Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Not all courses are offered every semester. Refer to the schedule of courses for each term's specific offerings.
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Unless otherwise indicated in the course description, all courses at the University of Florida are taught in English, with the exception of specific foreign language courses.

Center Information

The Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies offers academic programs, grants graduate and undergraduate degrees, and advances research in the discipline. Faculty in the department successfully compete for national fellowships and grants, win research and teaching awards, and produce rigorous and transformative research.
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CONTACT

Email | 352.392.3365 (tel) | 352.392.4873 (fax)

P.O. Box 117352
200 USTLER HALL
GAINESVILLE FL 32611-7352
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 Curriculum


Courses

WST 2111 Be a Social Justice Activist: #Activism, Intersectionality, and Social Movement Organizing 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Engages social science research and activist materials to examine how people are trying to create social change. Includes attention to social change efforts mindful of intersecting inequalities. Provides students an opportunity to consider how they might engage in social change efforts themselves.

Prerequisite: Any Quest 1 course with a minimum grade of C.

Attributes: Quest 2, General Education - Diversity, General Education - Social Science

WST 2322 Introduction to Health Disparities 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Examination of the multifaceted issue of health disparities based upon race and ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, education, sexuality, disability, physical and mental health, geography and other factors. Related issues include social determinants of health, cultural competency, health literacy, advocacy, social justice and health equity. (S and D)

Attributes: General Education - Diversity, General Education - Social Science

WST 2611 Humanities Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Close readings of cultural representations (in literature, the visual arts, movies, television, the Internet, etc.) facilitates the understanding of intersecting categories of identity such as gender, sexuality, class and race. Examines how such categories operate in everything from novels to YouTube to the evening news. (H and D) (WR)

Attributes: General Education - Diversity, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 6000 Words of Writing Requirement

WST 2612 Social Science Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

The social construction of gender, sexuality, race, class, and other identity categories. Readings focus on individuals, families, and cultural groups, mainly in the US but with attention to other nations. Includes subjects as intimate as the body and violence and as pervasive as politics and the law. Emphasizes differences in daily life experiences of health care, education, sports, and religion. Also examines the potential of movements for social change.

Attributes: General Education - Diversity, General Education - Social Science, Satisfies 4000 Words of Writing Requirement

WST 3015 Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Women's Studies 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Explores the diverse experiences of women in past eras and in the present, and in the U.S. and abroad, by drawing on materials and methodologies from a variety of disciplines. Required for the Women's Studies major and minor.

Attributes: General Education - Diversity, General Education - Humanities, General Education - Social Science, Satisfies 4000 Words of Writing Requirement

WST 3323 Gender, Bodies, and Health 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Examines how gender is "worn" on the female body. Adopting a feminist interdisciplinary approach, explores three themes: cisgender female biology in social context, bodily practices concerning food and exercise, and disease (i.e., cancer). Examines intersections of gender, race, class, and disability, and role of activism/policy changes in improving people's health.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.

WST 3325 Violence Against Women 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Approaches all forms of violence against women as a continuum and challenges assumptions regarding violence against women with empirical evidence. Adopts an intersectional approach to fully understand violence against women. Explores the transnational dimensions of violence against women and local specificities.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.

WST 3335 Women and Gender Analysis through American Film: 1950-Present 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Traces how film and Hollywood cinema represent women, gender, and feminism over the past sixty years. Analyzes the relationship of film and the sociology and history of feminist movements. Addresses intersections of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and class found in American cinema.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher or instructor permission.

Attributes: General Education - Diversity, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

WST 3371 Women, Leadership & Diversity in the Global Environment 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Examines leadership concepts in general, and for women in particular. Covers leadership strategies in a historical framework, leadership dilemmas in various industries (locally and globally), and experiential and case-study based leadership.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher or instructor permission.

WST 3415 Transnational Feminism 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Women and feminism in a transnational perspective, focusing on various theories and movements engendered by women in contemporary national contexts. The course examines development, reproductive politics and women's health. (S and N)

Attributes: General Education - International, General Education - Social Science

WST 3603 Sexualities Studies 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Interdisciplinary study of sexualities covering diverse theories of sexualities and desire, and how these theories are socially constructed and regulated. Central are the connections between sexualities and other social locators such as race, ethnicity, gender, social class, age, and ability or disability.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher or instructor permission.

WST 3610 Gender, Race and Science 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Feminist theories of nature, science and technology, and how gender and race are critical to the origins of science, the making of scientists and the politics of contemporary practice.

WST 3663 Gender and Food Politics 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Survey of the gendered history of food and foodways from the early 17th century to the modern period; may be taught with a service learning component.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.

WST 3703 History of American Medicine: Race, Class, Gender, and Science 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Overview of the development of the medical profession in the US with attention to ways that class, gender, and race have shaped the idea of "scientific medicine.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or departmental permission.

