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Academic Catalog 2025-26

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Your search for courses · during 2025-26 · tagged with GWSS Elective · returned 76 results

  • AFST 215 Contemporary Theory in Black Studies 6 credits

    This course examines the major theories of the Africana intellectual tradition. It introduces students to major concepts and socio-political thoughts that set the stage for Africana Studies as a discipline. With the knowledge of the historical contexts of the Black intellectual struggle and the accompanying cultural movements, students will examine the genealogy, debates and the future directions of Black Studies. Students are invited to take a dedicated dive into primary scholarship by focusing on foundational thinkers to be studied such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Frantz Fanon, Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks, among others.

    • Fall 2025
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • AFST Survey Course CL: 200 level GWSS Elective PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Social and Political Theory 1
  • AMST 217 Race, Gender, and Sports in America 6 credits

    How have American sports made visible discourses about race and gender? How do Americans who engage with sports—both as spectators and participants—imagine athletics when viewed through raced and gendered lenses? How do sports reflect assumptions about race and gender? Examining moments in the history of American athletics both from the distant and more recent pasts, students in this course will explore those issues while training a precise, critical eye on American culture and society. Key discussions will center on questions of the athletic body, integration, privilege and inequality, protest, power, and commercialism.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • AFST Humanistic Inquiry AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity CL: 200 level GWSS Elective
  • AMST 225 Beauty and Race in America 6 credits

    In this class we consider the construction of American beauty historically, examining the way whiteness intersects with beauty to produce a dominant model that marginalizes women of color. We study how communities of color follow, refuse, or revise these beauty ideals through literature. We explore events like the beauty pageant, material culture such as cosmetics, places like the beauty salon, and body work like cosmetic surgery to understand how beauty is produced and negotiated.

    • Winter 2026
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • AFST Humanistic Inquiry AMST America in the World CL: 200 level GWSS Elective AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity
  • AMST 260 Sexuality in American Film since 1945 3 credits

    This five-week class uses feature-length films to examine debates around sexuality in the United States since the end of World War II. Designed to allow students to develop both a deeper understanding of modern American gender & sexual history as well as a fuller appreciation for film as a rich, historically-contingent artform. Explores a number of themes, including but not limited to: sexual identity, gender identity, censorship, racial politics and racism, class anxieties, cultural production, trans experiences, and representation. Will include films like Some Like it Hot (1959), The Graduate (1967), Philadelphia (1993), and Tangerine (2015).

    2nd 5 weeks

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
    • CAMS Extra Departmental CL: 200 level GWSS Elective AMST Production Consumption of Culture
  • ARTH 214 Queer Art 6 credits

    Beyond surveying the rich history of arts by LGBTQA+ individuals, this course takes as its object of study the ways in which the arts have been used to question, undermine, and subvert the gendered and sexual norms of dominant cultures—in short, to queer them. In so doing, such visual and performative practices offer new, alternative models of living and acting in the world based on liberatory politics and aesthetics. This course will consider topics such as: censorship of queer artists; art of the AIDS crisis; activist performance; the sexual politics of public space; and queer intersections of race, class and gender in visual art among others.

    Extra time

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Art History (ARTH) course with a grade of C- better.

    • ARTS ARTH Post 1900 CL: 200 level GWSS Elective
  • ARTH 220 The Origins of Manga: Japanese Prints 6 credits

    Pictures of the floating world, or ukiyoe, were an integral part of popular culture in Japan and functioned as illustrations, advertisements, and souvenirs. This course will examine the development of both style and subject matter in Japanese prints within the socio-economic context of the seventeenth through twentieth centuries. Emphasis will be placed on the prominent position of women and the nature of gendered activity in these prints.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • CX, Cultural/Literature IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • ARTH Non Western ARTS ARTH Prior to 1900 ASST East Asia CL: 200 level EAST Supporting GWSS Elective ASST Literary Artistic Analysis
  • ARTH 240 Art Since 1945 6 credits

    Art from abstract expressionism to the present, with particular focus on issues such as the modernist artist-hero; the emergence of alternative or non-traditional media; the influence of the women’s movement and the gay/lesbian liberation movement on contemporary art; and postmodern theory and practice.

    • Spring 2026
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Art History (ARTH) course with a grade of C- better.

    • AMST America in the World AMST Space and Place ARTH Post-1800 ARTS ARTH Post 1900 CAMS Extra Departmental CL: 200 level GWSS Elective AMST Production Consumption of Culture EUST Transnational Support
  • BIOL 101 Human Reproduction and Sexuality 6 credits

    The myths surrounding human reproduction and sexuality may outweigh our collective knowledge and understanding. This course will review the basic biology of all aspects of reproduction–from genes to behavior–in an attempt to better understand one of the more basic and important processes in nature. Topics will vary widely and will be generated in part by student interest. A sample of topics might include: hormones, PMS, fertilization, pregnancy, arousal, attraction, the evolution of the orgasm, and the biology of sexuality.

    Sophomore priority

    • Winter 2026
    • No Exploration QRE, Quantitative Reasoning
    • CL: 100 level GWSS Elective
  • CAMS 225 Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream 6 credits

    After Americans grasped the enormity of the Depression and World War II, the glossy fantasies of 1930s cinema seemed hollow indeed. During the 1940s, the movies, our true national pastime, took a nosedive into pessimism. The result? A collection of exceptional films populated with tough guys and dangerous women lurking in the shadows of nasty urban landscapes. This course focuses on classic American noir as well as neo-noir from a variety of perspectives, including mode and genre, visual style and narrative structure, postwar culture and politics, and race, gender, and sexuality. Requirements include two screenings per week and several short papers.

    Extra Time required. Evening Screenings.

    • Fall 2025
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • AMST Democracy Activism AMST Space and Place CAMS Elective CL: 200 level GWSS Elective AMST Production Consumption of Culture
  • CAMS 258 Feminist and Queer Film Theory 6 credits

    The focus of this course is on spectatorship—feminist, lesbian, queer, transgender. The seminar interrogates arguments about representation and the viewer’s relationship to the moving image in terms of identification, desire, masquerade, fantasy, power, time, and embodied experience. The course first explores the founding essays of psychoanalytic feminist film theory, putting these ideas into dialogue with mainstream cinema. Second, we consider the aesthetic, narrative, and theoretical interventions posed by feminist filmmakers working in contradistinction to Hollywood. Third, “queering” contemporary media, we survey challenges and revisions to feminist film theory presented by considerations of race and ethnicity, transgender experience, and queerness.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • CAMS Elective CL: 200 level GWSS Elective AMST Production Consumption of Culture
  • CLAS 214 Gender and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity 6 credits

