Gender and Sexuality Studies Jump To: Jump To: Program Offerings Minor Offering type Minor The Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary forum for the study of gender and sexuality, as well as their intersections with race, class, ethnicity and physical ability across cultures and global geographies both past and present. The program's courses, which are open to all students, examine gender and sexuality from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. The program offers core courses, seminars and cross-listed courses. A current list of course offerings is available on the program website. The program also encourages summer internships in relevant community-based programs, nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations with which the program's theoretical and historical inquiries can be applied in a practical setting. Goals for Student Learning The undergraduate minor in the interdisciplinary field of gender and sexuality studies at Princeton offers foundational and empirically based courses, as well as advanced theoretical courses on an extensive array of issues concerning gender, sexualities, race, scientific inquiry, and women’s historical, social and cultural experiences within the United States and in transnational contexts. The program is designed to provide students with skills that develop substantive methodological and theoretical expertise within the field, supplementing work that engages subjects germane to gender and sexuality studies more broadly within their primary departments. Taking seriously the interdisciplinary nature of the field, the program encourages direct engagement with a wide variety of academic fields within the humanities, social sciences and the sciences. Those fields include but are not exclusive to anthropology, history, religion, sociology, English, comparative literature, African American studies, American studies, psychology, political science, philosophy and biology. The program’s robust and diverse intellectual community is comprised of scholars with expertise in feminist and queer theories, queer of color critique, histories of sexualities, LGBTQ+ history, gender and transnational migration, reproductive rights, feminist science studies, philosophy of science and transgender studies. The aim is to help students develop critical and analytical skills in research and knowledge production and a mastery of the fundamental principles of gender and sexuality studies to better understand and traverse these fundamental aspects of the human experience. Admission to the Program Admission to the program is by email, available via the program website and/or via consultation with the program director. Students are able to enroll beginning in the spring of their sophomore year and ending in the spring of their junior year. Program of Study Students who wish to complete the requirements for the undergraduate certificate in gender and sexuality studies must take five courses:The introductory course, GSS 201 (or, with permission, a cross-listed 200-level or above course)Three elective courses in GSS or cross-listed with GSS from at least three of five thematic clusters (Transnational/Global Perspectives; Gender, Race, and Ethnicity; Bodies, Sexualities; Culture and Representation; Politics and Social Change; Historical Perspectives)One additional 300- or 400-level GSS course or cross-listed with GSS Students may take gender- or sexuality-related courses in their major departments for certificate credit. In addition, certificate students are required to incorporate issues related to feminism, women, gender and/or sexuality into one junior paper and their senior thesis. Independent Work Students are required to incorporate issues related to feminism, women, gender and/or sexuality into one junior paper and their senior thesis. Certificate of Proficiency Certificates of proficiency in the study of gender and sexuality are issued upon graduation to students who have completed the program and have met the requirements of their departments. This applies to students in the Class of 2024 and to students in the Class of 2025 who did not choose the minor program. Additional Information A list of gender- and sexuality-related courses across the University may be found on the program website each semester and in Course Offerings on the Office of the Registrar website. These courses may be used to satisfy the program's requirements. Faculty Director Wallace D. Best Shamus R. Khan (acting) Director of Graduate Studies Shamus R. Khan Director of Undergraduate Program Brian E. Herrera Executive Committee Elizabeth M. Armstrong, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Wallace D. Best, Religion Catherine Clune-Taylor, Gender & Sexuality Studies Pgm Javier E. Guerrero, Spanish & Portuguese Brian E. Herrera, Lewis Center for the Arts Tera W. Hunter, History Shamus R. Khan, Sociology Anne McClintock, Gender & Sexuality Studies Pgm Sanyu