Please visit the Academic Timetable to see which courses are presently being offered and in which location(s). Not all courses listed below run every term or in all locations. For specific details about program requirements and degree regulations, please refer to the Academic Calendar.
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GESO-1001H: Thinking About Gender & Social Justice
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Exploring social media, art, law, literature, and protest, this course draws connections between histories and the contemporary moment through the lens of gender and social justice. Examines the social construction of sex and gender in relation to race, class, disability, and sexuality, and challenge assumptions about feminism and human inequality. Equivalent to WMST 1001H.
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GESO-1002H: Gender and Social Justice Matters
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Considers gender, sex, and bodies in relation to contemporary challenges facing our world, both in North America and abroad. Through issues including media, popular culture, violence, sexuality, health, poverty, and globalization, we explore diverse women's experiences and gender relations, and evaluate multiple pathways toward gender and economic justice for everyone. Equivalent to WMST 1002H.
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GESO-2121H: Women and Health
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Addresses issues of importance to women as recipients and providers of health care and as subjects of health research. Students are introduced to various models of health and illness, and to the origins and theoretical underpinnings of the gendered dimensions of health in Canadian and global contexts. Prerequisite: 0.5 GESO or WMST credit at the 1000 level, or a minimum of 60% in all required NURS 1000-level courses, or permission of instructor. Equivalent to WMST 2121H.
Cross-listed: NURS-2121H
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GESO-2141H: Discovering Feminist Thought
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
How have feminists conceptualized social justice, especially as connected to struggles for social change? This course explores some of the key historical and contemporary feminist theories, inviting debate about the many different ways that feminists have explained and analyzed social inequalities, imagined alternatives, and strategized for social gender justice. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits including 0.5 GESO, PHIL, or WMST credit at the 1000 level, or permission of instructor. Equivalent to WMST 2141H.
Cross-listed: PHIL-2141H
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GESO-2151H: Contemporary Feminisms
Offered:
- Peterborough
Uses a feminist lens to analyze a variety of contemporary social issues that may include sexual violence, migrant labour, transgender and queer politics, and environmental justice, as well as the new frontiers of transnational and digital feminist activism. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits including 0.5 GESO or WMST credit at the 1000 level, or permission of instructor. Equivalent to WMST 2151H.
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GESO-2171H: Making for Justice: Creative Workshop
Offered:
- Peterborough
A project/practice-based class engaging with artists who play outside the canon and creative makers who challenge systemic injustices. Students create work exploring how to use creative practice to engage and reimagine justice-seeking research questions, collective histories, and possible futures. This course revels in the rough draft, experimentation, dissent, and celebration. Prerequisite: GESO 1001H (or WMST 1001H).
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GESO-2181H: Intro to Fat Studies: Radical Self Love
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Fat studies interrogates and interrupts fat as a historically dependent social and political construction. This course locates the origins of fat as moral and racial panic, critically examines anti-fatness as a social justice issue, and unpacks the systemic biases that have embedded these attitudes into our daily lives. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits.
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GESO-2210H: Gender, Race and Popular Culture
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
An introduction to historical and contemporary popular and everyday culture, arts, and entertainment as mechanisms that produce and reinforce ideologies about gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, and citizenship. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits including 0.5 GESO, WMST, or CUST credit at the 1000 level, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST 2210H.
Cross-listed: MDST-2210H, CUST-2210H
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GESO-2251H: Gender & International Development
Offered:
- Peterborough
An analysis of the intersectional gender relations that shape political, socio-economic, and cultural issues and struggles for sustainable development across the globe. Introduces students to feminist political economy and ecology frameworks and pathways to gender justice and human rights. Prerequisite: 0.5 GESO, WMST, or GDST-IDST credit at the 1000 level, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST 2251H.
Cross-listed: GDST-2251H, HURI-2251H
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GESO-2410H: The Revolution Will Be Recorded: Popular Culture, Gender, And Social Movements
Offered:
- Online
- Durham GTA
Examines the role of popular culture in various forms-including live theatre, music, fashion, film, and television-within Canadian and American social movements of the twentieth century that sought to reimagine gender. Emphasizes the role of race, class, sexuality, ability, and medium in the production and consumption of protest cultures. Excludes WMST 2410H.
Cross-listed: MDST-2410H
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GESO-2430H: Sociology of Gender
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Focuses on gender as a core aspect of social organization and inequality. Key concepts are gender, femininity, masculinity, sexuality, homosexuality, heterosexuality, and queer. Naturalist ideas and sociological analyses developed within feminism and lesbian and gay theories are studied. Prerequisite: 60% or higher in SOCI 1002H (or in 1000Y); or 0.5 WMST or GESO credit. Excludes SOCI-WMST 3430H.