    In both ancient Greece and Rome, gender (along with class and citizenship status) largely determined what people did, where they spent their time, and how they related to others. This course will examine the ways in which Greek and Roman societies defined gender categories, and how they used them to think about larger social, political, and religious issues. Primary readings from Greek and Roman epic, lyric, and drama, as well as ancient historical, philosophical, and medical writers; in addition we will explore a range of secondary work on the topic from the perspectives of Classics and Gender Studies.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • CX, Cultural/Literature HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective CLAS Literary Analysis CLAS Elective GRK Minor Elective LATN Minor Elective
  • DANC 266 Reading the Dancing Body 6 credits

    Dance is a field in which bodies articulate a history of sexuality, nation, gender, and race. In this course, the investigation of the body as a “text” will be anchored by intersectional and feminist perspectives. We will re-center American concert dance history, emphasizing the Africanist base of American Dance performance, contemporary black choreographers, and Native American concert dance. Through reading, writing, discussing, moving, viewing videos and performances the class will “read” the gender, race, and politics of the dancing body in the cultural/historical context of Modern, Post Modern and Contemporary Dance.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective AFST Literary Artistic Analysis AMST Production Consumption of Culture DANC History Theory Literature
  • DANC 270 Performance As Ceremony 6 credits

    This course re-frames Dance history and practice through the lens of “performance as ceremony,” foregrounding embodied knowledge as a site of cultural memory, resistance, and futurity. Students will examine Indigenous, Africanist, Latinx, and Asian modernisms, centering choreographers, performers, and theorists who challenge dominant narratives and the legacies of cultural appropriation. With particular attention to Indigenous contemporary performance and its cultural and historical contexts, students will engage in seminar discussions, embodied research, and site-based performance practices. Indigenous guest artist/scholar visits, and attendance at performances will be part of the class.

    Extra Time Required: 1-2 field trips to performances in the Twin Cities

    • Spring 2026
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity CL: 200 level DANC History Theory Literature GWSS Elective THEA Literature Criticism History
  • ECON 257 Economics of Gender 6 credits

    This course examines the role of gender in determining key socio-economic outcomes. Topics include education, marriage, divorce, domestic violence, sex, fertility, work, earnings, occupation, and discrimination. We develop economic tools to examine patterns in gender differentials across time, across societies, and within socio-economic groups. We also evaluate the impact of policies, such as paid versus unpaid parental leave, on gender-based outcomes.

    • Spring 2026
    • QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social Inquiry
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): ECON 111 with a grade of C- or better or ECON AL (Cambridge A Level Economics) with a grade of B or better or has received a score of 5 on the AP Microeconomics test or a score of 6 or better on the IB Economics test or received an ECON 111 requisite equivalency.

    • CL: 200 level ECON Elective GWSS Elective POSI Elective/Non POSC PPOL Social Policy & Welfare
  • ENGL 213 Being Queer in Nineteenth-Century America 6 credits

    What forms of community, gender identification, and desire were imagined as possible in the literature and life writing of nineteenth-century Americans? How did race and class shift the terms of what could be imagined, and how did these possibilities change with the sexual taxonomies developed by scientists? This course will explore these questions by reading American literary texts from 1799 to 1899 alongside shorter works of history and theory. We will consider not only the discourse around wealthy, white “romantic friendships,” but also the ways that poor and non-white bodies were deemed queer in conduct manuals and scientific texts.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • AMST Democracy Activism AMST Production Consumption of Culture CL: 200 level ENGL Historical Era 2 ENGL Tradition 2 GWSS Elective
  • ENGL 217 A Novel Education 6 credits

    Samuel Johnson declared novels to be “written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve as lectures of conduct, and introductions into life.” This course explores what sort of education the novel offered its readers during a time when fiction was considered a source of valuable lessons and also an agent of corruption. We will read a selection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century children’s literature, seduction fiction, and novels of manners, considering how these works engage with early educational theories, notions of male and female conduct, and concerns about the didactic and sensational possibilities of fiction. Authors include Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, and Charles Dickens.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level ENGL Historical Era 2 ENGL Tradition 1 GWSS Elective
  • ENGL 218 The Gothic Spirit 6 credits

    The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw the rise of the Gothic, a genre populated by brooding hero-villains, vulnerable virgins, mad monks, ghosts, and monsters. In this course, we will examine the conventions and concerns of the Gothic, addressing its preoccupation with terror, transgression, sex, otherness, and the supernatural. As we situate this genre within its literary and historical context, we will consider its relationship to realism and Romanticism, and we will explore how it reflects the political and cultural anxieties of its age. Authors include Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Emily Bronte.

    • Spring 2026
    • LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level ENGL Historical Era 2 ENGL Tradition 1 EUST Country Specific GWSS Elective
  • ENGL 227 Imagining the Borderlands 6 credits

    This course engages the borderlands as space (the geographic area that straddles nations) and idea (liminal spaces, identities, communities). We examine texts from writers like Anzaldúa, Butler, Cervantes, Dick, Eugenides, Haraway, and Muñoz first to understand how borders act to constrain our imagi(nation) and then to explore how and to what degree the borderlands offer hybrid identities, queer affects, and speculative world-building. We will engage the excess of the borderlands through a broad chronological and generic range of U.S. literary and visual texts. Come prepared to question what is “American”, what is race, what is human.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level ENGL Historical Era 3 ENGL Tradition 2 GWSS Elective LTAM Electives LTAM Pertinent Courses AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity
  • ENGL 229 The Rise of the Novel 6 credits

    This course traces the development of a sensational, morally dubious genre that emerged in the eighteenth-century: the novel. We will read some of the most entertaining, best-selling novels written during the first hundred years of the form, paying particular attention to the novel’s concern with courtship and marriage, writing and reading, the real and the fantastic. Among the questions we will ask: What is a novel? What distinguished the early novel from autobiography, history, travel narrative, and pornography? How did this genre come to be associated with women? How did early novelists respond to eighteenth-century debates about the dangers of reading fiction? Authors include Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, and Jane Austen. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level ENGL Historical Era 2 ENGL Tradition 1 EUST Country Specific GWSS Elective
  • ENGL 242 Queer Literature: The Pre-Stonewall Origins 6 credits

    The LGBTQ+ movement turned on the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Prior to that, queer life was largely illegal and underground in the United States and most places globally. Queer content in literature was censored and banned. This course explores the strategies queer writers used to circumvent censorship and get published. Writers whose work we will read, discuss and analyze are: Oscar Wilde, E.M. Forster, Radclyffe Hall, Patricia Highsmith and James Baldwin.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level ENGL Historical Era 3 GWSS Elective
  • ENGL 257 Fandom and the Queer Digital Commons 6 credits

    In this introduction to fan studies, students will engage with foundational and emerging scholarship, as well as popular media that represent key sites in the development of modern fandom. A famously “undisciplined” discipline, fan studies draws on a variety of intellectual traditions, and we will read broadly to consider what fandom includes, where its politics emerge, and how to engage as ethical researchers. This course foregrounds modern queer fan cultures to explore the shifting relationship between creators and audiences and the tensions within fan communities. Television and films from the 1960s to the present will serve as weekly case studies.