A. Mojola, Sociology Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Sociology Sara S. Poor, German Rhaisa Williams, Lewis Center for the Arts Associated Faculty April Alliston, Comparative Literature Bridget Alsdorf, Art and Archaeology Wendy Laura Belcher, Comparative Literature Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, Effron Center Study of America Ruha Benjamin, African American Studies Margot Canaday, History Zahid R. Chaudhary, English Divya Cherian, History Angela N. Creager, History Maria A. DiBattista, English Brigid Doherty, German Jill S. Dolan, Office of the Dean of College Patricia Fernández-Kelly, Sociology Diana J. Fuss, English Rubén Gallo, Spanish & Portuguese Reena N. Goldthree, African American Studies Jenny E. Greene, Astrophysical Sciences Judith Hamera, Lewis Center for the Arts Wendy Heller, Music Brooke A. Holmes, Classics Alison E. Isenberg, History Amaney A. Jamal, Politics Melissa Lane, Politics Russ Leo, English Beth Lew-Williams, History AnneMarie Luijendijk, Religion Stephen J. Macedo, Politics Gaetana Marrone-Puglia, French & Italian Tali Mendelberg, Politics Erika L. Milam, History Barbara N. Nagel, German Elizabeth L. Paluck, Psychology Jennifer Rexford, Computer Science Carolyn M. Rouse, Anthropology Esther H. Schor, English Moulie Vidas, Religion Christy N. Wampole, French & Italian Judith Weisenfeld, Religion Tamsen O. Wolff, English Professor Anne McClintock Rhacel Salazar Parreñas Assistant Professor Catherine Clune-Taylor Lecturer Alfred Bendixen Jessica Del Vecchio Visiting Professor Fawzia Afzal-Khan Danielle J. Lindemann For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website. Courses GSS 201 - Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies Fall SA What does it mean to be a woman or a man? Or neither? How do gender and sexuality, those seemingly most personal and private of attributes, emerge from networks of power and social relations? This course introduces major concepts in the interdisciplinary field of gender and sexuality studies. We will analyze the ways in which gender, as an object of study and as a lived experience, intersects with class, race, and ability, and will examine the relation between gender, sexuality and power in literary, philosophical, political and medical discourses. G. Salamon GSS 302 - Topics in the Study of Gender (also LAS 314) Spring SA Advanced seminar; focus changes from year to year. In general the seminar uses contemporary and classic works of feminist theory to examine ideas about gender that have shaped modern culture. Topics have included feminism and liberalism, literature and ideology, and psychoanalysis and feminism. J. Delgado GSS 306 - Women and Film (also VIS 341) Not offered this year LA An exploration of the relationships between the idea of "woman'' and the art of film. Issues addressed will include the role of woman as performer and director, questions of film genre, the identification of the female image as constitutive of the cinematic image, the historical and social dimensions of the female image projected in films of different times and different cultures. Film screenings, one three-hour seminar. G. Marrone-Puglia GSS 393 - Gender and Science Not offered this year SA An exploration of two aspects of the gender and science literature: the historical participation of women (and men) in scientific work and the feminist critique of scientific knowledge. The seminar will explore ways in which women have been systematically excluded from science and assess the problems with that thesis. One three-hour seminar. A. Creager GSS 400 - Contemporary Theories of Gender and Sexuality (also ENG 264) Spring SA We will take as our primary text the new translation of Simone deBeauvoir"s landmark volume The Second Sex, one of the most significant origin points of current understandings of gender. In our sustained consideration of The Second Sex, we will explore Beauvoir's ideas about the influence of sex and gender on childhood, the family, sexuality, relationships, aging, work, the social order, and the philosophical imaginary. We will also consider contemporary writing alongside that text, taking Beauvoir as our tour guide as we encounter and interpret contemporary representations of gender. G. Salamon AAS 303 - Topics in Global Race and Ethnicity (also GHP 313/GSS 406/HUM 347) Not offered this year HA or SA This seminar uses the prevailing analytical tools and critical perspectives of African American Studies to consider comparative approaches to groups, broadly defined. Students will examine the intellectual traditions, socio-political contexts, expressive forms, and modes of belonging of people who are understood to share common boundaries/experiences as either (1) Africans and the African Diaspora outside of the United States; and/or (2) non-African-descended people of color within the United States. Staff AAS 392 - Topics in African American Literature (also ENG 392/GSS 341) Spring LA