Gender Studies

Return to: Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences  

Mark Taper Hall of Humanities 422
(213) 740-8286
FAX: (213) 740-6168
Email: gender@dornsife.usc.edu
Director: Alice Echols, PhD*

Faculty

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

Professors: Joseph Boone, PhD (English); Jack Halberstam, PhD* (American Studies & Ethnicity); Sharon Hays, PhD (Sociology); Michael Messner, PhD (Sociology); Rhacel Parrenas, PhD (Sociology); Sherry Marie Velasco, PhD (Spanish and Portuguese)

Associate Professors: Tim Biblarz, PhD (Sociology); Sheila Briggs, PhD (Religion); Ange-Marie Hancock, PhD (Political Science); Sunyoung Park, PhD (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Karen L. Tongson, PhD (English)

Assistant Professor: Katie Hasson, PhD

Gender Studies Advisory Board

Professors: Elinor Accampo, PhD (History); Lisa Bitel, PhD (History); David Cruz, PhD (Law); Diane Ghirardo, PhD (Architecture); Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, PhD (Sociology); Janet Hoskins, PhD (Anthropology); Eunice Howe, PhD (Art History); Peggy Kamuf, PhD (French and Italian); Susan McCabe, PhD (English); Azade-Ayse Rorlich, PhD (History); Eliz Sanasarian, PhD (Political Science); Hilary Schor, PhD (English); Ellen Seiter, PhD (Cinematic Arts); David Sloane, PhD (Public Policy); Melora Sundt, PhD (Education); Ruth Wallach, MLS (USC Libraries); Holly Willis, PhD (Cinematic Arts); Diane Winston, PhD (Journalism and Religion)

Associate Professors: Marjorie Becker, PhD (History); Bettine Birge, PhD (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Kim Buchanan, LLM, JSD (Law); Tracy Fullerton, PhD (Cinematic Arts); Alice Gambrell, PhD (English); Sharon Gillerman, PhD (Hebrew Union College); Kara Keeling, PhD (Cinematic Arts); Paul Lerner, PhD (History); Tara McPherson, PhD (Cinematic Arts); Lori Meeks, PhD (Religion); Sunyoung Park, PhD (East Asian Languages and Cultures)

Assistant Professors: Katie Hasson, PhD (Sociology); Diana Williams, PhD (History)

Lecturer: M.G. Lord, PhD (Professional Writing)

Administrative Associates: Susan Harris, PhD (Joint Educational Project); Brie Loskota (Center for Religion and Civic Culture)

*Recipient of a university-wide or college teaching award.

The Gender Studies Program explores, across disciplines and cultures, the changing roles, functions and images of women and men from feminist perspectives. The undergraduate major focuses on the evidence and argument about what the places of women and men are in culture and what they should be. Course offerings include interdisciplinary core courses, selected cross-listed classes in more than 20 departments and the upper-division community internship and senior seminar. Majors work with program faculty, in conjunction with USC Dornsife College Advising, to develop a four-year program designed to meet their individual needs. The program also offers a minor and a graduate certificate for students majoring in other disciplines.

Programs

• Gender Studies (BA)