Cross-listed: SOCI-2430H
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GESO-2487H: Decolonizing Feminisms
Offered:
- Peterborough
Looks at how contemporary feminisms can urgently turn to recognition and foregrounding of Indigenous peoples and their voices across territories. With emphasis on Indigenous women and 2SQ people as creative makers, vibrant thinkers, and vital members of our communities, we examine Indigenous/feminist acts of resistance, resilience and resurgence. Prerequisite: GESO 1001H or WMST 1001H. Excludes WMST 2487H.
Cross-listed: INDG-2487H
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GESO-2601H: Documenting Canada
Offered:
- Durham GTA
Explores attempts to document "real" aspects of Canadian life in order to question how we think we know about Canada. We discuss the genres of documentary film, poetry, and prose, the questions of power they raise, and the forms of creativity they generate. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits. Excludes CAST-WMST 2000Y, ENGL 3550Y, CAST 2600Y.
Cross-listed: CAST-2601H, MDST-2601H
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GESO-2703H: Literature & Social Justice
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Studies a range of works from different periods and genres that raise moral questions and ethical dilemmas concerning issues of social justice involving race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, and other variables. Considers literature's power to evoke the plight of the socially disadvantaged, and the implications for social change. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits. Excludes ENGL 3703H.
Cross-listed: ENGL-2703H
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GESO-2711H: Acting Up Feminism & Hist in Canada
Offered:
- Online
An overview of the history of feminist ideas, strategies, and actions in Canada. We explore the diversity and distinctiveness of Canadian feminism at different historical moments, celebrating the strength and creativity of organized and individual forms of resistance, while also probing the complicated, difficult, and sometimes "messy" workings of feminism. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits, including 0.5 WMST, GESO, CAST, or HIST credit at the 1000 level, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST-CAST 2110H.
Cross-listed: HIST-2711H, CAST-2711H
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GESO-3021H: Discovering Social Justice Research
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
How can research be used as a tool for social change? This course teaches students how to design anti-oppressive, decolonial, and feminist research in collaboration with community organizations. With attention to a range of current social issues, students learn about the theory, ethics, and design of engaged research. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including GESO 2141H and 0.5 additional GESO or WMST credit at the 2000 level or beyond, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST 3021H.
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GESO-3050H: Philosophy, Gender and Feminism
Offered:
- Peterborough
A study of philosophical concepts of gender, sex and sexuality, feminist critique, and developments in feminist philosophies. Prerequisite 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL-WMST 2031Y.
Cross-listed: PHIL-3050H
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GESO-3052H: Race and Racialization
Offered:
- Durham GTA
Highlighting work by racialized and Indigenous women, this course explores contemporary themes within feminism about critical race theory, white supremacy, and anti-racist practice. Topics include intersections of racism with other systems of inequality, everyday and systemic racism, racial violence, whiteness and privilege, and feminist anti-racism responses. Prerequisite: 8 university credits including 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 3000 level, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for WMST 4050H.
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GESO-3100P: Co-Op Work Term
Offered:
- Peterborough
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GESO-3134H: Gender, Sports, and Social Justice
Offered:
- Online
Undertakes a socio-cultural analysis of how gender, race, and sexuality shape the construction, configuration, and meanings of sports and athleticism. Examines professional and amateur sports and athletics as they are played and represented within the gender binary and beyond, engaging with pertinent questions related to trans bodies, disability, aging, settler colonialism, etc. Prerequisite: 8.0 university credits.
Cross-listed: KINE-3134H
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GESO-3150H: Troubling Trans
Offered:
- Peterborough
Explores the ways trans and gender diverse bodies intersect with questions of queerness, feminism, nationalism, colonialism, citizenship, criminalization, race, and capital. What strategies of representation and resistance do trans communities engage in as part of their work of imagining and enacting freedom? Prerequisite: 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 2000 level or beyond, or permission of instructor. Excludes GESO 4150H, WMST 3150H.
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GESO-3151H: Transnational Sexualities
Offered:
- Peterborough
How does sexual and gendered difference map on to cultural, racial, and national difference? This course considers how marginalized, transnational, and diverse forms of sexuality and/or gender expression shape, and are shaped by, discourses of (homo)nationalism and sexual citizenship, histories of race and racialization, indigenous contexts, neoliberalism, (im)migration and labour, sex work, and human rights. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits including 0.5 GESO or WMST credit, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST 2161H.
