Minoring

GEND 200: Gender and Sexuality in U.S. Society

M/W/F 11:30 – 12:30
A. Hibbard

Interdisciplinary exploration of gender and sexuality in connection with race, class, and ethnicity in the United States. Investigation of social and cultural ideas about difference and equality in the past and present. Materials include literature, film, memoir, poetry, feminist philosophy, political tracts, and queer theory, as well as classic and recent scholarly work in history, sociology, economics, communication, psychology, and other fields. Topics may include mass media and consumer culture, work, law and social policy, family, political activism and social movements, sexuality and the body, public health, medical research, violence, and theories of privilege and oppression.

GEND 231: Genders and Sexualities in Global Perspective

M/W/F 12:40 – 1:40
S. Kamran

Gender as it has been socially, culturally, and historically constituted in different times and places. Theoretical developments in the anthropology of gender. Cross-cultural exploration using examples from a wide range of societies, past and present. The relationship between cultural definitions of gender and the social experience of women, men, and alternative gender roles, such as the Native American two-spirits, the hijra of India, and global perspectives on contemporary transgender experiences.

GEND 345: Gender Studies Symposium Chair

TBD
K. Brodkin

Student chairs perform substantive analytic work related to this interdisciplinary field of study, conducting extensive research to explore speakers, develop panels, identify important issues, and develop the program of events. Working closely with each other, the planning committee, and the faculty director, chairs also develop leadership and professional responsibilities. Preference given to minors in gender studies, but students with relevant coursework or other experience will be considered. Spring registration limited to those students who have completed GEND 345 in the fall of the same academic year.

GEND 440: Feminist Theory

T/TH 11:30 – 1:00
K. Brodkin

Advanced course exploring concepts and debates that have animated feminist and queer theorists from a range of political traditions, disciplinary perspectives, and philosophical approaches (such as existentialism, Marxism, liberalism, poststructuralism, and postcolonialism). Readings examine topics such as patriarchy, capitalism, labor, family, the state, the body, and identity in exploring how ideas about gender, sex, and sexuality have been produced and transformed.

Electives:

ART 113: Sculpture 1

M/W 9:10 – 11:40
J. Perlitz

Form and space explored through a variety of media and techniques such as wood, plaster, found object, and assemblage. Short exercises to explore materials and techniques, opening up a broader discussion about the possibilities and complexities of the three-dimensional form. Readings, critiques, and more involved assignments leading to in-depth discussions and approaches to understanding and exploring sculpture.

ENG 243: Women Writers

M/W/F 9:10 – 10:10
A. Hibbard

Varies according to instructor. May focus on the common themes and patterns of influence in British, American, or international literature by women, or on close scrutiny of two or more authors.

ENG 310: Medieval Literature: Body & Soul

M/W/F 12:40 – 1:40
K. Gross

How much of who we are is related to our bodies? What makes up the self? These are questions we will explore in a medieval, mostly Christian, context. Our medieval authors and artists will ask what separates female from male? Human beings from (other) animals? Non-Christian from Christian? Flesh from spirit? And how fixed are these boundaries? The hope is that by learning how medieval people wrestled with a multitude of identities we may consider anew modern understandings of identity formation.

ENG 450: Medieval Romance

M 3:00 – 4:30, TH 3:30 – 5:00
K. Gross

Varies in focus and content. Subjects addressed in the context of current critical discourse. Students write a long, research-based paper.

ETHS 200: Intro to Ethnic Studies

T/TH 9:40 – 11:10
M. Rabasa

Introduction to the academic field of ethnic studies. Students will grapple with classic and contemporary literature in the field to develop the tools for approaching race and ethnicity as categories of analysis. Exploration of the social production of conceptions of racial and ethnic difference rather than discussion of specific ethnic and racial groups. Examination of the origins, uses, and mutations of ideologies of race and ethnicity; analysis of how these ideologies intersect with empire and nationalism, sexuality and gender, capitalism and labor relations, and scientific knowledge. How methods from different disciplines contribute to an understanding of ethnic studies.

PSY 230: Infant and Child Development

T/TH 1:50 – 3:20
J. Ruckert

Psychological development in domains including perception, cognition, language, personality, social behavior. How psychological processes evolve and change. Emphasis on infancy and childhood.

PSY 260: Social Psychology

M/W/F 12:40 – 1:40
D. Leonard

The effects of social and cognitive processes on the ways individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others. Person perception, the self, prejudice and stereotyping, social identity, attitudes and attitude change, conformity, interpersonal attraction, altruism, aggression, group processes, intergroup conflict.

PSY 330: Adolescent and Adult Development

T/TH 11:30 – 1:00
K. Puente

Adolescence, emerging adulthood, and adult development in areas including physiology, emotion, cognition, personality, and social behavior. How psychological processes evolve and change with age. Emphasis on adolescence through late adulthood and death.

RHMS 406: Race, Rhetoric, and Resistance

M/W 3:00 – 4:30
K. Chirindo

Role of rhetoric in social conflicts regarding issues of race. Theories and strategies of resistance and the implications for political action. Examination of major race and resistance texts.

