The Women's and Gender Studies course approval process seeks to include gender-themed courses and new feminist approaches to teaching, while at the same time honoring our traditions and roots as Women's Studies.This process recognizes the cumulative learning process that builds upon proceeding components.
This is particularly true for lower division courses where students are often both new to the process of critical analysis and to the idea of feminism and gender studies. Therefore, earlier teaching units of a class might only introduce the subject or approach; middle sections would begin to draw explicit attention to the issues of women and gender as distinct components; and the final section of the class would involve the critical analysis of the complex relationships between women and gender. Upper division classes would probably reflect this same pattern, but the pace would be quicker and the level of engagement more focused.
The Formal Application Consists of:
- The syllabus
- A short paragraph answer addressing aspects of each of the three sections, although more space may certainly be used. Please reference specific topics, readings, and activities as a means of illustrating your answer.
- Any other information you would like the committee to know.
- C.V.
Application Questions:
The class might engage with a variety of activities and issues, recognizing that no one course would be expected to do them all.
Useful questions to consider include:
Pedagogy:
- Does the subject matter itself reflect feminist/critical analysis?
- Does its presentation by the professor, either through discussions or lecture, engage critically gender and gender non-conforming/non-conformity?
- Do student activities, be they discussion groups, response papers, formal essays, presentations, or the professor's evaluation of these activities, reflect students' awareness of and ability to critically analyze the role gender plays in that course's subject material?
- Is the course content informed by feminist pedagogy?
Content:
- Are the texts, readings, course materials, and course design inclusive and respectful of heterogeneity?
- Does the course engage with the issue of gender inequality?
- Does the course engage in intersectionalities, such as of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, abilities, and other aspects of identities?
Does the course consider the implications of gender as socially constructed?
Outcomes:
- By the end of the course, can students discuss way in which gender non-conforming/non-conformity shape or shaped daily life?
- Do student activities, be they discussion groups, response papers, formal essays, presentations, or the professor's evaluation of these activities, reflect students' awareness of and ability to critically analyze the role gender plays in that courses subject material?
- Are students provided with guidelines or methods to apply this distinct type of critical thinking to their own lives and the world around them?