WST 3800 Sexual Ethics 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Approaches sexual ethics as the integration of care, respect, mutuality, and reciprocity into sexual practices. Critically interrogates socio-cultural discourses about sex/gender/sexuality and their contexts. Explores how gender, race, sexuality, and class construct sexual expectations and how sexual autonomy can be negotiated in contexts of unequal social structures and relations.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.

WST 3930 Special Interdisciplinary Topics in Women's Studies 1-4 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Variable topics from different fields of study in gender/ women's studies based on a feminist approach. Topics can include gender issues in education, women's autobiography and women's health issues.

WST 4002 Data Feminisms 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Draws from critical data and algorithm studies and feminist science and technology studies to develop critical tools of inquiry needed to approach data within a context of racialized, gendered, colonial, and classed systems of power. Combines practical data workshops with critical readings to analyze data across key uses in domains such as healthcare, security apparatuses, carceral systems, and digital infrastructures.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.

WST 4326 Women and Therapy 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Survey of the development of mental health interventions from the 19th century to the present, with attention to women as patients, practitioners, and consumers.

Prerequisite: Any WST 3000 level course or PPE 3003 or CLP 3144

WST 4349 Ecofeminism 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

A holistic framework for understanding the connections between environmental, feminist and social justice issues. This course critically analyzes positions within ecofeminist theory. (WR)

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.

Attributes: Satisfies 4000 Words of Writing Requirement

WST 4383 Latinx Sexualities 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Introduces the interdisciplinary field of Latina/o sexuality studies from an understanding of Latinx sexualities as complex processes in flux. Engages Latinx sexualities through transnational histories, memoirs and testimonios, artworks, literature, music, film, and video to understand how Latinx sexual identities and practices are shaped.

Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing.

WST 4384 LGBTQ+ Movements and Critiques 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Using examples of many forms of US LGBTQ+ social movement work, and critiques thereof, addresses the core questions: What is an LGBTQ+ movement? Are LGBTQ+, Queer, and Trans movements still relevant and possible today? Explores and examines these questions by reading and discussing research on how US LGBTQ+ movement work has been (and is) done, and critiqued, as well as how certain forms of it has been erased, elided, and (mis)understood.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.

WST 4630 Gender, Culture, and Place 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How are the experiences of gender and sexuality configured by geography, location, and the built environment? How do gender relations and sexual practices define and give meaning to space and place? Explore these questions through an interdisciplinary consideration of the gendered relationships that unfold in significant spaces and places in the US and the world.

WST 4641 Lesbian and Gay Studies 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Overview of lesbian and gay studies, including a portrait of the field, challenges, core debates and possible future directions of such research.

Prerequisite: instructor permission.

WST 4704 Discrimination and Health 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Examines discrimination and health from a variety of perspectives. Explores links of discrimination experiences with health behaviors and outcomes, discrimination in healthcare settings, and routes to improving health at individual, group, and legislative levels. Addresses multiple forms of discrimination (e.g., race, sex, class, sexual orientation/gender identity) and their intersections.

Prerequisite: PSY 2012 or any WST course or Sophomore standing.

WST 4905 Independent Study in Women's Studies 1-3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

For advanced undergraduate students who want to supplement regular courses with independent reading or research.

WST 4911 Undergraduate Research in Women's Studies 0-3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Provides firsthand, supervised research. Projects may involve inquiry, design, investigation, scholarship, discovery, or application.

WST 4930 Special Topics 1-6 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Lectures and seminars covering selected topics of current interest in women's studies and/or gender studies.

Prerequisite: instructor permission.

WST 4935 Capstone Seminar 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This capstone course, required for all majors, is the culmination of the women's studies major. It explores past and present scholarship to reaffirm the interdisciplinary nature of the field and to highlight relationships among feminist theory, intellectual practice and social change. The bulk of the semester is devoted to an independent writing project on the student's selected topic.

Prerequisite: WST 3015.

WST 4940 Internship 1-3 Credits

Grading Scheme: S/U

Practical experience in the community with a local agency, group or business involved in women's issues.

Prerequisite: instructor and program director permission.

WST 4941C Practicum in Health Disparities 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Capstone experience for seniors enrolled in the health disparities in society minor. Students are matched with preceptors from community agencies that work with underserved, disadvantaged and disenfranchised populations. Students will learn about the agency and its organizational culture while applying concepts of cultural competence, linguistic appropriateness and health disparities.

Prerequisite: WST 2322 and Health Disparities in Society minor.

WST 4956 Overseas Studies 1-15 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This course provides a mechanism by which coursework taken as part of an approved study abroad program can be recorded on the UF transcript and counted toward graduation.

Prerequisite: advisor permission.

WST 4970 Women's/Gender Studies Honors Thesis 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

For students pursuing an honors thesis in Women's Studies, in accordance with the protocols established by the Women's Studies and honors programs. Students design and pursue an independent research project with guidance from an advisor.

Prerequisite: WST 4935 and Women's Studies major.