WOMS 190.  Diverse Women in Popular Culture   (3).

General education social and behavioral sciences course. Examines how women of various races, classes and ethnicities are represented in a wide variety of popular media. Encourages the critical analysis of why and how these popular representations are politically and socially significant in shaping society's perceptions of women. Also explores women's popular genres. Course includes diversity content.

WOMS 287.  Women in Society: Social Issues   (3).

General education social and behavioral sciences course. Examines women's efforts to claim their identities from historical, legal and social perspectives. Includes recent laws relating to women, contemporary issues (such as rape, day care, working women, the future of marriage), agencies for change, theories of social change, and the relationship of women's rights to human rights. Course includes diversity content. This is a Kansas Systemwide Transfer Course.

WOMS 338.  Philosophy of Feminism   (3).

General education social and behavioral sciences course. Cross-listed as PHIL 338. Explores philosophical issues raised by the feminist movement emphasizing conceptual and ethical questions. Course includes diversity content.

WOMS 345.  Gender, Alcohol and Addictions   (3).

Provides information about women's dependencies and their relationship to constructions of gender. Examines dependencies on substances and processes (alcohol, street and prescription drugs, eating disorders, and dysfunctional relationships) in their social and personal context. Examines theories of treatment and recovery in relation to feminist theory and women's roles in codependency. Course includes diversity content.

WOMS 380AG.  Black Women: Love, Lust and Loss   (3).

The images of women have not been accurately portrayed in mainstream American Culture. For years, women have contributed to the development of the United States through a variety of roles. Some of these roles include being educators, artists, workers, politicians and healthcare providers. The purpose of this course is to highlight the multiple ways women have shaped this country. Through this course, students explore and examine the struggles and accomplishments of women. Students also examine women's clubs, groups and organizations in the hopes of creating a more accurate portrayal of the impact these individuals and groups have had on society. This course enables students of all races to see more clearly how women served as critical agents in uplifting their communities, particularly during tremendous periods of interracial turmoil and heightened group tensions. Course includes diversity content.

WOMS 380J.  Hip Hop and Feminism   (3).

Explores how women are portrayed in hip hop music and culture, addressing women both as consumers and producers. Students draw on texts that analyze misogyny in hip hop music and music videos, while also looking at how both mainstream and marginalized female hip hop artists contest sexually exploitative images of women. The course utilizes Black feminist theory, consumption theory and youth culture theory to help students interpret and critique the ways in which women are represented in hip hop music, art, fashion, and dance, and in its surrounding culture. Considering analyses of African American, Caribbean, Asian-American, South African and Latino interactions with hip hop, the course investigates how youth construct gender and ethnic identities as they negotiate notions of African Diasporic belonging vis-à-vis hip hop. Students employ ethnographic, historical, sociological, literary and interdisciplinary texts to explore questions such as: What do the sexual politics of rap music reveal about broader gender constructions? How can they compare the portrayal of women in hip hop to representations of women in related musical genres? How are hetero-normative gender ideologies reinforced in hip hop culture? Does hip hop allow a space for alternative femininities? The course also addresses broader questions related to representations of Black femininity, minorities in the media, gender and sexual identity construction. Course includes diversity content.

WOMS 386.  Women and Sports   (3).

Examines the relationship of gender to definitions of athleticism as well as how women have negotiated the contradiction between the cultural equation of masculinity and athleticism. Special attention is given to Title IX and its role in increasing benefits and opportunities for U.S. women to play sports as well as the impact it has had on the development of intercollegiate women's athletics. Also considers the impact of homophobia on women's sports, the sexualization of women athletes, and new questions raised for sex-segregated sports by the fluidity of biological sex and transgendered athletes. Course includes diversity content.

WOMS 387.  Women in Society: Cultural Images   (3).

General education social and behavioral sciences course. Examines the impact of cultural images and ideas in women's lives. Emphasis is on the intersection of gender and race in shaping social experience and political interest. Major topics include ideology as vehicle through which women come to belong to and negotiate society; privilege, intellectual origins of ideas about gender and race, and differences in status among women that impact their lives, their relations with men and with each other. Course includes diversity content.

WOMS 513.  Issues and Perspectives on African Women and Globalism   (3).

General education humanities course. Cross-listed as ETHS 381AC. For those whose primary notions of Africa derive from little or unconfirmed information. Uses research, writing and other expressions by African women to present women dealing with their postcolonial and globalized national contexts. When possible, a teleconference with an author is arranged for a more global learning experience. Learning through local African communities, dramatic/artistic expressions and group projects is encouraged. Aims to help students develop critical and independent thinking about Africa, African women and their global engagement. Course includes diversity content.

WOMS 587.  Theories of Feminism   (3).

Because feminism is not a single ideological stance or perspective, course examines a variety of ideas underlying feminist cultural critiques and visions for social change. Discusses the contribution of women's studies to various academic disciplines. Course includes diversity content. Prerequisite(s): WOMS 287, 387, or 6 hours of women's studies courses, or instructor's consent.

WOMS 588.  Gender, Race and the West/East Divide   (3).

General education social behavioral sciences course. Examines critically the role of gender and race in the making of a supposed essential divide between the West and the East. Students are introduced to Edward Said's concept of Orientalism and the field of critique that targets how Europe and the U.S. craft an identity the West via its other, called variously, the Orient, Islam, the Muslim world, and the Arab world. Questions explored include: What is Orientalism? What is the relationship between colonialism/imperialism and the representation of the Orient or the East? How, for whom, and for what purposes do gender and race matter in this construct of a divide between West and East? These questions are examined across genres and media — i.e., in travel accounts, film, literature, policy making and news reportage. Course includes diversity content.