UB Gender Courses

As a research center rather than an academic department, the Gender Institute itself does not offer courses, but we promote curricular innovation and academic courses related to women, gender, and sexuality offered by departments and schools throughout the University at Buffalo. The courses featured here highlight just a few of UB's outstanding gender-related courses.

Information about UB's BA, MA, and PhD programs in Global Gender and Sexuality Studies can be found at https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/global-gender-sexuality.html.

If you would like to have your course included below, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/gUmjFoVPet8May8r8

Spring 2023

This list of courses showcases a sampling of UB's gender-related curriculum. For more information please contact the instructor.

UNDERGRADUATE

Department of Africana and American Studies

African-American Studies

AAS 460SEM, HIS 468 and GGS 460- Black Women In Us History
Thursday's , 4:10 PM - 6:50 PM
Clemen 1004
Instructor: Mopelolade Ogunbowale

Examines the history of black women in the United States from the slave era through the reform movements that occurred after World War II. Focuses on the range of demands placed on black women during the Gilded and Progressive eras - the founding of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896... 

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

American Studies

AMS 335LEC, ENG 387 & GGS 335- Women Writers
T & R , 2:00 PM - 3:20 PM
Fronczak454
Instructor: Sharon Beckford-Foster

This course studies writing by women across a variety of periods and genres, with focus on the historical and cultural context of women's lives. A: "Twentieth-Century Women Writers Study" treats writing of twentieth-century women, attending to its differences from and connections to earlier periods and mainstream traditions. B: "U.S. Women Writers" explores U.S. women's writing as it participates in mainstream literary and rhetorical traditions and creates its own counter-traditions. The course may include women's autobiographies, speeches, essays, letters, captivity and slave narratives, poetry, fiction and drama from a variety of periods. This course is the same as AMS 335 and GGS 335 and course repeat rules will apply.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of Art 

Art History

AHI 380LEC - Image And Gender
T & R, 12:30 PM - 1:50 PM
Academ 355
Instructor: Lauren Pilcher

Considers the representation of gender (femininity and masculinity) in pictures, and the impact of gender on making and looking at art and media. Discusses works from several historical periods, concentrating on nineteenth- and twentieth-century art and media. Topics and issues considered are the professionalization of the artist and myths of genius; artists and models; the problems of a feminine aesthetic; the nude; and the gendered spectator. This course is the same as GGS 308, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of Media Studies

DMS 448SEM - Games, Gender And Culture
T & R , 10:00 AM - 11:40 AM
CFA 112
Instructor: Cody Mejeur 

Comprehensive investigation of the emerging field of Games Studies, the critical analysis of games and interactive environments made possible by the computer. Addresses different theoretical perspectives that view games and gaming as historical, social, cultural. aesthetic, technical, performative, and ...

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of Urban and Regional Planning

Environmental Design

END 408SEM - Race, Class, Gender & The City
Tuesdays , 1:00 PM - 3:40 PM
Hayes 217
Instructor: Dr. Henry L Taylor

Explores the intersectionality of race, class, gender & the city in the knowledge economy-based urban environment. Reviews how the shift from an industrial to knowledge-based economy reshaped and recreated the central city and its surrounding suburban region. In the new knowledge-based ...

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of Educational Leadership and Policy

ELP 200SEM - Foundations of Education Policy and Leadership for Social Justice
Asynchronous
Instructor: Melinda Lemke

Complex twenty-first century issues facing students, parents, local communities, and school personnel underscore the importance of knowledge about educational equity and justice. Thoughtfully developed leadership and policy skills are integral to this knowledge base. This course is designed to introduce undergraduate students to what leading educational scholars who work across the leadership-policy spectrum have to say about ethical and socially just-oriented educational practice. Students will work individually and collaboratively to research how diversity issues intersect with leadership practice and respective policy. They also will explore the ways their positionality and views of leadership matter to fostering positive work climates, and in this case, school milieus. Course activities, discussions, presentations, and written assignments are designed to provide students with opportunities to develop critical, meaningful, and relevant sense-making about leadership for social justice in a way that also empowers them to consider how they can become advocates on specific issues. Course readings will draw primarily from educational research, but also will direct students to relevant interdisciplinary resources from the social sciences.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of English

