To view GWS courses offered during a specific semester, visit the online University Course Catalogue. Select the semester desired from the drop-down menu, then type "GWS" in the Course Prefix box or select GWS from the drop-down menu. Note that actual course offerings are subject to change, but this guide will provide the most current information available.

SPRING 2026 UNDERGRADUATE COURSES:  

GWS 200-002: SEX & POWER
INSTRUCTOR & TA: FRANCES HENDERSON & ESHITA HAQUE (TA)
MEETING TIMES: MW 10:00-10:50am (in person) & TBD (online)
Introduces Gender and Women's studies for a social science perspective using cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches. Analyzes relations of power marked by gender and how these relate to other social distinctions and processes. Interactive learning format. This course is a university-approved elective course that meets USP and/or UK Core requirement (Intellectual Inquiry, Social Science) and counts toward requirements for the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

GWS 201: GENDER & POPULAR CULTURE SECTIONS:
001: TR 12:30-1:45pm: ARIA HALLIDAY & YETUNDE ONI (TA)
002: TR 9:30-10:45am: JINGXUE ZHANG (TA)
004: MWF 11:00-11:50am: SNEHAL SHARMA
005: TR 11:00-12:15pm: SNEHAL SHARMA
201: Online asynchronous: FRANCES HENDERSON
202: Online asynchronous, Part of Term: March 17-May 8, REBECCA LENTJES (TA)
This course examines the role of popular culture in the construction of gendered identities in contemporary society. We examine a wide range of popular cultural forms -- including music, computer games, movies, and television -- to illustrate how femininity and masculinity are produced, represented, and consumed. This course is a university-approved elective course that meets USP and/or UK Core requirement (Intellectual Inquiry, Humanities) and counts toward requirements for the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

GWS 250: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 
INSTRUCTOR: FRANCES HENDERSON 
MEETING TIMES: MWF 1:00-1:50pm
This course takes you through some ways in which people have organized themselves around local, national, and international issues pertaining to gender. We engage key theories that explain the origins, strategies, and success of different forms of social movements across the world. We also critically analyze case studies from different parts of the world to understand how social movements work on the ground and in specific cultural environments with unique historical trajectories, attending to ways in which social movements are shaped by, and do or do not result in changes to social structures of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality. This course is a university-approved elective course that meets UK Core requirement (Global Dynamics) and counts toward requirements for the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

GWS 300-002: TOPICS IN GWS: BODILY AUTONOMY ACROSS BORDERS 
INSTRUCTOR: SNEHAL SHARMA
MEETING TIMES: MW 3:00-4:15pm
Selected topics in women's studies with special attention to those of contemporary relevance. The thematic focus of this semester’s course invites students to explore how the concept of ‘bodily autonomy,’ especially in relation to human rights, can be understood differently across cultures and nations. The course will explore the question: How is the right over our own body impacted by larger social and cultural norms, government laws and policies, as well as local, national, and international politics? We will also evaluate how media, in general, and social media, in particular, have contributed to the building of local and transnational movements related to bodily autonomy, while simultaneously also providing a platform for the circulation of orthodox ideas about bodily autonomy. This course is a university-approved elective that counts toward requirements for the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

GWS 301-001 (SAME AS AAS 400-008): CROSSROADS: MONEY MOVES: RACE, GENDER, CONSUMERISM
INSTRUCTOR: ARIA HALLIDAY 
MEETING TIMES: TR 3:30-4:45PM
Specific topics will vary, but all courses taught under this title focus on the contributions, interplay, intersections, constructions, history, and confrontations that the social categories and lived experiences of gender, race, and class produce in the United States. Examines opportunities for civic responsibility and social justice. The theme for this section of 301 is “Money Moves: Race, Gender & Consumerism” and will expand student knowledge of financial systems and their relationship to race, gender, and class perceptions. As investigators and collaborators, students will explore histories of economic systems and how these ideas are used within popular culture. Students will examine their own financial choices and their beliefs about race, gender, and class through consumerism. The course culminates with student papers on topics of their own choices. This course is a university-approved elective that meets USP and/or UK Core requirement (Community, Culture, and U.S. Citizenship) and counts toward requirements for the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

