Feb 19, 2026  
USC Catalogue 2019-2020 
    
Catalog Navigation
  Catalogue Home
  A Message from the President
  About USC
  Administration
  Admission and Orientation
  Tuition and Fees
  Academic Calendar
  The Schools and Academic Units
  Programs, Minors and Certificates
  Programs by School
  Courses of Instruction
  Schedule of Classes
  Academic and University Policies
  Undergraduate Education
  Graduate and Professional Education
  The Graduate School
  About the Catalogue
  Past Catalogues
HELP
USC Catalogue 2019-2020 [ARCHIVED CATALOGUE]

Gender and Sexuality Studies

Return to: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences  

The Gender and Sexuality Studies major is designed for students drawn to the interdisciplinary study of gender and sexuality. In exploring how gender and sexuality have operated across time and cultures, students will engage with the approaches and methodologies of established disciplines: sociology, literature, history, political theory, religion; as well as interdisciplinary fields like queer studies and ethnic studies. Our curriculum analyzes how gender and sexuality operate in politics, popular culture, the workplace, health, science, sports, intimate life and the very production of knowledge itself. Our classes emphasize that gender and sexuality are not stand-alone categories but rather take shape through their intersection with outer relations of power, including race and ethnicity, religion, class, and nationality. Majoring in Gender and Sexuality Studies prepares students for graduate school in the social sciences and the humanities as well as in law, business and education. In addition, the major and each of our several minors prepare students for work in governmental and non-governmental organizations, communications and the media, arts and public service.  


(213) 740-8286
FAX: (213) 740-6168
Email: gender@dornsife.usc.edu
 

Chair: Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, PhD

Faculty

Dean’s Professor of Gender Studies and Professor of Political Science and Gender and Sexuality Studies: Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, PhD (Political Science)

USC Associates Chair in Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science and Gender and Sexuality Studies: Jane Junn, PhD (Political Science)

Barbra Streisand Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies and Professor of History and Gender and Sexuality Studies: Alice Echols, PhD* (History)

Professors: Julian Daniel Gutierrez-Albilla, PhD (Latin American and Iberian Cultures); Michael Messner, PhD* (Sociology); Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, PhD (Sociology); Sherry Marie Velasco, PhD (Latin American and Iberian Cultures)

Associate Professors: Sheila Briggs, PhD (Religion); Karen L. Tongson, PhD (English)

Undergraduate Degrees

Internship

A special feature of the undergraduate program is the internship, a required class for majors in which students gain valuable job skills and professional connections. Students have chosen internships related to gender and sexuality at health clinic, Hollywood studios, law offices, and the ONE Archives, the world’s largest LGBTQ archive. The major also includes a capstone class, which offers students the opportunity to study intensively with a professor in her or his current area of research. Students should consult with the student services adviser in Gender and Sexuality Studies the semester before taking the internship class for assistance with placement.

Minor in Gender and Social Justice

The minor in Gender and Social Justice is tailored for students interested in careers in the area of social policy. The minor is unique in its focus on the ways in which large-scale social and economic processes such as neoliberalism, globalization and economic precarity are connected and gendered. Topics include gender and violence; human trafficking; migration; reproductive rights; global human rights in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity; the prison state; prostitution and sex work. Students will examine the complexities of translating feminist theorizing into social policy.

Minor in LGBTQ Studies

The interdisciplinary minor in LGBTQ Studies establishes sexuality as a critical category of analysis for humanists and social scientists. The minor enables students to explore the shifting social organization and cultural meanings of same-sex sexuality and cross-gender identification.

Graduate Degrees

Gender and Sexuality Studies also offers a graduate certificate, a credential that is increasingly necessary for tenure-track positions in gender and sexuality departments and in disciplines searching in the area of gender and sexuality. We encourage graduate students to participate in conferences and to organize campus lectures.

