WGS Undergraduate Courses
Not all courses are offered every year. For up-to-date offerings, please see Fall 2024 Courses and Spring 2025 Courses.
*Indicates course provides BU Hub units
*CAS WS 101 - Gender and Sexuality: An Interdisciplinary Introduction
This course is the introduction to women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, that considers the origins, diversity, and expression of sex and gender. Topics include the evolutionary origin of sexes; evolution, development, and social construction of sex, gender, and sexuality; sexual difference, similarities and diversity in gendered bodies, brains, and behavior. This interdisciplinary introduction is the foundation for the minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
CAS WS 105 - Topics in Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies
*CAS WS 200 - Thinking Queerly
*CAS WS 213 - Resistance, Protest, and Empowerment: Global Women's Movements
Explores how global expressions of sexism shape all of our lives, experiences, and life chances, with particular attention to how race, class, and sexuality intersect with gender to shape social inequalities. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
*CAS WS 233 - The Evolutionary Biology of Human Variation
Addresses human biological variation. An introduction to the fundamentals of comparative biology, evolutionary theory, and genetics and considers how research in these fields informs some of our most culturally-engaged identities: race, sex, gender, sexuality, and body type. Carries natural sciences divisional credit (without lab) in CAS. Also offered as CAS AN 233. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking.
*CAS WS 240 - Sexuality and Social Life
Introduction to sociological perspectives on sexuality. Historical and comparative analysis of sexuality, with a focus on the social and cultural institutions that shape sexuality in the contemporary U.S. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
*CAS WS 241 - Sociology of Gender
An introduction to the social construction of sex and gender with a focus on the economic, political, social, and cultural forces that shape gender relations. Examines gender as a social structure that patterns institutional inequalities and everyday interactions on society. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, The Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration.
*CAS WS 263 - The Behavioral Biology of Women
An exploration of female behavioral biology focusing on evolutionary, physiological, and biosocial aspects of women’s lives from puberty through pregnancy, birth, lactation, menopause, and aging. Examples are drawn from traditional and industrialized societies, and data from nonhuman primates are considered. Also offered as CAS AN 263. Effective Spring 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
*CAS WS 270 - Race, Sex, and Science Fiction
Science Fiction has always been engaged in complex conversations about culture and the fate of the human species. This course takes seriously the presence of issues such as race, sex and gender, which have become increasingly foregrounded in the genre. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
CAS WS 297 - African American Women's History
CAS WS 300 - WGS Topics in Literature and the Humanities
Topics in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to literature and the humanities. May be repeated for credit as topics change.
CAS WS 301 - WGS Topics in the Natural Sciences
Topics in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to the natural sciences. May be repeated for credit as topics change.
CAS WS 302 - WGS Topics in the Social Sciences
Topics in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to literature and the social sciences. May be repeated for credit as topics change.
CAS WS 303 - WGS Topics in Film and Media
Topics in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to film and media. May be repeated for credit as topics change.
CAS WS 304 - WGS Topics in Global and Transnational Studies
Topics in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies relevant to global and transnational studies. May be repeated for credit as topics change.
CAS WS 305 - Topics in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Topics in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. May be repeated for credit as topics change.
*CAS WS 317 - Gender and Crime
Examines social forces shaping gender discrepancies in crime. Using a feminist lens, students explore how cultural ideologies about masculinity and femininity shape criminalization, victimization, and offending. Topics include the gendered contexts of crime and punishment, gender-based violence, and intimate labor. Effective Spring 20223 this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, The Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration.
CAS WS 325 - Bombs and Bombshells: Gender, Armed Conflict, and Political Violence
Delve into the world of Black Widows and Demon Lovers. Using empirical research, case studies, and drama, this course separates fact from fiction to examine gender and its intersections between recruitment, motivations, and conditions under which women behave violently.
*CAS WS 326 - Arts of Gender
Prereq: at least one prior literature course, or CAS WS 101, or junior or senior standing. Examines representations of gender and sexuality in diverse art forms, including drama, dance, film, and literature, and how art reflects historical constructions of gender. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, The Individual in Community.
*CAS WS 327 - Immigrant Women in Literature: Found in Translation?
This course explores literature about migration created by women primarily from Eastern Europe. We read autobiographical narratives that focus on the shaping of transcultural identity with an eye to the problem of translation as a linguistic, cultural, and personal phenomenon. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
*CAS WS 328 - Madonnas, Martyrs, and MILFs: Gender and Motherhood
Examines the ways that motherhood–the roles, expectations, and assumptions that shape what counts as both “good” and “bad” mothering–is currently understood. Three key questions drive our exploration: How does culture shape mothering practices? How do mothering practices shape culture? How do race, economic class, educational attainment, and sexual orientation impact how motherhood is constructed? Discussions of related topics such as fathering, maternal body image, celebrity profiles, mother blame, parenting roles, and the economic costs of motherhood are explored. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, The Individual in Community, Critical Thinking.
CAS WS 329 - LGBTQI+ Representation in Film
Queer films challenge norms and undermine categories of gender and sex. Drawing on scholarship from a variety of disciplines the course explores sexual identity and representation in relation to history and other constituting experiences of race, class, gender, and nationality.
*CAS WS 330 - Transforming Life: Anthropology of New Medical Technologies
Seminar anthropologically compares the role of science and medicine in society and troubles what is natural and moral, e.g., about gender, person hood, kinship, and community, using case studies of new reproductive technologies in Asia, the Middle East, and North America. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing- Intensive Course.
