We will be reading a number of key feminist texts that theorize the construction of sexual difference, and challenge the oppression of women. We will then address queer theory, an offshoot and expansion of feminist theory, and study how it is both embedded in, and redefines, the feminist paradigms. This redefinition occurs roughly at the same time (1980s/90s) when race emerges as one of feminism's prominent blind spots.

This course will address the predicaments of women who must negotiate local contexts shaped by transnational markets, changing patterns of agriculture and agro-forestry, and struggles over indigenous land rights. How have arguments about democracy shaped the struggles women take up locally, nationally, and transnationally in opposition to corporate power, national policies, and supranational agencies such as the World Trade Organization?

This course presents an opportunity for students to apply gender theory to practice and synthesize their work in gender studies. Connections between the academy and the community, scholarship and social action will be emphasized. Students will arrange for a placement at a nonprofit organization, business, or institution that incorporates a gender focus. A weekly seminar with other students provides a structured reflection forum to analyze experience and methods.

This course will examine the writing of Emily Dickinson, both her poetry and her letters. We will consider the cultural, historical, political, religious, and familial environment in which she lived. Special attention will be paid to Dickinson's place as a woman artist in the nineteenth century. The class will meet at the Dickinson Museum (280 Main Street in Amherst and accessible by Five College bus). Enrollment is limited to ten students.

This course covers major issues in the anthropology of reproduction, including the relationship between production and reproduction, the gendered division of labor, the state and reproductive policy, embodied metaphors of procreation and parenthood, fertility control and abortion, cross-cultural reproductive ethics, and the social implications of new reproductive technologies. We examine the social construction of reproduction in a variety of cultural contexts.

What happens after a traumatic event? Why do some people develop psychological disorders and others do not? This course will explore the psychological theories and research on trauma and stress. Topics covered will include childhood abuse, domestic violence, combat violence, community violence, and interpersonal violence. The seminar will explore psychological dysfunction, disorders, as well as adaptation and coping following exposure to traumatic stress. In addition, the course will explore the concept of 'cultural trauma.'

This seminar offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of feminist ideologies among Latinas throughout the United States. Employing a range of sources from archival texts to artistic images and ethnographies, we will study the histories and representations of Latina feminist theories across academic and aesthetic approaches.

Recent cultural histories of imperialism--European as well as U.S.--have illuminated the workings of race and gender at the heart of imperial encounters. This course will examine the United States' relationship to imperialism through the lens of such cultural histories. How has the encounter between Europe and America been remembered in the United States? How has the cultural construction of 'America' and its 'others' called into play racial and gender identities? How have the legacies of slavery been entwined with U.S. imperial ambitions at different times?

Mary Daly, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Phyllis Trible, and Judith Plaskow, among others, have argued that traditional Jewish and Christian theological systems have overlooked the needs, concerns, histories, and contributions of women. Their challenges range from the historical modification of a presumably unbiased religious system to the outright rejection of a so-called patriarchal establishment.

A seminar on the eighteenth-century Chinese masterpiece The Story of the Stone and selected literary criticism in response to this work. Discussions will focus on love, gender-crossing, and women's supremacy and the paradoxical treatments of these themes in the novel. We will explore multiple aspects of these themes, including the sociopolitical, philosophical, and literary milieus of eighteenth-century China. We will also examine this novel in its relation to Chinese literary tradition in general and the generic conventions of premodern Chinese vernacular fiction in particular.