SOAN 255: Medicine, Healing, and Culture

M/W 3:00 – 4:30
S. Bajracharya

Culturally patterned ways of dealing with misfortune, sickness, and death. Ideas of health and personhood, systems of diagnosis and explanation, techniques of healing ranging from treatment of physical symptoms to metaphysical approaches in non-Western and Western Traditions.

SOAN 285: Culture and Power in the Middle East

T/TH 9:40 – 11:10
O. Kosansky

Introduction to the anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa, with an emphasis on the relationship between global and local forms of social hierarchy and cultural power. Topics include tribalism, ethnicity, colonialism, nationalism, gender, religious practices, migration, the politics of identity.

SOAN 309: Labors of Love

M/W 3:00 – 4:30
S. Kamran

Exploration of the types of labor typically associated with love, sex, passion, and care - sex work, care work, political work, creative work, craft occupations, intellectual labor, and athletic labor across different historical and geographical contexts. Investigation of how and when work becomes associated with pleasure and/or becomes a source of frustration. Critical examination of contemporary discourses related to the value of work. Particular focus on how dynamics related to gender, class, sexuality, race, and colonialism shape our experiences of work: What does it mean to love our work? Should we love our jobs? Who gets to love their jobs? What are the consequences of loving our work?

SOAN 393: Affect Theory

T/TH 1:50 – 3:20
K. Cameron-Dominguez

Introduction to anthropological and sociological scholarship that uses affect as a theoretical device to explore social meaning in emotions, the body, and spoken language. The course is oriented through feminist intellectual traditions that problematize perceptions of objective knowledge production. Literature will include theoretical articles, programmatic essays, and ethnographic monographs. Case studies will emphasize affect in the production of racial, gendered, classed, and laboring identities within a framework of neoliberal social, economic, and political restructuring.

SPAN 440: Topics: Borders & Translation

T/TH 11:30 – 1:00
M. Rabasa

The geopolitical, cultural, linguistic, economic, and social borders that currently exist in the Americas are the product of colonialism, as a historical process, and of coloniality, as a logic of domination. But borders are also productive spaces, where new ways of thinking and being in the world are generated. With the goal of expanding our thinking about what the concept of the border is-and what it does-the course explores the cultural production that emerges from border experiences, identities, and spaces. What does it mean to cross, live, translate, speak, and think the border? How are these diverse and complex experiences represented in material culture?

TH 106: Fundamentals of Movement

M/W 11:30 – 1:00
T. Mills

Use of guided movement explorations, partner work, readings, and discussion to explore structural and functional aspects of the body and anatomy with the goal of increasing efficiency of movement and physical coordination. Use of imagery supports dynamic alignment, breath, mobility/stability, relaxation, and partner work including massage, with a main focus on the skeletal system and elements of muscle and organ systems, as well as the relationship between the body and psychological/emotional patterns. Extensive journal writing.

TH 108: Contemporary Dance Forms

M/W 9:40 – 11:10
T. Mills

Introduction to modern and postmodern dance forms, physical techniques, and principles. Emphasis on the conceptual nature of contemporary dance since the 1960s. Movement skills and perspectives in relation to historic and aesthetic ideas that fostered them. Development of sound body mechanics, strength, flexibility, control, momentum, movement quality, musicality, personal movement resources. Viewing live and videotaped performances. Short readings on dance history and theory. Live music accompaniment.

TH 201: Contact Improvisation

T/TH 9:40 – 11:10
E. Nordstrom

Physical investigation into gravity, momentum, and weight sharing between two or more bodies. Specific skills such as falling, perching, and rolling point of contact; readings and video assignments help to place CI in a historical, social, and artistic context.

TH 214: Dance in Context: History and Criticism

T/TH 1:50 – 3:20
E. Nordstrom

Viewing of selected live dance performances in the Portland area. An exploration of the intellectual, historical, and social contexts of these performances. Development of a vocabulary for dance criticism and an understanding of the essential elements of dance choreography and performance. Readings; analysis of videotaped, filmed, and live dance performances; seminar discussion. Fee (performance tickets).

TH 280: Theatre and Society

W/F 3:00 – 4:30
S. Meera

Survey of the premodern global history of theatre and performance from its earliest ritual manifestations to the late 18th century. Performance traditions, plays, theories, and dramatic expressions from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Emphasis will be placed on the reciprocal relationship between drama/performance and religion, the state, civil society, and the individual. Students will study primary materials, read and analyze plays, examine documentary and pictorial evidence, and engage both intellectually and creatively with the material. Reading, discussion, research, papers, exams, and creative projects.

WLL 140: Fairy Tales Across Cultures

M/W/F 10:20 – 11:20
C. Sprecher Loverti

Exploration of world literature through texts in English translation from a variety of linguistic traditions while focusing on a literary genre (poetry, prose, fiction, drama, film), period (medieval, premodern, modern, contemporary), and/or theme (aesthetics, storytelling, nature, community, power, gender, sexuality, etc.). Lectures, discussions, student essays, and secondary readings on literary, cultural, historical, philosophical, religious, and social context of works studied. Asks questions such as: How do genres and texts vary (or carry) across cultures? How do historical and cultural contexts alter our readings of these texts? Topics vary
from year to year. Taught in English; no background in language or literature required. May be repeated for credit with a change of topic; however, registration for subsequent sections must be done via the registrar’s office.