    • Fall 2025
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level ENGL Historical Era 3 GWSS Elective DGAH Critical Ethical Reflection DGAH Literary Artistic Analysis
  • ENGL 319 The Rise of the Novel 6 credits

    This course traces the development of a sensational, morally dubious genre that emerged in the eighteenth-century: the novel. We will read some of the most entertaining, best-selling novels written during the first hundred years of the form, paying particular attention to the novel’s concern with courtship and marriage, writing and reading, the real and the fantastic. Among the questions we will ask: What is a novel? What distinguished the early novel from autobiography, history, travel narrative, and pornography? How did this genre come to be associated with women? How did early novelists respond to eighteenth-century debates about the dangers of reading fiction? Authors include Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, and Jane Austen.

    • Winter 2026
    • LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.

    • CL: 300 level ENGL Historical Era 2 ENGL Tradition 1 EUST Country Specific GWSS Elective
  • ENGL 327 Victorian Novel 6 credits

    Puzzled about nineteenth century novels, Henry James asks, 'But what do such large loose baggy monsters with their queer elements of the accidental and the arbitrary, artistically mean?'' (“Preface,” Tragic Muse). What, indeed? These novels have defined the form of "the novel" for nearly 200 years. Through close reading, historic context, and visual studies, we will examine the prose, design, publication, and illustrations of Victorian editions, and consider how we (re)define and interpret the nineteenth century novel now. Students will create a photographic portrait project. Authors include George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Mary Seacole, and Lewis Carroll.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.

    • CL: 300 level ENGL Historical Era 2 ENGL Tradition 1 EUST Country Specific GWSS Elective
  • ENGL 344 Reading Queerly 6 credits

    What might it mean to cultivate a queer relationship to reading? Is it a question of identity? That is, does a queer critic read queerly? Might it be a matter of argument? Is reading against the grain inherently queer? Or could it be that queer reading is defined by an affective relationship to the text? We will explore a range of multimedia primary sources and foundational works of queer literary criticism, considering how reading emerged as a privileged site for articulating and embodying queerness. Primary sources range from Henry James and Shakespeare to David Bowie, Prince, and Taylor Swift.

    • Spring 2026
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): One ENGL Foundations course with a grade of C- or better.

    • CL: 300 level GWSS Elective ENGL Historical Era 3
  • ENTS 313 Conscious Nature: Towards and Anthropology of Non-Human Beings 6 credits

    The core of anthropological thought has been organized around the assumption that the production of complex cultural systems is reserved to the domain of the human experience. While scholars have contested this assumption for years, there is an emerging body of scholarship that proposes expanding our understandings of culture, and the ability to produce meaning in the world, to include non-human beings (e.g. plants, wildlife, micro-organisms, mountains). This course explores ethnographic works in this field and contextualizes insights within contemporary conversations pertaining to our relationship with nature, public health, and social justice movements that emerge within decolonized frameworks.

    Recommended preparation: SOAN 110 or SOAN 111.

    SOAN 313 is cross listed with ENTS 313.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • ACE Theoretical CL: 300 level ENTS Topical Seminar GWSS Elective LTAM Electives
  • ENTS 323 Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment 6 credits

    Why are so many sustainable development projects anchored around women’s cooperatives? Why is poverty depicted as having a woman’s face? Is the solution to the environmental crisis in the hands of women the nurturers? From overly romantic notions of stewardship to the feminization of poverty, this course aims to evaluate women’s relationships with local environments and development initiatives. The course uses anthropological frameworks to evaluate case studies from around the world. 

    Recommended preparation: SOAN 110 or SOAN 111

    SOAN 323 is cross listed with ENTS 323.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 300 level ENTS Society, Culture and Policy ENTS Topical Seminar GWSS Elective LTAM Electives LTAM Pertinent Courses POSI Elective/Non POSC PPOL Environmental Policy & Sustainability
  • GERM 221 Modern Love: Sex, Gender, and Identity in Austria-Hungary around 1900 6 credits

    We explore literature, music, and the fine arts of German-speaking countries around the topics of gender and sex(uality). We focus on the years between 1880 and 1920 in Austria-Hungary, but also venture into more recent times and other localities. How did images of men and women change over time? How did science factor into these images? What was/is considered “normal” when it comes to sex(uality) and gender, and what German-speaking voices have been pushing against those norms? How did these voices use literature, music, and the fine arts to reflect or criticize such norms? Taught in English.

    Taught in English

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • CX, Cultural/Literature HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific GERM Major/Minor GWSS Elective
  • GERM 320 Life under Socialism: Culture and Society in East Germany 6 credits

    What was life like under “actually existing socialism?” What films, books, music, and other media did people in the German Democratic Republic (or East Germany) consume and how did they cope with their country’s dictatorship? How can the experiences of people—particularly women—living in the GDR provide useful context for contemporary socio-political issues in the United States and beyond? We will discuss topics such as gender equality, education, health care, and queer life in the GDR. Taught in German.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): GERM 204 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the German Language and Culture AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the German: Language B IB exam or received a score of 205 on the Carleton German Placement exam.

    • CL: 300 level EUST Country Specific GERM Major/Minor GWSS Elective
  • GWSS 111 Queer and Trans Memoir 6 credits

    From Audre Lorde’s biomythography detailing black lesbian life in 1950s Harlem, to Alison Bechdel’s tragicomic comic books, Chelsea Manning’s whistleblower tell-all, or Carmen Maria Machado’s experimental memoir about same sex domestic abuse, LGBTQ+ autobiographical works provide us with richly subjective, historically situated insights into the lived experiences of queer and trans individuals. Interdisciplinary in scope, this course considers a variety of LGBTQ+ takes and twists on the memoir genre, including photo diaries; video selfies; illustrated works; self-ethnographies; life-as-art performances; stand-up specials; auto theoretical works; and literary or lyrical forms centering on the personal.

    • Fall 2025
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • Not open to students who have previously taken GWSS 100 – Queer Trans Memoir.

    • CL: 100 level GWSS Elective AMST Production Consumption of Culture
  • GWSS 114 Love and Sex 6 credits

    From Disney fairytales to blockbuster rom-coms; dating apps to hook-up culture; and ongoing debates in mainstream media concerning reproductive, trans, and LGBTQ rights— love and sex are ever-present concepts in our day-to-day lives. This course offers an opportunity to critically explore, discuss, and challenge our understanding of love and sex through an interdisciplinary lens. We will explore questions like: What is the difference between the way we love our friends, parents, and lovers? How do intersections of race, gender, class, and ability affect experiences of love and sex? How does technology affect the future of love and sex?