ENG 323LEC - Sex & Gender In The 19th Century
T & R , 3:30 PM - 4:50 PM
Clemen 17
Instructor: Stacy C. Hubbard PhD

This course examines the central role played by gender and sexuality in the history, culture, and literature within various locations, including potentially Britain, America, or Asia. Students will discover the cultural underpinnings of historical and contemporary conceptions of gender, sexuality, and love. In as much as we play out our gender roles our social life, this course will also serve to introduce students to the ways in which performance is imbedded in the public culture.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences

Exercise Science

ES 251LEC - Women, Gender & Sport
TBA
Remote
Instructor: Erin K Macdiarmid PhD Candidate

Women's impact on sport has so often been overshadowed by the accomplishments and fame of male athletes. Women have not been acknowledged for their athletic accomplishments, accomplishments that helped to change the frame for how women are viewed in society. This course will examine the role women have in sports, and how "on the court" performances and accomplishments have influenced the participation, opportunities and administration of women's sports. This impact can be demonstrated through the many facets of the female athlete experience from the rules of women's sports, the uniforms, salary, travel and the media coverage to name a few. At the conclusion of this course you will have a better understanding of the impactful women in sport, both at the amateur and professional levels. You will understand the changing role of the female sport administrators, head coaches, uniforms, media coverage, and competitions' rules and regulations.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies

Information about UB's BA, MA, and PhD programs in Global Gender and Sexuality Studies can be found at https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/global-gender-sexuality.html.

For a course list in the Global Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, click here.

GGS 101LEC Introduction to Gender and Women's Studies
M W F , 2:00 PM - 2:50 PM
Cooke 114
Instructor: TBA

Introduces students to basic concepts in women's studies. Covers the history of the women's movement and its relation to the rise of women's studies as a discipline. Examines and discusses a multiplicity of 'recurring themes' affecting differing women's lives; including the social construction of gender, the impact of ...

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

GGS 103LEC Women's Bodies, Women's Health
M 3:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.; W 6:30 p.m. - 7:20 p.m.; R 4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. OR F 10:00 a.m. - 10:50 a.m Various Locations**
Instructor: Kelsey Lewis, PhD

This course provides an innovative and interdisciplinary introduction to women's bodies and health. The course starts from a foundational belief in the importance of studying women's experiences of their bodies and health. The main objective is to about how gender ideologies impact scientific research and ... 

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

GGS 109LEC - Intro To Sexuality Studies
T R , 3:30 PM - 4:50 PM
Park 145
Instructor: TBA

What is sexuality? How is sex related to gender? Are sexuality and gender `natural' expressions or ones created by culture? This class will explore these questions and more. While we tend to think of men/women and homosexuality/heterosexuality as opposites, the reality is far more nuanced: a spectrum of genders and sexualities, rather than two opposing poles, which reflects a variety of cultural and historically specific meanings. This course will introduce students to a survey of those meanings (and the labels we attach to them), and to the social, cultural, religious, and legal practices that affect how they are created, understood, and policed. Beginning with the historical emergence of sexuality, we will examine the creation of the hetero/homo binary and the associated hierarchization based on sexual identity that results from the creation of these categories. We will examine the history and practices of the gay and lesbian liberation movements, the push for equality, and the impact of the AIDS crisis. Finally, students will apply the vocabulary and critical skills they have learned to an analysis of the expressions of sexuality in popular culture including literature, music, television and film.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

GGS 205LEC - Women In The Global System
M W F , 9:00 AM - 9:50 AM
Clemen 109
Instructor: TBA

Explores how the current expansion of the world market is overturning the seclusion of women in traditional societies and looks at the consequences of globalization on the lives of women throughout the world. Women in developing countries share common patterns of location and differentiation within ...

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

GGS 228SEM - Intro To Feminist Theory
T & R , 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM
Clemen 21
Instructor: Devonya N Havis

Introduces to the complexity of feminist thought and theorizing through a discussion of many of the major schools of feminist thought and past and present debates within feminist theorizing as it has developed both within the United States, and abroad. A solid grasp of the core theories, their fundamental approaches, ...