*CAS WS 333 - Queering Health
*CAS WS 335 - Sociology of Race, Class, and Gender
Prereq: At least one prior 100- or 200-level sociology course, or CAS WS 101. No one of us is one thing, one identity, nor motivated by one singular interest, nor privileged or subjugated by one singular form of power, but how do those multiple forms of ourselves affect how we are advantaged, disadvantaged, viewed, and understood by the social world? Our social world, is, by default, a vast web of social intersections between and across groups with shared, overlapping, and conflicting identities. Race, class and gender affect nearly all of our lived experiences and greatly complicate and nuance concepts of diversity and difference. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, The Individual in Community, Historical Consciousness.
*CAS WS 347 - Feminist Inquiry
Prereq: sophomore, junior, or senior standing. A survey of feminist theories and development of strands of feminist inquiry in the academy, movements, and politics. Considers the commonalities and contrast in gender relations across cultures and tensions between major feminist schools of thought. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Creativity/Innovation.
CAS WS 348 - Gender and International Development
CAS WS 350 - Women and Politics
CAS WS 351 - Constructing Gender in North Africa: Women, Islam, and Politics
*CAS WS 352 - American Masculinities
*CAS WS 375 - Growing Up in Korea
*CAS WS 377 - Gender and Sexuality in Judaism
*CAS WS 380 - Gender and Identity in Contemporary Middle Eastern Film
An exploration of representations of gender and identity in contemporary Middle Eastern films by male and female directors reflecting on the impact of modernization, globalization, war and trauma through different visual genres. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
*CAS WS 382 - Women's Literary Cultures
*CAS WS 393 - Technoculture and Horizons of Gender and Race
*CAS WS 395 - Inhuman Films: Gender, Animals, Machines
Prereq: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 120). This course explores what happens to the “human” at the intersection of feminist theory and cinematic representation. How and why do films assign humanity to some figures and withhold it from others on the basis of race, gender, “ability,” etc.? Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Aesthetic Exploration.
*CAS WS 396 - Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality
This course analyzes gender and sexuality from an intersectional perspective. We focus on metaphysics, epistemology, and semantics to understand gender and sexuality as they exist within interlocking systems of oppression including racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and fatphobia. Also offered as CAS PH 256 and CAS PO 396. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, The Individual in Community, Critical Thinking.
CAS WS 398 - Feminist Political Theory
*CAS WS 400 - Gender and Healthcare
Prereq: CAS WR 120; or equivalent. This course focuses on strengthening students’ knowledge, skills, and ability to construct a critical appraisal of all the determinants, distribution, causes, mechanisms, systems, and consequences of health inequities related to gender including how gender influences and is influenced by healthcare systems. Also offered as SAR HS 400 A1. Effective Summer 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy.
CAS WS 403 - Gender Stratification
CAS WS 405 - Topics in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
*CAS WS 420 - Queer Theory
*CAS WS 425 - Sex and the City
CAS WS 430 - Global Maternal and Child Health
Prereq: senior standing. Provides a global perspective on maternal and child health. Major topics include early life influences on later life health, maternity care practices worldwide, and the role of both human evolutionary history and sociopolitical structures in shaping health outcomes for women and children.
*CAS WS 431 - Genders, Sexualities, and Youth Cultures
*CAS WS 432 - S24: Gender, Sexuality, and Buddhism
*CAS WS 434 - Monarchy in Modern Britain
CAS WS 435 - Histories of Human Rights
CAS WS 442 - Philosophies and Feminism
*CAS WS 445 - Women, Gender, and Islam
CAS WS 450 - Internships
*CAS WS 451 - Fashion as History
This seminar treats clothing and other products of material culture as historical documents. Explores what clothing can tell us about key developments in the modern period relating to trade and commerce, empire, gender, class, industry, revolution, nation-building, identity politics, and globalization. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
*CAS WS 452 - Contemporary Debates in Sexualities Research
*CAS WS 453 - Topics in Religion and Sexuality
*CAS WS 456 - Neurobiology of Sex and Aggression
Examines neurobiological and genetic factors that influence sex and violence. Students review primary literature from the past century that highlights major scientific discoveries that have reconceptualized our understanding of the origins of sexual-determination, -attraction and – aggression. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Historical Consciousness, Scientific Inquiry II.
*CAS WS 460 - Topics in LGBTQ History
*CAS WS 465 - Interesctionalities: Theories, Methods, Praxis
Examines neurobiological and genetic factors that influence sex and violence. Students review primary literature from the past century that highlights major scientific discoveries that have reconceptualized our understanding of the origins of sexual-determination, -attraction and – aggression. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Historical Consciousness, Scientific Inquiry II.
*CAS WS 480 - Japanese Women Writers
CAS WS 505 - Topics in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
*CAS WS 507 - Diversity of Sex
CAS WS 512 - Sexual Violence
This course engages the topics of sexual deviance and sexual trauma through multiple lens. These lenses include psychological, sociological, criminal justice, public health, and social justice perspectives. The course explores multiple facets of understanding sexual deviance and sexual trauma including legal and philosophical perspectives, historical activism, understanding and treatment of sexual offending, and survivor responses. The roles of multiple systems including the media, mental health organization and the criminal justice system are taken into account. This course includes ongoing group work that engages critical inquiry, addressing relevant topics in sexual trauma in practical ways. Students utilize knowledge of theory and research methodology to pursue real world responses to issues of sexual violence and trauma.
CAS WS 530 - Global Intimacies: Sex, Gender, and Contemporary Sex
*CAS WS 542 - Language, Race, and Gender
*CAS WS 562 - Studies in Asexualities
*CAS WS 594 - Advanced Feminist Theory