questions we ask, the methods we use, our relationships with research participants, and how to design research projects that lead to social change. This course will operate on two interrelated dimensions, focusing on: 1) the theoretical traditions underlying different approaches to feminist research, and 2) the practical techniques for designing and conducting interdisciplinary feminist projects.
WGS 350 | Intersectional Feminist Activisms
This course examines contemporary forms of feminist activism that center the politics of gender and sexuality within broader US-based social, economic and political movements. The course will introduce students to a variety of activist approaches, including community organizing, activist philanthropy, art as activism and direct action. Consistent with the interdisciplinary commitment of WGSS to putting theory into practice, students will organize an activist event to understand the role that collective action plays in social change.