Programs

Bachelor’s Degree

Minor

Graduate Certificate

Courses

Gender and Sexuality Studies

  • SWMS 210gmw Social Analysis of Gender

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    Multidisciplinary survey of gender assumptions in relation to sexuality, mental health, social and political relations, and artistic expression.
    Satisfies New General Education in Category C: Social Analysis
    Satisfies Global Perspective in Category G: Citizenship in a Diverse World
    Satisfies Old General Education in Category VI: Social Issues
    Instruction Mode: Lecture, Discussion
    Grading Option: Letter

    Crosslisted as POSC 210, PSYC 210

  • SWMS 212gp Introduction to Gender and Sexuality: American Perspectives

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Examination of how gender and sexuality have been constructed, experienced and legislated.
    Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry
    Satisfies Global Perspective in Category H: Traditions and Historical Foundations
    Instruction Mode: Lecture, Discussion
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 215gw Introduction to Gender and Sexuality: International Perspectives

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Fa
    Identification and examination of social and cultural conflicts through the lens of gender, and comparison of such conflicts across cultures, regions, and historical periods.
    Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry
    Satisfies Global Perspective in Category G: Citizenship in a Diverse World
    Satisfies Old General Education in Category VI: Social Issues
    Instruction Mode: Lecture, Discussion
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 219gp Introduction to Feminist Theory

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Fa
    Emergence of feminist thought from the Enlightenment to the present; historical development of female subjectivity; advancement of women’s rights; feminisms from alternative ideological perspectives.
    Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry
    Satisfies Global Perspective in Category H: Traditions and Historical Foundations
    Duplicates Credit in former SWMS 301
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 221g Introduction to Queer Theory

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Genealogies of queer theory, from psychoanalytic theories to feminism and post-structuralism; evolving concepts of gender; relation to social justice, resistance and power.
    Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry
    Instruction Mode: Lecture, Discussion
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 225 Gender, Sex, and Science: A Gender Studies Approach

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    Study of sex, gender in relation to science and social sciences; survey of scientific methods, approaches, current research; investigation of gender influences on scientific research.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

    Crosslisted as ANTH-225

  • SWMS 227gp Death and Gender in Urban Contexts

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Experiential course examining how beliefs about mortality are produced by history, gender, culture, and context; how the handling of death shapes urban society.
    Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry
    Satisfies Global Perspective in Category H: Traditions and Historical Foundations
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 300 Women in Antiquity

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in CLAS 300 )

  • SWMS 305 Childhood, Birth and Reproduction

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in ANTH 305 )

  • SWMS 306 Contemporary Issues in LGBTQ Studies

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    Interdisciplinary analysis of LGBTQ issues; examination of the intersections of gender and sexuality with social class, race, religion and nationality.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 212gp  or SWMS 215gw  or SWMS 221g 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 308 Advanced Gender Theory

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    Contemporary debates and research in three areas: health bodies, science technologies; feminist/queer analytics in media and representation; critical approaches to race, culture and power.
    Prerequisite: (SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 212gp  or SWMS 215gw ) and (SWMS 219gp  or SWMS 221g )
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 310 Gender and Social Justice

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    Exploration of the ways in which developments and policies, including neoliberalism, the carceral state, and economic precarity, are connected and gendered.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 212gp  or SWMS 215gw  or SWMS 219gp  or SWMS 221g 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

    Crosslisted as SOCI 310

  • SWMS 311 Gender and Sexuality Studies: Internship

    Units: 2, 4, 8
    Max Units: 08
    Terms Offered: FaSpSm
    Intensive experience with gender-focused community organizations; analysis of relationships between organizations and feminist and queer theory.
    Registration Restriction: Open only to Dornsife College students
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 316 Gender and Global Issues

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in IR 316 )

  • SWMS 321 Gender and Judaism

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in JS 321 )

  • SWMS 324 Women in Medieval and Renaissance Europe

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in COLT 324 )

  • SWMS 330m Culture, Gender and Politics in South Asia

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in ANTH 330 )

  • SWMS 335 Gender, Religion, and Sexuality

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in REL 335 )

  • SWMS 336 Health, Gender and Ethnicity

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Cross-cultural notions of the body, health, and healing; historic and cultural variability of ideas of reproduction, birth, sexuality, mental illness and disability.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 219gp  or SWMS 221g 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

    Crosslisted as ANTH 336, SOCI 336

  • SWMS 337 The LGBTQ Revolution and the Media

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Irregular
    (Enroll in COMM 337 )

