Fall 2025 Course Description

ANTH 143: Transracial Adoption,
Professor Sandra Patton-Imani | M/W 12:30-1:45 PM
This course will explore transracial adoption as it intersects with race, gender, poverty, and reproduction in the US, focusing in particular on the adoption of Black and mixed race children into white families. We will consider this topic through a broad range of disciplinary perspectives, including racial-ethnic studies, sociology, women’s and gender studies, anthropology, history, memoir, and film/video. Transracial adoption, and adoption more generally, are typically represented in U.S. media through romantic, mythical narratives that celebrate the formation of “color-blind” “forever families.” While we will certainly consider the perspectives of people who appreciate and advocate such views, we will be actively complicating such perspectives by considering the elements often left out of public narratives. We will be exploring transracial adoption as a contemporary social issue that fundamentally requires a critical perspective in order to understand the ways it is shaped by a broad range of social interests and power relations in the United States and abroad. We will explore the ways a critical perspective on race, gender, reproduction, and power relations reframe public narratives about the transfer of children from poor mothers to middle class and wealthy families.

ART 120: Gender And Sexuality in Contemporary Islamic Art,
Professor Sascha Crasnow | M/W 12:30 - 1:45 PM
Stereotypes about the Islamic world that proliferate outside of it frequently center on issues of gender and sexuality. This course will examine contemporary art alongside the historical, cultural, and political roots of the current (varied) condition(s) of gender and sexuality in the Islamic world. We will look at artists from the Islamic world and its diaspora who are addressing issues of gender and sexuality—articulating domestic concerns, challenging foreign conceptions, and exposing the particularities of their intersectional experiences, among others.

EDUC 164: Perspectives in Race, Ethnicity, And Gender,
Professor Kevin Lam | M 4:00 - 6:50 PM
A historical, social, and cultural analysis of the interrelationships among racial, ethnic, class, and gender experiences in conjunction with an examination of the individual, institutional, and social constructs of racism, sexism, prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping. The course (through a comparative approach) aims to increase understanding of race, ethnic, and gender identities, and sensitize students to the subjective experiences of historically marginalized groups in the USA.  There will be an emphasis on African American, Latino/a/x, Native American, Asian American, and sexual/gender identities, and class analysis.  The course meets the human relations standards for teachers as outlined by the Iowa Department of Education.  While the course attempts to be inclusive by drawing upon different readings and different ways of knowing, it is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive.  Please remember that this is an introduction to some perspectives on race, ethnicity, and gender in education and beyond.  Students will be asked to reflect on their own educational and life experiences and its relationship to the readings.  The discussion is fundamentally grounded in the readings. 

EDUC 164: Perspectives in Race, Ethnicity, And Gender,
Professor Jennifer Chung | M/W 12:30 - 1:45 PM
A historical, social, and cultural analysis of the interrelationships among racial, ethnic, class, and gender experiences in conjunction with an examination of the individual, institutional, and social constructs of racism, sexism, prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping. The course (through a comparative approach) aims to increase understanding of race, ethnic, and gender identities, and sensitize students to the subjective experiences of historically marginalized groups in the USA.  There will be an emphasis on African American, Latino/a/x, Native American, Asian American, and sexual/gender identities, and class analysis.  The course meets the human relations standards for teachers as outlined by the Iowa Department of Education.  While the course attempts to be inclusive by drawing upon different readings and different ways of knowing, it is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive.  Please remember that this is an introduction to some perspectives on race, ethnicity, and gender in education and beyond.  Students will be asked to reflect on their own educational and life experiences and its relationship to the readings.  The discussion is fundamentally grounded in the readings. 

ENG 60: Topics in Culture and Identity,
Professor Carol Spaulding-Kruse | W 5:00-7:50 PM
In what might be called a post-“woke” era, how will we think and talk about racial identity? One answer arises from the study of literature by or about authors of mixed racial background. This course will explore 20^th century American novels by authors who don’t fit neatly within the defined racial boundaries of their time. Titles will span the decade from 1919 to 1990 and will include: Selections from Mrs. Spring Fragrance (Sui Sin Far, 1919), Cogewea, the Half Blood (Mourning Dove, 1927), The Frontiers of Love (Diana Chang, 1956), The Stone Face (William Garnder, 1963), Sapogonia (Ana Castillo, 1990), Caucasia (Danzy Senna, 1998).

ENG 075/SCSS 075/ WGS 075: Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies,
Professor Beth Younger | T/TR 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Introduction to women's and gender studies is a course designed to explore how questions of gender, ethnicity, race, class, culture, and sexuality impact access to opportunity, power, and resources. We will approach these analyses through an interdisciplinary lens, utilizing various feminist theoretical frameworks. We will also analyze the way culture has constructed femininity, masculinity, sexualities, and identity under patriarchy. With a wide-ranging intersectional approach, we will read critical essays, personal essays, popular culture, and some fiction. We will examine television, advertising, magazines, literature, theoretical essays and other cultural productions (including our own daily lives and experiences) in order to explore representations of gender, ethnicity, class and sexuality. Course requirements include extensive weekly reading, frequent writing, class participation, essays, a midterm and a final examination.

ENG 075/SCSS 075/ WGS 075: Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies,
Professor Jeanette Tran | M/W 9:30 - 10:45 AM
This introductory course aims to provide students with the basic tools needed to investigate the ways in which gender shapes social roles, identities, and access to power. Through engaging with the work of contemporary and classic writers, and reflecting on our own lived experiences, we will question the meanings of “male” and “female.” We will also explore intersections of gender with other dimensions of difference and inequality such as race, class, and sexuality.

