GLBT Studies Minor

The GLBT Studies minor is designed to allow students to explore sexuality and sexual diversity by examining the history and present conditions of sexual and gender formation, as well as ideologies of sexuality, from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Specific courses focus on politics, cultures, representations and literature of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, as well as ways to analyze and address issues of homophobia, heterosexism, and other intersecting forms of oppression.

 

For more information, visit www.bridgew.edu/WomensStudies/, contact Sarah Wiggins, and view the Course Catalog for requirements.

 

A sampling of courses that may apply toward the minor includes:
INTD 240    Critical Perspectives in Women's and Gender Studies
INTD 265    Introduction to GLBT Studies
ANTH 417   S'He Two Spirits; Gender Cross Culturally
COMM 355 Images of Gender in Mass Media
SOCI 204   Gender, Sexuality and Society
LANG 350   International Women's Cinema
LIBR 299    GLBTQ Teen Experiences in Young Adult Literature
POLI 343    Constitutional Law and Politics: Liberty and Equality

Other GLBT Academic Courses of Interest

Anth 417: S'He Spirits: Gender Cross Culturally
What is gender? How many genders are there? Where are alternate genders found? We will investigate gender categories cross- culturally

  • Native American Two Spirits
  • Latin American Machos
  • Gays
  • GLBTQs
  • Asian gender categories
  • African Gay Movements
  • Other topics related to sex, gender, and sexuality cross-culturally

Instructor: Sandy Faiman-Silva
Phone: 508-531-2369


COM 355: Images of Gender in Mass Media
This course considers images of men and women in contemporary mass media forms, including film, magazines, and with a particular emphasis on television. Students will learn to think about media images as a product of social values and a consumer commodity, and to consider how images affect the way we construct our selves and our lives. The class will analyze how gender is socially constructed via body type, social roles, subcultures, and consumer values, among other things. We will discuss these subjects via readings, audio visual and other materials.
Instructor: Changes by semester/academic year.
 

ENGL 399: Queer Stories
Some writers simply refuse to tell a story straight.  One writer, in a kind of promiscuity, might pursue multiple plot lines; another, for the sake of erotic fantasy, might blur the boundary between reality and fiction; still another, emulating the art of the fetishist, might linger perversely on trivial detail instead of getting down to business.  This course seeks to examine such queer narrative forms in the service of interrogating their relation to queer content.  In our age of sexual identity, in which we tend to identify queerness with certain kinds of person, what might we learn by shifting our focus to the formal and ideological structures of queerness?  Why do variously queer characters seem to invite representation in experimental, oblique, strange, and unsettling stories?  How do highly peculiar uses of formal devices in prose fiction (plot, point-of-view, style, and so on) alter our sense of sexual identity?  This course will address such topics as transgender and intersex persons, free indirect discourse, sodomy, nonlinear plotting, sadomasochism, narrative speed, camp, dildoes, focalization, homosexuality, and the erotic heat of old-fashioned close reading.  In other words, it's probably not for the faint of heart. 

The readings will be challenging; the assigned material will emphasize recent and contemporary literary fiction.  In addition to a selection of short stories, the reading will likely include Dennis Cooper's The Sluts, Sarah Waters's The Night Watch, Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex, Sigmund Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room, Jackie Kay's Trumpet, and Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance.
Instructor: Dr. Matt Bell
Email: matt.bell@bridgew.edu
Phone: 508-531-1467


INTD 265: Introduction to GLBT Studies
This course serves as the gateway course for students who wish to pursue the GLBT Studies minor within Women’s and Gender Studies.  It will acquaint students with the great range of the interdisciplinary field called GLBT Studies, showing how non-normative sexualities shape our notions of kinship, personal identity, politics, law, and cultural production.  Major topics will include the history of sexuality, sexual psychology, cultural constructions of sexual identity, homophobia and heterosexism, gender crossings, the closet, Stonewall, the gay liberation movement, AIDS, and same-sex marriage.
Instructor: Dr. Matt Bell
Email: matt.bell@bridgew.edu
Phone: 508-531-1467


LANG 350: International Women's Cinema
This course explores global women's cinema that spans a spectrum of cultures, races, ethnicities, sexualities, languages, and visual aesthetics. We will explore women's cinematic art that engages with the following issues: differing cultural representations of the female body, past and present; diverse notions about feminism, from developing nations to "first world" countries; body politics and the female body as a site of power conflicts and negotiations within/by patriarchal culture; visual pleasure and spectator dynamics vis-à-vis both traditional Hollywood and experimental filmmaking; globalization, technology, and women's lives in the new millennium; new understandings of "family" between cultures and over time; odysseys toward self-expression, artistic and otherwise; issues of physical appearance, aging, illness, and procreation.  We will also examine problematic constructions of "masculinity" and gender binaries, and attendant categories such as race, that de-privilege women, men, and alternately gendered people who do not attain to or live by these constructions. Through a critical analysis of these groundbreaking cinematic visions, we will question the facile, stereotype-promoting visual and sound bytes with which many genres of mainstream visual media such as "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeover" increasingly bombard us. Documentary, feature films, guerrilla filmmaking, avant-garde video, and video installation will be explored in relation to Hollywood convention.
Instructor: Leora Lev
 Email: L1Lev@bridgew.edu
Phone: 508-531-2449


LIBR 299-X01 : GLBTQ Teen Experiences in Young Adult Literature
Is school really safe? Where do I go if I can't go home? How do I know who to trust? Why can't I just be "normal"? In this course, we will use contemporary books written for, about, and, in some cases, by teens to explore the challenges and issues GLBTQ youth face during their teen years. YA literature will be supplemented with current research, Web sites for GLBTQ youth, community resources, and a password-protected, online class discussion board. This course is relevant for students who struggle with these issues themselves and/or come into contact with GLBTQ teen through personal, professional, parenting or teaching relationships.
Instructor: Dr. Anne Hird
 Email: ahird@bridgew.edu
Phone: 508-531-2027
 

POLI 343 Constitutional Law and Politics: Liberty and Equality   
This course addresses the scope of the individual's rights to liberty and equality under the 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. It examines the evolution of legal doctrine regarding the unequal treatment of individuals by public and private actors, including discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, class, age, and (dis)abilities. The course also analyzes the scope of liberty and privacy in the United States, with particular attention devoted to procedural and substantive due process, sexual freedom, procreation and child-rearing, the right to die, and personal information and workplace privacy.
Instructor: Mark Kemper, Associate Professor of Political Science


SCWK 580-001: Working With Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Clients
This course is designed to provide students in interdisciplinary settings (social work, counseling, student affairs) with the knowledge, skills, and basic competencies needed to work in a variety of clinical/counseling settings with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals. This course will examine a variety of issues regarding working with sexual minorities, including, but not limited to: gay, lesbian, and bisexual identity development, the coming out process, gay spirituality, sexual minority adolescents and college students, homoprejudice, heterosexual privilege, career counseling issues for sexual minorities, substance abuse/addiction, health behavior, and mental health issues for sexual minorities. Students will become familiar with the core competencies provided by the Association for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues in Counseling, as well as ethical considerations for working with this special clinical population.
Instructor: Michael M. Kocet, Ph.D., LMHC, NCC
Phone: 508.531.2721
Email: mkocet@bridgew.edu

 

If you are a professor who would like to have your course listed here, please contact Lisa Forest (lisa.forest@bridgew.edu, 508-531-1408).

Last Modified: April 15, 2011