  • SWMS 344m Sexual/Textual Diversity

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    (Enroll in ENGL 344m )

  • SWMS 349 Women and the Law

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Fa
    Discussion of the relationship between women and the law in light of feminist jurisprudence, U.S. Supreme Court decisions and cross-cultural perspectives.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 212gp  or SWMS 215gw  or SWMS 219gp  or SWMS 221g 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

    Crosslisted as POSC 349

  • SWMS 355 Transgender Studies

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Analysis of transgender behaviors, from androgyny and transvestism to transexuality. Discussion of changing laws, representations, medical standards, and social attitudes towards transgender and intersex people.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 212gp  or SWMS 215gw  or SWMS 219gp  or SWMS 221g 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 358 U.S. Gay and Lesbian History

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Exploration of shifting social organization and cultural meanings of same-sex desire and cross-gender behaviors in the U.S., primarily during the 20th century.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 212gp  or SWMS 221g 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

    Crosslisted as HIST 358

  • SWMS 367 Gender and Creative Labor

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Fa
    Exploration of contemporary labor issues from feminist and gender studies perspectives.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 212gp  or SWMS 215gw  or SWMS 219gp  or SWMS 221g 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 370 Sex, Love, and Marriage: An Introduction to Kinship

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    (Enroll in ANTH 370 )

  • SWMS 372 Human Sexuality

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in PSYC 372 )

  • SWMS 374gm Women Writers in Europe and America

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in COLT 374 )

  • SWMS 375 Women and Gender in China: Past and Present

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in EALC 375 )

  • SWMS 378 Literature, Theory, Gender

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in COLT 377 )

  • SWMS 380 Sex and Gender in Anthropological Perspective

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in ANTH 380 )

  • SWMS 381 Sex, Power, and Politics

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in POSC 381 )

  • SWMS 383 French Women Writers

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    (Enroll in FREN 383 )

  • SWMS 385m Men and Masculinity

    Units: 4
    Interdisciplinary examination of social, personal meanings of masculinity; variety of male experience by social class, race, sexuality and age; emerging masculinities of the future.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 212gp  or SWMS 215gw  or SWMS 219gp  or SWMS 221g 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

    Crosslisted as ANTH 385, SOCI 386

  • SWMS 389 Gender, Sexuality and Food Cultures in the U.S.

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Exploration of food, eating, production, sustainability, access, and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 390 Special Problems

    Units: 1, 2, 3, 4
    Supervised, individual studies. No more than one registration permitted. Enrollment by petition only.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 392 Junior Seminar in Gender and Sexuality Studies

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Research methods in gender and sexuality studies scholarship; study of feminist, queer and post-colonial epistemologies.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 308 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 395m Gender, Media and Communication

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in COMM 395 )

  • SWMS 402 Human Trafficking

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    (Enroll in SOCI 402 )

  • SWMS 410 Senior Seminar in Gender and Sexuality Studies

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Fa
    Study of a selected problem, period, or theme in the study of women and men in society by integrating perspectives from cross-cultural and interdisciplinary studies.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 392 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 412 Gender, Sexuality and Media

    Units: 4
    Max Units: max 8
    (Enroll in CTCS 412 )

  • SWMS 425 Queer Los Angeles

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Interdisciplinary study of queer Los Angeles through examination of histories, memoirs, essays, fiction, poetry, documentaries, narrative films and local archives.
    Prerequisite: SWMS 210gmw  or SWMS 212gp  or SWMS 215gw  or SWMS 221g 
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 430 Gender and Sexuality in Korean Literature and Culture

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in EALC 430 )

  • SWMS 434m Women and Aging: Psychological, Social and Political Implications

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSpSm
    (Enroll in GERO 435 )

  • SWMS 435m Women in Society

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in SOCI 435 )

  • SWMS 442m Women’s Spaces in History: “Hussies,” “Harems,” and “Housewives”

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in ARCH 442 )

  • SWMS 445 Studies in Gender and Feminism

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in FREN 445 )

  • SWMS 456 Women in International Development

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in POSC 456 )

  • SWMS 467 Gender and the News Media

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in JOUR 467 )

