LaGrange College

Gender Studies

Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that complements a liberal arts education by drawing upon a variety of disciplines to gain a critical awareness of gender. In developing this awareness and in presenting its diversity, courses also explore race, ethnicity, culture, age, and social class as categories of analysis. While exploring these issues, the courses also promote the development of skills in critical thinking, speaking, and writing. Courses focus on past and present gender roles in culture, politics, the family, the arts and sciences, health care, business, and religion.

Course Descriptions (GNDR)

GNDR 1101 Introduction to Gender Studies. (3)

This course provides an understanding of gender and the evolution of gender roles within one's own culture and that of others. In developing this understanding, emphasis is placed on the great diversity of gender roles in individual lives by considering such factors as race, age, marital, and class status.

Cross-Listed Courses

GNDR 2500

or Kinship and Families. (3)

SOCI 2500

This course offers a multidisciplinary perspective on contemporary marriages, families, and other intimate relationships. Students will become familiarized with competing models and theories on relationships. In addition, this course explores cross-cultural variation in family systems as well as diversity and change within the American population, Topics to be covered include mate selection, sexuality, marital structure, marital happiness, divorce, parenting, and alternative family forms.

GNDR 3110

or Special Topics: Latin American Women Writers. (3)

LAST 3110

This course—taught in English—will focus on gender, race, and social class as portrayed in the works of major Latin American women and Latina writers. (Note: the writers studied in this course differ from those studied in GNDR/SPAN 4002.)

GNDR 3320

or The Ethics of Sexuality, Marriage, and Gender. (3)

RLGN 3320

A study of the moral issues related to sexuality, gender roles, and family life. Topics vary per offering but may include ethical reflection on such topics as the meaning and purpose of sexuality, gender roles, pre-marital and extra marital sexuality, homosexuality and family structure. We will compare the range of positions on these issues within Christianity, and also compare them with positions in other world faiths.

Prerequisite: A Religion course (RLGN 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107 or 1108).

GNDR 3500

or Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Society. (3)

SOCI 3500

Students will become aware of the impact of race, ethnicity, and gender in a global society. The norms, values, and patterns of communication associated with each category and how these affect personal life choices and social status will be examined. Specifically, students will be become aware of how the basic social institutions, such as the economy, the family, education, religion and the political system, are biased institutions with differing ideals and expectations for women and men, as well as for different races and ethnic groups.

Prerequisite: SOCI 1000

GNDR 4002

or Latin American Women Writers. (3)

SPAN 4002

This courses—taught in Spanish—will focus on gender, race, and social class as portrayed in the works of major Latin American women and Latina writers. (Note: The writers studied in this course will differ from those studied in GNDR/LAST 3110.)

Prerequisite: SPAN 4000 or SPAN 4001 or permission of instructor.

GNDR 4440

or Modern & Contemporary Fiction. (3)

ENGL 4440

The primary focus of this course will be narratology, the close examination of the role of the narrator of each work. All the works present some form of unreliable narrator (liar, insane, uncertain, confused, etc.). Class readings and discussion will focus on the form and function of such untrustworthy narrators. At the core of the narratives is a relationship, usually between a man and a woman. Our secondary focus will be on the role of gender in the nature of these relationships. The difference, for example, in the reportage from a feminine vs. a masculine point of view; the role of men vs. the role of women in relationships, especially in relation to the progression of the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries; the importance of gender on the narrator’s experience of how she or he conveys that experience; the ways in which the narrator is perceived by others (both characters and readers) in relation to gender; use of feminist critical perspective in viewing these relationships.

GNDR 4470

or Women and the Green World (3)

ENGL 4470 Special Topics

This course will explore the ways in which women writers relate to and write about the green world. Has the world of plants, forests, and herbs, as Linda Baron & Brenda Peterson claim , “long been the province of women” (xi)? Is women’s bond with the plant kingdom inherently different from men’s? What motivates women, in particular, to reflect on “the emotional, philosophical, and spiritual aspects” (xii) of humanity’s interaction with the green world? If ,as Baron & Peterson maintain “(t)he green world is fundamental to our identity”. How do women create, reflect, and/or interact with such an identity through the craft of writing? These are the questions we will examine as we read texts by Isabel Allende, Zora Neale Hurston, Mary Crow Dog, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mary Oliver, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and others.

GNDR 4499

or Special Topics: American Women. (3)

HIST 4499

A course offered at the junior/senior level, focusing on a specialized topic in the field of history.

Interim-term courses are offered in Gender Studies. In addition, internships are available and encouraged.