A historical overview of Black literary expression from the 19th century to present day. Will emphasize a critical and analytical approach to considering the social, cultural, and political dimensions of African American literature. Staff CLA 212 - Classical Mythology (also GSS 212/HLS 212/HUM 212) Not offered this year LA A study of classical myths in their cultural context and in their wider application to abiding human concerns (such as creation, generation, sex and gender, identity, heroic experience, death, and transformations). A variety of approaches for understanding the mythic imagination and symbol formation through literature, art, and film. Two lectures, one preceptorial. K. Stergiopoulou CLA 320 - Topics in Medieval Greek Literature (also GSS 320/HLS 320/MED 320) Not offered this year LA The subject of this course will be medieval Greek Romantic fiction. We will read translations of the four surviving novels written in twelfth-century Constantinople in a bid to answer questions about the link between eroticism and the novel, truth and invention in the middle ages, who read fiction and why, and what role, if any, did the medieval or Byzantine Romances have in the story of the European novel. Above all, we will seek to recover some of the pleasure felt by the medieval readers and audiences of these novels. E. Bourbouhakis CLA 329 - Sex and Gender in the Ancient World (also GSS 331) Spring SA The theoretical and ideological bases of the Western attitudes toward sex and gender categories in their formative period in the Greco-Roman world through the study of myth and ritual, archaeology, art, literature, philosophy, science, medicine, law, economics, and historiography. Selected readings in classical and modern texts. M. Haynes CWR 345 - Special Topics in Creative Writing (also AMS 345/GSS 383) Not offered this year LA Students gain special access to the critical understanding of literature through their involvement in the creative process. Topics include autobiography, prosody, non-fiction, revision and point of view. Students are expected to prepare a manuscript at least every other week. Specific topics and prerequisites will vary. By application. Staff EAS 242 - Korean Women: Postmodern to Premodern (also GSS 243) Fall/Spring LA This course focuses on the images of women in Korean cultural production, spanning from contemporary to pre-twentieth-century periods. Analyzing the historical variations in the notions of femininity that appear in literary and filmic texts, we will use these feminine images as access points to the aesthetic conundrums produced at crucial historical junctures. These feminine images, produced locally and globally, will allow us to examine the experiences of immigrant diaspora, Korea's neo-colonial relationship with the United States, the Korean War, colonial modernity, and Confucian patriarchal kinship. K. Chizhova ENG 317 - Poetry and Poetics, 1500 to 1700 (also GSS 407) Spring LA This class considers short poems of the 16th and 17th centuries that are variously concerned with love, desire, and sexual intimacy. What are the modes of address in the erotic lyric? How do poems represent the subject and object of desire, and how do they represent the ethics of the erotic encounter? What is the social, political, and philosophical work of a personal and intimate poetry? Alongside a wide range of poems (including at least one contemporary collection placed in dialogue with the earlier poems), the course will include several short theoretical readings on the representation of desire. B. Cormack ENG 339 - Topics in 18th-Century Literature (also COM 342/GSS 438) Fall LA This course will at different times deal with particular currents of literature and thought in the 18th century, or with individual authors. Two lectures, one preceptorial. C. Johnson ENG 383 - Topics in Women's Writing (also AMS 483/GSS 395) Fall CD or LA In received tradition there are no women authors writing in English before the very late 17th century, with a very few notable exceptions in the Middle Ages. This course charts the recovery and revaluation of early modern poetry, drama and prose by women. We'll learn how significant it is and enjoyable, as we encounter works that range in subject from the harrowing death of grown-up daughters, highly original philosophy, bold political verse and critiques of slavery. We'll consider all within frameworks provided by contemporary gender and race theory and history. N. Smith ENG 384 - Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies (also GSS 394) Not offered this year CD or LA This course explores early modern figurations of gender and sex in the literature and philosophy of Europe. We will look carefully at poetry, plays, utopian fiction, and natural philosophy from early modern England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and the wider Atlantic world. Orienting our reading around the intersecting paradigms of faith, labor, and