  • SWMS 490x Directed Research

    Units: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
    Max Units: 12.0
    Terms Offered: FaSpSm
    Independent research and readings.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 492 Gender and Sexuality Studies: Honors Thesis

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Sp
    Writing of the honors thesis; for students in the Gender and Sexuality Studies Honors Program.
    Recommended Preparation: SWMS 410 
    Registration Restriction: Open only to Gender and Sexuality Studies majors
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 499 Special Topics

    Units: 2, 3, 4
    Max Units: 8.0
    Study of a selected problem, period, or theme through interdisciplinary approaches.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 504 Theories of Race, Class, and Gender

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in ENGL 504 )

  • SWMS 505 Seminar in Feminist Theory and Art History

    Units: 4
    Max Units: max 8
    (Enroll in AHIS 505 )

  • SWMS 507 Gender and International Relations

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Irregular
    (Enroll in POIR 507 )

  • SWMS 509 Culture, Gender, and Global Society

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in IR 509 )

  • SWMS 516 Seminar: Feminist Theory and Communication

    Units: 4, 2 years
    Terms Offered: Sp
    (Enroll in COMM 516 )

  • SWMS 544 Feminist Theory for Historians

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Fa
    (Enroll in HIST 544 )

  • SWMS 546 Comparative History of Women and Gender in the West to 1800

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: Fa
    (Enroll in HIST 546 )

  • SWMS 551 Studies in the History of Women, Gender and Sexuality

    Units: 4
    Max Units: max 8
    (Enroll in HIST 550 )

  • SWMS 553 Race, Gender and Sexuality

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in AMST 553 )

  • SWMS 554 Women in Global Perspective

    Units: 4
    Women and immigration, employment, and household and family relations in the context of the global economy; women’s social and political movements in diverse cultural contexts.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

    Crosslisted as ANTH 554, POIR 554, SOCI 554

  • SWMS 556 Seminar on Women and the Family in China

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in EALC 556 )

  • SWMS 560 Feminist Theory

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSpSm
    History of feminist theory and major perspectives of current feminist theory: liberal feminism, socialist/Marxist feminism, radical feminism, psychological feminism, spiritual feminism, and ecological feminism.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

    Crosslisted as EDHP 560, POIR 560, SOCI 560

  • SWMS 567 Body, Power and Politics

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    (Enroll in AMST 567 )

  • SWMS 588 Seminar in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies

    Units: 4
    Interdisciplinary crosscultural, historical, psychological, sociological, and contemporary political perspectives on female and male homosexual eroticism, and the emergence of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identities.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 590 Directed Research

    Units: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
    Terms Offered: FaSpSm
    Research leading to the master’s degree in cognate fields. Maximum units which may be applied to the degree to be determined by the department.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Credit/No Credit

  • SWMS 593 Practicum in Teaching Gender Studies

    Units: 2
    Terms Offered: Fa
    Basic principles of gender studies pedagogy, emphasizing practical applications and the importance of career-long skill development. Required for first-semester teaching assistants in gender studies.
    Registration Restriction: Open only to doctoral students.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Credit/No Credit

  • SWMS 599 Special Topics

    Units: 2, 3, 4
    Max Units: 8.0
    Seminar in selected topics relating to gender and feminism.
    Instruction Mode: Lecture
    Grading Option: Letter

  • SWMS 621 Gender Discrimination

    Units: 1, 2, 3, 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    (Enroll in LAW 621 )

  • SWMS 623 Family Law

    Units: 3 or 4
    (Enroll in LAW 623 )

  • SWMS 630 Studies in Gender

    Units: 4
    Max Units: max 12
    (Enroll in ENGL 630 )

  • SWMS 640 Sociology of Gender and Sexuality

    Units: 4
    Terms Offered: FaSp
    (Enroll in SOCI 640 )

  • SWMS 642 Sex and Gender in Society

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in SOCI 642 )

  • SWMS 648 Fertility Control Policies

    Units: 4
    (Enroll in SOCI 648 )

  • SWMS 650 Seminar on Women’s and Family History

    Units: 4
    Max Units: max 8
    Terms Offered: Sp
    (Enroll in HIST 650 )