    GWSS 114 is cross listed with PHIL 114.

    • Winter 2026
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry
    • CL: 100 level GWSS Elective PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Value Theory 1
  • GWSS 200 Gender, Sexuality & the Pursuit of Knowledge 6 credits

    In this course we will examine whether there are feminist and/or queer ways of knowing, the criteria by which knowledge is classified as feminist and the various methods used by feminist and queer scholars to produce this knowledge. Some questions that will occupy us are: How do we know what we know? Who does research? Does it matter who the researcher is? How does the social location (race, class, gender, sexuality) of the researcher affect research? Who is the research for? What is the relationship between knowledge, power and social justice? While answering these questions, we will consider how different feminist and queer studies researchers have dealt with them.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective GWSS Methodology PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Social and Political Theory 1 RUSS Methods SOAN Elective Eligible
  • GWSS 212 Foundations of LGBTQ Studies 6 credits

    This course introduces students to foundational interdisciplinary works in sexuality and gender studies, while focusing on the construction of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identities in the United States. In exploring sexual and gender diversity throughout the term, this seminar highlights the complexity and variability of experiences of desire, identification, embodiment, self-definition, and community-building across different historical periods, and in relation to intersections of race, class, ethnicity, and other identities.

    • Winter 2026
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
    • AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level GWSS Elective GWSS Intermediate
  • GWSS 225 Women’s and Gender Studies in Europe Program: Gender and the Biopolitics of Health across Europe

    This course investigates the concept of biopolitics and applies intersectional feminist theories to examine how European states control the biological aspects of human life, including birth, health, mortality, and sexuality. It examines how health serves as a domain of power, shaping the lives and well-being of individuals and populations while reinforcing disparities based on race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability. Analyzing the biopolitics of health across different Western and East Central European political systems, case studies include medicalized childbirth, forced sterilization, immigration policies, and LGBT rights. Critical theories of gender, sexuality, and race are central to the course’s analysis. This course is offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    Students register either for GWSS 225 or 325. Students without previous Gender Studies course should register for GWSS 225 unless they obtain permission from the instructor. Students who have completed a 100- or 200-level Gender Studies course may choose to register for either GWSS 225 or 325.

    • Fall 2025
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
    • Student has enrolled in any of the following course(s): Any Carleton OCS course or Non-Carleton OCS course with a grade of C- or better.

    • ACE Theoretical CL: 200 level GWSS Elective EUST Transnational Support
  • GWSS 233 Feminist Cultural Studies 6 credits

    Who does popular feminism speak for; what does it stand for? How are earlier feminist movements reimagined, remediated, and rebranded to make feminism “cool” or “empowering”? What gendered subjectivities, knowledges, and practices are constituted—and marginalized? How do new technologies, media, practices of everyday life, and self-representations contribute to the making and unmaking of feminist activism and social change? We use an interdisciplinary approach: scholarship in queer theory, affect theory, Marxism, media studies, cultural studies, and sociology alongside the ephemera of mass culture, to illuminate intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, religion, nationality, and ability and intersectionality’s role in creating new feminist theory and praxis.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective
  • GWSS 240 Gender, Globalization and War 6 credits

    We are surrounded by images, stories and experiences of war, conflict, aggression, genocide, and widespread human suffering.  In this course we will engage with the field of transnational feminist theorizing in order to understand how globalization and militarism are gendered, and the processes through which gender becomes globalized and militarized.  We will examine hegemonic ideals of security and insecurity and track how they are gendered. You will learn to conduct and analyze in-depth interviews focusing on the militarization of civilians/ordinary people so as to understand how all our lives have been shaped by the acceptance and/or resistance to globalized militarism.

    • Spring 2026
    • CX, Cultural/Literature IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective/Non POSC SOAN Elective Eligible
  • GWSS 243 Women’s and Gender Studies in Europe Program: Situated Feminisms: Socio-Political Systems and Gender Issues Across Europe 7 – 8 credits

    This course examines the history and present of feminist and LGBTQ activisms across Western and East-Central Europe. We study the impact of the European colonial heritage on the lives of women and sexual/ethnic minorities across European communities, as well as the legacies of World War II, the Cold War, and the EU expansion into Eastern Europe. Reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues, “anti-genderism,” sex work, trafficking, and issues faced by ethnic minorities are among topics explored. These topics are addressed comparatively and historically, stressing their ‘situated’ nature and considering their divergent sociopolitical national frameworks.

    Acceptance in OCS Women's & Gender Studies in Europe Program

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
    • Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective EUST Transnational Support
  • GWSS 244 Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Ethics and Politics of Cross-Cultural Research

    This course explores the following questions: What are the ethics and politics of cross-cultural research? What is the relationship between methodology and knowledge claims in feminist research? What are the power interests involved in keeping certain knowledges marginalized/subjugated? How do questions of gender and sexuality, of ethnicity and national location, figure in these debates? We will also pay close attention to questions arising from the hegemony of English as the global language of WGS as a discipline, and will reflect on what it means to move between different linguistic communities, with each being differently situated in the global power hierarchies.

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    • Fall 2025
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    • ACE Theoretical CL: 200 level GWSS Elective EUST Transnational Support
  • GWSS 265 Black Feminist Thought 6 credits

    This seminar offers students an opportunity to engage closely with key concepts, figures, and arguments in the Black Feminist intellectual tradition. We will focus primarily on texts by key figures/scholars from the Americas/Caribbean—in order to situate Black Feminisms within a transnational feminist context. We will take a historical approach, starting in the 19th century and work our way to more contemporary figures and texts throughout the term. Some of the key figures we will examine are Sojourner Truth, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells, Angela Y. Davis, Sylvia Wynter, Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and Patricia Hill Collins. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

    • Fall 2025
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
    • AFST Humanistic Inquiry AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level GWSS Elective PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Social and Political Theory 1 AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity
  • GWSS 312 Queer and Trans Theory 6 credits

    This seminar offers students familiar with the foundational terms and concepts in gender and sexuality studies the opportunity to engage in more advanced explorations of relevant topics and debates in contemporary queer and trans theory. Seeing queer theory and trans theory as theoretical traditions that are historically and philosophically entangled but which at times necessarily diverge, the course focuses on “state of the field” essays from Gay and Lesbian Quarterly and Transgender Studies Quarterly as well as works that put gender and sexuality studies into conversation with disability studies, critical race theory, indigenous studies, and critiques of neoliberalism and imperialism.