GWS 301-003: CROSSROADS: GIRLHOOD STUDIES 
INSTRUCTOR: ANASTASIA TODD
MEETING TIMES: TR 12:30-1:45PM
Specific topics will vary, but all courses taught under this title focus on the contributions, interplay, intersections, constructions, history, and confrontations that the social categories and lived experiences of gender, race, and class produce in the United States. Examines opportunities for civic responsibility and social justice. The theme for this section of 301 is an introduction to Girlhood Studies, with a particular focus on 20th and 21st century girls and girlhoods. Girlhood Studies asks us to think critically about the construction of girlhood, the variegated meanings that attach themselves to “the girl,” and the lived experiences of girls. Is girlhood self-evident, is it a temporal life stage, a bio-social construction, or a feeling? In this course we will ponder these questions, as well as think and write critically about how gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality inform how we understand who “counts” as a girl. We will watch documentary films, reality TV, and social media content alongside our theoretical and popular readings about girls and girlhoods. In exploring lived realities as well as cultural representations, for example, Taylor Swift’s never-ending girlhood and our recent obsession with “girl dinner” and “girl math,” we think through what “the girl” can tell us about the contemporary sociohistorical moment. This course is a university-approved elective that meets USP and/or UK Core requirement (Community, Culture, and U.S. Citizenship) and counts toward requirements for the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

GWS 301-201: CROSSROADS: HYPHENATED AMERICANS 
INSTRUCTOR: SNEHAL SHARMA
MEETING TIMES: ONLINE ASYNCHRONOUS
PART OF TERM: MARCH 17-MAY 8
Specific topics will vary, but all courses taught under this title focus on the contributions, interplay, intersections, constructions, history, and confrontations that the social categories and lived experiences of gender, race, and class produce in the United States. Examines opportunities for civic responsibility and social justice. The theme for this section of 301 is “Hyphenated Americans,” which refers to American citizens whose racial, ethnic, religious, country of origin, or gender and sexual identities are combined with their Identity as American citizens. For example, “Native American,” “Asian American,” “German American,” “Jewish American,” “Black American,” “Queer Americans,” and so on. We will begin by tracing the origins of such categorization in the U.S. Then, we will examine the meaning and impact of the hyphen attached to the term 'American' and consider whether it affects citizenship rights, other forms of rights of various hyphenated groups of American citizens. The course will introduce students to the concept of intersectionality that we will use as an analytical category to assess how class, gender, and sexuality affect the everyday lived experiences of these hyphenated groups. To understand these concepts, we will examine the stereotypes attached to the selected groups of hyphenated American identities. Throughout this exploration, we will also consider how the representation of these hyphenated American identities affects us as individuals and as communities, in ways that reproduce and perpetuate the social hierarchy of authentic and inauthentic citizens based on factors such as gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and class. This course meets USP and/or UK Core requirement (Global Dynamics) and counts toward requirements for the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

GWS 302-001: GENDER ACROSS THE WORLD: MASCULINITIES 
INSTRUCTOR: SHRUTHI PARTHASARATHY
MEETING TIMES: TR 11:00-12:15PM
Interdisciplinary, comparative and transnational examination of issues of gender focused around particular themes and locations. Thematic focus explicating gender which also illuminates questions of history and political economy in specific locations. Introduces students to research and a variety of analytical questions in the field, as well as the interaction between locales/people and structural processes. The theme for this section of 301 is an introduction to Masculinities in the United States and across the world. We will explore different cases to study what the term ‘masculinity’ means across ages and the ways in which it is interpreted, used and lived across cultures. Some of the examples we will study are coal mining and Appalachian masculinity, online discourse on simp/sigma/alpha masculinity, youth mental health, subcultures of masculinity in Kinshasa and masculinity in matrilineal South Asian communities. Our focus will be to academically engage with masculinity as a social, political and cultural object that intersects with race, sexuality and class. What is masculine? Who can ‘do’ masculinity? Is there one correct form of masculinity? These will be some of the questions that we will explore in this course through a critical reading of the assigned texts and documentaries. This course is a university-approved elective that meets USP and/or UK Core requirement (Global Dynamics) and counts toward requirements for the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

GWS 309-201 (SAME AS CPH 309): HEALTH, HISTORY, AND HUMAN DIVERSITY 
INSTRUCTOR: KIRA MA (TA)
MEETING TIMES: ONLINE, ASYNCHRONOUS
Health care reform is often in the news, and everyone has an opinion on why the system is broken, how to fix it, who should have access to good medical care, under what circumstances, and what constitutes "good care." This online, multi-format course will consider what it has meant to be a good patient or a good doctor at various points in U.S. history, who was included or excluded in each group, how medicine became professionalized, and how people have organized around health issues. Students will engage with primary sources, watch related films, interact with the professor during virtual "office hours," and participate in online moderated discussions. This course is a university-approved elective that meets USP and/or UK Core requirement (Intellectual Inquiry, Humanities and/or Community, Culture, and Citizenship in the U.S.) and counts toward requirements for the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