utopia, this course will offer us the chance to explore historical theories of gender, sex, and desire as well as consent, race, and property. We will also consider how early modern problems and assumptions inform more recent debates concerning gender and sexuality. R. Leo, M. Wolfert GER 321 - Topics in German Medieval Literature (also GSS 321/MED 321) Spring CD or LA Exploration of German medieval literature. Topics may include medieval German Arthurian literature and the relationship between gender and power in the medieval epics. S. Poor HIS 384 - Gender and Sexuality in Modern America (also AMS 424/GSS 384) Not offered this year CD or HA An examination of changing patterns of manhood and womanhood, with an emphasis on women's experience. Topics include housekeeping, child rearing, birth control, sexuality, work, feminism, and the role of gender in religious and political movements and economic development. Two lectures, one preceptorial. M. Canaday HIS 459 - The History of Incarceration in the U.S. (also AAS 459/AMS 459/GSS 459) Not offered this year HA The prison is a growth industry in the U.S.; it is also a central institution in U.S. political and social life, shaping our experience of race, class, gender, sexuality, citizenship, and political possibility. This course explores the history of incarceration over the course of more than two centuries. It tracks the emergence of the penitentiary in the early national period and investigates mass incarceration of the late 20th century. Topics include the relationship between the penitentiary and slavery; the prisoners' rights movement; Japanese internment; immigration detention; and the privatization and globalization of prisons. Staff JDS 301 - Topics in Judaic Studies (also GSS 309) LA The seminar, normally taken in the junior year, explores in depth a theme, issue, or problem in Jewish studies, often from a comparative perspective. Possible topics include gender and the family, comparative diasporas, messianic ideas and movements, Jewish history, anti-Semitism, authority, leadership, and conflict in Judaism, Jewish literature, Jewish popular culture. One three-hour seminar. Staff LAT 204 - Readings in Latin Literature (also GSS 204) Fall LA The course will deal with a major topic in Roman cultural history or Latin literature, with readings from three or four of the most important Latin authors.This course may be taken for credit more than once, provided different topics are treated. Three hours. Prerequisite: 108 or equivalent. I. Marchesi NES 347 - Islamic Family Law (also GSS 386) SA Examines the outlines of Islamic family law in gender issues, sexual ethics, family structure, family planning, marriage and divorce, parenthood, and child guardianship and custody. Provides a general survey of the Islamic legal system: its history and developments, structure and spirit, and the attempts of the Muslim jurists to adapt law to changing times. One three-hour seminar. H. Modarressi POL 422 - Gender and American Politics (also GSS 422) Spring CD or SA This course considers how gender enters and shapes politics, primarily in the US context. It addresses a range of questions that center elections: How did women gain the right to vote? Are women voters really different than men voters? Are women politicians really any different than men politicians? Has women's involvement in electoral and institutional politics changed anything? It also considers how the gendered space of the American electoral system has limited its effectiveness in delivering outcomes desired by some groups of women, what their alternatives might be, and how those alternatives have been and continue to be pursued. C. McConnaughy POR 354 - Topics in Contemporary Literature in Brazil and Beyond (also GSS 327/LAS 334) Spring CD or LA This course focuses on the works of individuals and collectives whose projects challenge traditional notions of women's writing and representation. From renowned authors like Clarice Lispector to contemporary figures such as Txai Suruí and Djaimilia Pereira, we will look at writers and artists with gender identities ranging from cisgender to transgender and non-binary, examining how their interventions reshape the feminist canon. By connecting words, bodies, and voices, and engaging with works from outside the Portuguese-speaking world, we will analyze how feminist ideas move and transform across languages, cultures, and experiences. P. Meira Monteiro PSY 329 - Psychology of Gender (also GSS 329) Not offered this year EC Gender is a topic with which everybody feels intimately familiar. This course holds up to scientific scrutiny the strong beliefs people have about how women and men are similar to and different from each other, examining major theories and empirical findings in psychological research on gender. Topics include the development of gender identity, empirical comparisons of men and women, gender stereotypes and their perpetuation, and the