    • Winter 2026
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 300 level GWSS Elective GWSS Theory AMST Democracy Activism PHIL Interdisciplinary 2
  • GWSS 325 Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Gender and the Biopolitics of Health across Europe

    This course investigates the concept of biopolitics and applies intersectional feminist theories to examine how European states control the biological aspects of human life, including birth, health, mortality, and sexuality. It examines how health serves as a domain of power, shaping the lives and well-being of individuals and populations while reinforcing disparities based on race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability. Analyzing the biopolitics of health across different Western and East Central European political systems, case studies include medicalized childbirth, forced sterilization, immigration policies, and LGBT rights. Critical theories of gender, sexuality, and race are central to the course’s analysis. This course is offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    Students register either for GWSS 225 or GWSS 325. Those who have not taken a previous Gender Studies course should register for GWSS 225, unless they obtain permission from the instructor. Students who have completed a 100- or 200- level Gender studies course, may choose to register for either GWSS 325 or GWSS 225.

    • Fall 2025
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
    • Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    • ACE Theoretical CL: 300 level GWSS Elective EUST Transnational Support
  • GWSS 365 Black Feminist Thought 6 credits

    This seminar offers students an opportunity to engage closely with key concepts, figures, and arguments in the Black Feminist intellectual tradition. We will focus primarily on texts by key figures/scholars from the Americas/Caribbean—in order to situate Black Feminisms within a transnational feminist context. We will take a historical approach, starting in the 19th century and work our way to more contemporary figures and texts throughout the term. Some of the key figures we will examine are Sojourner Truth, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells, Angela Y. Davis, Sylvia Wynter, Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and Patricia Hill Collins. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

    • Fall 2025
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • ACE Theoretical CL: 300 level GWSS Elective LTAM Electives PHIL Prac/Value Theory PHIL Social and Political Theory 1 PHIL Value Theory 2
  • GWSS 398 Transnational Feminist & Queer Activism 6 credits

    This course focuses on transnational feminist, queer and trans activism in an era of neoliberal globalization, militarism and religious fundamentalism. We will learn about theories of collective action, the pitfalls of global sisterhood and homonationalism and pedagogies for crossing a variety of borders. We will explore case studies of how feminist, queer and trans activists have collaborated, built networks, mobilized resources and coalitions for collective action, in addition to the obstacles and constraints they have encountered and surmounted in their search for gender and sexual justice.

    Repeatable: Course is repeatable provided the topics are different.

    • Spring 2026
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • ACE Theoretical CL: 300 level GWSS Capstone GWSS Elective SOAN Elective Eligible
  • HIST 122 U.S. Women’s History to 1877 6 credits

    Gender, race, and class shaped women’s participation in the arenas of work, family life, culture, and politics in the United States from the colonial period to the late nineteenth century. We will examine diverse women’s experiences of colonization, industrialization, slavery and Reconstruction, religion, sexuality and reproduction, and social reform. Readings will include both primary and secondary sources, as well as historiographic articles outlining major frameworks and debates in the field of women’s history.

    • Winter 2026
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
    • AMST Survey 2 CL: 100 level GWSS Elective HIST Modern AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST United States
  • HIST 123 U.S. Women’s History Since 1877 6 credits

    In the twentieth century women participated in the redefinition of politics and the state, sexuality and family life, and work and leisure as the United States became a modern, largely urban society. We will explore how the dimensions of race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality shaped diverse women’s experiences of these historical changes. Topics will include: immigration, the expansion of the welfare system and the consumer economy, labor force segmentation and the world wars, and women’s activism in civil rights, labor, peace and feminist movements.

    • Spring 2026
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
    • AMST Democracy Activism AMST Survey 2 CL: 100 level GWSS Elective HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST United States
  • HIST 218 Black Women’s History 6 credits

    This course focuses on the history of black women in the United States. The class will offer an overview of the lived experiences of women of African descent in this country from enslavement to the present. We will focus on themes of labor, reproduction, health, community, family, resistance, activism, etc., highlighting the diversity of black women’s experiences and the ways in which their lives have been shaped by the intersections of their race, gender, sexuality, and class.

    Extra Time

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
    • AFST Humanistic Inquiry CL: 200 level GWSS Elective HIST Modern AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity HIST Africa & Its Diaspora HIST United States
  • HIST 229 Working with Gender in U.S. History 6 credits

    Historically work has been a central location for the constitution of gender identities for both men and women; at the same time, cultural notions of gender have shaped the labor market. We will investigate the roles of race, class, and ethnicity in shaping multiple sexual divisions of labor and the ways in which terms such as skill, bread-winning and work itself were gendered. Topics will include domestic labor, slavery, industrialization, labor market segmentation, protective legislation, and the labor movement.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
    • AMST Democracy Activism AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level GWSS Elective HIST Modern AMST Production Consumption of Culture EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST United States
  • HIST 236 The Worlds of Hildegard of Bingen 6 credits

    Author, composer, artist, abbess, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) used words, images and sound to share unique mystical experiences with her community and the broader world. At the same time, developments in Christian-Jewish relations, church-state relations, and the arts made the Holy Roman Empire a dynamic environment for religious, cultural, and political innovation. Through close examination of Hildegard’s works (writings, images, and music) and her contemporaries informed by current scholarship, we will investigate this period of creativity, conflict, and possibility, especially for women. Extra time relates to a collaboration with the early music ensemble Sequentia and work with Carleton Special Collections.

    Extra time relates to a collaboration with the early music ensemble Sequentia and work with Carleton Special Collections

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level GERM Major/Minor GWSS Elective HIST Ancient & Medieval MARS Core Course MARS Supporting RELG Pertinent Course ARTH Other Electives EUST Transnational Support RELG Christian Traditions
  • HIST 270 Nuclear Nations: India and Pakistan as Rival Siblings 6 credits

    At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947 India and Pakistan, two new nation states emerged from the shadow of British colonialism. This course focuses on the political trajectories of these two rival siblings and looks at the ways in which both states use the other to forge antagonistic and belligerent nations. While this is a survey course it is not a comprehensive overview of the history of the two countries. Instead it covers some of the more significant moments of rupture and violence in the political history of the two states. The first two-thirds of the course offers a top-down, macro overview of these events and processes whereas the last third examines the ways in which people experienced these developments. We use the lens of gender to see how the physical body, especially the body of the woman, is central to the process of nation building. We will consider how women’s bodies become sites of contestation and how they are disciplined and policed by the postcolonial state(s).