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GESO-3220H: Gender, Society & Space
Offered:
- Peterborough
Selected themes and topics examining the relationship between gender and spatial organization. Themes include the nature of domestic space; gendered use of public, private, and urban space; and the intersections between gender, sexuality, racism, and cultural difference. Prerequisite: GEOG-CAST 2710H or 2810H; or 1.0 WMST or GESO credit at the 2000 level or beyond; or permission of instructor.
Cross-listed: GEOG-3220H, CAST-3220H
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GESO-3250H: Queer Feminisms
Offered:
- Durham GTA
Students explore bodies, desires, relations, and culture through queer and feminist theories. We consider connections among queer feminist scholarship, personal experience, political struggle, and artistic expression. Gender, sexuality, transgression, and intersectionality are central to the inquiry and conversation. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including 0.5 GESO or WMST credit at the 2000 level or beyond, or permission of instructor. Excludes GESO-CUST 4250H, WMST 3250H.
Cross-listed: CUST-3250H
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GESO-3400H: Feminism and Disability
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Introduces students to critical perspectives that push thinking about disability beyond medical and social models. Focuses on connections between gender and disability. Explores feminist challenges to ableism. Other topics include bodies, race, sexuality, education, creativity, access, eugenics, intersections, and austerity. Prerequisite: 6.0 university credits. Excludes WMST 3300H, 3400H.
Cross-listed: SOCI-3400H, PHIL-3400H
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GESO-3440H: Sexuality & the Social
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Explores sexuality as a complex issue in sociological analysis. Examines theoretical approaches to the body, gender, and sexuality, the construction of "normal" and "deviant" sexualities, and various forms of sexual regulation and resistance. Prerequisite: 5.0 university credits including at least 1.0 credit in SOCI, GESO or WMST at the 2000 level.
Cross-listed: SOCI-3440H
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GESO-3609H: Sicklit
Offered:
- Peterborough
We read works that imagine disease, cure, and convalescence as gendered modes, asking how literature exposes pathologization and how authors rewrite illness beyond pathology. We focus on the regulation imposed by cultural and social understandings of "sickness" and the resistance posed by authors to medicalization. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits. Excludes ENGL 3701H (2012FA).
Cross-listed: ENGL-3609H
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GESO-3625H: Sexed Violence
Offered:
- Online
A critical look at gender-based violence as a political and legal construct. Topics may include missing and murdered Indigenous women, legalization debates regarding sexed work, hegemonic masculinities and violence. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including 60% or higher in CRIM 2616H or GESO 2141H.
Cross-listed: CRIM-3625H, PLCW-3625H
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GESO-3672H: Gender, Diversity, Intersectionalities
Offered:
- Peterborough
Examines issues of diverse intersectional gender identities and gender experiences, including Indigeneity, (dis)ability, race, class, LBTQ, and fat, and provides socio-political perspectives to understand activism, community building, and possibilities for socio-political and policy change. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including 1.0 POST, CAST, SOCI or GESO credit at the 2000 level, or permission of instructor. Recommended: POST-CAST 2011H and/or 2012H. Excludes POST-CAST-WMST 3670Y.
Cross-listed: POST-3672H, CAST-3672H, SOCI-3672H
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GESO-3704H: Queer Lit
Offered:
- Durham GTA
Examines literary and cultural representations of queerness through historical, theoretical, and aesthetic approaches. What does it mean for a text to be "queer"? How do sexual identities intersect with racial, ethnic, and religious ones? What can explorations of queerness as an identity category tell us about identity itself? Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.
Cross-listed: ENGL-3704H
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GESO-3709H: Girlhood Bodies and Narratives
Offered:
- Peterborough
Studies selected girlhood bodies and narratives as they have developed within the contexts of Canadian and global literature and popular culture. Focusing on the negotiation of girlhood bodies and narratives through a variety of spaces and over diverse borders, this course considers relationships between Canadian and global girlhoods. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits including 1.0 ENGL credit or permission of the instructor.
Cross-listed: ENGL-3709H, CAST-3709H
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GESO-3796H: Feminist Psychologies
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Explores principles and practices of feminist psychology, theories of gender and sexual development, and the psychology of women. Focus is on feminist critiques of psychology and feminist contributions to psychology. Feminist relational, community, post-colonial, and narrative approaches are emphasized. Prerequisite: 6.0 university credits including 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 2000 level or beyond or 1.0 PSYC credit at 2000 level or beyond. Excludes GESO-PSYC 4796H, WMST 3796H.