ENG 135: Adolescent Literature,
Professor Beth Younger | W 5:00 - 7:50 PM
Adolescent Literature, also known as Young Adult Literature, is an upper division literature course where we read a wide variety of significant novels alongside critical, interpretive, and academic writing about YAL. Our goals in the class will be to explore, analyze, and critique these works as well as to examine how they participate in the way our culture defines adolescence itself. Weekly writing, lots of reading, and lively discussion. Texts include Pet (Akwaeke Emezi), Eleanor and Park (Rainbow Rowell), The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie) and I'm Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Erika Sanchez).

HIST 099: European Women's History,
Professor Deborah Symonds | M/W 2:00 - 3:15 PM
A survey course, covering both women's experiences and the shifting definitions of gender in Western and Central Europe and its colonies from 1400 to 1945. Topics include peasant women, the witch hunts, aristocratic women, the female intellectual tradition, factory women, socialists and feminists.

HIST 172: Women and Gender in Early America,
Professor Susan Garneau | TR 12:30-1:45 PM
Eighty years ago, a pioneering historian asked what U.S. history would look like if seen ""through women's eyes."" In recent years, historians have tackled that project, producing a history of women and transforming our understanding of the past in the process. Focusing on early America from the period of contact, conquest, and settlement to the Civil War (1607-1865), this course pursues four related questions: How does our vision of early America change when we place women at the center of analysis? How does the process of ""doing history"" change when we place women at the center of analysis? How has gender shaped, and been shaped by, developments in early U.S. history? And how can we explain the differences among women's experiences? In this seminar, we will examine historical experiences common to American women while paying close attention to differences and divisions among them. We will also explore how individuals and groups have contested and perpetuated the ways Americans think about and experience gender in family life, education, sexuality, work, marriage, and politics.

HONORS 195: Women and the Law,
Professor Sally Frank | M 3:35-5:35 PM
Seminar reviews how sex role understandings have affected various aspects of the law, including criminal law, employment, credit and insurance discrimination, abortion and fetal protection, family law, and lesbian and gay rights. Standards of review for laws that discriminate on the basis of sex as opposed to other kinds of discrimination also are discussed, as is the issue of how women are treated in courts today with an eye toward students' future practice as lawyers. **Advanced Writing Course

POLS 150: Human Rights and World Politics,
Professor Deb Delaet | M 5:00-7:30 PM
The principle of state sovereignty has been a defining element of international relations for centuries. Challenging rigid notions of state sovereignty, the concept of human rights became a prominent feature of global discourse after WWII when growing awareness of Nazi atrocities generated unprecedented support for the idea that a state's ability to act with impunity within its borders is limited by the basic human rights of individuals living within the state's territory. Despite the development and institutionalization of international human rights law during the second half of the 20^th century, state sovereignty remains a fundamental norm shaping world politics in the 21^st century, and there is a significant gap between formal law and the persistent reality of systemic violations of human rights norms across the globe. This course will provide an in-depth examination of the tension between sovereignty and human rights and the resultant gap between rhetoric and reality in the pursuit of global human rights. Given the structural obstacles to implementing and enforcing international human rights law at a global level, progress towards universal human rights requires a politics where human rights represent pervasive practices in the personal, civic, and professional lives of everyday citizens in communities across the globe. Thus, this course will encourage students to explore ways in which they, as engaged citizens, can promote human rights locally, nationally, and internationally.

POLS 161: Gender and International Relations,
Professor Mary McCarthy | T/TR 2:00-3:15 PM
Examination of the way considerations of gender challenge traditional approaches to the study of world politics, with special attention to national security, war and peace, human rights and economic development. A large part of the course focuses on how women have been affected by global politics.

PSY 81: Human Sexuality,
Professor Meaghan Rowe-Johnson | M/W 11:00-12:15 PM
A survey of contemporary knowledge of human sexuality, focusing on the biological, psychological and social determinants of sexual behavior, including sexual responses, relationships, variations, diseases and dysfunctions. Prereq.: PSY 001.

SOC 50: Sociology of the Family,
Professor Amira Allen | M/W 11:00-12:15 PM
Sociological and social psychological perspectives are used to explore aspects of the development, maintenance and dissolution of intimate social relationships, especially those characterized as marriage and family relationships.

SOC 161: Issues in Race and Ethnicity,  
Professor Amira Allen | M 4:00-6:50 PM
An examination of the nature of social inequality based upon conceptions of race and ethnicity. Emphasis is on the economic and power relationships that have characterized the history of racial and ethnic inequality in the United States.

SPAN 154: Cultural Health Perspectives,
Professor Inbal Mazar | T/TR 12:30 - 1:45 PM
Through discussion of a variety of class materials, guest visits, and service-learning projects, students will gain an understanding of health literacy, culture and language as well as the importance of developing culturally inclusive healthcare systems to reduce racial and economic health disparities. An emphasis is given to women's health disparities in Latin America, as well as health challenges and outcomes for Latin American and Latina women in the United States. Various structured assignments prepared in conjunction with health professionals and a major service-learning project will enable students to focus on health needs of diverse Latin American and Spanish speaking populations. In addition, students will have opportunities to use and enhance medical grammar, vocabulary and colloquial terms.