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • ASST South Asia CCST Encounters CL: 200 level GWSS Elective HIST Asia HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC SAST Humanistic Inquiry ASST Humanistic Inquiry SAST Support Humanities
  • HIST 289 Gender and Ethics in Late Medieval France 6 credits

    Acknowledged by contemporaries as one of the leading intellects of her time, Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364-ca. 1431) became an author of unusual literary range, personal resilience, and perceptiveness in a time of ongoing warfare, civil strife, and intellectual ferment. In addition to composing romances, poetry, quasi-autobiographical works, royal biography, and political theory, she became an articulate critic of the patriarchy and misogyny of her world, contemporary patterns and cultures of violence, and a critical voice in defense of female capability. Using Christine’s writings together with other contemporary voices, we will examine how contemporaries confronted fundamental questions of identity, status, violence, ethics, and love in domestic and public spheres in late medieval France. 

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific FFST History and Art History FREN XDept Elective GWSS Elective HIST Ancient & Medieval HIST Pre-Modern MARS Core Course MARS Supporting
  • IDSC 203 Dialogue Across Differences 6 credits

    This course prepares students to facilitate peer-led conversations about diversity in the Critical Conversations Program. Students learn about categories and theories related to social identity, power, and inequality, and explore how identities including race, gender, class, and sexual orientation affect individual experience and communal structures. Students engage in experiential exercises that invite them to reflect on their own social identities and their reactions to difference, diversity, and conflict. Students are required to keep a weekly journal and to participate in class leadership. Participants in this class may apply to facilitate sections of IDSC 103, a 2-credit student-led course in the following term.

    Complete course application found at: https://www.carleton.edu/critical-conversations/203-app/ prior to registering. Students with the instructor's consent will be added to IDSC 203 cohort and then allowed to register.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies No Exploration
    • Student has been approved to register for IDSC 203 and is a member of the IDSC 203 cohort.

    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective CCST Reflecting Cross-Cultural Experience EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context
  • PHIL 114 Love and Sex 6 credits

    From Disney fairytales to blockbuster rom-coms; dating apps to hook-up culture; and ongoing debates in mainstream media concerning reproductive, trans, and LGBTQ rights— love and sex are ever-present concepts in our day-to-day lives. This course offers an opportunity to critically explore, discuss, and challenge our understanding of love and sex through an interdisciplinary lens. We will explore questions like: What is the difference between the way we love our friends, parents, and lovers? How do intersections of race, gender, class, and ability affect experiences of love and sex? How does technology affect the future of love and sex?

    GWSS 114 is cross listed with PHIL 114.

    • Winter 2026
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry
    • CL: 100 level GWSS Elective PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Value Theory 1
  • PHIL 257 Contemporary Issues in Feminist Philosophy 6 credits

    We will analyze different theories about the distinction between sex and gender. Then we will turn to contemporary issues in feminism for the remainder of the course. These issues include, but are not limited to, conservative feminism, reproductive justice, fetishes, disability, ethics of pronouns, whether men are oppressed, and responsibility for oppression. We will read selections from Oyèrónké Oyewùmí, Robin Dembroff, Karina Ortiz Villa, Robin Zheng, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Audre Lorde, and more. In addition, there will be room for student choice of topics.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CGSC Elective CL: 200 level GWSS Elective PHIL Interdisciplinary 1 PHIL Prac/Value Theory PHIL Social and Political Theory 2
  • PHIL 275 Latina Feminist Philosophy 6 credits

    Latina feminist philosophers have developed and continue to develop valuable philosophical contributions to feminist scholarship and the discipline of philosophy more broadly. This course sheds light on these contributions by exploring the major questions, concepts, and debates within the Latina (and Latinx) feminist philosophical tradition. We will specifically explore the relationships between race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and identity; lived experience, embodiment, and knowledge; and the possibilities for self/social transformation through the process of creative writing.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective LTAM Electives PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Prac/Value Theory PHIL Value Theory 1
  • PHIL 304 Decolonial Feminisms 6 credits

    This course familiarizes students with major issues and debates within the emerging field of decolonial feminist philosophy. We will start by considering some of the historical, geopolitical, and theoretical underpinnings from which decolonial feminisms emerged. We will then investigate core concepts and problems pertaining to decolonial feminisms as a critical methodology and as a practice to build solidarity between and across anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-sexist, anti-capitalist schools of thought and/or political coalitions. We will pay particular attention to Latina feminist philosopher María Lugones and her development of the “colonial modern gender system” and her articulation of “decolonial feminism.” Recommended preparation: One prior course in Philosophy or a relevant area of studies.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
    • ACE Theoretical AMST America in the World AMST Space and Place CL: 300 level GWSS Elective LTAM Electives PHIL Advanced PHIL Prac/Value Theory AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity
  • POSC 239 Gender & Politics in Africa 3 credits

    In this course we will examine how the fundamental functions of politics and governance – such as war and militarism, peace and reconciliation, social reproductive labor, empowerment and development – within and across Africa, both construct and are sustained by masculinities and femininities. By exploring feminist theoretical interventions of normative understandings of politics and governance, the connections between feminist knowledge production, policy influencing, and social praxis will be articulated. Through interactive seminars, students will have a critical engagement with gender and politics through an examination of emerging approaches to thinking about politics and governance by feminist movements in Africa.

    • Second Five Weeks, Spring 2026
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • AFST Social Inquiry CL: 200 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective
  • POSC 243 Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Socio-Political Systems and Gender Issues Across Europe

    This course examines the role of activism centered on gender, race, sexuality, and disability in shaping political life across the Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic. While the main emphasis is on current activism and politics, discussions are anchored in relevant historical contexts. Students investigate the impact of Europe’s colonial heritage on minorities, the ongoing legacies of World War II, the Cold War, and the EU expansion into Eastern Europe. Topics include reproductive rights, LGBT politics, homonationalism, “anti-genderism,” sex work, immigration, challenges faced by women of color and Jewish people in Europe, the legacy of state socialism in Eastern Europe.

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    • Fall 2025
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    • ACE Theoretical GWSS Elective POSI Elective EUST Transnational Support
  • POSC 276 Imagination in Politics: Resisting Totalitarianism 6 credits

    Ideological fanaticism is on the rise today. Individuals prefer the incantation of slogans and clichés to autonomous thinking, moderation, and care for the diversity and complexity of circumstances and of human beings. The results are the inability to converse across differences and the tendency to ostracize and exclude others in the name of tribal and populist nationalism, as well as of racism. Hannah Arendt called totalitarianism this form of ideological hypnosis, which characterizes not only totalitarian political regimes, but can also colonize liberal-democracies. In this class we will read some of the works of Arendt to better understand the power of imagination to enhance critical and independent thinking and resist totalitarianism.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective EUST Transnational Support
  • POSC 280 Feminist Security Studies 6 credits

    Feminist security studies question and challenge traditional approaches to international relations and security, highlighting the myriad ways that state security practices can actually increase insecurity for many people. How and why does this security paradox exist and how do we escape it? In this class, we will explore the theoretical and analytical contributions of feminist security scholars and use these lessons to analyze a variety of policies, issues, and conflicts. The cases that we will cover include the UN resolution on women, peace, and security, Sweden’s feminist foreign policy, violence against women, and conflicts in Syria, Uganda, and Yemen.