GWS 400-001: DOING FEMINIST RESEARCH I: METHODS 
INSTRUCTOR: ANASTASIA TODD
MEETING TIMES: TR 9:30-10:45AM
In this course we will examine a variety of methodological issues and concerns in feminist scholarship. We will read about, discuss, and practice a variety of methods, particularly qualitative methods. We will examine both what has been done in the interdisciplinary field of feminist research and how what has been done is relevant to students' own research interests and plans for the future. Research exercises will serve as avenues through which to gain basic skills and practice commonly used methods, as well as a space through which to experiment with different ways of approaching topics. In particular, we will discuss why researchers decide on certain approaches over others, why certain topics can be difficult to approach, and how feminist ethics plays a role in constructing and actualizing a research project. The course culminates in a final project where students choose their own research topic, write research questions, make a plan to conduct their own research project, and share their process with their peers. This course is a university-approved elective that is required for undergraduate GWS majors and counts toward requirements for GWS minors.

ADDITIONAL COURSES FOR GWS CREDIT

PHI 300-002: SPECIAL TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY: PORNOGRAPHY, TECHNOLOGY, AND LAW 
INSTRUCTOR: NATALIE NENADIC
MEETING TIMES: TR 12:30-1:45PM
In recent history, pornography has become widespread, altering the world and associated with harms that, as a society, we’re just beginning to understand. Powerful technologies such as the Internet, our digital devices, and now Artificial Intelligence (AI) have played a central role in pornography’s reach and impact. We seek to understand this shift by investigating what pornography is, in contrast with long-standing popular perceptions of it, and by questioning the assumptions at work here about human nature, freedom, sexuality, and human relations. We examine the distinctive role of technology in creating this new cultural, social, and political phenomenon. And we consider the role of law in mitigating harms, focusing on a civil rights approach and on how it may aid us in addressing harms associated with new technologies such as AI deepfake pornography. 

PHI 340-001 (meets with GWS 340-001: History of Feminist Thought) INTRO TO FEMINISM & PHILOSOPHY INSTRUCTOR: JAMES SARES
MEETING TIMES: TR 11:00-12:15PM
This course is designed to provide students with an historical overview of the cultural diversity, creative and theoretical expression, and defining moments in the development of feminist thought up to 1975. Texts will include works, such as that of Hypatia, Christine De Pizan, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, and Mary Astell, that pre-date the term "feminist" but that are pioneering statements in the struggle for gender equality. "Thought" will include political manifestos, poetry, and short stories, as well as classic works of feminist theory and cultural criticism. What is sex? What is gender? We will examine sex and gender as they are lived through and embodied. The thesis of this course is that on the one hand, who we are depends on culture and society, on the other hand, these identities are our own and reflect who we truly are. We will consider whether sex and gender are natural, social, or a mix of the two, and ask about gender- and sex-based power and oppression. This course is university-approved elective that meets USP and/or UK Core requirement (Community, Culture, and U.S. Citizenship), and counts toward the undergraduate GWS major and minor.

PSY 563-001: DIVERSITY AMONG CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FAMILIES 
INSTRUCTOR: RACHEL FARR
MEETING TIMES: TR 12:30-1:45
The notion of the "traditional American family" has transformed as families in the United States (U.S.) have become increasingly more diverse. This discussion-based course for senior psychology majors (others, including graduate students, may enroll with instructor's permission) is intended as an overview and analysis of a contemporary family systems in the U.S., such as single-parent families, multiracial families, adoptive and
foster family systems, families who have children via assisted reproductive technologies (ART), and those with members who hold minoritized sexual, gender, and racial/ethnic identities. Taught from developmental psychological, family science, feminist, and intersectional perspectives, students will gain understanding in theory and research methods for studying children and families. Course material will be considered within the context of social issues, questions, and public controversies. The course will address factors that contribute to positive family functioning and healthy outcomes for children and parents. Implications for future research, clinical practice, public policy, and law surrounding parenting and families (e.g., custody and placement decisions) will be covered.

RUS 370-001: FOLKLORE OF RUSSIA AND UKRAINE 
INSTRUCTOR: JEANMARIE ROUHIER-WILLOUGHBY 
MEETING TIMES: TR 11:00-12:15PM
This course studies the folk ways of the East Slavs, from food to ritual, from housing to stories and songs, from spirits to witches. We will discuss how this material reflects the cultural norms about social hierarchies, gender roles and family and social identities. We will also trace the development of folk beliefs today by reading about contemporary life and the national myths Putin is using to justify the war in Ukraine.