Cross-listed: PSYC-3796H
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GESO-3860H: Gender Race & Class
Offered:
- Peterborough
Analyzes power relations and lived experiences through the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, and class. Students undertake the critical work of understanding the ongoing implications of these interlocking systems of privilege and oppression upholding inequalities and fueling resistance in Canadian and international contexts. Prerequisite: 6.0 university credits including 1.0 GESO, WMST, CAST, or SOCI credit at 2000 level or beyond, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST 3860H.
Cross-listed: SOCI-3860H, CAST-3860H
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GESO-3881H: Gender Globalization & Resistance
Offered:
- Peterborough
Focuses on how globalization is transforming intersectional gender dynamics that underpin relationships between and within states, markets, civil society, and households. Introduces students to feminist perspectives on the global political economy, focusing on specific issues such as international trade agreements, labour, security, migration, health, environment, and human rights. Prerequisite: 1.0 GDST (IDST), POST, GESO or WMST credit at the 2000 level or beyond, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST-POST 3880Y, 4881H.
Cross-listed: GDST-3881H, POST-3881H, SOCI-3881H, HURI-3881H
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GESO-3932H: Sex Gender and Science
Offered:
- Peterborough
An interdisciplinary introduction to the topic of women and gender in science. How is gender difference understood within scientific disciplines? Why are women under-represented in various science and technological fields? How are women, and feminist scholarship, changing science? Prerequisite: 8.0 university credits including 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 3000 level or permission of instructor.
Cross-listed: ANTH-3932H
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GESO-3962H: Gender, Sexualities & the Law
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Explores key issues, theories, and debates concerning gender, feminism, and the law, primarily in Canada. Approaching law as a site of regulation and constraint and drawing upon restorative justice pedagogies and decolonial methodologies, the course examines issues such as family, sexuality, violence, pornography, prostitution, poverty, employment, and immigration. Prerequisite: 1.0 GESO, WMST, CAST, CRIM or POST credit, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST 3962H.
Cross-listed: CAST-3962H, POST-3962H, SOCI-3962H, CRIM-3962H
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GESO-3965H: Gender-Based Violence: Issues, Impacts
Offered:
- Peterborough
Examines how gender-based violence impacts individuals, communities, and societies, and applies an intersectional lens to consider differences in experiences, interventions, and acts of resistance. This course assesses responses to gender-based violence at the community, institutional, and policy levels, and critically reflects on strategies required to make change. Prerequisite: 6.0 university credits including GESO 1001H.
Cross-listed: CRIM-3965H
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GESO-3966H: Criminalizing Women
Offered:
- Online
A criminological analysis of women in trouble from early to late modernity to the present moment, with specific analysis of the disciplining and incarceration of cisgender women and trans women. Focuses on the Canadian criminal justice system, with analysis of its racist, colonial, patriarchal, homophobic, ableist legacies. Prerequisite: 1.0 GESO, WMST, CAST, CRIM, or SOCI credit, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST 3966H.
Cross-listed: CAST-3966H, SOCI-3966H, CRIM-3966H
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GESO-3990H: Gender & Environmental Justice
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Examines debates and issues involved in understanding environmental problems from a gender and justice perspective. Students are introduced to environmental justice issues and concepts, feminist approaches and critiques, and explorations of emerging discourses, making links between justice, sustainability, and issues like climate change. Prerequisite: 6.0 university credits including 1.0 GESO, WMST, and/or ERST credit at the 2000 level, or permission of instructor. Equivalent to WMST 4990H. Not open to students with credit for GESO-ERST 4990H.
Cross-listed: ERST-3990H
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GESO-4010Y: Honours Thesis
Offered:
- Peterborough
Consult the department office for information and for the required thesis registration form. Students wishing to take a double credit thesis with one credit applied to Gender & Social Justice and the second to a joint major should see the chair of the Gender & Social Justice Department. Excludes WMST 4010Y.
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GESO-4052H: Race and Racialization
Offered:
- Durham GTA
Highlighting work by racialized and Indigenous women, this course explores contemporary themes within feminism about critical race theory, white supremacy, and anti-racist practice. Topics include intersections of racism with other systems of inequality, everyday and systemic racism, racial violence, whiteness and privilege, and feminist anti-racism responses. Prerequisite: 8 university credits including 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 3000 level, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for WMST 4050H.