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

GGS 325SEM - Violence In Gender World
T & R , 9:30 AM - 10:50 AM
Park 440
Instructor: Dr. Kari J Winter

Gendered violence emerges from cultural ideologies that intersect with other cultural formations, including economics, race, religion, law, nationalism, militarism, environmental destruction and so on. Our readings and discussions will focus on three areas: 1. ideologies of gender that rationalize and encourage...

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

GGS 347SEM Women in Latin America
M W F 1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m
Park 145
Instructor: TBA

Women's political mobilization and its effects in Latin American countries. Explores how women in Latin America and the Caribbean have participated in the national movements, revolutions, rebellions, and social movements that have dominated Latin America's political, social, and economic development. ...

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

GGS 379SEM - Sex: Gender & Pop Culture
M W , 5:00 PM - 6:20 PM
Capen 109
Instructor: TBA

The advent of television in 1950s America, coupled with technological advances in filmmaking popularized visual culture as a primary means of both naming and interrogating the ways in which we understand the social constructions of race, sex, gender, and sexuality. Feminist perspectives are ways ofexamining how these social constructions (and expectations) are shaped by popular culture, mainly television programming and films; and thus shape our ideas about ourselves and others as "feminine" and "masculine" and "sexual" beings. We discuss texts on and view episodes of popular television shows such as "Sex and the City," "The L Word," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Will and Grace." We also view several short films (as time permits). We consider a number of questions including (1) how does "entertainment" act as a substitute for the transmission of social knowledge?; (2) what are the advantages and disadvantages of popular culture in the construction of contemporary American life?; (3) how does popular culture define "racialized" bodies?; and (4) how does popular culture impact the consumption of American socio-cultural values, globally? Students will demonstrate knowledge of a broader understanding of the terms "popular culture," "entertainment," "women's television," and "mediated lives." Students who successfully complete this course should be able to articulate verbal and written alternative critiques to contemporary popular culture.

GGS 439SEM & HIS 439SEM- Gender And The Cold War
M , 9:00 AM - 11:40 AM
Park 532
Instructor: Victoria W Wolcott

This course will examine how the cold war's politics and culture, including its foreign policy, shaped gender relations and sexuality in the United States. In addition to readings, we will analyze various forms of popular culture and social policy. Students will also discuss the significance of gender and the cold war for understanding contemporary American politics and culture. This course is the same as HIS 439 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

For more information on the undergrauate classes the Department Global Gender and Sexuality Studies is offering spring, click here.

Department of Indigenous Studies

IDS 306SEM - Indigenous Feminisms
T & R , 12:30 PM - 1:50 PM
Cooke 114
Instructor: Mia R. Mckie

Examines theoretical framework of Indigenous feminisms and associated debates within Indigenous communities, activist camps, and academia. Engages with nation-specific, place-based histories, philosophies, peoples, and futures emerging from rooted Indigenous feminisms. Focuses on nation-specific expressions of Indigenous feminist thinking and action.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of Sociology

SOC 314LEC - Sociology Of Gender
M W F , 12:00 PM - 12:50 PM
Baldy 101
Instructor: Sara DiPasquale PhD Candidate

This course explores the social and cultural construction of gender, focusing on the ways that femininities and masculinities are constructed from infancy through adulthood in the United States. Includes how gender shapes--and is shaped by--major social institutions such as media, sports, and work, as well as other characteristics such as social class, race/ethnicity, and sexuality. This course is the same as SSC 316, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of Music

MUS 311LEC - Women And Music
T & R , 3:00 PM - 4:20 PM
Baird 327
Instructor: Stephanie Vander Wel

This course will explore the musical activities of women from Christian mysticism in the Middle Ages to women in popular music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In unraveling the historical complexities of women in music, we will take into account the cultural values and historical conditions that have surrounded women as composers, teachers, performers, listeners, and patrons. We will also consider how male composers have depicted womanhood in art and popular music. To contribute to our understanding, we will analyze specific musical works and performances and read scholarship in music criticism that addresses how music has shaped notions of womanhood. Our aim is to gain practical experience in interpreting how music has represented, reinforced, questioned, or challenged gender ideology within particular historical moments.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

Department of Philosphy

PHI 347LEC - Feminist Philosophy
M W F , 12:00 PM - 12:50 PM
Cooke 127B
Instructor: Sarah K Vincent