role of gender and gendered beliefs in achievement, interpersonal relationships, and physical and psychological well-being. Prerequisite: any course in psychology. Two 90-minute lectures, one preceptorial. Staff REL 328 - Women, Gender, and the Body in Islamic Societies (also GSS 328/NES 331) Fall SA This seminar focuses on issues of gender and sexuality in Islamic societies, past and present. Topics include women's lives, women's writings, changing perceptions of male vs. female piety, marriage and divorce, motherhood and fatherhood, sexuality and the body, and the feminist movement in the Middle East. Course materials include a wide range of texts in translation, including novels and poetry, as well as contemporary films. One three-hour seminar. S. Marmon REL 360 - Women, Gender, and American Religion (also AMS 369/GSS 360) Not offered this year SA An exploration of women's roles and experiences, and constructions of gender in diverse settings within North American religion. The seminar will examine women, gender, and religious leadership in varied religious contexts, such as Puritanism, evangelicalism, Catholicism, Judaism, African American Protestantism, native traditions, and American Islam. Emphasis on the dilemmas faced by women in religious institutions as well as the creative approaches to shaping religious and social opportunities in light of shifting ideas about religion, gender, and authority. One three-hour seminar. J. Weisenfeld REL 364 - Love and Justice (also GSS 338/HUM 364) Not offered this year EM Analysis of philosophical and theological accounts of love and justice, with emphasis on how they interrelate. Is love indiscriminate and therefore antithetical to justice, or can love take the shape of justice? What are the implications for moral, political, and legal theory? The seminar also considers recent efforts to revive a tradition of political theology in which love's relation to justice is a prominent theme. One three-hour seminar. E. Gregory SOC 221 - Inequality: Class, Race, and Gender (also AAS 221/GSS 221) Not offered this year SA Inequalities in property, power, and prestige examined for their effects on life chances and lifestyles. Primary focus on socioeconomic classes in modern societies. Special attention to the role of religious, racial, and ethnic factors. Comparisons of different systems of stratification in the world today. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff SOC 225 - Sex, Sexuality, and Gender (also GSS 225) Not offered this year SA This course focuses on the many ways gender differences are created, diminished, and reinforced in society. Students will learn how sexuality and gender categories are socially constructed concepts that vary across the life course (childhood, adolescence, adulthood) and different social settings (media and public discourse, schools, work, family, other countries, the policy arena, and the scientific academy). A variety of theoretical perspectives will be examined including sociobiological, micro- and social-psychological, and social-structural. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff SOC 310 - Gender and Development in the Americas (also GSS 312/LAS 310) Not offered this year SA An examination of gender as an integral component of socioeconomic development in advanced and less-developed countries, with a focus on the United States and selected areas of Latin America. Special attention will be given to processes of industrial restructuring on a global scale that have increased the participation of women in the formal labor force. An understanding of the relationship between gender inequality and social order will be a central object of inquiry. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff SOC 361 - Culture, Power, and Inequality (also GSS 361) Not offered this year SA An introduction to theories of symbolism, ideology, and belief. Approaches to the analysis and comparison of cultural patterns. Emphasis on the social sources of new idea systems, the role of ideology in social movements, and the social effects of cultural change. Comparisons of competing idea systems in contemporary culture. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff THR 252 - Topics in Dramaturgical and Performance Analysis (also GSS 244/LAO 252/LAS 242) Spring LA This seminar offers an intensive introduction to the principles and practices of dramaturgical and performance analysis of stage plays as written works, as blueprints for theatrical performance, and as exercises in worldmaking. This seminar also rehearses how the techniques of dramaturgical and performance analysis might be applied to modes of embodied enactment - whether historical or contemporary, whether in art or everyday life - beyond the theatrical frame. In Spring 2025, the course will focus on the life, work, and legacy of the pathbreaking Cuban-American playwright, director, designer, and teacher María Irene Fornés (1930-2018). B. Herrera