    Extra time

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective MEST Supporting Group 1
  • POSC 287 Queer Theory in the Global Political Context 3 credits

    This course explores how sexuality operates as a tool of power—shaping empires, borders, economies, and everyday lives. Moving beyond identity politics, we investigate sexuality's intersections with colonialism, nationalism, and globalization. We'll explore questions like: how did empires export ideas about "normal" sexuality? Why do LGBTQ+ rights debates differ globally? How does centering our analysis on sexuality help us better understand state power?

    You will leave this class understanding the relationship between knowledge production and the (in)equalities that permeate our contemporary world as well as issues and debates related to the intersection of sexuality with global socio-political and economic processes.

    2nd Five Weeks

    • Second Five Weeks, Spring 2026
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective
  • POSC 308 Global Gender Politics 6 credits

    How have gendered divisions of power, labor, and resources contributed to the global crises of violence, sustainability, and inequity? Where and why has the pursuit of gender justice elicited intense backlash, especially within the last two decades? In this course, we will explore the global consequences of gender inequality and the ongoing pursuit of gender justice both transnationally and in different regions of the world. We will investigate a variety of cases ranging from land rights movements in East Africa, to the international movement to ban nuclear weapons. Finally, we will pay special attention to how hard-won gains in women’s rights and other related inequalities in world affairs are being jeopardized by new and old authoritarianisms.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • CL: 300 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective
  • POSC 324 Rebels and Risk Takers: Women and War In the Middle East 6 credits

    How are women (and gender more broadly) shaping and shaped by war and conflict in the Middle East? Far from the trope of the subjugated, veiled, and abused Middle Eastern woman, women in the Middle East are active social and political agents. In wars and conflicts in the Middle East region, women have, for example, been combatants, soldiers, activists, spies, homemakers, writers, and political leaders. This course surveys conflicts involving Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Iraq–along with Western powers like the U.S., UK, and Australia–through the wartime experiences of women.

    • Winter 2026
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • CL: 300 level GWSS Elective MEST Supporting Group 1 POSI Elective
  • PSYC 246 Human Sexuality 6 credits

    Humans are a sexual animal. Not only do we engage in sexual behavior for procreation, but also at times for pleasure, intimacy, affiliation, and profit. Furthermore, we maintain sexual and gender identities that affect our behaviors and help us organize our social worlds. These identities develop over time, through our childhood and adolescence and into adulthood. We also place boundaries on sexuality and gender through norms, laws, and social conventions. Sexuality is at once commonplace and private, ubiquitous yet taboo. In this course, we will explore the many dimensions and paradoxes of human sexuality and its connection to our psychology. We will also consider these topics in the context of real-world phenomena and cross-cultural examples.

    • Spring 2026
    • SI, Social Inquiry
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): PSYC 110 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the Psychology AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the Psychology IB exam.

    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective PSYC Core PSYC Social Develop Personality Clinic & Health
  • PSYC 389 LGBTQ+ Psychology 6 credits

    In this seminar, we will examine the psychology of LGBTQ+ people, focusing on topics such as LGBTQ+ identity development; predictors and consequences of anti-LGBTQ+ bias and discrimination; the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people; and familial and relationship dynamics of LGBTQ+ populations. We will consider psychology's history of—and potential for—both contributing to and dismantling the inequities faced by LGBTQ+ populations. 

    • Winter 2026
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): PSYC 110 or GWSS 110 or GWSS 200 or GWSS 212 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the Psychology AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the Psychology IB exam.

    • CL: 300 level GWSS Elective PSYC Seminar PSYC Upper Level
  • RELG 218 The Body in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam 6 credits

    Mind and body are often considered separate but not equal; the mind gives commands to the body and the body complies. Exploring the ways the three religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam think about the body will deepen our understanding of the mind-body relationship. We will ask questions such as: How does the body direct the mind? How do religious practices discipline the body and the mind, and how do habits of body and mind change the forms and meanings of these practices? Gender, sexuality, sensuality, and bodily function will be major axes of analysis.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective JDST Pertinent RELG Christian Traditions RELG Islamic Traditions RELG Jewish Traditions RELG Pertinent Course
  • RELG 227 Liberation Theologies 6 credits

    Is God on the side of the poor? This course explores how liberation theologians have called for justice, social change, and resistance by drawing on fundamental sources in Christian tradition and by using economic and political theories to address poverty, racism, oppression, gender injustice, and more. We explore the principles of liberationist thought, including black theology, Latin American liberation theology, and feminist theology through writings of various contemporary thinkers. We also examine the social settings out of which these thinkers have emerged, their critiques of “traditional” theologies, and the new vision of community they have developed in various contexts.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • CX, Cultural/Literature HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • AFST Humanistic Inquiry CCST Encounters CL: 200 level GWSS Elective LTAM Electives LTAM Pertinent Courses RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course PPOL Economic Policy Making & Development
  • RELG 233 Gender and Power in the Catholic Church 6 credits

    How does power flow and concentrate in the Catholic Church? What are the gendered aspects of the Church’s structure, history, and theology? Through readings, discussions, and analysis of current media, students will develop the ability to critically and empathetically interpret issues of gender, sexuality, and power in the Catholic Church, especially as these issues appear in official Vatican texts. Topics include: God, suffering, sacraments, salvation, damnation, celibacy, homosexuality, the family, saints, the ordination of women as priests, feminist theologies, canon law, the censuring of “heretical” theologians, Catholic hospital policy, and the clerical sex abuse crisis.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • ACE Theoretical CL: 200 level GWSS Elective MARS Supporting PPOL Public Health RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course
  • RELG 234 Angels, Demons, and Evil 6 credits

    Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do bad things happen, period? Could angels and demons have something to do with it? This course asks how cosmology—an account of how the universe is put together and the different entities that inhabit it—can be an answer to the problem of evil and injustice. We will start with a historical investigation of the demonology and angelology of ancient pagan, Jewish, and Christian texts and then move into modern practices such as exorcism and magical realist literature. Along the way, we will keep asking how these systems justify the existence of evil and provide programs for dealing with it.