Examines the degree to which fundamental concepts that lead philosophical investigation are affected by gender prejudice, and perhaps also by other cultural blinders such as those related to race or nationality.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

School of Public Health and Health Professions

PUB 400SEM - Special Topics Public Health-Sexual Health Education
M W , 3:30 PM - 4:50 PM
Parker 104
Instructor: Elizabeth Bartelt

This course serves as an introduction to the field of sexual health education from a public health lens, focusing on the importance of addressing sexual health disparities, understanding sexual health education strategies, and learning about management of sexual health education programs. Course content will include a focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and similar identities; sexually transmitted infections; teenage pregnancy; and sexual assault. Students will explore additional tasks specific to sexual health education including advocacy and public health communication.

Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Spanish

SPA 449LEC - Fear of Women in the Middle Ages
T , 4:00 PM - 6:40 PM
Clemen 930
Instructor: Henry S Berlin

Topics in Early Literature: Fear of Women in the Middle Ages Medieval Iberian texts routinely portrayed women as deceitful, fickle, loudmouthed, vain, and lustful– all stereotypes that persist today, in many cultures. These misogynist treatises, story collections, and poems drew on religious, medical, and mythical discourses, serving as both satirical entertainment and as instruction manuals for controlling women by seeing through their deceptions. In this course, we will cast a critical eye on medieval misogynist discourses, studying them both in their historical context and in comparison with modern
discourses whose roots may be deeper than we typically imagine. The course will be conducted in Spanish; texts may include the Sendebar o Libro de los engaños y de los ensañamientos de las mujeres, Alfonso Martínez de Toledo's Corbacho, Jaume Roig's Espill, and Diego de San Pedro's Cárcel de amor.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)

For the full Undergraduate Course Catalog, click here.

GRADUATE

Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies

GGS 545SEM Cultures Of Bio, Medicine and Gender
W , 2:00 PM - 4:40 PM
Clemen 117
Instructor: TBA

Stay tuned for more information.

GGS 561SEM - Special Topics: Queer And Feminist Diasporas
M , 4:00 PM - 6:40 PM
Clemen 1004
Instructor: Jasmina Tumbas PhD

This seminar is designed to provide students with a transnational perspective on queer and feminist centered cultural production from within various types of diasporas since 1945 in the territory of "West" (most broadly: Europe and the United States). Focusing on art, film, and activism, we will critically engage with the concepts of diaspora, immigration/migration, nationalism, and colonialism, along with other attendant forms of oppression (racism, gentrification, sexism, the supremacy of citizenship etc.). The class will work with case studies of cultural productions that shed light on the experience of diasporic identity and struggles from feminist and queer perspectives. While we consider diaspora through the lens of national identity, we will also question the limits of such classifications by expanding the definition beyond the boundaries of nationhood.

Department of Learning and Instruction

LAI 620 Intersectionality and Education Seminar 
Asynchronous  
Instructor: Dr. Sarah A. Robert

Intersectionality, Inequality, and Education is an introduction to a subfield of education research. The first goal of the course is to provide you with an understanding of the subfield's key concepts: intersectionality, socio-cultural production and practice, identity, difference, positionality, power, (in)equality, and equity. We will foreground gender (and sexuality, feminisms, masculinities, femininities) and attend to intersections with multiple dimensions of inequality including but not limited to race, ethnicity, indigeneity, religious identity, citizenship, able-ism, refugee, migrant. The second goal of the course is to examine how the key concepts can be used to analyze curriculum, instruction, learning, and education policy. A last goal of the course is to apply this knowledge as a student, an educator, counselor, librarian, activist, administrator, parent, or education researcher. Questions we will ponder throughout the semester are: What is intersectionality? What does it have to do with education? What do theories and methodologies of intersectionality reveal to us about teaching, learning, assessment, knowledge/curriculum, school administration, or policy? How might we use this knowledge to transform education and society?

Department of Urban and Regional Planning

URP 508SEM- Race, Class, Gender & The City
Tuesdays , 1:00 PM - 3:40 PM
Hayes 217
Instructor: Dr. Henry L Taylor

Explores the intersectionality of race, class, gender & the city in the knowledge economy-based urban environment. Reviews how the shift from an industrial to knowledge-based economy reshaped and recreated the central city and its surrounding suburban region. In the new knowledge-based ...

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)