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GESO-4150H: Troubling Trans
Offered:
- Peterborough
Explores the ways trans and gender diverse bodies intersect with questions of queerness, feminism, nationalism, colonialism, citizenship, criminalization, race, and capital. What strategies of representation and resistance do trans communities engage in as part of their work of imagining and enacting freedom? Prerequisite: 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 2000 level or beyond, or permission of instructor. Excludes GESO 3150H, WMST 4150H.
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GESO-4208H: Nursing, Feminism & Women's Health
Offered:
- Online
Drawing from the meta-paradigm concepts of nursing science-person, health, environment, and nursing- the focus of this course is women's health and women-centered health care delivery in the Canadian context. Androcentric science, sex/gender-based analysis, and topics such as methadone and mothering, smoking as social control, and HPV vaccination are discussed. Prerequisite: A pass in NURS 3020H and 3021H; 60% or higher in NURS 3000H, 3001H, 3004H, 3030H, and NURS-BIOL 3550H; and permission of the department. For non-Nursing students: GESO-WMST 2121H and permission of the School of Nursing.
Cross-listed: NURS-4208H
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GESO-4250H: Queer Feminisms
Offered:
- Durham GTA
Students explore bodies, desires, relations, and culture through queer and feminist theories. We consider connections among queer feminist scholarship, personal experience, political struggle, and artistic expression. Gender, sexuality, transgression, and intersectionality are central to the inquiry and conversation. Prerequisite: 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 2000 level or beyond, or permission of instructor. Excludes GESO-CUST 3250H, WMST 4250H.
Cross-listed: CUST-4250H
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GESO-4251H: Questions de Genre
Offered:
- Peterborough
Consists of an exploration of gender issues in French language and literatures with a focus on questions specific to French Canada and Quebec. Prerequisite: 5.0 FREN credits including 4.0 beyond the 1000 level, with a minimum of 60% in each; or permission of the department.
Cross-listed: FREN-4251H
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GESO-4551H: Gender and Disability in Canada
Offered:
- Peterborough
Explores how difference-especially who is labelled "different"-changes according to social, political, and cultural factors and interests. We focus on disability and its intersection with other identity-based categories, including gender, race, and sexuality. Readings come from Canadian literature and film, critical theory, social policy, and the mass media. Prerequisite: 14.0 university credits. Excludes CAST-SOCI-WMST 4550Y.
Cross-listed: CAST-4551H, SOCI-4551H
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GESO-4630H: Advanced Seminar in the Sociology of Gender
Offered:
- Peterborough
Examines intersections of gender with "race," ethnicity, sexuality, and class. The implications of intersectional perspectives for how we understand gender equality strategies and outcomes are considered. Specific topics are determined yearly, and may be different in Peterborough and Durham. Prerequisite: 10.0 university credits, including one of SOCI--GESO-WMST 2430H or 3430H or 3440H, and 2.0 credits at the 3000 level.
Cross-listed: SOCI-4630H, GDST-4630H
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GESO-4796H: Feminist Psychologies
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
Explores principles and practices of feminist psychology, theories of gender and sexual development, and the psychology of women. Focus is on feminist critiques of psychology and feminist contributions to psychology. Feminist relational, community, post-colonial, and narrative approaches are emphasized. Prerequisite: 6.0 university credits including 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 2000 level or beyond or 1.0 PSYC credit at 2000 level or beyond.
Cross-listed: PSYC-4796H
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GESO-4932H: Sex Gender and Science
Offered:
- Peterborough
An interdisciplinary introduction to the topic of women and gender in science. How is gender difference understood within scientific disciplines? Why are women under-represented in various science and technological fields? How are women, and feminist scholarship, changing science? Prerequisite: 8.0 university credits including 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 3000 level or permission of instructor.
Cross-listed: ANTH-4932H
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GESO-4990H: Gender & Environmental Justice
Offered:
- Peterborough
- Durham GTA
This course examines debates and issues involved in understanding environmental problems from a gender and justice perspective. Students are introduced to environmental justice issues and concepts, feminist approaches and critiques, and explorations of emerging discourses making links between justice, sustainability, and issues like climate change. Prerequisite: 8.0 university credits including 1.0 WMST or ERST credit at the 3000 level, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST - ERST 499H.
Cross-listed: ERST-4990H
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GESO-4995Y: Feminist Research Seminar
Offered:
- Peterborough
Students focus on a key area of feminist scholarship through intensive seminar discussions that may include guest lectures from various feminist faculty members from the Social Sciences and Humanities. Students engage in a major independent research project and collaboratively organize a public or campus event. Prerequisite: Open to Honours Gender & Women's Studies students with 12.0 university credits including WMST 3021H.