    X-List CHIN 234

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CCST Encounters CL: 200 level GWSS Elective JDST Pertinent MARS Core Course PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Value Theory 1 RELG Christian Traditions RELG Jewish Traditions RELG Pertinent Course
  • RELG 287 Many Marys 6 credits

    Christianity, by its very name, focuses on Jesus. This course shifts the focus to Mary, his mother: her various manifestations and her contributions to the myriad experiences of peoples around the world. Race, gender, class, and feminist and liberation theologies come into play as Mary presents as: the Mother of God; queen of heaven; a Black madonna; a Mestiza madonna; an exceptional woman with her own chapter in the Qur'an; various goddesses in Haitian Vodoun, Hinduism, and Buddhism; a tattoo on the backs of U.S. prisoners–and so on. In addition to considering Miriam (her Jewish name) as she appears in literature, art, apparition, and ritual practice around the world, we will also consider Mary Magdalene, her foil, who appears in popular discourse from the Gnostic gospels to The Da Vinci Code.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • CX, Cultural/Literature HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • ASST Pertinent CCST Encounters CL: 200 level GWSS Elective MARS Supporting RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas ASST Humanistic Inquiry EUST Transnational Support
  • SOAN 114 Modern Families: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Family 6 credits

    What makes a family? How has the conception of kinship and the ‘normal’ family changed over the generations? In this introductory class, we examine these questions, drawing on a variety of course materials ranging from classic works in sociology to contemporary blogs on family life. The class focuses on diversity in family life, paying particular attention to the intersection between the family, race and ethnicity, and social class. We’ll examine these issues at the micro and macro level, incorporating texts that focus on individuals’ stories as well as demographics of the family.

    • Winter 2026
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social Inquiry
    • AMST Democracy Activism AMST Space and Place CL: 100 level GWSS Elective AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context
  • SOAN 207 Sociology of Gender 6 credits

    What is gender and how do we make sense of it? Ideas about gender have a powerful influence on our lives and society but understanding this influence can be complex. From the recent women’s march and #MeToo movement to debates about transgender rights, our social landscape is full of pressing questions related to gender. Why does gender inequality persist? How is gender identification determined? Is it possible to eliminate gender categorization or is it inevitable? This course will offer students an overview of sociological theories that explain how societies think about and are built on gender and gender differences. It will cover variations in how individuals experience and identify based on embodied and lived differences as well as the social forces that shape how society defines gender categories and gendered behavior. The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective
  • SOAN 225 Social Movements 6 credits

    How is it that in specific historical moments ordinary people come together and undertake collective struggles for justice in social movements such as Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Standing Rock, immigrant, and LGBTQ rights? How have these movements theorized oppression, and what has been their vision for liberation? What collective change strategies have they proposed and what obstacles have they faced? We will explore specific case studies and use major sociological perspectives theorizing the emergence of movements, repertoires of protest, collective identity formation, frame alignment, and resource mobilization. We will foreground the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, race, and class in these movements.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • ACE Theoretical AFST Social Inquiry AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective/Non POSC AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity
  • SOAN 257 Culture and Politics in India 6 credits

    India is a region of immense diversity where more than one billion people live. We will explore social structures in India–through a focus on key areas of everyday life such as family, religion, economy, systems of stratification and social movements. Close attention will be given to religious nationalism, globalization and militarism as dominant trends affecting contemporary India. We will consider: How has India been represented in the Western imagination and why do such representations matter? What are the forces of modernity and tradition in India? What are the similarities and differences in systems of stratification in India and the United States?

    The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • CX, Cultural/Literature IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • ASST South Asia CL: 200 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective/Non POSC SAST Social Inquiry
  • SOAN 313 Conscious Nature: Towards and Anthropology of Non-Human Beings 6 credits

    The core of anthropological thought has been organized around the assumption that the production of complex cultural systems is reserved to the domain of the human experience. While scholars have contested this assumption for years, there is an emerging body of scholarship that proposes expanding our understandings of culture, and the ability to produce meaning in the world, to include non-human beings (e.g. plants, wildlife, micro-organisms, mountains). This course explores ethnographic works in this field and contextualizes insights within contemporary conversations pertaining to our relationship with nature, public health, and social justice movements that emerge within decolonized frameworks.

    Recommended preparation: SOAN 110 or SOAN 111.

    SOAN 313 is cross listed with ENTS 313.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • ACE Theoretical CL: 300 level ENTS Topical Seminar GWSS Elective LTAM Electives
  • SOAN 323 Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment 6 credits

    Why are so many sustainable development projects anchored around women’s cooperatives? Why is poverty depicted as having a woman’s face? Is the solution to the environmental crisis in the hands of women the nurturers? From overly romantic notions of stewardship to the feminization of poverty, this course aims to evaluate women’s relationships with local environments and development initiatives. The course uses anthropological frameworks to evaluate case studies from around the world. 

    Recommended preparation: SOAN 110 or SOAN 111

    SOAN 323 is cross listed with ENTS 323.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 300 level ENTS Society, Culture and Policy ENTS Topical Seminar GWSS Elective LTAM Electives LTAM Pertinent Courses POSI Elective/Non POSC PPOL Environmental Policy & Sustainability
  • SPAN 244 Spain Today: Recent Changes through Narrative and Film 6 credits

    Since the death of Franco in 1975, Spain has undergone huge political, socio-economic, and cultural transformations. Changes in the traditional roles of women, the legalization of gay marriage, the decline of the Catholic church, the increase of immigrants, Catalan and Basque nationalisms, and the integration of Spain in the European Union, have all challenged the definition of a national identity. Through contemporary narrative and film, this course will examine some of these changes and how they contribute to the creation of what we call Spain today.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): SPAN 204 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Literature AP exam or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Language AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the Spanish IB exam or received a score of 205 on the Carleton Spanish Placement exam.

    • ACE Applied CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific GWSS Elective SPAN Peninsular Literature DGAH Critical Ethical Reflection DGAH Literary Artistic Analysis
  • THEA 228 Performing Women 6 credits

    Through a performance studies lens, this course analyzes performances of gender and race in American theatre, focusing on female-identified artists of color. Our starting questions are: How do we read “woman” on stage and how have artists disrupted or supported dominant understandings of “woman” through theatrical performances?  Additionally, how have artists intentionally challenged this gender binary in performance? Among other artists, we examine the work of Angelina Weld Grimké, Kristina Rae Colón. Larissa FastHorse, Teatro Luna, Young Jean Lee, and Aditi Brennan Kapil. At the end of the course students move from an analysis of performance to creation of their own performance pieces.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 200 level GWSS Elective THEA Literature Criticism History

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2025–26 Academic Catalog

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Registrar: Theresa Rodriguez
Email: registrar@carleton.edu
Phone: 507-222-4094
Academic Catalog 2025-26 pages maintained by Maria Reverman
This page was last updated on 28 January 2026
Carleton

One North College StNorthfield, MN 55057USA

507-222-4000

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