• Gender Studies Minor
• LGBTQ Minor

• Gender Studies Graduate Certificate

Courses

• SWMS 140 g Current Moral and Social Issues
• SWMS 210gm Social Analysis of Gender
• SWMS 212g Studies in Gender and Sexuality: An Introduction
• SWMS 215gp Gender Conflict across Cultural Contexts
• SWMS 225 Gender, Sex, and Science: A Gender Studies Approach
• SWMS 245 gm Gender and Sexualities in American History
• SWMS 265g Racism, Sexism, and the Law
• SWMS 300 Women in Antiquity
• SWMS 301 gm Feminist Theory: An Introduction
• SWMS 302 From Sappho to Stonewall: Lesbians in History
• SWMS 303 From Goddesses to Witches: Women in Premodern Europe
• SWMS 304 xm Italian Renaissance Art: Old Masters and Old Mistresses
• SWMS 305 Childhood, Birth and Reproduction
• SWMS 306 Introduction to LGBTQ Studies
• SWMS 307 Women in Medieval Europe, c. 1000–1500
• SWMS 311 Gender Studies and the Community: Internship
• SWMS 316 Gender and Global Issues
• SWMS 320 Male and Female in Pacific Society
• SWMS 321 Gender and Judaism
• SWMS 324 Women in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
• SWMS 330 m Culture, Gender and Politics in South Asia
• SWMS 335 Gender, Religion, and Sexuality
• SWMS 336 Health, Gender and Ethnicity
• SWMS 345 Men and Women in United States History from the 1920s to the Present
• SWMS 347 Race, Gender and Power in Francophone Literature
• SWMS 349 Women and the Law
• SWMS 355 Transgender Studies
• SWMS 358 U.S. Gay and Lesbian History
• SWMS 363 m Race, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Art
• SWMS 366 m Chicana and Latina Sociology
• SWMS 369 The Family in a Changing Society
• SWMS 370 Family and Kinship in Cross-Cultural Perspective
• SWMS 372 Human Sexuality
• SWMS 374 gm Women Writers in Europe and America
• SWMS 375 Women and Gender in China: Past and Present
• SWMS 377 The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture
• SWMS 378 Literature, Theory, Gender
• SWMS 380 Sex and Gender in Anthropological Perspective
• SWMS 381 Sex, Power, and Politics
• SWMS 382 Political Theories and Social Reform
• SWMS 383 French Women Writers
• SWMS 384m Gender, Social Inequality, and Social Justice
• SWMS 385m Men and Masculinity
• SWMS 389 Gender, Sexuality and Food Cultures in the U.S.
• SWMS 390 Special Problems
• SWMS 395 m Gender, Media and Communication
• SWMS 402 Human Trafficking
• SWMS 410 Senior Seminar in Gender Studies
• SWMS 412 Gender, Sexuality and Media
• SWMS 415 Ecofeminism
• SWMS 420 Woman, Nature, Culture: The Behavioral Ecology of Women
• SWMS 425 Queer Los Angeles
• SWMS 426 Gender, Family and Society in Europe and the United States, 1500–Present
• SWMS 430 Gender and Sexuality in Korean Literature and Culture
• SWMS 434m Women and Aging: Psychological, Social and Political Implications
• SWMS 435 m Women in Society
• SWMS 437m Sexuality and Society
• SWMS 440 Women’s Literature in Germany I
• SWMS 442 m Women’s Spaces in History: “Hussies,” “Harems,” and “Housewives”
• SWMS 445 Studies in Gender and Feminism
• SWMS 455m Gender and Sport
• SWMS 456 Women in International Development
• SWMS 465 Gender in Media Industries and Products
• SWMS 467 Gender and the News Media
• SWMS 469 Women in English Literature before 1800
• SWMS 470 Women in English and American Literature after 1800
• SWMS 476 m Images of Women in Contemporary Culture
• SWMS 478 m Sexual/Textual Diversity
• SWMS 490x Directed Research
• SWMS 492 Honors Thesis
• SWMS 499 Special Topics
• SWMS 504 Theories of Race, Class, and Gender
• SWMS 505 Seminar in Feminist Theory and Art History
• SWMS 507 Gender and International Relations
• SWMS 508 Ethics of Liberation Theology
• SWMS 509 Culture, Gender, and Global Society
• SWMS 516 Seminar: Feminist Theory and Communication
• SWMS 544 Feminist Theory for Historians
• SWMS 546 Comparative History of Women and Gender in the West to 1800
• SWMS 550 Gender and Education in the Third World
• SWMS 551 Studies in the History of Women, Gender and Sexuality
• SWMS 553 Race, Gender and Sexuality
• SWMS 554 Women in Global Perspective
• SWMS 556 Seminar on Women and the Family in China
• SWMS 560 Feminist Theory
• SWMS 577 Therapy, Gender, and Ethnicity
• SWMS 588 Seminar in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies
• SWMS 590 Directed Research
• SWMS 593 Practicum in Teaching Gender Studies
• SWMS 599 Special Topics
• SWMS 621 Gender Discrimination
• SWMS 623 Family Law
• SWMS 630 Studies in Gender
• SWMS 640 Sociology of Gender and Sexuality
• SWMS 642 Sex and Gender in Society
• SWMS 648 Fertility Control Policies
• SWMS 650 Seminar on Women’s and Family History